Garlic for Heart Health: Is Garlic Good for Your Heart?

Have you ever considered taking garlic for heart health? With today’s stress-induced lifestyle and calorie-rich food habits, your heart health is at high risk. And an unhealthy heart can be the cause of all kinds of ailments, including the ones that are fatal.


A good way to keep your heart safe and healthy is by eating garlic. If you are not aware of garlic benefits for heart, its time you find out how consuming garlic can contribute to a healthy heart.


Also Read: Garlic and Cardiovascular Disease: Prevent and Cure Heart Related Ailments with Garlic

 

Is Garlic Good for Your Heart?

Well, to answer that question, researchers from the University of Alabama (Birmingham) and the University Of Connecticut School Of Medicine have conducted studies, and they have come up with surprisingly positive results. Let’s see what researchers in each of these institutions have to say:

 

The University of Alabama (Birmingham)

According to the research led by Dr. David Kraus at this University, allicin (in garlic) plays the pivotal role in keeping the heart healthy. Allicin breaks down into sulfur compounds (responsible for tainting the breath), which react with the body’s red blood cells to create hydrogen sulfide.


This hydrogen sulfide ensures easy flow of blood and relaxation of the blood vessels. The Alabama team, for this research, bathed the blood vessels of rats in a bath that contained juice extracted from garlic (crushed). Read: Garlic is a Natural Blood Thinner and Helps in Preventing Blood Clots


The results were astonishing, as the tension in the vessels lowered by as much as 72%. It was also found in the study that when the red blood cells were exposed to the garlic juice, they began emitting the foul-smelling hydrogen sulfide almost immediately.


Dr. Kraus concluded from this study that consuming garlic as part of one’s diet can be very good for the heart. Areas like the Far East and the Mediterranean, where garlic consumption is high, record very few cases of cardiovascular diseases.

 

The University Of Connecticut School Of Medicine

Researchers at the Cardiovascular Research Center of this University have found out that garlic that is freshly crushed proves to be more useful in keeping the heart protected when compared to cooked or dried garlic. Read: Proven Benefits of Eating Raw Garlic on Empty Stomach


Professor Dipak K. Das (PhD, ScD) of the Cardiovascular Research Center and coauthor of this study, opines that garlic that is crushed freshly generates the foul-smelling hydrogen sulfide gas. This gas might prove hazardous in large quantity, but in small quantity hydrogen sulfide works as intracellular signaling compound, which keeps the heart protected.


He further says that due to the fact that hydrogen sulfide is short-lived, the gas disappears every time garlic is cooked, dried or processed. Processed or dried garlic does contain antioxidant effects, but it is not as high as in case of fresh garlic.


For this study, the researchers provided dried and fresh garlic (crushed) to two different lab rat groups, and closely studied the recovery of the animals from heart attacks (simulated). They came to the conclusion that processed as well as fresh garlic lowers the damage from the lack of oxygen; however, the rats who were provided with fresh garlic were able to restore a good amount of blood flow in their aorta as against those provided with processed garlic.

 

Also Read: Garlic as an Antibiotic: Traditionally Garlic has Been Used Around the World as An Antibiotic


Garlic Benefits For Heart

Here’s a list of some important reasons why you should consider taking garlic for heart health:


So, is garlic good for your heart? Yes! It is not only good but a highly palatable and more accessible medicine. Make sure to include garlic in your daily diet if you want to keep your heart healthy and protected.


Also Read: Garlic was Used in Ancient Greece and Rome as Food and Medicine