Effects of garlic consumption on physiological variables and performance during exercise in hypoxia

Abstract

Exposure to hypoxia results in vasoconstriction of the pulmonary vasculature (HPV) leading to pulmonary hypertension (HPH) and reductions in blood oxygen saturation and exercise performance. Alleviation of HPV and HPH via vasodilators has been shown to improve blood oxygen saturation and exercise performance in hypoxia. Garlic has been shown to reduce HPV and HPH in rats and has been suggested to have ergogenic effects in hypoxic exercise. We compared the effects of 7 days of supplementation with garlic and placebo on peripheral blood pressures, blood oxygen saturation, heart rate, oxygen consumption, and time to exhaustion during a progressive exercise test to exhaustion in humans under hypoxia (PIO2 ∼ 88 Torr). No significant differences were observed between treatments regarding oxygen consumption, exercise or resting peripheral blood pressures, blood oxygen saturation, heart rates, or exercise time to exhaustion. These results do not support garlic consumption as a method for improving peripheral blood pressure, maximal oxygen consumption, blood oxygen saturation, exercising heart rate, heart rate response, or exercise performance in hypoxia.

A Prospective Epidemiological Study of Acute Mountain Sickness in Nepalese Pilgrims Ascending to High Altitude (4380 m)

“…It is not likely that these preventatives caused AMS through a physiological pathway, as all subjects likely ingested some amount of each food through their regular diets. While studies have not tested the effects of garlic on AMS, the ingestion of garlic prior to hypoxic exercise did not affect oxygen consumption, oxygen saturation, heart rate, blood pressure, or exercise performance relative to placebo [32]. Pilgrims who consumed foods that they expected to prevent AMS might have ignored other means of AMS prophylaxis ( e.g.…”

Effects of garlic powder supplementation on metabolic syndrome components, insulin resistance, fatty liver index, and appetite in subjects with metabolic syndrome: A randomized clinical trial

“…It was shown that garlic powder supplementation for 3 months improves Mets indices (except for FPG), insulin resistance, FLI, and appetite. Garlic reduces intestinal absorption of triglycerides, inhibits peroxisome proliferator‐activated receptor gamma (PPAR‐γ) gene expression, reduces human preadipocyte differentiation and lipid accumulation in differentiated preadipocyte as well as modulates endothelium‐relaxing, stimulates the production of gasotransmitters leading to vasorelaxation such as nitric oxide (NO) and hydrogen sulphide (H2S), reduces the production of the vasoconstricting factors such as endothelin 1 and angiotensin II, and consequently improves the indices of MetS (Joo, Kim, Kim, & Kim, 2013; Morris, Beloni, & Wheeler, 2013; Ried & Fakler, 2014; Shang et al, 2019). Consistent with the present study, Choudhary et al (2018) showed that garlic consumption improves the MetS indices of subjects with MetS.…”