Inside: 6 Benefits of Garlic for people suffering from thyroid issues, supported by research; including Grave’s and Hashimoto’s Disease.

Garlic is such an important food in our diet as it has so many different benefits attached to it.

Not only garlic gives that wonderful flavour to your food, but did you know it can also support and protect your thyroid!

Garlic benefits are numerous and it has been used since ancient times for various medicinal use especially to treat infections.

People who have thyroid disorders especially Hashimoto’s and Grave’s disease need to have an anti-inflammatory and whole food diet and garlic should be an important part of their diet. 

6 Garlic Benefits that can help Thyroid Patients 

Garlic is Anti-Inflammatory

Garlic has strong anti-inflammatory properties and several studies have time again showed that it can inhibit pro-inflammatory mediators. One of this study showed that garlic inhibited the Il 17 cytokine production [1] .

IL 17 is a kind of pro-inflammatory cytokine which has been related to several autoimmune diseases. This study showed that people with Hashimoto’s has increased levels of IL17 levels in their blood [2].

So if a Hashimoto’s patient uses garlic to decrease the levels of IL17 in their blood, it can help with their disease process. 

Garlic has Detoxification Properties

Garlic has sulfur-containing compounds, which help with detoxification. Garlic also supports our liver to help with detoxification!

The special thing about garlic is that it supports both the phases of detoxification in the liver and there are only a few foods which can do that. 

Studies suggest that garlic can also help with detoxifying lead, cadmium, mercury and arsenic [3].

We know that Hashimoto’s is triggered by environmental factors and with the modern-day lifestyle, we all are getting exposed to toxins on a daily basis, in such a case adding food like garlic in our diet which can support detox our body certainly will help with thyroid issues also. 

Improving blood pressure and cholesterol levels

Most of the people with thyroid diseases are at increased risk of having high blood pressure or elevated cholesterol.

And garlic has shown to be beneficial in improving blood pressure in people and is protective to heart also by the antioxidant effects that it has [4,6].

It also reduces cholesterol, and this study did show improvement in patients cholesterol when supplemented with garlic pills [5,6]. 

Garlic Helps in Protection from Infections

Garlic has shown to be useful in people with fighting the common cold. This study showed that people who supplemented with garlic got over their common cold symptoms earlier [7,8].

The allicin in garlic has an antimicrobial mechanism which helps fight other infections. As garlic improves our immunity it can also help to keep some of the viral infections at bay which have been associated with triggering autoimmune diseases like Hashimoto’s in our body. 

Garlic has Antioxidant Properties

Garlic has good antioxidant properties can studies have shown that supplementation improves the antioxidant levels in the blood [9,10].

The antioxidants protect our body from damage from free radicals which are generated in our body. These free radicals can ultimately cause damage to various parts of the body and can contribute to autoimmunity.

Thus garlic holds huge importance with its antioxidant properties in Hashimoto’s disease.  

Garlic Improves Gut health

Garlic is very good for gut health. The inulin and Fructooligosaccharides in garlic are a very good source of prebiotics and help support the good gut microbiome and thus the overall health of your body [11,12,13].

We now know that autoimmune disease starts in the gut and if we can keep our gut healthy especially our microbiome in good balance that will help with improving our health and also thyroid diseases under control. 

Some Cautions with using Garlic

1. Garlic can thin your blood, so if you are on a blood thinner medicine you have to be a little cautious about using garlic. Although garlic is not contraindicated with blood thinner medicines. However — if you taking high doses of garlic in the supplement form and on blood thinners your healthcare provider should be aware. 
2. Although garlic is great for your gut, if you have SIBO (Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth), then it might be a good idea to avoid it, as it a high FODMAP food. 

Related Read:

• Research-Based Hashimoto’s Diet
• Why Epstein-Barr Virus Evaluation Should Be Part Of Your Graves And Hashimoto’s Treatment Plan
• Everything You Need To Know About Leaky Gut

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References: 

1.  Allium sativum L. regulates in vitro IL-17 gene expression in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Moutia M, Seghrouchni F, Abouelazz O, Elouaddari A, Al Jahid A, Elhou A, Nadifi S, Jamal Eddine J, Habti N, Badou A. BMC Complement Altern Med. 2016 Sep 29;16(1):377.
2. Increased Levels of Serum Interleukin-17 in Patients with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis.Esfahanian F, Ghelich R, Rashidian H, Jadali Z. Indian Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism. 2017 Jul-Aug; 21(4): 551-554
3.  Comparison of therapeutic effects of garlic and d-Penicillamine in patients with chronic occupational lead poisoning. Kianoush S, Balali-Mood M, Mousavi SR, Moradi V, Sadeghi M, Dadpour B, Rajabi O, Shakeri MT. Basic Clin Pharmacol Toxicol. 2012 May;110(5):476-81. doi: 10.1111/j.1742-7843.2011.00841.x. Epub 2011 Dec 29.
4. . Effects of Allium sativum (garlic) on systolic and diastolic blood pressure in patients with essential hypertension.Ashraf R, Khan RA, Ashraf I, Qureshi AA.Pak J Pharm Sci. 2013 Sep;26(5):859-63.
5.  Lipid-lowering effects of time-released garlic powder tablets in double-blinded placebo-controlled randomized study.Sobenin IA, Andrianova IV, Demidova ON, Gorchakova T, Orekhov AN.J Atheroscler Thromb. 2008 Dec;15(6):334-8. Epub 2008 Dec 6.
6. Effects of garlic extract consumption on blood lipid and oxidant/antioxidant parameters in humans with high blood cholesterol.Durak I, Kavutcu M, Aytaç B, Avci A, Devrim E, Ozbek H, Oztürk HS.J Nutr Biochem. 2004 Jun;15(6):373-7.
7. Preventing the common cold with a garlic supplement: a double-blind, placebo-controlled survey.Josling P.Adv Ther. 2001 Jul-Aug;18(4):189-93.
8. Supplementation with aged garlic extract improves both NK and γδ-T cell function and reduces the severity of cold and flu symptoms: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled nutrition intervention.Nantz MP, Rowe CA, Muller CE, Creasy RA, Stanilka JM, Percival SS.Clin Nutr. 2012 Jun;31(3):337-44. doi: 10.1016/j.clnu.2011.11.019. Epub 2012 Jan 24.
9. . Garlic supplementation prevents oxidative DNA damage in essential hypertension. Dhawan V, Jain S.Mol Cell Biochem. 2005 Jul;275(1-2):85-94.
10. . Garlic reduces dementia and heart-disease risk.Borek C.J Nutr. 2006 Mar;136(3 Suppl):810S-812S. doi: 10.1093/jn/136.3.810S. Review.
11. Preventive Effects and Mechanisms of Garlic on Dyslipidemia and Gut Microbiome Dysbiosis.Chen K, Xie K, Liu Z, Nakasone Y, Sakao K, Hossain A, Hou DX.Nutrients. 2019 May 29;11(6). pii: E1225. doi: 10.3390/nu11061225.
12.  Probiotics and prebiotics: A brief overview.Chow J.J Ren Nutr. 2002 Apr;12(2):76-86. Review.
13. . Dietary fructooligosaccharides and potential benefits on health.Sabater-Molina M, Larqué E, Torrella F, Zamora S.J Physiol Biochem. 2009 Sep;65(3):315-28. doi: 10.1007/BF03180584. Review.