EVERYTHING exists for some reasons. So, in the provisions of Mother Nature, there is no waste or happenstance. It was from the Miracle Medicines Foods of Rex Adams that I first learned that Thiamine (Vitamin B1) taken with garlic help to shrink and energise the enlarged heart. Therefore, it is not surprising that Wakunaga, a garlic–oriented nutritional medicines company would age this age-old bulb to make it about 50 times more powerful than farm or garden garlic and combine it with various healing elements for different health challenges, notably hypertension, elevated blood cholesterol and heart-related questions. This “super” garlic is called Kyolic Garlic.
A similar garlic venture was made by nature’s way more than 40 years ago with a concentrated garlic product named Garlicin. This product was of great help to me before and on my wedding-day in 1983. In those days, I was like most young people of today. I ate trash and drank trash. I enjoyed fried, near-rotten of over-ripened plantain accompanied with a variety of thick-layered fried egg. I ate three eggs over such a meal. One was fried with palm oil, another with peanut(groundnut oil) and the last was boiled. The meal was washed down not with clean, alkaline water but with at least two varieties of soda. How would the body not call for water through thirst signals which would not be quietened with more soda when this type of meal dangerously thickens the blood vessels and overburden the heart with work?
On top of this health-bashing was another saga of itching to be a “real man”…..with a broad chest and big biceps. Back in Olivet Baptist High School, Oyo,(1964-68), I was a thin fellow nicknamed “Paper Weight”. To no avail, I took a popular weight-gain formula of those days. I followed this after school with an egg formula drink, half a glass of which I added to a tin of milk in which were whisped two poultry eggs. I need not bore you with the consequences of my maladventure. Suffice it to say I almost died at 19 from a gas-filled gastrointestinal tract, easily fell ill, especially with nasal congestion and dripping nostrils, cough and co-travellers. My quest for health began in my student days at the University of Nigeria, Nssuka (UNN). At the UNN bookshop one day in 1977, my graduating year, my eyes fell on a book titled Ninety Days to a Better Heart written by John X Loughran. The author, too, travelled on the same road I journeyed on as a young man until he met a nutritionist who changed the course of his life. He learned that there were two types of age and that the diet was behind each one. There was the Calendar Age and there was the BiologicaI Age. You may, like me, be 71 years old because you were, calendrically speaking, born in 1950 but, biologically, you could be as young in body and actions as a 50-something years old or, if you were unlucky, like a 90-year-old. All depended, he said, on the condition of your heart and blood vessels. The blood vessel could be congested, hardened like stone or blocked, leaving little of no room for the blood to easily flow through them. The diet could also have led to blockages in the various organs which, though were meant to be supple as well, could have been inflamed from irritations by wastes and poisons and hardening. If toxins were piling up and were not promptly eliminated, the body could turn them into grains and plug them into tiny passages in the liver, pancreas, spleen or kidneys, for example. These organs would then, like those denatured blood vessels, offer resistance to blood and fluid flow. In this condition, the heart would have to pump with more power to drive the blood along. It would need more power to do this and, so, may enlarge its muscles to pack more power for more powerful push. This overworks and weakens the heart. It may even prematurely kill it. If the increasing pressure becomes too much in the kidney or brain, for example, a kidney damage or a stroke may occur. To prevent this, doctors prescribe those drugs which force the heart to slow down but which sometimes, if not often, have consequences in their side effects.
John X Loughran, the author of 90 days to a better heart, solved his own challenges but knocking out of his diet such edibles as white flour foods, especially white bread, refined or milled(white) rice, egg, margarine and butter, all fries, sodas, fatty beef and the likes of them. And he said he experienced wonderful results in about 90 days. I walked the road back to health with him, and haven’t given up till this day. On this route, I discovered garlic and learned it couldn’t have been in existence for no reason. Garlicin took away my nasal and esophageal challenges of the time, and, perhaps, even looming mandibular questions such as gingivitis (inflammation of the gums) which struck again a few years ago. By the time of my wedding, I had perfected the use of Garlicin at three or four soft gels over about three days before an important event to keep nostrils and throat in check. What a groom one would be who gets up from beside the bride on wedding reception day every minute or so, to cough, blow the nose, wheez or throw up phlegm!
I re-united with Nature’s Way recently when I found some of its products through Aim Global, a marketing concern in the Philippines to which Earn For Life International in Nigeria, is affiliated. I was fascinated by a device which, worn as necklace, bracelet or suspended from the neck as identity card is said to purify three meters radius of the wearers environment of viruses and bacteria. In these days of COVID-19 pandemic, that should catch anyone’s attention. It cut my attention and I have given some information about it in www.olufemikusa.com under the heading, A New Age….and The CORONAVIRUS.
Apologies for that digression. After Beta-carotene, Coenzyme Q10, Ubiquinol, L-carnitine and Hawthorn berries, validated by our tour guides in this series as good managers and cures for hypertension and heart diseases (please see the first two parts of this series), Garlic is our next focus. What did cardiologist Robert Atkins, health coaches and herbal medicine practitioners Jean Carperand Judy Lindberg McFarland say about it?
