Can garlic help lower cholesterol and blood sugar levels?

Share on Pinterest How good is garlic for your health? Researchers are trying to find out. Image credit: JChong Studio/Stocksy. A new review and meta-analysis of existing studies set out to find how garlic may impact certain aspects of health.

The scientists were interested in how garlic consumption can affect cholesterol, blood sugar, and triglyceride levels.

The scientists found an association between the garlic intervention and lower cholesterol and blood sugar levels.

The researchers believe garlic has the potential to become a therapeutic option for people with lipid and glucose metabolism disorders. People may face many health issues throughout their lives, and some of the common ones include coronary artery disease and type 2 diabetes. With both the rise in these diseases and the cost of treatment in mind, researchers are trying to find ways to prevent and treat these diseases in a more cost-effective manner. This led the scientists in the current study to conduct a meta-analysis of past studies that examined what health impacts garlic can have on blood glucose (sugar) and lipid (fat) metabolism. The researchers, based in China, extracted data from 29 trials to see how garlic impacts cholesterol, blood sugar, hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), and triglycerides. Their study appears in the journal Nutrients.

Why it’s important to keep blood sugar, cholesterol in check According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) , diabetes affects millions of people per year. Approximately 11.6% of people in the United States have diabetes. The CDC also reports that around 86 million adults 20 years and older in the U.S. have elevated cholesterol levels. This can lead to developing heart disease or having a stroke. One way medical professionals monitor these conditions is by checking blood levels. During a routine checkup, healthcare providers often order blood tests that check the patient’s cholesterol, fasting blood glucose, HbA1c, and triglyceride levels . Depending on the results of these tests, the provider gets an idea of whether someone is in the process of developing a health condition such as diabetes or high cholesterol. For people who are at risk or have developed a condition, doctors can put in place interventions to reduce the chances of developing the disease or treat it with medications and lifestyle changes. The researchers in the current study were curious whether garlic could impact lipid levels and blood glucose levels.

Can garlic help lower cholesterol, blood sugar? Garlic has a compound called allicin, which a previous review study reported to have properties such as being antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral. A prior study also showed that allicin was effective at lowering cholesterol in an animal trial. To see whether garlic can improve blood glucose and lipid metabolism, the researchers analyzed 22 studies meeting their criteria, which included 29 trials to focus on for their meta-analysis. These trials involved a total of 1,567 participants from different countries and age groups. To qualify for inclusion, trials needed to use garlic as an intervention for more than 2 weeks and report on HbA1c, fasting blood glucose, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and triglycerides. The researchers also only considered studies with participants ages 18 and older and studies with control groups. The researchers in the various trials administered garlic in different forms: garlic powder

garlic oil

aged garlic extract

garlic powder pill or tablet

garlic extract capsule

raw garlic. Depending on the trial, some participants consumed 300 to 22,400 milligrams (mg) of garlic powder per day, while other preparations ranged from 800 to 4,200 mg daily. At the end of those trials, the researchers collected information on the participants’ blood levels to compare to their baseline levels. The researchers conducting the current meta-analysis used all these data to see whether garlic consumption could improve metabolic markers.

Garlic may lower blood sugar but not triglycerides The meta-analysis found a significant association between garlic intervention and improvement in different metabolic markers. Garlic supplementation lowered fasting blood glucose levels, HbA1c, total cholesterol, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol — also referred to as “bad cholesterol.” Additionally, the garlic intervention increased high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, also known as “good cholesterol.” “Elevated fasting blood glucose and HbA1c are characteristic of type 2 diabetes mellitus,” note the authors, highlighting the significance of these findings. The researchers also said that the longer the garlic intervention trial lasted, the more improvement participants saw in their fasting blood glucose, total cholesterol, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels. While the researchers found improvements in other blood markers, they did not find an impact on triglyceride levels. The study findings show that garlic interventions may have the potential for use in either preventing or managing some cardiovascular and metabolic disorders. “The intervention of garlic is beneficial to control blood glucose and blood lipids in humans,” write the authors.