Related News
Beat blood pressure with garlic
Source: Agencies |
November 19, 2010, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
HAVE high blood pressure? Australian scientists may have a new solution - but it won't win you a lot of friends.
The secret weapon is garlic, according to a study published in the scientific journal Maturitas.
In a 12-week trial involving 50 patients, Karen Reid and a team of colleagues at the University of Adelaide discovered that those who took four capsules a day of a supplement called aged garlic extract had blood pressure around 10mmHg lower than a group given a placebo.
Reid said that garlic taken in any other way, whether raw, fresh or in powdered form, doesn't have the same effect.
"When you cook fresh garlic the ingredient which is responsible for reducing blood pressure disappears," she said.
"I think the really important point to make is that aged garlic extract as a supplement is the secret weapon for blood pressure."
Garlic has long been thought to be good for the heart, and traditional Indian Ayurvedic medicine practitioners have been promoting the benefits of garlic as a preventative of high blood pressure for centuries.
"Garlic has been used as a treatment to lower blood pressure in Ayurvedic medicine for thousands of years," said Sundari Ganesh, a practitioner of Ayurvedic medicine.
But Reid said their research was the first to assess the impact of aged garlic extract, adding that it was evaluated as an additional treatment to other high blood pressure medication.
Around one billion people globally suffer from high blood pressure.
The secret weapon is garlic, according to a study published in the scientific journal Maturitas.
In a 12-week trial involving 50 patients, Karen Reid and a team of colleagues at the University of Adelaide discovered that those who took four capsules a day of a supplement called aged garlic extract had blood pressure around 10mmHg lower than a group given a placebo.
Reid said that garlic taken in any other way, whether raw, fresh or in powdered form, doesn't have the same effect.
"When you cook fresh garlic the ingredient which is responsible for reducing blood pressure disappears," she said.
"I think the really important point to make is that aged garlic extract as a supplement is the secret weapon for blood pressure."
Garlic has long been thought to be good for the heart, and traditional Indian Ayurvedic medicine practitioners have been promoting the benefits of garlic as a preventative of high blood pressure for centuries.
"Garlic has been used as a treatment to lower blood pressure in Ayurvedic medicine for thousands of years," said Sundari Ganesh, a practitioner of Ayurvedic medicine.
But Reid said their research was the first to assess the impact of aged garlic extract, adding that it was evaluated as an additional treatment to other high blood pressure medication.
Around one billion people globally suffer from high blood pressure.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
