How cloves of garlic guard against cancer

by JENNY HOPE, Daily Mail
Eating garlic could protect against bowel and stomach cancer, two of Britain's biggest killers.
It has long been recognised that garlic lowers the risk of heart disease and strokes through its effect on blood-clotting mechanisms.
But now researchers have found that people who eat raw or cooked garlic regularly face only half the risk of stomach cancer and two-thirds the risk of colon cancer.
The findings were released as Prince Charles launched Loud Tie Day to raise awareness of bowel cancer.
This form of the disease is the second biggest killer after lung cancer, with 30,000 new sufferers each year of whom around 18,500 will die. About 10,000 people are diagnosed with stomach cancer each year.
Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) have carried out a review of hundreds of studies investigating the role of garlic in preventing cancer.
Research suggests eating between one and two servings of garlic a day can be effective in protecting against cancer. The American Institute for Cancer Research recommends eating two to five cloves of garlic a week or taking garlic supplements.
Lenore Arab, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the UNC-CH schools of public health and medicine, said: 'There seems to be a strong, consistent protective effect for people who are regular garlic consumers.'
The researchers, whose report is published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition today, could not find similar benefits from taking garlic supplements.
Dr Arab said there were several possible reasons for this, including the fact that too few studies were included to produce a conclusive result.
She added: 'This is speculation, but it might be that we saw no benefits from garlic supplements because the active ingredients are being destroyed in processing or by sitting on store shelves for a long time.
'Another possibility is that some of the people who turn to garlic supple-ments are sick already. That could skew the results.'
Dr Ann Walker, a qualified practitioner in herbal medicine and a senior lecturer at Reading University, said it was unlikely that much data on the use of garlic supplements in cancer prevention existed.
'It would be very difficult to prove an effect in trials - they have to be large and over a long period of time - although it's possible to see an effect on cells in culture in the laboratory,' she added. But powdered garlic, especially the deodorised form which reduces the smell on the breath, was extremely useful for patients and research data shows it works to lower blood cholesterol and blood pressure, said Dr Walker.
'I cannot tell patients to eat huge amounts of fresh garlic to stabilise the stomach tract - these people have got to go to work and it's just too anti-social,' she added. 'But high doses of powdered garlic work very well. Garlic in all its forms is useful.'
Many scientists believe garlic helps prevent stomach cancer because it works against a bacterium, helicobacter pylori, found in the gut and known to promote gastric cancer.

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