Are you looking for effective, natural ways to lower your cholesterol level? Here's one - garlic. Garlic is an ingredient that you must be using in your daily food preparations. If not, it's easily available and you don't have to necessarily cook it to reap its benefits. In fact, raw garlic is more effective than when cooked.
The medicinal properties of garlic were explored thousands of years ago. But its cholesterol-lowering effect has been controversial with different studies showing conflicting results. Here's some clinically significant evidence that supports the use of garlic to lower cholesterol.
A study conducted on participants with high cholesterol levels showed that garlic supplementation reduced the blood concentration of total cholesterol in them by 7%. The bad cholesterol or LDL cholesterol was reduced by 10% compared to participants taking a placebo. Another study by Ried K and colleagues reported a total reduction of serum total cholesterol by 17 6 mg/dL and LDL cholesterol by 9 6 mg/dL in participants having total cholesterol levels greater than 200 mg/dL who used garlic for more than 2 months. Now, this reduction is of clinical significance amounting for total 8% reduction in cholesterol which has been found to reduce the risk of heart disease by 38%.
Although researchers suggest that additional studies are needed to confirm the fact, you can still benefit a lot from garlic due to its vast store of sulphur compounds that act as antioxidants and prevent heart disease by scavenging free radicals causing damage to the arterial walls.
References:
Ried K, Toben C, Fakler P.Effect of garlic on serum lipids: an updated meta-analysis.
Yeh YY, Liu L. Cholesterol-lowering effect of garlic extracts and organosulfur compounds: human and animal studies.
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