Garlic appears to have a place in both in treating opportunistic infections and in improving the overall health of AIDS patients. Normally when a new AIDS therapy shows promise in a clinical trial, news spreads quickly in the media. This was unfortunately not the case after a dramatic, although small, trial of garlic for AIDS was reported at the International AIDS Conference in 1989. The researchers, who later published the information in Deutsche Zeitschrift Onkologie (German Journal of Oncology) gave an aged garlic preparation (Kyolic garlic) to ten patients with AIDS. All patients had severely low natural killer cell activity and abnormal helper-to-suppressor T-cell ratios — both of these are blood measurements of progressed AIDS, often indicating short life-expectancy. All patients also had opportunistic infections such as cryptosporidial diarrhea or herpes infections.

The patients received the equivalent of two cloves a day (5 grams) for the first six weeks, and then the equivalent of four cloves (10 grams) for another six weeks. Three of the patients were too severely ill to complete the trial. They could not complete the garlic regimen, and died before the trial ended.

The results were dramatic, and had it been a pharmaceutical drug involved instead of garlic, no doubt the news would have spread rapidly in the media. Six of the seven who completed the trial had normal natural-killer cell activity within six weeks, and all seven had normal activity by the end of the twelve weeks. Natural killer cell activity is considered one of the most important indicators of the progression of AIDS. The helper-to-suppressor T-cell ratios returned to normal in three of the patients, improved in two, remained the same in one, and lowered in one.

Just as important, the patients’ opportunistic infections also improved. Chronic diarrhea, candida infection, genital herpes, and a chronic sinus infection all improved. The patient with the chronic sinus infection had gained no relief from antibiotics during more than a year of treatment before the garlic trial.

Exactly why the garlic helped the patients so dramatically is not clearly understood. Garlic can affect the immune system in many ways. Garlic may have also strengthened immunity in these patients by helping to fight the opportunistic infections, and thus reducing the load on the immune system. Various trials have shown garlic to be effective against cryptococcus, cryptosporidia, herpes, mycobacteria, and pneumocystis — all common infectious agents in AIDS. Researchers have also recently found evidence that the garlic constituent ajoene may directly interfere with the spread of the HIV virus in AIDS patients.

This trial was small, with only seven patients completing it, and follow up studies are necessary to prove that garlic will really help AIDS patients. News of the trial spread like wildfire in the community of people with AIDS, however, and many patients now take garlic regularly. One study in 1993 found that nearly 10% of AIDS patients surveyed took garlic supplements in addition to the other medications they were taking.

Garlic enhances the action of three cell types in the immune system’s arsenal that are important in combating HIV and AIDS-related infections. One of a multitude of garlic’s components, diallyl trisulfide, activates the natural killer cells, the Cytotoxic T-cells, (these attach themselves to microbes and secrete poisons into them), the phagocytes, (which engulf or swallow invader germs), and the lymphocytes, (which produce antibodies that kill specific microbes).

Promising research into garlic’s therapeutic value for fighting HIV was first presented at the 1989 International AIDS Conference and subsequently published in the German Journal of Oncology (Deutsche Zeitschrift Onkologie). Kyolic garlic (aged garlic preparation) was given to ten AIDS patients. All were in advanced stages of AIDS, with various opportunistic infections, including genital herpes and cryptosporidial diarrhea. For the first six weeks the patients received 5 grams, or around 2 cloves of garlic daily and then 10 grams or 6 cloves daily for another six weeks. Three of the patients did not complete the trials because they were at the terminal stages of the disease and died before the trial ended. However, the seven who completed the trials showed NORMAL killer cell activity by the end of the twelve week period (six of them regained normal killer cell activity by the end of the first six weeks!). Also significant was the fact that all the patients’ infections improved: including a candida infection, genital herpes and chronic diarrhea. One patient with chronic sinus infection, who did not get any relief after a year’s worth of taking regular antibiotics, improved after the garlic trial.

Prolonging Life of AIDS Patients

While HIV/ AIDS is incurable, the objective of treatment is to curb opportunistic infections from getting a foothold by boosting the immune system, and thus prolonging life, as well as improving the patient’s quality of life. Garlic revs up the immune system’s disease-fighting ability, killing many bacteria and viruses on contact, preventing their proliferation. Bacteria and viruses, furthermore, do not form resistance to garlic as they can to regular pharmaceutical antibiotics and medications. In addition, garlic, unlike pharmaceutical antibiotics, does not harm the intestinal flora, which is so important to digestion and absorption of nutrients.

Garlic is thus important as an adjunct treatment for HIV/AIDS, significantly helping improve a patient’s life. HIV and AIDS patients are encouraged to eat raw, crushed garlic every day within a healthy regime prescribed by their physician and nutritionist.

http://medherb.com/Therapeutics/Immune_-_Garlic_and_AIDS_.htm

http://www.miracleofgarlic.com/hiv-aids-treatment-with-garlic