Are you having cold for quite some time and it doesn’t seem to go away despite medication? Then you probably haven’t used garlic yet. Many vouch for garlic’s effectiveness in treating cold and other related problems such as running nose and sore throat.

This post talks about the effectiveness of garlic and tells you how you can use it to treat your cold. Would you like to know more? Keep reading!

A Clove Of Garlic Keeps Cold Away! How True Is This?

To establish whether garlic is effective in treating cold or not, let us go through a fact sheet that contains clinical evidence as well as time-tested beliefs.

According to a study published in 2001, which was conducted under the supervision of British scientist, Peter Josling, garlic provides remarkable properties for accelerating recovery in patients suffering from cold (1). The study was carried out on 146 healthy adults in a span of 12 weeks. Out of the randomly selected adults who received a garlic supplement daily, 24 suffered due to cold during the period of study as compared to the 65 people who suffered from cold in the placebo group. The adults taking garlic experienced 111 sick days, whereas the group given a placebo experienced 366 days of sickness. The garlic group also showed rapid recovery comparatively.

Traditional beliefs say that eating a clove or two of garlic everyday helps to keep diseases away because it possesses antiviral, antibacterial, immune-boosting and anti-fungal properties.

Garlic-A Superfood:

Garlic is a superfood that belongs to the Allium family of vegetables such as scallions, onions, leeks and chives, and is one of the oldest cultivated plants. The George Mateljan Foundation has reported that garlic was supposed to have sacred qualities, and hence, you will find them in the tombs of the Pharaohs.

Garlic is loaded with antioxidants, vitamin C, and vitamin B6 and manganese. It is extremely helpful in reducing congestion in the sinuses and inflammation in the nasal passages.

In India, garlic has been used for treating cold-related symptoms such as sneezing, cough, running nose, ear blockage and soreness of the throat.

Why Is Garlic Effective Against Cold?

Garlic contains a sulfuric enzyme known as allicin that blocks the pathogens and plays an important role in fighting viral and bacterial infections(2). A biologically active compound, allicin offers preventive powers to the clove. On the lighter side, the strong odor of garlic keeps people away from you, thereby preventing the transfer of germs.

Ways To Treat Cold With Garlic:

The garlic treatment should start the moment you see the familiar signs of a cold appearing. Adding a few cloves of garlic can help in strengthening the immune system and lessen the impact of cold (3). Following is a couple of ways of using garlic to treat cold:

1. Introduce Raw Garlic Into Food:

You can introduce garlic in different forms in your food. Use garlic seasoning, or garlic salt or garlic powder to enhance the flavor of the recipe and also to introduce the goodness of the clove to our diet. However, the best results can be had only when you eat the raw cloves of garlic as they have more infection-fighting properties. Use the cloves liberally in soup or herbal tea or drink to get the benefits.

2. Garlic With Orange Solution:

• Squeeze a glass of orange juice and add a chopped clove of raw garlic to it.
• Let the garlic sit in the orange juice for 15 minutes.
• Take out the garlic from the juice and swallow it followed by the orange juice.
• Drink a glass of this juice, preferably at night daily until the symptoms of cold subside.
• To ensure that this remedy works for you, take it just before going to bed.
• Apart from curing the cold, this drink also cures the slight feverishness you might have.

You can come up with your own ways of using raw garlic in your food to ward off the symptoms of a cold. Otherwise, you can simply swallow it like you would pop a pill and bid farewell to that nasty cold!

Tell us how this post has helped you. Do comment in the box below!

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by Daiwik Suresh Gejji via STYLECRAZE