Researchers found a chemical that can improve your lung health in as little as one week. It’s stronger than an antibiotic cocktail. And it can be found naturally at your local grocer.

When Bad Breath Means Good News (For Your Lungs Anyway)

In All Health Watch, Diet and Nutrition, Featured Article, Heart and Cardiovascular

There’s a nasty bacteria that could be wrecking your lung health…especially if you have cystic fibrosis (CF).1 It’s called Burholderia cepacia complex (BCC).

This infection thickens the mucus in your lungs. The texture becomes like tar. Getting enough air into your lungs becomes harder and harder. But that’s not the worst part…

It can be fatal. And antibiotics won’t kill it. The best thing modern medicine can do is slow down how fast it spreads. That takes a combo of three to four different drugs…and it won’t even stop BCC from causing damage.2 But new research shows there’s a natural solution that can.

A study from the U.K. found a compound in a pungent vegetable stops BCC from growing. But it goes a step further… Higher doses of it can kill BCC altogether. That’s because it does what antibiotics can’t. It deactivates enzymes that keep the pathogen alive.

But whether or not you are harboring this bacteria—or suffering from CF—your lungs can still benefit from getting more of it.

Best of all, it doesn’t take much of it to see results. Researchers used a 3% solution of this compound to combat the bacteria. That’s less than one gram.

And it’s found in a vegetable we all love…

Garlic. It contains the compound allicin.

And it only took the same amount you’d get from eating a fourth of one small garlic clove to stop BCC from growing.3 But it gets better.

They found higher doses destroyed BCC. Researchers believe it’s because allicin kills this bacteria from the inside…by taking out the enzymes it needs to survive.

And this isn’t the only reason to eat more garlic…

We’ve told you before it’s a natural bacteria-killer. It may even keep you from catching a cold. Another study found allicin fights off Pseudomonas aeruginosa after one week.4 That’s a bacterial infection that can cause pneumonia and increases your risk of developing heart disease.

Eating raw garlic will give you the most benefit. But it may be a little too much for some people. Start by adding it to the dishes you already eat instead. Throw some in your salad. Crush up some cloves and put them in your chicken when you bake it. One or two is plenty.

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References:
1http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/cf
2http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/289871.php
3http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0112726
4http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16339933