Subject: Garlic 1/4

From: [email-masked] (Pete Samsons)
Date: Wed, 9 Aug 1995 16:37:26 GMT

I received requests for more info on Garlic.  I'm posting this four parter as 
a response to those requests.

The remarkable properties of garlic both as a food and as a remedy have
been valued by peoples of this planet down through the ages.

Egyptian records show that in 3748 B.C. the slaves stopped work on the
pyramid of Cheops because they had not received their garlic ration.  They
believed they needed it for strength and courage.

The Greek physician Hippocrates himself recommended garlic for certain
common health complaints.  Perhaps he had garlic in mind when he gave his
famous advice: Let your food be your medicine and your medicine be your
food.

Since early in this century scientists have been investigating garlic as a
therapeutic modality, unraveling fact from folklore.  In recent years there
has been a heightened interest among health professionals stimulated by the
search for substances with broad healing capacity and minimal or no
toxicity.  The accumulation evidence indicates that garlic meets this
description.  Among its many therapeutic uses garlic has been shown to
fight infections, heart disease and the common cold.

ANTIBIOTIC -- For hundreds of years Chinese peasants have preserved meat
and fish in garlic sauce.  This practice preserves the food two to four
times longer than unpreserved meat.  It is also a practice which pre-dates
any scientific evidence of the antimicrobial factors of garlic, The
 Talmund', ancient source of civil and religious law for the Jewish people,
instructs the use of garlic in the treatment of wounds.  In more recent
times diluted garlic juice was used to threat and combat infections by the
British during World War I.

Even more recently in 1965 the Russians flew a 500 ton emergency supply of
garlic into the country to help stop a massive flu epidemic.  The
government advised the people to consume more garlic for its "prophylactic
qualities for preventing flu."  Garlic is used so widely in the Soviet
Union that it is called Russian penicillin.

Russian, Japanese and American studies demonstrate that garlic contains
powerful bactericidal agents.  In one Russian study the bactericidal
properties of garlic proved effective against 14 different microorganisms
in 94 experiments.  The garlic even proved effective against a diphtheria
bacillus.

ANTI-CANDIDA -- Russian studies also established that a number of fungus
diseases responded to treatment with garlic.  In this country Tansey and
Appleton, Atkins and Moore and Barone all showed garlic extract to be
effective against various fungi, including Candida albicans.  In particular
Barone found that concentrations which are inhibitory to C. albicans are
not toxic to mammals.

Several years ago the work of physicians Orion Truss and William Crook
began to capture the interest of health professionals and lay people. 
Thought their clinical studies Truss and Crook established a good case
against C. Albicans infection (known as candidiasis) as the source of a
number of symptoms which appear to be common ailments.  These symptoms
mimic anything from allergies and eye infections to colitis.

At this time drugs are the most common treatment for fungal infections. 
Side effects of these drugs can be serious and include nausea, rashes,
fever, kidney damage and more.  This is one reason there has been a growing
interest in the use of garlic as a natural antifungal agent.  In their
article Atkins and Moore cite a study wherein garlic extract was more
effective against pathogenic yeast than Nystatin.

Incidentally athlete's foot, a common fungal infection, can be ameliorated
by applying garlic oil (from a pierced garlic perle) directly onto the
infected area with a cotton swab.

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