Garlic can help prevent heart disease in diabetics, says study

Mon, 07 Mar 2011
Scientists have revealed that garlic, better known for its health benefits for combating heart problems in general, also has a significant effect on preventing heart disease in disease suffering from diabetes . The researchers, from China Medical University in Taiwan, found that garlic helped to stop the onset of cardiomyopathy, a type of heart disease that is a major cause of death in people with type 2 diabetes .

With heart disease accounting for around 80 per cent of diabetes-related deaths, the study, published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, showed the reasons why diabetics are at a greater risk of diabetic cardiomyopathy, a condition that inflames and weakens muscle tissue in the heart.

The researchers investigated the preventive effect of garlic for diabetic cardiomyopathy by experimenting on laboratory rats with diabetes, giving them either garlic oil or corn oil. Those rats that were given garlic oil exhibited beneficial changes associated with a protection against heart disease, which appeared to derive from the antioxidant properties of garlic oil.

It was found that garlic may also have a beneficial effect on managing extreme levels of blood sugar for people with diabetes, as well as possibly helping to control high blood pressure . It is being recommended that heart disease should become more of a priority for the prevention and treatment of diabetes .

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