parasites and garlic

December 20, 2001

Hi,

I found this, and I thought it's interesting.

I know somebody asked a few days ago about parasites.

http://kitchendoctor.com/healthconditions/parasites.html

Also, maybe I say something really stupid, but doesn't garlic contain arsenic?

I'm not sure about this, but I think I've read about this somewhere, a few years

ago...

So now I wonder... is this why garlic helps with pain when you have a dental

infection? Because it's actually arsenic? Is this why it helps if you burn it

and inhale the fumes?

Does anybody know about this?

I was thinking that I've heard so many people saying that they will use garlic

for parasites and also for chelation (sulfur), but if garlic really contains

arsenic, then is this a good thing to do?

Thank you.

Valentina

December 20, 2001

> -----Original Message-----

> From: Valentina Ardelean [mailto:val@...]

> but doesn't garlic

> contain arsenic? I'm not sure about this, but I think I've read

> about this somewhere, a few years ago...

>

> Valentina

I have been a long time fan of garlic, I even did a paper on it in college.

Although the paper was on garlic in the ancient world, I dug up a lot of

info on it in general. I didn't remember ever hearing of it containing

arsenic. I dug out my paper to look up the info. Skipping the folkloric

history...

When used as a vegetable rather than a seasoning it is extremely nutritious.

It has vitamins B, C, riboflavin, niacin, protein, calcium, phosphorus and

an amino acid called allicin. It is allicin that gives garlic its pungent

odor and flavor. Scientists (and ancient peoples) say that in is an

antibiotic, has antibacterial properties, and is an antiparasitic. Dr.

Albert Schweitzer used it to treat cholera, typhus and amebic dysentery

(parasitic diarrhea). It has been used on the battlefield to treat wounds

and prevent gangrene. It has been proven that the blood from garlic eaters

kills bacteria. It is an antioxidant, stimulates the immune system, and has

been used as a detoxifier (I don't believe that it was used as a heavy metal

detoxifier). Garlic is toxic to some tumor cells. There are still studies

going on whether or not garlic helps lower the *bad* cholesterol and/or

lower blood pressure.

That is a short rundown on the food/medicine aspect of the paper I did, (the

paper was better written). I hope this answers you questions some.

Tana

>

December 20, 2001

This article was just on the Feat List. Thought I would forward.

Garlic Extract Helps Ward Off Drug-Resistant Bugs

[intestinal disorders are frequently present in children with autism.

This report says garlic has some remedial effect on some colon bacteria. By

Anne Harding, Reuters Health.]

http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2001/12/20/eline/links/20011220elin018.

html <- - address ends here.

Garlic might be able to ward off more than vampires, reports presented

here Wednesday show--it may also fight two types of drug-resistant bacteria.

The new reports, presented here at the Interscience Conference on

Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, suggest that garlic's active

ingredient, allicin, could be useful in the battle against infection that

does not respond to antibiotic drugs, a serious and growing problem.

Dr. Cutler of the University of East London, UK, reported on

his research using a cream containing allicin, garlic's active compound, to

fight methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). MRSAs infect

hospital patients, and are also a danger for healthcare workers and people

with weakened immune systems.

About half of people carry MRSAs in their noses, he said. A topical

drug, mupirocin, was released in 1985 to help wipe out nasal MRSA

carriage--which is where most infections originate--but the bug has already

begun to develop resistance to it, he added.

Cutler and his colleagues developed creams that were able to carry

allicin in a stable, effective form and mask its odor. They tested the

creams against 30 different samples of MRSA taken from patients and grown in

the laboratory. An allicin concentration of 32 parts per million (ppm)

inhibited the growth of all of the bacteria samples, and all were killed by

allicin at 256 ppm.

A topical treatment for MRSA infection is sorely needed, Cutler told

Reuters Health; he said he has seen patients with extensive, weeping lesions

caused by MRSA infection that don't respond to treatment and have lasted for

months.

There's probably little danger that bugs will develop resistance to

allicin, Cutler said. While allicin is not effective against certain species

of bacteria, bugs that are susceptible to allicin have never been seen to

develop resistance to it, he explained.

Cutler told Reuters Health that he and his colleagues will begin

clinical trials of the allicin cream for MRSA infections next year. Nopex

Ltd., the company that is developing the allicin creams, participated in the

research.

Dr. Jaya Prakash of the National University of Health Sciences in

Lombard, Illinois, reported on her research on allicin's effects on another

drug-resistant bug, vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE). She and her

colleagues conducted laboratory tests of allicin's effect on VRE samples

taken from patients with the infection.

Allicin did not kill the VRE, but it did hold their growth in check.

This suggests, Prakash told Reuters Health, that an allicin preparation

could be given to patients when they enter the hospital to prevent VRE from

taking hold in their digestive tracts. She explained that garlic would be

especially effective against bacteria living in the colon, because up to 20%

of the garlic is not absorbed in the body but excreted in the feces.

" This was a very important first-step study, " Prakash told Reuters

Health.

She noted that patients may enter the hospital with VREs in their

digestive tracts, or they may contract the infection in the hospital. Once

the bug takes hold, she explained, it can spread to the bladder and to

catheters, resulting in a serious and very difficult-to-treat infection.

Both Prakash and Cutler noted that the garlic preparations are very

safe.

" There's a huge margin of safety, " said Prakash. " That's why it may be

the ideal candidate. "

The next steps in her research, Prakash said, will be to try to figure out

allicin's mechanism of action against VREs and to conduct clinical trials.

This study was partially funded by Phytopharmica, a company that makes

garlic-containing products.