by Amanda Bennett

Created on: September 23, 2008

*THE MANY USES AND BENEFITS OF GARLIC*

For thousands of years, garlic has been known as natures most powerful & effective medicinal herb. It can be administered internally, orally, used as a rub or compress, for a number of different ailments. Blood clots, common cold & flu, cuts, scrapes, bruises, stress, toothaches, boils, cysts, burns, sprains & strains. Lip, mouth, and throat problems, fatigue, food poisoning, the list goes on and on!

*Cold Sores*
Apply a small amount of Vaseline to the cold sore, take a slice of a garlic clove and place directly over the infected area. Keep it in place for up to 4 hours. Do this at least twice a day, until pain and swelling have been reduced. It won't take long. They'll be gone almost over night!

*COLD & FLU*
Garlic is great for fighting off that really nasty cold or flu bug that's been going around.
When you know there's a bug going around children's school or daycare, or maybe even your work place, increase your daily intake of garlic. Either by eating whole cloves, adding a couple of extra cloves to dinner each night for the next week. That way you can nip it in the bud, before it starts! You can also go to the drug store and get a bottle of Garlic gel capsules. Either way YOU WILL SMELL LIKE GARLIC, Hahahaha, BUT it will be work!

*Sunburn, Windburn, Heat Stroke*
The next time you get a little too much sun, try steeping some garlic in hot water to make a tea like solution,let cool to room temperature. Soak a cotton face cloth or towel in the solution, ring out access liquid and apply to irritated areas. Leave on until cloth has been warmed by body heat. Rinse with cool garlic solution again and reapply, continue process until you find relief. The same mixture can also be used to reduce pain and swelling of a sprained or twisted ankle, sore wrist or elbow, pulled muscles etc.

*Impotence*
An old french herbalist, Mourice Messegue was known for recommending to his male patients who were suffering from impotence to apply some juice from a garlic clove, on the tail bone. Near the base of the spine. *Firmly grasp clove between two fingers and rub in a circular motion for at least 10 minutes a day. There was a 35%-45% success rate with this method in his patients.

These are only a few of the many many uses for this magnificent bulb of goodness. Garlic can also be added to almost any meal you can possibly think of. I personally cook with it AS MUCH AS I CAN, and my son and I might get sick once a year. My son is 19 months old and he actually just started showing symptoms of his first cold in the last 2 days. But I upped or garlic and it seems to be staying the same.(better than getting worse)

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