Even If It Doesn’t Repel Vampires, Garlic Packs a Lot of Good Power

It wasn’t a snap decision. A mere 6,000 years after Asian physicians first prescribed garlic as a heart healthy blood thinner, modern science has decided they were right.

It was probably Bram Stoker’s 1897 horror novel “Dracula” that popularized the notion that vampires were repelled by garlic. He was capturing in literature a folklore superstition that went back at least to Medieval Europe. Since the scent from garlic can ooze out of body and breath, it kept vampires, who were said to have an acute sense of smell from getting too close to their victims.

Turns out the veggie is a treasure trove of sulfur compounds including allicin, an antibiotic antioxidant formed when garlic cells are torn as you slice or press the cloves. Allicin gives garlic its characteristic aroma (some say odor). Better yet, allicin and its companion sulfur compounds play a role in making the garlic a healthy addition to your diet. To be exact, based on more than 25 modern years of studies, the Cleveland Clinic lists 4 specific benefits garlic boosts.

First, garlic improves heart health when red blood cells turn its sulfur compounds into hydrogen sulfide gas that expands blood vessels, making it easier to regulate blood pressure. The caution here is that garlic interacts with blood thinning drugs such as warfarin (Coumadin) which can be trouble if you planning surgery, including the dental kind.

Second, although handling garlic may irritate your skin, the clove is also a skin saver whose antibacterial properties may counter bacteria that cause acne. To prove the point, the Clevelanders cite one study showing that rubbing raw garlic over pimples can actually clear them away, but check with your dermatologist before trying this, especially if you are already using other anti-acne meds.

Third, moving further down the body, garlic’s allicin may protect your gut by making hash of some bacteria linked to food poisoning. Finally, at foot level, soaking your toes in garlic water is said to fight foot fungus.

Of course, those aren’t garlic’s only goodnesses. The Arthritis Foundation writes that like onions and leeks garlic contains anti-inflammatory diallyl disulfide that may lessen and perhaps even prevent arthritis-based cartilage damage. As for the Big C, several studies way back in the 1990s suggested but did not prove that eating garlic reduced the risk of colon cancer. Thirty years later, in 2020, researchers at Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine reported that middle aged women volunteers who routinely ate garlic along with other fruits and vegetables appeared to lower their risk of colon cancer by 35 percent. What remains to be proven was whether it was the garlic that did the good–or simply a diet rich in plant foods.

If garlic really does do all this good work, which form works best. Heat destroys antioxidants, so there’s more allicin in fresh than cooked garlic which is why Cleveland Clinic dietician Laura Jeffers Jeffers’s smart advice goes like this: “If you chose to cook garlic, don’t heat it above 140 degrees Fahrenheit (60 degrees Celsius).” Better yet, she says, add garlic to your recipes when you’re almost done cooking.

As for processed garlic, dried garlic flakes and powders do hold onto their sulfur oils but the allicin content is, at best, questionable. Ditto for the amount of allicin in the oil in garlic oil capsules. As for aged garlic (garlic stored for several months before processing), in one UCLA Medical Center study, volunteers given daily servings of aged garlic seemed to end up with fewer cholesterol deposits in their arteries and lower blood levels of homocysteine, an amino acid the American Heart Association calls a risk factor for heart disease.

After all that, if fresh still sounds best, eating lots to cure what might ail you comes with things that are themselves ailing: Heartburn, gas, upset stomach and stinky breath and perspiration. Betcha right about now you’re thinking supplements. Maybe think again because they, too, come with potential side effects: Headaches, fatigue, appetite loss, muscle aches, dizziness, and allergic reactions such as asthma attacks or skin rashes.

In short, as with all natural remedies, most are yummy, a little’s good but nothing’s perfect. In a pinch, however, it might even keep vampires from getting too close.