Garlic for Healing

It is interesting to note that of all the foods eaten by the generations of Israelites sojourning in Egypt for over 200 years, garlic was one of the foods they longed for during their wilderness journey.

Garlic is a bulbous plant, a member of the lily family. It is a relative of onions and leeks. It is known for its pungent odor. The active ingredient in garlic is lineal which, in its uncut form, is almost odorless. However, when the garlic is cut, the enzyme alliinase is released. When this reacts with alliin, odor producing allicin is formed.

Garlic is mentioned very early in the Bible. It originated in Asia and is now grown all over the world. It has been used in different cultures and civilizations for its culinary and medicinal properties. Its volatile oils, alliin, alliinase, allicin, terpenes among others, make garlic a panacea for many health conditions.

In folk and scientific literature worldwide, garlic has been used for circulatory, immune, digestive, urinary, integumentary, and respiratory disorders. Its ability to rapidly diffuse through the system renders it effective in lowering blood pressure and cholesterol, fighting infections, stimulating bile flow, thereby enhancing digestion, killing parasites, stimulating urine flow, removing excessive mucus and facilitating recovery from respiratory ailments.

The next time you are beginning to feel ill, garlic might be your most readily available remedy. If you feel a cold is coming on:

• Hold a clove of garlic on each side of the mouth between the teeth and the cheeks.
• Steep 1-3 cloves of garlic in a cup of boiling water and drink 3-4 cups per day.
• Blend 1 cup honey, ½ tsp peppermint oil, ½ tsp cayenne, ½ cup chopped garlic, ½ cup chopped onion with the juice of 4 lemons and take 1 tsp three times daily. Chew on fresh parsley to minimize the garlic odor.

“We remember…the garlick” Numbers 11:5

References: 
Nutritional Herbology, Mark Pederson
School of Natural Healing, Dr John R. Christopher