Fact or fiction: Eating garlic can lower cholesterol

Fiction. For people looking to lower their moderately high levels of LDL cholesterol, taking garlic in raw form or in a supplement simply stinks.

An extensive study published last month in the Archives of Internal Medicine tracked individuals taking garlic over six months and found no changes in their cholesterol level.

”It just doesn’t work,” says Dr. Christopher Gardner, the Stanford medicine professor who conducted the research. ”There’s no shortcut. You achieve good health through eating healthy food. There isn’t a pill or an herb that you can take to counteract an unhealthy diet.”

The study was one of the largest and longest studies of garlic and cholesterol to date. The researchers recruited nearly 200 adults ages 30 to 65 who had LDL cholesterol levels, the so-called bad cholesterol, between 130 and 190 milligrams per deciliter. Scores under 130 are considered optimal.

The test subjects were randomly assigned to take raw garlic, a powdered supplement, an aged garlic supplement or a placebo. Those assigned to take garlic consumed the equivalent of about an average 4-gram garlic clove per day. That translated to slightly higher doses of supplements than what was recommended on the packaging instructions for both supplements.

”If garlic was going to work, in one form or another, then it would have worked in our study,” Gardner says. ”The lack of effect was compelling and clear. We took cholesterol measurements every month for six months and the numbers just didn’t move. There was no effect with any of the three products, even though fairly high doses were used.”

Garlic’s supposed effect on cholesterol was linked to the compound allicin, which is released when raw garlic is chopped or crushed. The compound has been shown to inhibit the formation of cholesterol in lab tests and in animals. But testing the effect in humans has garnered mixed results.

”In lab tests, you can apply the garlic compounds directly to cells,” Gardner says. ”But in real people you don’t know whether allicin would actually get directly to cells if someone ate garlic. You still have to have to do the human clinical trial to see if it really works, and the previous clinical trials left people confused.”

Some of those previous studies were funded by makers of the garlic supplements. Gardner’s study was funded by the National Institutes of Health. The researchers left open the possibility that garlic might help other more specific populations, such as those with higher cholesterol levels. The test subjects had average LDL cholesterol scores of 140, elevated but only moderately so.

”These are the people who are the most likely to use supplements,” Gardner says. ”If their cholesterol were higher, then their doctors would be putting them on statins or some other prescription medications.”

The study did not study other purported benefits from consuming garlic, such as its impact on inflammation, immune function or cancer. And the researchers say garlic seems to have no adverse effects, although half of those in the raw garlic group complained of bad breath and body odor.

”If you choose garlic fries as a cholesterol-lowering food, then you blew it,” Gardner says. ”The garlic doesn’t counteract the fries.”

Study crushes Garlic myth

Test subjects who ingested the equivalent of a 4-gram garlic clove daily for six months saw little effect on their LDL scores.