Garlic (Allium sativum) has a long history of traditional use by people with cardiovascular, sinus, and other disorders. In recent times it has
also been promoted as an antibacterial agent, an immune booster, an antioxidant, a cholesterol regulator, and as a treatment
for cancer, digestive problems, and respiratory ailments.
Not all of these uses have scientific support, but efforts are being made to test a few of them, and some intriguing facts
are coming to light. For example, clinical studies have shown only a small cholesterol-lowering effect of garlic consumption.
Yet garlic usage has shown significant correlations with cardiovascular protection, both in epidemiological studies and in
clinical studies — such as the one conducted at the University of California, which concluded that the consumption of 4 ml/day
of Aged Garlic Extract for one year lowered by a factor of 3 the calcium score (a marker of plaque formation) in the coronary
arteries of atherosclerosis patients. If the cardiovascular protection seen in these studies of garlic usage is not due to a lowering of cholesterol, then another
(unknown) mechanism must be at work.
Anti-carcinogenic activities of garlic and its constituents are suggested by epidemiological data and have been demonstrated
in many tissue culture experiments. Unfortunately, almost no effort has been made to test these anti-cancer effects in human
clinical trials. However, a clinical trial using 2.4 ml/day of Aged Garlic Extract resulted in a substantial decline in the
incidence of colorectal adenomas — a precancerous condition.
The use of garlic or garlic extracts as antimicrobial agents seems unwarranted by the evidence. Although there are effective antifungal and antibacterial substances in garlic, they may be inactivated by heating and by
acid conditions such as those found in the stomach.
In experiments with rats, consumption of Aged Garlic Extract protected the intestines from damage normally caused by anti-tumor
drugs such as methotrexate and 5-fluorouracil. Garlic also stimulates the proliferation of macrophages and lymphocytes and is therefore sometimes used to prevent suppression
of immunity by chemotherapy and ultraviolet light.
Each softgel of LifeLink’s Garlic and Parsley supplement contains garlic oil extracted from 574 mg of fresh garlic bulb, plus parsley seed oil extracted from 110 mg of
parsley seed, in a base of wheat germ oil. Parsley is included in our formula to nullify the taste and smell of the garlic.