Garlic, infection’s worst nightmare?

Garlic has long been touted for its strong and pungent smell, but very few knows about it’s fighting power.

Opportunistic infections are present year round, but in some seasons, such as the winter, they become more prevalent. Infections can be debilitating not only to your health, but your work and social life. People prepare for these pop up infections by storing cold and anti viral medications and while they may get rid of the infections, the side effects of the medications may arouse other complications. Society has long relied on pharmaceutical drugs for their illnesses and so may wonder, what other options are there for a healthy and infection free life? Garlic.

Garlic for ages has been known for its superior defense against sickness, such as infections. In fact according to research conducted by Richard S.Rivlin, colleague in the Department of Medicine, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Weill Medical College of Cornell University. It has been stated, “As in Greece, the Romans perceived garlic as an aid to strength and endurance; it was fed to both soldiers and sailors and was part of a ship’s manifest when it set out to sea“. Sea voyages usually present a haven for dangerous infectious diseases, which is why Garlic was more than likely used, when setting out to sea. In order for a solider to be good at what he do, the one thing required of him is to keep in good health and garlic will more than surely, help to assure that. Rome was not the only ancient civilization to realize the potent effects of garlic at deterring ailments. The ancient Egyptians, Indians, Chinese and even Hebrews knew of the amazing benefits of garlic.

Hospitals are places that people go to in order to find relief of pain and ailments, but it is actually there where people experience unwanted sickness. The acquiring of infections occurring at hospitals is known as, “nosocomial infections”, and the name nosocomial means specifically at hospitals. Of all places to acquire an infection, a hospital is by far the worse. People should not have to go to a hospital to seek relief, only to further complicate their problems by acquiring what at times are life threatening infections.

“Hospital infections kill more Americans each year than AIDS and breast cancer combined,” states Betsty McCaughey, chairman and founder of Hospitalinfection.org, a site dedicated to ending life threatening infections in hospitals.

In fact a study was conducted in Kashani and Al-Zahra hospitals from January 21, 2014 to December 20, 2014, to determine the effects of garlic supplements on individuals with acute infections. Based upon about a year worth of study, it was determined that garlic is a great and natural remedy and prevention of opportunistic and at times, deadly infections.

“Based on the results of our study, in people with weakened immune systems and in people with high incidence of opportunistic infections, it is necessary to strengthen their body’s immune system stimulants before dealing with these infectious agents, and cause decrease in the diseases insusceptible people. It was suggested that garlic supplementation has shown to be effective in patients admitted to ICU, who are highly susceptible to nosocomial infection, and it can be used for the prevention of septicemia and urinary tract infections. However, further research with larger sample size is needed,” is the conclusion of the study.

Society should not altogether do away with store bought medicine, but should consider more natural remedies such as garlic. Garlic is a cheap and more than likely safer substitute for many medications, which leaves little to no side effects, which is usually only garlic breathe.