There are many different things you can do to help boost your health when cold and flu season hits. One ingredient many do not realize is a complete superstar when it comes to boosting your immune system is garlic.
The benefits of garlic to health has been proclaimed for centuries. However recently, garlic (a.k.a Allium sativum) can boost virus-fighting cells in your bloodstream.
A recent study indicates that garlic enhances the functioning of the immune system by stimulating certain immune cell types, and finds that by taking aged garlic extract supplements it reduced the severity of cold and flu symptoms.
Many consumers take garlic supplements as a preventive measure and often report an absence of colds and flu and their symptoms. Clinical trials are supportive, showing garlic to have a beneficial effect in the prevention, duration, and severity of upper respiratory infections.
For example, in a recent study including a random, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial involving 146 participants testing the effect of 180 mg of a garlic powder supplement a day over three months, found a significant 37 per cent reduction in the number of colds and a 30 per cent reduction in the duration of symptoms in the group taking garlic compared with the placebo group.
At the end of the 90-day study, 24 colds were reported in the garlic treatment the group compared to 65 in the placebo group, the total number of days of infection was significantly reduced (111 vs. 366), and the duration of symptoms in those who contracted colds was also significantly reduced (1.52 vs. 5.01 days).
The results of this study support the benefits of garlic supplements to both prevent attack by the common cold virus, and to reduce the duration of symptoms in those that do contract a cold.
In another placebo-controlled human study involving 120 healthy participants supplemented with 2.56 g/day of an aged garlic extract for 90 days during the cold and flu season, demonstrated that the reduced severity of the colds and flu reported among participants with dietary garlic supplementation could be at least partly attributed to their enhanced immune cell function.
The immune system support from garlic warrants the intake of garlic-containing supplements to combat, if not prevent, cold and flu symptoms.
—VM
