Just 2.4 Grams a Day Can STOP Plaque in Arteries

Garlic is one of the oldest medicinal foods used virtually in all cultures, but modern science has uncovered something surprising. Just 2.4 grams of aged garlic extract per day has been shown in clinical trials to slow coronary artery calcification and even reverse soft plaque. The more I've looked into the human data the more impressed I've become. In this video I'm going to break down the scientific evidence for garlic in the context of plaque accumulation in the arteries. What does it do, what it doesn't do, what's the optimal dose Because despite major advances in cardiovascular medicine, heart disease is still the leading cause of death worldwide, and atherosclerosis starts silently, decades before symptoms appear. Even healthy people can experience plaque buildup over the course of decades. It might sound hyperbolic and like nonsense, but there are several randomised clinical trials where aged garlic extract lowers coronary artery progression even when controlling for other variables. In a 2020 randomised controlled trial, aged garlic extract at a dose of 2400 mg a day for one year stopped coronary artery calcification progression, lowered inflammation, lowered blood sugar and blood pressure in patients at increased risk of cardiovascular events. The people in this study already had an elevated heart disease risk. The aged garlic group had a 2.9 times higher odds of reduced calcium score progression compared to placebo. They were 3.1 times more likely to have a lower fasting blood sugar and 2.56 times more likely to have a lower IL-6, which is a marker of inflammation. In one of the other randomised controlled trials on firefighters, they took 1200 mg of aged garlic extract for one year. Those who took the garlic together with CoQ10 were up to four times less likely to experience plaque progression. They didn't measure soft plaque, but the hard plaque didn't progress at all within the one-year time frame. These studies indicate that garlic could stop the progression of plaque, but there are even studies showing it could reverse it. This 2019 randomised controlled trial on diabetes patients saw that taking 2400 mg of aged garlic extract for 12 months did result in regression of low attenuation plaque, which is a type of soft plaque that's not yet calcified. This soft plaque is full of lipids and necrotic tissue, which is not fully calcified yet. The placebo group saw a 57% increase in this soft plaque over 12 months, whereas the garlic group saw a 29% decrease. The reason for that is because garlic reduces lipids and cholesterol, while also triggering wound healing in the blood vessels, which I'm going to talk about. In another 2016 randomised controlled trial, 2400 mg of aged garlic extract for 12 months lowered low attenuation soft plaque by 1.5 to 2.3%, whereas it increased by 0.2% in the placebo group. A reduction in soft plaque is even more important than the reduction in hard plaque. That's because soft plaque is in the process of becoming hard and it's still a lot more volatile. Soft plaque can easily tear off and cause thrombosis or blood clotting, which could lead to a stroke and immediate death. Hard plaques are not 100% safe either, as they obstruct blood flow and could cause a heart attack, but they're less likely to rupture and cause a stroke. But why is this so? Why is something so simple like garlic able to reverse and stop plaque progression? Garlic is a herbal food that has antihypertensive, antiplatelet, anti-diabetic, anti-atherosclerotic, and anti-dyslipidemic effects, as shown by mechanistic studies, as well as human clinical trials. There are many human clinical trials showing that garlic supplementation improves risk factors for heart disease, such as blood pressure, blood sugar, waist circumference, cholesterol, and inflammation. So you have both mechanistic and human data supporting that. By improving these risk factors, blood sugar, blood pressure, inflammation, lipids, cholesterol, garlic is able to slow down the progression of atherosclerosis. The worse your risk factors, the faster you develop plaque in the arteries. And if you improve those risk factors, the plaque progression slows down. But garlic can also directly help to heal the blood vessels. A 2019 double-blind placebo-controlled study on patients at high risk of heart disease showed that 2,400 mg of aged garlic extract a day increased microcirculation and triggered wound healing in the blood vessels. The garlic group saw a 102% increase in microcirculation, compared to the 78% of the placebo group. That's a statistically significant difference, favoring the garlic. Endothelial dysfunction is one of the primary causes of atherosclerotic plaque. Once the blood vessels become more susceptible to inflammation and lipid accumulation, they begin accumulating more and more plaque over time. By triggering wound healing, garlic can help to stop that process faster. One of the main bioactive compounds in garlic is allicin, which has specifically been seen to reduce aortic lesions and atherosclerosis through reducing TMAO production, which is a byproduct of proteins seen to drive atherosclerosis. You can also take allicin as a supplement. The allicin in garlic inhibits TMAO production in the gut by modulating the gut microbiome. So garlic not only improves the risk factors for heart disease, but also directly improves plaque itself. And by improving, I mean reversing it. I'm not saying that garlic is the cure for heart disease or some sort of magic pill. It clearly isn't, and even if you stop plaque progression, it doesn't mean that you couldn't get a heart attack if you have pre-existing plaque. But the totality of evidence suggests that the mechanistic and human data shows garlic has quite positive effects on overall plaque progression. So what's the protocol? Based on the studies I've listed here, the optimal dose for atherosclerosis is 2400 mg a day, split into two doses of 1200 mg each. It's most suitable for people at high risk of cardiovascular disease with elevated heart disease risk factors, such as high blood pressure, high inflammation, dyslipidemia, and hyperglycemia. Otherwise, healthy individuals could take smaller doses, 600-1200 mg a day, since they're at a lower risk of heart disease. The best form is aged garlic extract, such as cuolic. Raw garlic is not the same, although you get a lot of the same bioactive compounds from raw garlic, like allicin and others. The best time to take garlic is with meals, because garlic can cause nausea on an empty stomach. You should avoid garlic in bleeding disorders, when getting a surgery or under certain medical conditions, because garlic lowers clotting and platelets, which increases the risk of bleeding. You should also avoid taking garlic when you're taking blood pressure medicine, because garlic lowers blood pressure. Now, I'm not taking garlic right now because my heart disease risk factors are optimal, and my overall heart disease risk is extremely low. But I do think that aged garlic extract deserves a spot in the God tier list of supplements. If you want to check out how I rank a hundred other supplements, then check out this video next.