Dr Atkins
“This pungent bulb deserves four chapters, not four paragraphs. One of the best-studied plants in the world, garlic is a veritable panacea, whether eaten as a food or used as a medicinal extract. Its array of benefits is staggering. For starters, it boosts immune function, favourably modifying the course of almost any infections disease. It lowers high blood sugar and might increase the body’s metabolism enough to promote weight loss. Big doses of the extract may even help to prevent cancer. Garlic’s most exciting use, I think, is in cutting back the risk of heart disease. It lowers cholesterol, prevents blood fats from sticking to artery walls, and reduces high blood pressure. It also inhibits the body’s release of thromboxane B2, a substance that constricts blood vessels and bronchial passages.
“What’s the best way to get your garlic? Any way that’s convenient. If you don’t like the taste or can’t eat it everyday, try an extract of aged garlic, either in a capsule or as a liquid. Odourless and tasteless, it’s the form that researchers have studied most extensively. Because the herb’s healing strength increases proportionately with the dose, supplements are the better therapeutic choice. I recommend taking 2,400–3,200mg everyday. Beware of products that promote their allicin content. Allicin is a short-lived substance formed by crushing fresh garlic. It is not absorbed by the digestive tract and for good reason, it damages red blood cells and irritates body tissues, lab studies report”.
Jean Carper
“Garlic is an incredibly complex mixture of chemicals, and scientist are still baffled by which substances have the most profound effects. But it is known that garlic chemicals have a range of talents as antibiotics, antiviral agents, cholesterol reducers, anticoagulants, blood pressure reducers, cancer inhibitors, decongestants, anti-inflammatory agents and perhaps protectors of aging brain cells. Laboratory animals fed garlic function better in old age and live longer.
“Even after you have heart disease or a heart attack, eating or taking garlic may help save you. Pioneering garlic researcher and cardiologist Arun Bordia at Tagore Medical College in India says garlic seems to help dissolve blockages in arteries, partially ‘helping’ arteries damaged by atherosclerosis. Dr. Bordia has found that feeding garlic to rabbits with severe atherosclerosis reduced the degree of blockage in their arteries. More remarkably, he documented that eating garlic after a heart attack helped prevent subsequent heart attacks and deaths. In his study of 432 heart attacks and who ate two or three fresh garlic cloves raw or cooked everyday suffered only half as many fatalities after two years as those eating no garlic. The benefits were more impressive after three years. During that time, garlic eaters suffered only one-third as many deaths and non-fatal heart attacks as nongarlic eaters. Dr. Bordia suggests that since the benefits of garlic increased with time, the most plausible explanation is a shrinkage in blockages of coronary arteries”.
Judy McFarland
“Our ancestors used roots and herbs in abundance. Garlic and onions, particuo, were staples. Germs do not like garlic, in fact, they cannot live in its presence. Ancient civilisations, especially during Bible times, relied heavily on this bulb as a medication for indigestion, diarrhoea, worms, skin diseases, dizziness, headaches, bronchitis, pneumonia, influenza, tuberculosis, infections, wound healing, heart problems, arthritis and even cancer. In recent years, people have rediscovered that medicinal merits of garlic in warding off colds and in the treatment of high blood pressure, strokes, and cardiovascular disease. Interestingly, countries where garlic is consumed in large quantities—Italy and Spain, for example, have a lower death rate from heart disease than American does.
“A longtime friend in our industry, Charlie Fox, is the spokesperson for Kyolic Garlic, Wakunaga of America. I asked him for some scientific information on their Aged Garlic and I was amazed when I received the Aged Garlic Extract Research Excerpts from peer Reviewed Scientific Journals and Scientific Meetings. The research studies are from Loma Linda University, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre, University of Tokyo, and various other universities around the world.
“What are garlic’s specific benefits to the heart? Garlic prevents platelets(blood cells responsible for clotting) from sticking to each other and to artery walls. By preventing excess clotting, it may protect against coronary thrombosis(blood clots), atherosclerosis, and strokes. In addition, there’s strong evidence that garlic normalises fats in the blood by lowering harmful fats and raising protective lipids. In numerous animal and human studies, components of garlic have lowered cholesterol, triglycerides, harmful LDL levels, and dangerous very-low-density lipoprotein cholesterol(VLDL), while raising the beneficial HDL level. Many medical authorities feel that garlic can reduce high blood pressure, perhaps by acting as a vasodilator. Garlic preparations are available in liquid extract, capsules, softgels and tablet form.
“Garlic has been known for years to stabilise blood pressure. This conclusion was even reported in the prestigious British medical journal, the Lancet. One reason may be found in garlic’s high amount of Selenium, a trace mineral that boosts protection against platelet adhesion. Many cultures have used garlic to help keep blood pressure in check. Years ago, Dr. G. Piotrowski of the University of Geneva showed that garlic may dilate or open up the blood vessels and promote a free-flowing circulation that is the answer to hypertension. Many recommend the equivalency of three to four cloves of garlic everyday to lower blood pressure. Also, the enteric-coated capsules that are odour-reduced or odour-free, are very effective, especially since few people desire to eat that much fresh garlic a day. There is also a liquid aged garlic extatct available”.
