Can Garlic lower your cholesterol level?

Lower Cholesterol Level

For many many years, garlic had a good reputation in dealing with heart. Garlic also has been part of the herbal medicines that dealing with all kind of conditions. Garlic and its effects to lower cholesterol level have been associated one another.

Garlic has been suggested by modern medical science to be one of the reasons to lower cholesterol level. It is proven that Garlic is an anti-oxidant. Which mean Garlic can help prevent the LDL Cholesterol (read: bad cholesterol) to oxidized, therefore it will reduced the abilities of the bad cholesterol to build up a clog in the arteries.

A lots of scientific researches have been conducted in the recent years to test how lower cholesterol level can be done by including garlic in everyday diet. The researchers involved comparation between groups of people take garlic supplements to a group of people take placebo. However the researches can not come with a conclusive result.

In some of the researches, a reduction is shown in total cholesterol level and in LDL Cholesterol level for those who take garlic. However in other medical researches also shown the cholesterol level difference between those who take garlic and those who take placebo were not really significant.

Even, a research published in 2007 have tested two garlic supplements which are Garlicin and Kyolic, and raw garlic as well. The result of the research stated that: "None of the forms of garlic used in this study, including raw garlic, when given at an approximate dose of a 4-g clove per day, 6 d/wk for 6 months, had statistically or clinically significant effects on LDL-C or other plasma lipid concentrations in adults with moderate hypercholesterolemia."

So Can Garlic lower your cholesterol level now?

While some researches can really show how effective garlic can be used to lower bad cholesterol level, still the overall result is inconclusive. In the 2007 research that had put a serious doubt over garlic reputation in lowering the cholesterol level. Therefore it is really not wise to put a definite conclusion that garlic is good to lowering the cholesterol level.

However, how can we explain those researches that really can show how garlic can lower the cholesterol level? Can we just say that they are using a flawed methodology? Well, let's just say that those researches had some validity background, how come the result were so different and how can we explain the different?

There is a possibility that the effectiveness of garlic in lowering the cholesterol level depends on some other factors which are still unknown. Since these factors are still unknown, it is difficulty to design a research that can eliminate those factors.

Another thing that's also possible is that garlic's effectiveness in lowering the cholesterol level only applies to a specific group of people in the population.

Therefore if you're concerned about your high cholesterol level, it is not advisable to turn to garlic straight away as an alternative medication to lower your cholesterol level. What always advisable is that you seek advice from your doctor. If your doctor approved it then you can start to take garlic supplement.

Lower Cholesterol Level