Garlic has been called nature's penicillin and its reputation as a natural alternative to antibiotics is well deserved. I've used raw garlic for years to treat a wide variety of infections including earaches, sore throats (including strep) and respiratory infections. Garlic is not only antibacterial, it is also antiviral and antifungal, so unlike antibiotics from the doctor, garlic doesn't promote yeast overgrowth and weaken the immune system. In fact, it actually helps fight fungal infections.

Garlic is so powerful that I've seen it knock out infections in just a few hours. Years ago, after having discovered how effective garlic was at fighting infections, I was eager to try some of the dried garlic products on the market, including the 'odourless' garlic. My results wilh these products for fighting infection were extremely disappointing, and with good reason.

Strong and Reliable

Raw garlic contains a compound called alliin. When crushed, an enzyme called alliinace breaks alliin down into allicin, a powerful antiseptic agent. Allicin is part of the essential oil of garlic, ie. it is one of the primary compounds that gives garlic its powerful odour. It's also the part that works. Cooking drives off much of this aromatic quality of garlic, pretty much destroying its effectiveness as an antibiotic.

Power Antiseptic Agent

Drying does the same thing, because allicin tends to rapidly break down into other compounds, and within about 24 hours it is pretty much gone. Not that these other compounds don't have health benefits. They are very helpful in the circulatory system, they just don't have a fraction of the infection-fighting capacity.

Natures's Sunshine Found Away

That's why I stuck with raw garlic for many years whenever there was an infection in my home. I wanted something strong, fast and reliable. Then, "Nature's Sunshine" came out with it's High Potency Garlic. Nature's Sunshine found a way to stabilise the allicin content in garlic and place it in a tablet that breaks down in the small intestine. This reduces the stomach irritation associated wilh taking raw garlic, and the odour as well.

That's Powerful, and it Works!

Each tablet of Nature's Sunshine's High Potency Garlic has the allicin content of 4 cloves of freshly crushed garlic. That's powerful, and it works! I can honestly say that NSP's High Potency Garlic is the only garlic product in capsule or tablet form that I've ever found that works as well at fighting infection as raw garlic does. High Potency Garlic works particularly well for infections in the lungs. This is because the body excretes allicin through the lungs after it enters the bloodstream. As it passes out of the lungs, it destroys harmful microbes in the lungs and promotes mucus flow to decongest the respiratory passages. For serious congestion or infection in the lungs I typically recommend one tablet of High Potency Garlic with four capsules of ALJ.