Question: I take a garlic supplement and two baby aspirin every day. Are they doing the same thing -- thinning my blood?
Answer: Yes and no. Both garlic and aspirin have anti-platelet activity, meaning they prevent your blood from forming clots that can clog your arteries and cause a heart attack or travel to your brain and trigger a stroke. So if you're taking both garlic and aspirin for their blood-thinning abilities, you could safely skip the "stinking rose" supplement. Drying garlic to squeeze it into a capsule can process the health benefits right out of it. (One study found that even cooked garlic lost its anti-platelet activity, though it could be brought back to life with a little fresh garlic juice.)
Do, however, stick with aspirin (if your doc agrees it's right for you). The research is clear: Not only can daily aspirin therapy help reduce your risk of heart attack and stroke; it will significantly increase your survival odds if you do have a heart attack. And aspirin does have great additional anti-cancer benefits.
Aspirin can decrease -- by about 40 percent -- your risk of cancer of the colon, rectum, bladder, esophagus, breast and prostate. Garlic supplements don't have such benefits to our knowledge.Read more
No comments:
Post a Comment