The Cheapest Way to Raise Your Good Cholesterol

[Reesacat]

Second Opinion Health Alert
July 18, 2007

Last week, I told you about the incredible healing abilities of the herb goldenseal. This often-overlooked herb can actually raise your HDL cholesterol over 6%. HDL is the healthy cholesterol that helps your body metabolize LDL cholesterol correctly. It can be very difficult to raise HDL levels. But there's another common herb thats even better than goldenseal. It's available everywhere. And it's cheap.

That herb is garlic. We've known for some time that garlic is great for keeping your blood free of clots. And we've even known that it can lower your bad cholesterol levels. But new research shows that it can raise your HDL levels - significantly. In the new study, the researchers placed 150 patients with high lipids on a therapeutic diet. Then they divided the participants into three different groups. They gave the first group 400 mg of garlic (equal to one mg of allicin, a key component in garlic). They gave the second group a different aromatic herb. And they gave the third group a placebo.

The researchers followed the groups for six weeks. The garlic group's cholesterol dropped 12.1%. Their LDL cholesterol dropped 17.3%, and their hard-to-raise HDL cholesterol rose by a whopping 15.7%. The aromatic herb and placebo groups did not have any favorable changes.

Unfortunately, you don't see government and Big Pharma calling for the entire population to take garlic supplements as they do with statins. Yet the results are telling. You just don't need a statin drug. Garlic is cheap and highly effective. Between Healthy Resolve's Advanced Cholesterol Formula, garlic, red yeast rice, Seanol, goldenseal, and fiber, you have the ability to lower your LDL cholesterol, raise your HDL cholesterol, and even improve your overall health without any side effects.

Yours for better health and medical freedom,
Robert Jay Rowen, MD

Ref: Kojuri J, Akrami M, et al. "Effects of anethum graveolens and garlic on lipid profile in hyperlipidemic patients," Lipids Health Dis, 2007 Mar 1.

Second Opinion Health Alerts are a complimentarye-mail service from the Second Opinion health newsletter written by Robert J. Rowen, MD.
Copyright � 2007 Soundview Communications, Inc.

To contact us:

Second Opinion

P.O. Box 467939

Atlanta, GA 31146

800-791-3213

770-399-5617

feedback@secondopinionnewsletter.com

www.secondopinionnewsletter.com

[Reesacat]

I often like to use fresh raw garlic (1 or 2 cloves) but really had trouble getting them down. I would end up chewing them and the taste was too strong for me.

I found this works for me:

Put a clove of raw garlic through a garlic press. Mix with yogurt or organic applesauce and swallow, don't chew. Nibling on fresh parsley or mint takes the garlic taste out of your mouth.

Be careful-it is a strong anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, and ant-viral. If you do too many cloves at once you can get sick. I don't know if it is die-off from Candida or what.

[Islander]

I adore garlic and used to grow a huge patch before the dog died and the deer took over the garden. Like you, I used a garlic press. Now I buy the jars of fresh minced garlic and use it liberally in soups and stir-frys.

But here's the deal: my cholesterol is high and my doc wanted to put me on statins. I asked for 90 days to shift the numbers with diet and exercise. I loaded up on garlic, oatmeal, almonds, cinnamon, blueberries, olive oil, lecithin, wheat and oat bran and everything else ever hyped to lower cholesterol. In 90 days the good stuff was up 3-4 points and the bad stuff was down 3-4 points. Not statistically significant.

I don't blame any of the foods. They are probably all effective. I think the failure to make a change was because I was already eating a healthful diet. Short of eating oatmeal with blueberries for breakfast and oatmeal with garlic for supper, there wasn't much more I could do to improve my diet.

I do think cholesterol is not well understood and that statins treat a symptom that may actually be a desirable conditon. I gained weight when I quit smoking, and my cholesterol went up accordingly because it's needed to support cell walls, among other things. The last time this happened, I knocked off 60 pounds and my cholesterol dropped by exactly 60 points. Luckily, I have a doc who is open-minded and leaves me free to reject his advice. I'm working on proving to him that I can do the same again, and that the cholesterol is related to weight gain and NOT to diet!

[mellowsong]

Islander, is garlic easy to grow, can I grow it in pots indoors? I love garlic, and because of advice Reesacat gave me a few weeks ago, I'm now eating it raw too. BTW, I'm able to swallow the cloves whole...guess from all the years of swallowing tons of pills, lol.

[Reesacat]

Mellowsong, you inspire me to try (also the fact that I swallowed an olive pit the other day!) it whole! I can always go back to the garlic press!

[Islander]

Islander, is garlic easy to grow, can I grow it in pots indoors?

Sorry, afraid not. It needs to be planted in October and winter over in frozen soil. It's the first thing up in spring, is harvested with the onions in August, and enough saved out to plant again in October.

The kind i grow (Rocambole) is really easy to peel but the store-bought garlic is not, so now I get it in jars, ready to use.

[mellowsong]

The kind i grow (Rocambole) is really easy to peel but the store-bought garlic is not, so now I get it in jars, ready to use.

I've been buying elephant garlic at the Farmer's market which is very easy to peel. (no that's not what I'm swallowing whole, lol). I had been told that the stuff in the jars has lost most of the allicin, that once garlic is peeled, the allicin is gone in minutes. Is this true? Also, before I learned the harmfulness of the microwave, I would put the cloves in the microwave with a bowl of water and nuke for about 15 secs which made it extremely easy to peel. I'm guessing maybe just dunking in hot water would do the same thing?

I'm also wondering how the people at the Farmer's Market are growing garlic if the ground needs to freeze?