Medicinal garlic

Don has always had marginally high blood pressure readings. A few years ago, a doctor was concerned enough to put him on a very low dose of blood pressure medication.

The interesting thing is, he very likely never had high blood pressure to begin with. What he has, literally, is "white-coat syndrome."  The Cleveland Clinic says about this condition, "White coat syndrome, or white coat hypertension, is the term for when you get a high blood pressure reading in a doctor’s office and a normal reading at home. The anxiety of being around doctors in white coats can make your blood pressure rise. Most people don’t need treatment if their blood pressure is normal at home."

Don monitors his blood pressure very closely at home, and after realizing his blood pressure just naturally spikes at a doctor's office, he decided to slowly and gradually wean himself off the already-low dosage of medication he was on. His blood pressure has remained at a healthy level. (He also walks, lifts moderate weights, and watches his weight.)

Anyway, this is a long-winded way of stating why he prefers to address any lingering concerns about blood pressure by turning to garlic.

Raw garlic has a centuries-long tradition of regulating blood pressure. Modern medical research has confirmed it may lower cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood sugar. Essentially garlic works to soften blood vessels and make them more elastic, which is precisely what the prescription medication did. In short ... can't hurt, might help for him to have raw garlic.

So Don takes a clove or two of raw garlic on a daily basis, usually sliced or chopped up in a sandwich or whatever else he has for lunch. Since last year I canned the entire garlic harvest, this meant he was buying garlic in the store to fill his raw garlic needs.

So this year I held all the harvested garlic in raw form, storing it in a cool dark place. Remember, much of this is now the jumbo garlic I'll be growing from now on.

The recommended daily dosage of garlic is about two grams (higher amounts apparently don't make a difference in health benefits). A single clove of our jumbo garlic weights 20 grams, ten times the recommended minimum dosage. He loves garlic (as do I), so it's no hardship to eat this much every day.

These large cloves slice easily.

He can then further chop the garlic as needed, or keep it sliced. He also likes the taste of this garlic much more than the store-bought stuff. He says it's less bitter.

Don's been off his blood-pressure medication for quite some time now, and his blood pressure is fine. As I mentioned, it may never have been high to begin with.

But keeping garlic in his diet is, we agree, a good thing.