posted on Jun, 27 2009 @ 11:00 AM
Garlic does cross the BBB, that's how it fights meningitis.
I'm no medical expert, I just did some searching on Google Scholar with my university database access. Garlic is not unique in this ability to cross
the Brain Blood Barrier. Gingko does as well, and so does aspirin and a million other common things.
I personally have never felt mal-effects from garlic, no matter what I ate beforehand (and I eat A LOT of garlic, at times a whole bulb a day, esp. if
I feel a cold coming on). However I did read an article about heavy metal toxicity in Chinese ginger and I assume that would also be true of other
things, like garlic. Better to stay away from ANYTHING chinese as far as I'm concerned. Their environmental protections are non-existent. And if you
get lead to the brain, good luck curing that with Accupuncture! I suggest you buy organic and local.
Now, as for garlic decreasing reaction time, I've never noticed that personally, and the so-called "private Stanford study" that Beck says he
funded is so private that it does not exist in any database on the planet, which means it was never published, which means it was deemed to be
worthless by peer reviewers, probably.
In fact, garlic INCREASES alertness and speeds reaction time, according to this study I found on PubMed (search garlic eeg, it's the only one that
comes up, doi:10.1016/S0167-8760(98)00025-7)! It turns out smelling almost anything will change your EEG in all respects. Pleasant smells, esp.
CHOCOLATE and SPEARMINT reduce theta levels and relax you, which makes you less alert, according to this study. Alpha and beta waves are also
discussed as components in alertness.
My advice: go and remove those car fresheners!
P.S. Beck is a total fraud in general. Just like Hulda Clark and the rest of the quack doctors. I'm glad he's dead... of HEART FAILURE. Yeah,
that's what happens when you do as he advises, and "electrocute your blood" regularly...