Garlic supplements and heart disease risk factors
What it found
In people, garlic supplements lowered blood pressure and total cholesterol in several analyses.
Some small studies also found changes in other heart-related markers.
What they found
Studies in people
Blood pressure
Garlic supplementation reduced systolic blood pressure by 7-16 mm Hg and diastolic blood pressure by 5-9 mm Hg, based on 4 meta-analyses and 2 original studies.
Total cholesterol
Garlic supplementation reduced total cholesterol by 7.4-29.8 mg/dL, based on 8 meta-analyses.
Aged garlic extract
The most consistent benefits were seen in studies that used aged garlic extract. A few small studies using aged garlic extract also showed favorable effects on coronary artery calcium, C-reactive protein, and pulse wave velocity.
Side effects
The authors say garlic is generally well tolerated, but rare adverse reactions have been documented with limited evidence that garlic caused them.
What the authors conclude
“We conclude that garlic supplementation has the potential for cardiovascular protection based on risk factor reduction (hypertension and total cholesterol) and surrogate markers (CRP, PWV, and CAC) of atherosclerosis.”
Also in their conclusions
- They conclude that garlic supplementation has the potential for cardiovascular protection based on risk factor reduction (hypertension and total cholesterol) and surrogate markers (CRP, PWV, and CAC) of atherosclerosis.
- They say larger studies are warranted to evaluate these effects further.
How it was done
Thousands of studies in animals and people have looked at what garlic does and how well it is tolerated. The authors wanted to pull together the human evidence on heart-related effects.
They searched PubMed for all human studies up to 30 May 2013. They included only double-blind, randomised, controlled trials and meta-analyses of such trials, and two authors reviewed the studies independently.
What it can’t tell you
- We summarised it from the abstract only.
- The review only included double-blind, randomised, controlled trials and meta-analyses of them, so it reflects what those studies measured.
- It cannot show whether garlic prevents heart attacks or other heart events, because the included studies looked at risk factors and markers, not those outcomes.
Who paid
- Authors work at
- University of Saskatchewan, Canada; Harbor-UCLA Research and Education Institute, CA
The paper
- Title
- Garlic and Heart Disease
- Type
- ReviewThe authors read earlier studies and describe what they found. It isn’t a new study.
- Evidence
- Studies in people
- Summarised from
- Abstract only
- Cite
- Varshney R, Budoff MJ (2016). Garlic and Heart Disease. The Journal of nutrition. doi:10.3945/jn.114.202333PubMed 26764327DOI
Summary written 26 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error