Garlic was once known as poor man’s treacle, or heal-all, as it cured just about whatever ailed you – that seems to have been, and still to be, the case. The Arabs, who believe that garlic grew from the footprint of Satan as he stepped out of the Garden of Eden, have so many uses for the plant that it’s hard to enumerate them. Ditto the Chinese and Indians. Garlic’s medicinal value is not subject to debate, it is a reality. Garlic could save your life on a number of scores. You should eat it, and you should eat it on a regular basis. And that’s about all there is to it.

Studies of garlic reveal potent compounds that appear to retard heart disease, stroke, cancer, and a wide range of respiratory infections.

The garlic grows wild in the Near East, although no one knows exactly where it originated. The ancient Israelites were familiar with 67 kinds of onions and garlic and well used the healing substance. The Crusaders ran into the plant in their effort to take back the Holy Land and brought it back with them on the return to their European homelands.

In Europe it found numerous uses, perhaps the most curious being as a safeguard for grave robbers. It seems that when people died of the plague, they were buried with their jewels on. Even the greediest of relatives was unwilling to remove baubles from an infected body. The thieves of the day found this custom a bit too tempting, and a sect developed that ravaged the mass graves of plague victims. They did this with not a care in the world. Why? Because they washed themselves, their clothes, and jewelry with garlic vinegar. Garlic’s scientifically proven germ-killing qualities did the trick on the rings and bracelets – great insurance for a high-risk, high-return profession – and the thieves made a bundle.

Throughout history, garlic has been used internationally to treat lung problems from pneumonia to bronchitis. The fact that it does contain chemicals which kill bacteria may partially explain its effective use in this vein. Somehow though, its powers go beyond the logical, and the plant, whether eaten hot or made into cough syrup, definitely speeds the healing process of a cold, which is something we’d all like to do.

The Shaker’s were garlic’s biggest fans in the lung department. In the late 1800s, their communities used the smelly plant to treat all related conditions most effectively. These folks made healing a way of life and a profession. They did not offer things for sale that did not work.

For those with a taste for alcohol, the traditional West Virginia cure for asthma and other lung ailments is garlic soaked in gin. The juniper berries used to flavor the gin would also shore up the ailing, as you will see in the section on that plant, but what the flavor would be like, I cannot attest.

Apparently when a disease swept through the neighborhood, as it was apt to do in that moist, swampy region, the custom was for neighbors to go from house to house, offering their friends and relations garlic to keep them safe from pestilence. A piece of garlic wrapped in cotton and inserted into the ear was thought to cure earaches. As garlic does contain a natural bacteria killer, placing some in an infected ear would, in fact, kill the bacteria causing the pain. Garlic ground with animal fat was the leading antiseptic ointment for cuts.

My great-grandmother, adhering to the Israelite tradition of garlic as a Jewish cure-all, always kept a pot of garlic boiling in her backyard to treat her high blood pressure. This country belief was seconded by an informant in Utah. It seems that Brigham Young, when traveling west, made sure he and his packed a lot of garlic, and some of his followers are still using it to this day. Boiled garlic is eaten hot to kick out a cold that won’t go away, and eating raw garlic is believed to make your blood unappealing to mosquitoes.

The National Library of Medicine, in Bethesda, Maryland, a marvelous and prestigious collection of medical literature, contains about 125 scientific papers on garlic published since 1983. Studies of garlic reveal potent compounds that appear to retard heart disease, stroke, cancer, and a wide range of respiratory infections. Let’s take a gander at what has panned out about garlic.

For one thing, garlic indeed kills bacteria. A chemical contained in the bulb, allicin, is said to be even stronger than penicillin and tetracycline. Allicin’s claim to fame is that it is a broad-spectrum bug killer - and specifically as an agent that cleans up respiratory infections - is well founded.  Garlic acts as a strong expectorant and decongestant for the lungs as well. People suffering from chronic bronchitis are greatly helped by adding this plant to their diets.

On the heart front, Garlic also lowers blood cholesterol, thins the blood. This makes it helpful for those with heart disease in the family and for those with heart disease on their person!

Practitioners Advice

The two most defensible uses of garlic is in respiratory tract infections and heart disease prevention. Let’s start with the respiratory tract.

Most respiratory drama’s start with a viral infection, a cough, a cold, or a flu. Garlic is helpful in these viral conditions because the oil it contains thins mucous and makes expectoration easier. It acts as a decongestant. Beyond this, it can be used to prevent the secondary infections some suffer when they get a cough or a cold. A cold turning into bronchitis or a cough turning into sinusitis being two examples. The mucous of a viral infection makes you a sitting duck for a bacterial infection; bacteria love to grow in mucous. Garlic contains a microbe killer that is excreted into the mucous which makes it a less hospitable place for bacteria. For those that are vulnerable to secondary infections, the elderly, the infirmed, and asthmatics, garlic is an ideal tonic to avoid secondary infections following on from a cough or a cold. It will help move the mucous out of the respiratory tract and reduce the chances of a person becoming sicker! It should be taken at the first sign of a cold and used continuously for a month!

On the cardiac front, garlic undermines many of the problems that lead to heart disease or perpetuate heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and plaque formation included. It does not have the immediate effects of a quadruple by-pass. It slowly and gradually reduces the factors that cause heart disease in the first place. It can be used by people with heart disease in the family to avoid the fate experienced by their relatives or by people who have already had a run in with heart disease. It is a gentle cardio-tonic with a wide application. It must be used on a daily basis for years on end. This is a lifetime proposition. Don’t bother if you are not going to make a committed effort!