Garlic Supports Free-Flowing Arteries

by Irfan Qureshi, ND

Garlic is a perennial plant that is grown throughout the entire world. Although garlic is best known for its culinary uses, significant research has shown it holds many benefits for promoting cardiovascular health. The active ingredient in garlic, allicin, has been shown in a number of studies to benefit the heart by supporting free-flowing arteries. Allicin works to stimulate the production of hydrogen sulfide, which encourages blood vessel cells to relax, allowing them to remain free flowing and flexible. Hydrogen sulfide is increasingly being recognized as a key signaling molecule similar to nitric oxide (and possibly acting in conjunction with NO in several areas) to promote antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity in the cardiovascular system. Keeping blood vessels patent and free flowing allows sufficient levels of oxygen to pass to the heart, allowing the heart muscle to operate at peak performance.

Gloria Benavides and her research team from the University of Alabama at Birmingham investigated garlic’s ability to stimulate enhanced production of hydrogen sulfide and to assess its relevance in a physiological system. The juice from supermarket garlic was first extracted and then added to human blood cells. In liquid form, allicin is very unstable, and tends to breakdown quickly into four compounds: diallyl sulfide (DAS), diallyl disulfide (DADS), diallyl trisulfide (DATS), and ajoene. This process leads to the production of hydrogen sulfide from the red blood cells, which is essential to maintaining healthy arteries. Benavides and her research team then exposed the sulfide compounds to rat aorta rings to observe if the same chemical reactions would occur in this tissue. They found that garlic exposure indeed activated the production of hydrogen sulfide and, in addition, the garlic extracts were shown to reduce the overall tension of the artery itself. Blood vessels were relaxed by 40 and 75 percent at concentrations of 200 and 500 micromole garlic solution, respectively. Overall, the results of this study provide further evidence of garlic’s beneficial cardiovascular health-supportive properties and clarify the mechanism of garlic’s arterial health-boosting potential via enhanced hydrogen sulfide production. Increasing garlic intake through the diet and with high quality garlic supplements is a wise choice for maintaining health and well-being.