2661 Garlic?

Friday, November 13, 2009

For a true scientist, being wrong is just as interesting as being right.

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I've been taking a (supposedly, I don't know) odorless garlic supplement for the past few weeks, as an experiment.

Also for the past few weeks, I've been freezing, as soon as the sun goes down, regardless of the inside or outside temperature, and no matter what I'm wearing. I am neither flushed nor pale. I doubt that it's a brain perception thing, because boosting the thermostat to 78 fixes the problem.

This evening it finally occurred to me to wonder if there might be a connection.

Jay had been very sensitive to everything in the onion/garlic/leek families. He'd eat the stuff, but then he'd "throw off heat" for the next eight to twelve hours. His internal temperature remained normal, but he'd complain of feeling hot, and you could feel the heat flowing off him. No sweat, no flushing, just BTUs radiating. Feed the man onions and you'd get a space heater. (Dilated capillaries doesn't explain it, because he didn't flush.)

Cue internet search.

The folk wisdom has lots to say about beneficial effects, but nothing to say about body temperature except that it's supposed to cause sweating, which will lower a fever. Nope. That's not what happened to Jay or me.

Science has provided several controlled studies which have pretty much verified none of the folk claims (beyond the anti-insect, anti-fungal effects), and also says nothing about people feeling hot or cold. Interestingly, folk wisdom says garlic lowers cholesterol, and a few clinical studies have shown that it does in fact lower cholesterol and triglycerides, BUT, and here's the interesting part, it lowers LDL but does not affect HDL. Um, that's not very helpful....

So, I am freezing, even when the house temperature is 77. At 78 I'm ok. I don't know why. Nothing mentions a temperature effect, neither my freeze nor Jay's swelter.
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