Garlic Against MRSA, does this really works?!

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

Hey Rhianna - just so you're aware, there are numerous garlic products on the market that are standardized for the allicin content. My favorite happens to be AlliMax. It's more expensive than many of the others, but the higher price actually funds the company's fairly prolific research. AlliMax pills contain 5000mg allicin per capsule.

If you read the labels on the garlic preparations at your local health food store, look for one that standardizes for allicin content. Natural Factors does. Many do, actually. (Kyolic does not.) And you'll want to dose it in the range of 1500mg three times daily (or higher, if necessary.)

FYI - AlliMax has tested upwards of 100 pills per day (ie: 500,000mg allicin) and found no toxicity. However, if your daughter has other health concerns that impact her blood clotting ability, or if she has low blood pressure she may not be a good candidate for garlic at higher doses. (Will decrease platelet aggregation, and slightly lower BP.)

Allicin can be extremely effective against MRSA! (In vivo, I mean.) Definitely discuss this option with her pediatrician. It *can* be used in combination with other antibiotics.

And the best part is that even high dose allicin will not negatively impact the healthy flora of the gut / vagina / urinary tract. (This is believed to be because we evolved as a species eating a lot of garlic.)
-------------------
Weise - it IS a drug at those concentrations. Indeed. And the science says it doesnt kill most of the Lactobacillis spp. and Bifidobacter spp. Works marvelously against Staph spp. Cant explain why, they're still trying to figure it out - lots of in vitro testing on this currently. The "evolution" theory is just that. A theory. But we evolved with Staph on our SKIN, just FYI. It's NOT a normal part of healthy gut flora.

Before y'all weigh in to say it's bunk and there's no science, you may actually want to CHECK the science. Here's just a little taste of the published data...
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15250…
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12969…
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17551…
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15587…
***NOTE: had to delete 2 links here, because I'm limited to 10 links in an answer. See additional info/links in sources.***
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16041… (the case for standardized extracts)
-----------------------------------
In response to comment that the above are all in vitro studies, figured I'd also publicly include links to these additional studies conducted by AlliMax...
http://www.allimax.us/Cutler.pdf
http://www.allimax.us/report-5-2004.pdf
http://www.allimax.us/April2005.pdf

And these are noteworthy, as well...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/334432…
http://www.inspiredliving.com/allimax-al…
-----------------------------------
Weise, you're mistaken. They're not all in vitro. And there are hundreds of human trials among the AlliMax database. As I mentioned in PM, contact them for copies of their research. I've already done this research. But dont have the time to perform *another* exhaustive search of literature for the benefit of a microbiologist. I'd encourage you to do it, though!!

I'm commenting here again because I felt it important to emphasize that what you're calling "anecdotal" (from my links below) is actually a study conducted IN HOSPITAL by a MAJOR UNIVERSITY.

And because the incredible importance of clinical data among physicians absolutely cannot be ignored. I know you're a microbiologist, so clinical data doesnt stand for much in your world. But it does to doctors. Heck, look at the "off label" use for pharmaceuticals! Purely clinical data supporting that. But it works. We see it work consistently. So we use it.

In the case of allicin, it's 100% safe. Can restore the resistance of many dangerous bacterial strains. And is effective as a stand-alone treatment in multi-drug resistant bacterial infections. To suggest medicine should NOT use it because you stopped researching upon supporting your confirmation bias is irresponsible.

I'm a science geek. But we tend to have the "science" wagging the dog sometimes... science is meant to explore how and why things work. In medical science, when we observe consistent results clinically we design experiments to test how and why. Even if the experiments don't support the overwhelming clinical data, we cant just chuck the clinical data! It means our experiments were unsuccessful and we have to re-design and look for the missing determinant in the experiments. IE: SOMETHING must explain why it works clinically... so we go about the business of finding why.

naturopathic doctor

Absolutely not.

Allicin does have antibacterial activity, but you'd need far more than what is in garlic to do anything. When you start using milligrams of a purified natural product, it's a drug.

It's also extremely unstable and will fall apart at low pH. In other words, it isn't going to work through the oral route. It would only work as a topical cream.

Even then there are better products available.

The claim it wouldn't affect other bacteria is just silly. Given that we evolved with Staph. aureus, it should be immune too.

Edit: No, it IS bunk. Notice not a single one of those studies look at in vivo data. Throwing a compound against a flask of bacteria is not the same as actually using it to treat anything.

Look at the structure. There's no way that compound is going to survive the stomach or the intestine. It will fall apart, which happens to be what the data all indicate.

Edit2: And note that there's still no in vivo data, which would take about a week to do a study in mouse. Only anecdotes treating patients.

This raises several red flags. Namely you don't treat people unless it works in mice, and the only reason to not show this data is it didn't work.

It's a rather transparent scam.

Microbiologist

No.

It does not have any antibacterial activity in vivo. Allicin, a compound in garlic, does have antibacterial activity, but there simply isn't enough of it to have much effect.

Discuss your concerns with your Doctor. As you probably know, MRSA can live harmlessly on the skin in many healthy people, it only causes a problem when it invades the skin and causes infection. The problem with MRSA is that it is resistant to many antibiotics that we use.

If garlic or tea tree worked, don't you think we would be using it?