Stress-buster Garlic

Stress is a modern BUZZ word and I am sure all of us use this word more often than our earlier generations used to. We all experience increased stress in our lives today and try to manage it, combat it and cope with it all the time.


Stress is a natural element of life and has been there ever since man has existed on this earth. But for our ancestors, stress used to exist in the form of a life threatening situation with usually a "FIGHT or FLIGHT " response. Anthropologists say that our ancestors spent their time in sport, recreation, family life, ritual and community dance and music. Stress, for them was occasional, and existed while hunting or warfare only. Their body also got enough time to regain and rebuild itself in between 2 episodes of major stress.





Unfortunately, many of us are already into the trap of continual STRESS to meet the complexities of modern civilization and our modern lifestyle. Our body is exposed to stress all the time and many of us are able to relax only rarely, are not able to enjoy even our exercise, many of us have completely forgotten about our hobbies, and whatever relaxation we may have, is of a poor quality. I have come across many people who claim that watching TV is very relaxing.......... Its time to look back and see if TV watching is relaxing or Taxing?



All of us experience the symptoms of stress in every day life like reduced energy levels, chronic Fatigue, debility, exhaustion, indigestion, insomnia, depletion of immune system, recurring illnesses, headaches, shortness of breath, back pain, muscle stiffness..... the list is endless.


So, if stress has become an inevitable part of our modern lifestyle,
Let us find if Garlic can be useful in fighting Stress.

• Crushed Garlic with milk early in the morning acts like a TONIC and builds energy slowly and steadily over weeks or months.
  
• Using garlic in everyday cooking, improves digestion and absorption of several nutrients and helps in improving general resistance and immunity.
  
• Animal trials confirm that garlic is useful in fighting fatigue and resisting environmental stress.
  
• Garlic helps in reducing the blood levels of our stress hormone significantly and helps to keep the symptoms of stress away.
  
• Clinical Anti fatigue trials on humans in Japan, have shown that garlic extracts improved the symptoms of fatigue, depression, anxiety and stress.

I honestly feel that including atleast 1-2 cloves of garlic in our diet everyday will help us all to fight the day to day stress and emerge in a better shape at the end of the day.

Heart Friendly Garlic

Turning back the body-clock to a healthy Heart .....

Garlic is the most prized food that is known to have beneficial and protective effects on the heart. Garlic is capable of cleaning the clogged arteries, can even reverse the damage, and thus heal the arteries after prolonged use. It acts in several forms and in different ways to keep the heart in good shape. Lets find out how :

Garlic as an Anticoagulant: Garlic acts as a blood thinner and prevents the blood from clotting in the blood vessels. Ajoene is a very important substance in Garlic which is as effective as Aspirin which is the conventional drug used by cardiologists worldwide to fight heart diseases. {Caution: People who are already taking aspirin should include and eat garlic under the guidance of a Cardiologist and a Dietitian only.}

Effect of Garlic on Cholesterol:Cholesterol is a natural substance which is necessary for normal health of human beings. It becomes a health risk only and only when its blood levels and proportions increase beyond the normal range. Using Garlic as food reduces the levels of LDL and Triglycerides. It also increases the level of good cholesterol viz. HDL. So, it helps to keep the cholesterol levels within limits.

Garlic as an Antioxidant: Garlic is known to have excellent antioxidant properties and has atleast 15 different antioxidants that neutralise the plaque that clog the arteries. Garlic actually inhibits the oxidation of LDL cholesterol which is responsible for the formation of clogged arteries that lead to Atherosclerosis.

Garlic as an Anti hypertensive: Garlic is known to show reduction in the blood pressure. Garlic helps to relax the smooth muscles which helps the blood vessels to dilate and reduces the blood pressure moderately.

Important tips to remember when using Garlic as a heart protective food:

• Having 2 or 3 cloves of garlic daily, either raw, partially cooked or pickled, all work well to protect the heart.
  
• Garlic cloves can be crushed and juice of garlic can be squeezed and added to a little milk. This mixture acts like an excellent "Morning Tonic".
  
• Crushing and Heating garlic cloves actually increases the release of "Ajoene". So, garlic works better in these forms when to be used as cardio-protective.
  
• DO NOT EXPECT OVERNIGHT RESULTS TO DECREASE CHOLESTEROL WITH THE USE OF GARLIC. It will need atleast one to one and half months of constant daily use to show significant effects in your blood reports.
  
  

Garlic the “Wonder Herb”

Thanks for the comments which have started to trickle in slowly.......

And I am quite aware of the fact that we cannot possibly talk everything about Garlic just in one
post. So...... we will take it easy and one use at a time.

Garlic has kept on fascinating and helping the mankind for a long long time and the history of its use as food and medicine can be traced back to Ancient Sumeria ( 3000 B.C.).
Garlic has been universally used in all forms of traditional medicine: Chinese, Ayurvedic, Unani, Naturopathy, European Herbalism and Contemporary Folk Medicine.

Scientific evidence now confirms traditional use, and accepts Garlic has extraordinary medicinal
powers. Like i have mentioned earlier, GARLIC is really the king of Food Medicine and it is truly a “Wonder Herb”.

Enumerating a few uses of GARLIC :

• Natural Antibiotic
• Antimicrobial
• Anti carcinogenic
• Cholesterol lowering agent
• Anticoagulant
• Immune Boosting
• Anti asthmatic
• Anti spasmodic
• Blood Detoxifying
• Diaphoretic
• Diuretic
• Expectorant and Decongestant
• Anti flatulence
• Anti helminthic
• Aphrodisiac.............................
  

Phew............... I am sure i must have left out a few of the uses already!!!
Anyway, i hope to further elaborate on each of the use one by one.
But I am sure you will wait for my next post...............
Bye and happy reading!!!!

A string of antibiotic pearls.........

Hello to all !!!
In my earlier post I mentioned about the traditional knowledge and wisdom about the food remedies being passed on from one generation to another.

Now that we start the journey into the medicinal properties of food, I have to respect the “King” of all food medicine before i even take a glance at the others.
You might have guessed it right!

IT CANNOT BE ANYTHING OTHER THAN GARLIC .

I can still remember myself when i was small and used to have a runny nose due to some weather
change and would be down with some respiratory infection, I used to wear a wonderful little necklace around my neck to ward off the infection.

Now you can ask me what kind of superstition was this?

You will be surprised to know that i would be wearing several cloves of garlic ( peeled and beaded) on a piece of string, around my neck!!!!
Oh what an awfully smelly necklace that was :( But believe me, it always did its job well and helped me recover from the infection faster and without any antibiotic prescription from the family physician.

Now that the world has recognized the properties of Garlic, we all know that Allacin is the chemical
compound which offered the awful smell to my childhood string of pearls and it is this exact
chemical which fought against the infection too :)

PS: It is very safe to use a similar string of garlic pearls for your kids too.I have tried it on my little ones and it stills shows the same beneficial effects.