Kyolic Garlic
It is little known in some lay circles that Helicobacter Pylori bacteria in stubborn ulcers make some cases of hypertension stubborn to manage or to cure with pharmaceutical drugs. Mr Olajuwon Okeubena, who is better known for his herbal product Jobelyn, says he tackles such cases with his formula for ulcers, Holisa, an alcohol extract of herbs. In several studies with Kyolic Garlic which is known to dislodge Helicobacter Pylori, even stubborn cases of hypertension and precussors of heart diseases are known to yield according to the following report by Karin Ried NikoIaj Travica, and Avni Sali. The report, titled The Effect of Kyolic Aged Garlic Exitract On Gut Microbiota, Inflamation And Cardiovascular Markers in Hypersensitive: The Garlic Trial in www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov says:
“Our previous research suggests that Kyolic aged garlic extract is effective in reducing blood pressure in a large proportion (70–80%) of hypertensive patients similar to first-line standard antihypertensive medication, and has shown promise in reducing central blood pressure, arterial stiffness, and inflammation. A meta-analysis on the effect of garlic on blood pressure including 20 trials and more than 900 participants revealed a significant effect of garlic on blood pressure, with an average decrease in systolic blood pressure of 8.6mm systolic and 6.1mm diastolic in hypertensives.
“Kyolic aged garlic extract has also been shown to be effective in reducing central hemodynamic measures including central blood pressure, pulse wave velocity, pulse pressure, and arterial stiffness, which are regarded as more important predictors than peripheral blood pressure for cardiovascular disease. Arterial stiffness, an indicator of the flexibility of the arteries, increases with age through loss of intact elastin and collagen fibers in the arterial wall, which also contributes to increased blood pressure. Stiffening of the arteries is a normal process of aging, however, changes are subtle and are generally not noticeable. However, previous research has shown Kyolic aged garlic extract to be effective in reducing arterial stiffness, which in turn is related to better heart health and aerobic fitness, while the risk of cardiovascular disease is reduced.
“Previously we described the mechanism of action by which garlic influences blood pressure, involving two main signaling pathways via nitric oxide (NO) and hydrogen sulfide (H2S) production. Garlic, a sulfur donor, provides an important component for the trans-sulfuration pathway, which involves methylation and requires several co-factors such as vitamin B12, folate and vitamin B6. In addition, known genetic variants for the CBS (cystathionine-ß-synthase) and CSE (cystathionine-?-lyase) enzymes, influence the efficiency of H2S production, and play an important role in the susceptibility for hypertension together with deficiencies in co-factors, in particular vitamin B6. We previously identified a potentially large proportion(80%) of healthy adults in Australia with sub-optimal vitamin B12 levels. Therefore, deficiencies in co-factors, such as vitamin B12, which may serve as a proxy marker for underlying deficiencies in other B-vitamins, could be important contributors to hypertension in these individuals, which may also explain individual responsiveness to garlic supplementation seen in clinical trials.
“Furthermore, high blood pressure has been linked to gut microbiota dysbiosis, both in animal and human studies with a significant decrease in microbial richness (Chao richness/relative abundance) and diversity (Shannon diversity = proportion of species/total number of species) and a significant increase in the Firmicutes-to-Bacteroidetes ratio in hypertensives compared to normotensives. In this small study, 10 normotensives and seven hypertensive individuals, hypertensives had a significantly lower microbial richness and Shannon diversity compared to normotensives. In general, higher relative abundance/bacterial mass/microbial richness and diversity of microbial species is associated with better health.
“Moreover, gut dysbiosis has been associated with increased inflammatory status, chronic inflammatory diseases and increased risk of cardiovascular events… The ratios between pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines, such as have been linked to long term outcome of acute coronary syndrome. Garlic has been found to increase and inhibit production in placental cell culture, and in inflammatory bowel disease. Similarly, Kyolic aged garlic extract was found to significantly reduce the inflammatory marker in hypertensive patients.
“With garlic’s prebiotic properties, and source of intracellular hydrogen sulfide (H2S), garlic has the potential to modulate the gut microbiota, and to protect from intestinal inflammation and to restore microbiota biofilm and mucus production. The timeframe of gut microbiota composition to change with dietary supplementation is relatively short, as shown in a four-week study of IBS patients taking daily probiotics. In addition, probiotics consumption significantly reduced blood pressure, in particular in trials of longer than eight weeks duration (meta-analysis of 9 RCTs involving 534 patients). Our three-month randomised controlled double-blind trial aimed to assess the effect of Kyolic aged Garlic extract on gut microbiota, inflammation, and Cardiovascular markers, including blood pressure, pulse wave velocity and arterial stiffness”.
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