You can use garlic to spice up the flavor of your food, but you may also be able to use garlic to clean your arteries. People have eaten garlic for its medicinal properties for thousands of years, says the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), and garlic seems to be able to slow down the progression of atherosclerosis, a condition that causes dangerous plaque to build up in your arteries.
Lowering Cholesterol
Consuming garlic either in its natural state through your diet or in supplement form may lower your total blood cholesterol levels and also your levels of harmful LDL cholesterol, while raising levels of beneficial HDL cholesterol, thereby reducing your risk of having plaque accumulate inside your arteries, reports the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC). You may experience lower cholesterol levels and the accompanying lower risk of arterial plaque within one to three months of eating garlic regularly, according to NCCAM.
Destroying Plaque
Garlic seems to be able to destroy plaque that has already built up inside your artery walls, reports UMMC. Some studies on patients with atherosclerosis who took garlic supplements showed that the amount of plaque inside the patients' arteries decreased after they took the supplements. More research needs to be done to clarify exactly how garlic may destroy arterial plaque.
Preventing Blood Clots
Garlic may help prevent blood clots in your arteries by reducing the amount of platelets in your blood that clump together, reports the Linus Pauling Institute (LPI). Consuming garlic either in powder or oil form seems to be effective at preventing arterial blood clots that could lead to a heart attack or stroke. UMMC notes that patients participating in clinical trials reduced their risk of developing blood clots in their arteries both after eating fresh garlic and after consuming garlic supplements.
Amounts
When you're using garlic to try to clean your arteries, UMMC recommends that you consume either 2 to 4 fresh garlic cloves daily or take a daily supplement containing 900 mg of garlic, standardized to 0.6 percent of its active ingredient, which is a substance called allicin. LPI recommends eating raw or cooked garlic in your diet rather than consuming it as a supplement, because supplements vary widely according to how much allicin they contain.
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