Using Garlic To Lower Cholesterol – Evidence That It Works

Are you thinking of using garlic to lower cholesterol? Is there proof that this herb works for lowering cholesterol levels in the body?

This great plant has many uses in both culinary and medicinal purposes. It has over 3,000 years of history in aiding many health conditions. Garlic has many immune enhancing and infection reducing qualities, and it has also recently been shown to be beneficial in preventing cancer.

Further, garlic has been extensively studied with regard to its ability to lower cholesterol and it looks like this herb is able to do that very well.

Much of the great benefits of garlic come from its constituent compounds, and especially the sulfur-containing compounds. Perhaps the most well known and most effective of them is allicin, which also provides garlic its distinct smell.

Allicin formation is explained by Dr Michael T. Murray on the My Health My Body website. Allicin “is formed by the action of the enzyme alliinase on the compound alliin. The enzyme is activated by heat, oxygen, or water.” The Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center believes that this rich amount of “allicin may help to lower cholesterol levels by inhibiting HMG-CoA reductase, an enzyme that plays a role in cholesterol synthesis.”

Garlic is also very rich in many important antioxidants. Antioxidants are needed to destroy free radicals in the body; free radicals are harmful compounds which cause cell damage. And this is also often linked to cholesterol levels.

A 2001 study published in the Journal of Nutrition affirmed the ability of garlic to lower cholesterol levels. This was especially true of aged garlic extract. The study noted that aged garlic extract was able to reduce total cholesterol by 7% and LDL cholesterol, which is the harmful form of cholesterol, by 10%.

They also reported that in many more comprehensive animal studies, the results have been even more significant. Aged garlic extract had reduced the total cholesterol levels by 15% and significantly reduced the levels of triglycerides in the body by 30%. They believe that the great effects of garlic to lower cholesterol come from the “inhibition of hepatic cholesterol synthesis by water-soluble sulfur compounds, especially SAC.”

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