Can garlic help stop dangerous heart plaque?
Aged garlic extract reduces low attenuation plaque in coronary arteries of patients with diabetes: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Aged garlic extract reduced LAP by 29% while placebo increased it by 57%—a dramatic divergence in just one year.
Most supplements don’t show measurable plaque changes in RCTs, especially not with imaging. This is one of the first to show a targeted, statistically significant effect on a high-risk plaque subtype.
Practical Takeaways
Adults with type 2 diabetes could consider 2,400 mg/day of standardized aged garlic extract (like Kyolic) as a complementary heart-protective strategy.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Aged garlic extract reduced LAP by 29% while placebo increased it by 57%—a dramatic divergence in just one year.
Most supplements don’t show measurable plaque changes in RCTs, especially not with imaging. This is one of the first to show a targeted, statistically significant effect on a high-risk plaque subtype.
Practical Takeaways
Adults with type 2 diabetes could consider 2,400 mg/day of standardized aged garlic extract (like Kyolic) as a complementary heart-protective strategy.
Publication
Journal
Experimental and Therapeutic Medicine
Year
2019
Authors
K. Shaikh, A. Kinninger, Lavanya Cherukuri, D. Birudaraju, R. Nakanishi, S. Almeida, E. Jayawardena, C. Shekar, F. Flores, S. Hamal, M. S. Sheikh, Amit Johanis, Benedict Cu, M. Budoff
Related Content
Claims (5)
For people with type 2 diabetes, taking a specific type of garlic supplement every day for a year may help shrink dangerous fatty buildups in the heart arteries, while those not taking it saw those buildups get worse.
Taking a daily garlic supplement for a year doesn’t seem to shrink the overall gunk in the heart arteries of people with type 2 diabetes—but it might specifically reduce the soft, dangerous kind of gunk that’s more likely to cause heart attacks.
People with type 2 diabetes who aren’t taking aged garlic extract tend to develop more dangerous plaque in their heart arteries over a year, and this plaque buildup goes up by 57%—which means their risk of a heart attack is likely rising naturally over time.
Taking a daily garlic supplement for a year doesn’t make the hard, calcified buildups in the arteries of people with type 2 diabetes get bigger — so it’s not causing their blood vessels to stiffen as a side effect.
Taking aged garlic extract might slow down the hardening of your heart arteries and help lower your blood pressure by making dangerous fatty buildups in your arteries more stable and less likely to cause a heart attack.