As a chiropractor, I am a voracious reader when it comes to any new study about a natural food or supplement that aids in good health and may also help to prevent a certain disease. I am also aware that there isn’t any one thing, no matter how good it sounds, that is the “be all, end all” when it comes to good health. It’s our total approach to our health, good nutrition, regular exercise, plenty of water, and lowering stress levels all add up to a total health package that will keep an individual healthy, strong, energetic, and often disease-free. That said, I was still excited to read about a new study that indicated that eating lots of garlic may lower the levels of a certain cancer-causing process within the body. That’s right, garlic’s not just beneficial for keeping vampires at bay! My excitement stems from the fact that I love garlic, pure and simple. If you do, too, read on…

The study, published in a recent issue of the journal Analytical Biochemistry, used a new type of urine test that shows that eating garlic may lower levels of the cancer-causing process called nitrosation that converts some substances found in foods or contaminated water into cancer-causing compounds. Nitrosation is most commonly caused by nitrates from certain processed meats or high-heat food preparation methods, or by water contaminated by industrial or agricultural runoff.

The urine test results showed that the more garlic that was consumed, the less there was a marker for the risk of cancer. Though the precise mechanism by which garlic and other compounds affect nitrosation is not clear at this time,” said senior study author Earl Harrison, a professor of human nutrition at Ohio State University and an investigator at the university’s cancer center, the mechanism is under extensive investigation.

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