Garlic Oil May Ease Adverse Effects of Chemotherapy and Radiation

26 June 2013 --- Demand has grown recently to find more natural ways to reduce the adverse effects of the two major methods for cancer treatment, ionizing radiation and chemotherapy.

A new study in the Journal of Food Science, published by the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), found that garlic oil reduced the decrease of white blood cells affected by chemotherapy and radiation treatment in mice with cancerous tumors.

Garlic has been widely used as food and medicine for many centuries throughout the world. The findings of this study support the idea that cancer patients may benefit from consuming garlic oil as a complementary medicine to their treatments.

Further research is needed to assess whether garlic oil could reduce the adverse effects induced by other chemotherapeutic drugs used to treat cancer patients.