Garlic, also known as the “stinking rose,” has a long-held reputation for its healing capacity, much of which is supported by science. This heart-healthy herb is known for being a fighter of high blood pressure, germs, cancer, inflammation, and more.
From warding off everything from vampires to the plague, garlic appears to fend off anything that might threaten ill on the body. But its stench can be a hurdle. The skin and breath exude garlic’s metallic odor. Another challenge: Many of garlic’s key sulfurous constituents, such as allicin, are highly unstable and difficult to reliably capture and deliver in supplement form. Enter aged garlic.
The product is made by slicing and storing organic garlic cloves in a liquid alcohol solution, then extracting and aging for up to 20 months. The aging process results in a truly odorless product. Even though allicin is not present, different compounds (including water-based sulfur compounds as well as nonsulfur constituents including allixin and saponins) offer health benefits.
Approximately 900 peer-reviewed scientific studies about aged garlic extract (AGE) have been published.
AGE Garlic for Immune Health
Garlic—including AGE—offers anti-microbial and immune-stimulating activities that can help fight a range of infections as well as cancer. Healthy adults who took AGE daily for three months had less severe cold and flu symptoms, missed less school/work, and functioned better than people who took placebos. AGE also shows potential anticancer activity, particularly for gastric and colorectal tumors and cancers.
Support Heart Health with AGE Garlic
Garlic has a modest blood pressure and cholesterol-lowering effect (albeit with mixed study results) for some people, as well as an overall cardiovascular tonic action—reducing inflammation in the blood-vessel lining. In a small, 12-week, double-blind trial of people with uncontrolled hypertension, 1.2 grams daily of aged garlic extract reduced mean blood pressure by 5 points on average. Some people responded better than others, with “responders” (29 of the 50 participants in the garlic group) ranging closer to an 11.5 drop in systolic and 6.3 drop in diastolic blood pressure compared to placebo.
AGE Garlic Versus Inflammation
Fifty-one healthy, yet obese, adults took part in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized trial. One group took 3.6 grams of AGE powder daily in divided doses and the other group took a placebo. At the end of the six-week study, two markers of inflammation were significantly lower in those taking AGE.
“Although the mechanism by which aged garlic employs its effect on obesity-induced inflammation is still not clear, the changes in inflammatory mediators that we found show that the consumption of AGE can produce an anti-inflammatory effect in adults with obesity,” said Susan Percival, one of the study’s authors.
Blood Sugar and AGE Garlic
Garlic has various benefits for blood sugar and metabolic health. In one study of people with metabolic syndrome, AGE increased levels of adiponectin, a hormone involved in regulating blood sugar.
