Our blood's ability to clot is a lifesaver.f our blood cells didn't gum up and from hard little masses when we got cut or scratched, we would lose serious amount of blood or even bleed to death in the event of these and other more serious injuries. But there can be too much of a good thing.
Blood clots can be a life-threatening danger if they occur in an artery to the brain that's been narrowed by cholesterol or damaged by high blood pressure. They can cut off the brain's supply of oxygen and other nutrients carried by the blood. Just a few minutes of such blockage can permanently damage nerve cells in the brain that control mental and physical faculties, from talking to walking.
One of the nation's most common chronic ailments, high blood pressure, or hypertension, affects about one in every five of us. Having high blood pressure means that your heart is working harder than usual to keep blood pumping through your system. What's more, the additional pressure also places your blood vessels under extra stress. High blood pressure can cause a wide variety of serious diseases, including atherosclerosis, heart failure and stroke. The good news is that you can control high blood pressure with lifestyle and dietary changes. And eating garlic, researchers have discovered, can make a difference.
This condition is another consequence of blocked blood vessels, and a very painful one at that. Its sufferers experience it as a sharp pain in the middle of the chest, causing a scary and unpleasant sensation of squeezing and choking. In some people, an angina attack may come on suddenly. In others, it may be more predictable - always occurring for instance, when they're exercising. sometimes the pain extends to other parts of the body, such as the shoulders or the hands.
Known more commonly as hardening of the arteries, atherosclerosis results when excess blood cholesterol sticks to the artery walls, turning them thick and hard. When this happens, blood passage gets partially blocked. this in turn increases the risk of having a heart attack or stroke.
Garlic can help. So convinced are scientists of this that in 1990 a number of them held a special meeting, the First Annual Congress on the Health Significance of Garlic and Garlic Constituents, co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Pennsylvania State University, in Washington, D.C., to share their findings on the matter.
Our bodies actually require a certain amount of cholesterol in order to perform some important tasks, including building new cells, producing hormones, and forming protective insulation around nerves.
We naturally produce a supply of what's called about 2,000 mg a day, to be exact. Add to that cholesterol we take in from the food we eat (primary from meat and dairy products) and you see how we could have a problem.
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