Dear Reader,
Did you know that garlic naturally lowers blood pressure and LDL cholesterol?
I thought of this as I just read research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showing how garlic relaxes blood vessel tension by a whopping 72%.1
But, most doctors rely almost entirely on drugs to lower blood pressure. I can’t count the number I see on beta-blockers, for instance. These very commonly used drugs have the worst side effects like apathy, constant fatigue, weakness, shortness of breath, depression, and impotence.
Some of garlic’s other health benefits are also well documented. Yet these findings have been largely ignored. It’s been over a decade since studies proved that garlic significantly lowers serum cholesterol and triglycerides while raising HDL (good) cholesterol.2 Even the conservative American Heart Association has concluded that garlic stops artery clogging and lowers blood pressure.3
Garlic’s health benefits go even farther than just heart health—another recent study found that garlic can kill off certain kinds of malignant cancer cells.4 With findings like these, you’d think mainstream medicine would recommend garlic. But, drug companies can’t profit from garlic, so they push prescription drugs.
So how much garlic do you need to get all the benefits?
You should eat one to two cloves of garlic per day. When preparing garlic in a meal, crush it and let it sit for at least fifteen minutes. This activates enzymes in the garlic that produce the powerful heart benefits.
You can take garlic as a supplement if you prefer not to eat it. Make sure it’s one that has at least 3,600 micrograms of allicin (garlic’s active ingredient) per dose.
Aside from garlic, I use CoQ10 with my patients to lower their blood pressure naturally and get them off beta blockers. To get the heart health benefits of CoQ10, you should take at least 100 milligrams per day. For some patients, I use higher doses after checking their CoQ10 level in their blood.
Here are a few more tips you can use to naturally lower your blood-pressure:
• If you smoke, do everything you can to quit. Smoking constricts the arteries, in effect raising your blood-pressure.
• Limit coffee to just one or two cups in the morning. Excess caffeine can also raise blood-pressure.
• If you’re overweight, lose the excess pounds with proper nutrition and exercise.
• Relax…too much stress elevates cortisol (the stress hormone) and in turn, your blood-pressure
To Your Good Health,
Al Sears, MD
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1 Benavides G, et al. “From the Cover: Hydrogen sulfide mediates the vasoactivity of garlic“, PNAS 2007 104: 17977-17982.
2 Bordia A,“Effect of garlic on blood lipids in patients with coronary heart disease”, Am J Clin Nutr. 1981 Oct;34(10):2100-3.
3 Howard B, Kritchevsky D, “Phytochemicals and Cardiovascular Disease: A Statement for Healthcare Professionals From the American Heart Association”, Circulation. 1997 Jun 3;95(11):2591-3.
4 Das A, er al. “Garlic compounds generate reactive oxygen species leading to activation of stress kinases and cysteine proteases for apoptosis in human glioblastoma T98G and U87MG cells” Cancer.Volume 110, Issue 5, Date: 1 September 2007, Pages: 1083-1095