The Healing Powers of Garlic

I have read before that garlic is a really good herb to help fight certain infections, etc., and even a friend of mine one time suggested it, but I just blew off her recommendations, thinking I would rather not have “garlic breath,” although I do keep garlic supplements on hand just in case. (I saw this weekend what a great idea that is!)

So all week my left ear had been bothering me a bit. I thought maybe it was just swimmer’s ear and was using the swimmer’s eardrops that I have to use for my daughters. Well, that didn’t help. I tried something that an ENT specialist once told my husband - take a Q-tip dipped in alcohol and put it in your ear and rub it around. That didn’t work either. Saturday morning, when I woke up, my ear still hurt but my jaw hurt worse! It was so painful that I had to take drastic measures and call my doctor. He was not in. I saw the garlic supplements and thought, “Well, it’s either try that or go to the ER,” which I was not about to do. Who wants to spend hours upon hours with 2 small children in the ER on a Saturday afternoon? I chose to take the garlic supplements.

The normal dosage for these particular supplements is 2 a day, but I had remembered my friend recommended to take a LOT of garlic, so I took 2 in the morning, 2 in the afternoon, and 2 before going to bed. What do you know?! I woke up this morning and the pain in my ear was gone, and more importantly, the pain in my jaw was completely gone! I’m thoroughly impressed because not only is the earache and pain taken care of, but I didn’t have to suffer through garlic breath!

From what I can gather, after doing a bit of cursory research, it’s the Allicin in garlic that has antibacterial properties that are “equivalent to a weak penicillin.” The list of uses for garlic home remedies is long and actually, the use of garlic for medicinal pruposes dates back thousands of years.

Thank goodness for garlic!