Antimycobacterial activity of garlic Helpful in addition to treatment?

You may have seen my post where I mentioned I am now taking kombucha with garlic. I found the brand Synergy at Aldi but you can find it in grocery stores and health food stores. For myself, I prefer to use it in the same way I would take certain medications, small doses. I just take 2oz. a day one time a day and I believe it is helping the 'gut' and elimination. I also take a garlic tablet every few days and zinc tablet. For me as long as I know it is something that is common to cook with or is part of the chemicals in the human body....I feel comfortable taking it after doing as much research as possible on it. However, again....everyone's system is different and what helps one might night help another or be good for them.
Barbara

I have been adding fresh garlic to soup and most meals. Chewing the cloves could be beneficial since crushed garlic releases allicin, though of course there's a bit of a sting.

Agree, a bit of a sting....that was not for me however. Yes, I also use fresh garlic a great deal.
Thanks,
Barbara

@wolfplanetzero, @gigiv, @blm1007blm1007 and everyone else interested in this discussion - I took a minute this afternoon to go back and find the original research - in 1985 - that led to this original concept for treating NTM/MAC.
https://journals.asm.org/doi/epdf/10.1128/aac.27.4.485
What I would like to point out is that garlic was use to treat M tuberculosis back in the 1930's and 40's, before the development of antibiotics, but the efficacy wasn't really tested.
Here is what the authors concluded:
"Whether garlic extract has any future in treating human mycobacterial infections remains to be evaluated. If the invitro studies of the inhibitory power of garlic extract against mycobacteria can be interpolated, it may be surmised that very high levels in serum would have to be achieved. These high levels could be toxic to the -SH groups of the animal or human being treated. Further studies in animals are indicated to determine achievable safe blood levels and overall toxicity. It is conceivable that smaller amounts or garlic extract along with other standard antituberculosis drugs may act synergistically against mycobacterial infections."

A deep dive into Google Scholar did not uncover any new research specifically on NTM/MAC but it did uncover this great review of the study of the potential uses of allicin in medicine.
https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/26/6/1505
Three interesting findings:
- Only raw garlic counts, as allicin is destroyed by heat.
- "Allicin taken up by cells, or entering the bloodstream, reacts readily with GSH in competition with cysteine residues in proteins. For this reason, it is difficult to envisage being able to achieve a therapeutically relevant concentration of allicin in cells anywhere in the body by simply swallowing it. "
- ...allicin is an irritant which stimulates pain-sensing neurons, and self-medication has led to a spate of reports of self-inflicted harm [21]. Thus, while small amounts are prized in culinary contexts, over-exposure to allicin is clearly harmful."
-"Perhaps, after further carefully controlled research and all necessary precautions, a pulmonary exposure route for allicin vapor might be able to be developed under appropriate circumstances to achieve therapeutically effective concentrations in the lungs."
"...A recent survey showed that several lung-pathogenic bacteria, including MDR strains, could be inhibited in vitro by allicin vapor and the aerodynamic behavior of allicin aerosols and vapor has been investigated in a lung model, thus allowing some preliminary determination of dosage and synergy without the need for animal experiments [88,98,99]. Nevertheless, progression to the next stage will require carefully controlled, ethically sound animal experiments before therapeutic protocols for humans can become feasible."

So, we appear to be left with the old, tired "more research required" in addition to the caveat that directly inhaling garlic fumes, where the demonstrated benefit lies, can be dangerous.

"Food for thought"? I need to give my healing shoulder a rest now

Thank you for reading our posts and then reading what you researched to give us all, for our understanding.
Wish you had a system that you could talk into and it would print out what you wanted to say.
Yes, "good food for thought." Hopefully none of us are overdoing our garlic.
Maybe some wonderful researcher is wanting to research the possible benefits of garlic further. Thank goodness for all those who have researhed and studied to bring us to what we know now.
You rest your arm and I'll be resting my foot and hope nothing else pops up with this miracle called a body for us to have to attend to besides our BE etc. etc.
Thank you Sue.
Barbara

I have been taking 2 to 4 cloves of fresh garlic every night for years, but I recently got Shingles ( even though I had both Shringrix vaccinations) two weeks after my last COVID booster and while searching information about shingles I came across an article that said the amino acid Arginine in garlic can reactivate the Shingles virus. I was shocked !!! and now I am afraid to continue taking the garlic. I thought it was one of the best things that I could do for my health. Does anyone have any information about this problem with garlic. After suffering through Shingles, I don't want to repeat it by reactivating the Herpes virus. Thanks

@hlp123, good to know, thank you very much for this info.
Best wishes of great health!

I just read your post and then looked up what foods to avoid regarding shingles. One of the posts went on to list everything that one might consider healthy....so hard to know sometimes what to think and do.
It might be that the amount, or raw vs cooked, or a supplement vs raw.
I have had three bouts of shingles in the last 20 years, mild and no other symptom other than visual blisters a mild pain. Last bout 2021. I finally took the shingle vaccine in 2023. I have taken garlic supplements all my adult life and have cooked with it as well.
We are all different but it might be how we are taking the garlic.???
Barbara

Yes !
I am still trying to find out if there is a connection to raw garlic (which is what I was eating every day) to the arginine, in raw garlic that can activate the singles virus!
I did have both of the vaccines for shingles and I still got shingles. I want to do everything I can to help myself and it is very frustrating to be afraid to take something that may be harmful. I have not taken any raw garlic for nine months because I am still looking for proof of what to do. thank you

There is an option to raw garlic. It’s black garlic, fermented for weeks and used in Asian kitchen. It’s sweet like dried prunes, no odor or no burning and when you read about it, it’s presumably better for you than the raw kind. I buy it in a Mexican store. It’s in a jar by the register. It’s $2.50 for one garlic. You can try any Asian stores as well.