Garlic may be no help in cancer, study says
Reported January 10, 2009
Seoul, Korea, January 10: A new study suggests that garlic intake is not creditable for a reduced risk of many cancers and for other cancers as well the effect is very limited.
Earlier, several studies provided evidence for a relation between garlic intake and cancerdefine risk reduction. Dr. Oran Kwon, a researcher
at Ewha Women’s University in Seoul, South Korea, and lead author of the study, said, “The public wants to believe that garlic may be effective in reducing the risk of cancer, but so far scientific evidence is limited to conclude [it works] for all types of cancers.”
Dr. Oran Kwon with her team analyzed 19 published and scientifically sound human studies about garlic intake and cancer risk reduction. With the use of the United States Food and Drug Administration’s review system for the scientific evaluation of a health claim, the researchers concluded that no creditable evidence to support the claim about garlic intake and a reduced risk of gastricdefine, breast, lung, or endometrial cancer was found and only a limited evidence supported the claim in case of colondefine, prostate, esophageal, larynxdefine, oral, ovary, or renal cell cancers.
Scientists said that garlic can reduce the cancer in one way as it reverses the oxidative stress (caused by “free radical” molecules) that increases the cancer risks and gives birth to other health problems.
“The bottom line is, there is certainly not enough evidence for garlic for a health claim for any cancer prevention,” said Colleen Doyle, director of nutrition and physical activity for the American Cancer Society in Atlanta. “There is weak evidence it may have an impact on some cancer sites.”
Kwon suggested that some additional studies are needed on this subject because garlic has been used throughout recorded history for many medicinal purposes including prevention of heart disease (including atherosclerosis, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure) and cancer.
Source : The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition