Garlic consumption can reduce the risk of dyslipidemia: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials
What this study found
Garlic consumption was associated with significantly lower total cholesterol, triglycerides, and LDL-C, and a small increase in HDL-C in adults with dyslipidemia. Older individuals appeared to derive greater benefit, and garlic oil seemed more effective than garlic powder. Evidence quality was moderate for total cholesterol, triglycerides, and LDL-C, and low for HDL-C, so the overall benefit is promising but should be interpreted cautiously.
- Study & population
- Systematic review and meta-analysis of 21 randomized controlled trials involving 1603 adults with dyslipidemia, hyperlipidemia, or hypercholesterolemia from multiple countries.
- Intervention
- Garlic was evaluated in multiple oral preparations across the included trials, including garlic powder, raw garlic, aged garlic, aged black garlic, garlic oil, tablets, and unspecified garlic supplements.
- Key limitation
- Substantial heterogeneity was present across garlic preparations, doses, treatment durations, and participant populations.
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Open PDFOriginal abstract
Background and purpose Garlic is used as an important medicinal food for treatment of many diseases, however, the association between garlic consumption and dyslipidemia have yielded inconsistent results. So we carried this meta-analysis to explore the blood lipid-lowering effects of garlic. Methods Databases such as PubMed, Scopus, Web of science, Embase, Cochrane Library were systematically searched until June 2024. Heterogeneity among studies was examined using Q and I^2 statistics. Also subgroup analysis were conducted to explore the potential heterogeneity. Combined weighted mean differences (WMD) with their 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated using a random-effects model. The GRADE approach was used to evaluate the overall certainty of the evidence in the meta-analyses. Results A total of 21 RCTs studies involved association between garlic consumption and blood lipids level of dyslipidemia patients were included in the meta-analysis. The pooled results showed that garlic consumption significantly reduced total cholesterol (TC)(WMD = -0.64mmol/L, 95%CI = -0.75 −-0.54, P < 0.001), triglyceride (TG)(WMD = -0.17mmol/L, 95%CI = -0.26 −-0.09, P < 0.001), low-density lipoprotein(LDL-C)(WMD = -0.44mmol/L, 95%CI = -0.57 −-0.31, P < 0.001) while slightly increased high-density lipoprotein (HDL-C)(WMD = 0.04mmol/L, 95%CI = -0.00 − 0.08, P < 0.001). And subgroup analyses showed that TC, TG and LDL-C significantly decreased in patients aged > 50 years compared to those aged ≤ 50 years. And garlic oil greatly reduced TC and LDL-C compared with garlic power. Finally, sensitivity analysis and publication bias showed that the results were reliable. Conclusions Evidence from this meta-analysis suggested that garlic consumption could be effective in reducing the risk of dyslipidemia and preventing CVDs. Particularly the older people were more susceptible to the protective effects of garlic.