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[WillowRun]

My family eats garlic and/or onions at almost every meal.  None of us have been ill this year...God is good.  I found this article at MSNBC and thought my SDA friends might find it interesting.  I will, of course, not be looking for  a bottle of Brandy to go with my garlic


Swine flu surge in Serbia prompts garlic panic
Sales of the herb — valued for its healing properties — rise during outbreak
The Associated Press
updated 11:09 a.m. CT, Fri., Nov . 13, 2009
BELGRADE, Serbia - Belgrade's open-air markets were a welter of busy customers on Friday, pushing and shoving to buy one item — garlic.

In Serbia, garlic has long been regarded as a good luck charm and a guard against many ailments. As far as the public is concerned, that includes the swine flu pandemic, which recently has spread in Serbia and triggered near panic among the local population.

That is now evident in Belgrade's produce markets, where the price of garlic has shot up, thanks to a sudden increase in demand. The smell of the little white cloves also has become prevalent in public places as people munch on them as if eating apples.

Health officials have publicly urged the population not to take garlic's healing properties so seriously. Instead, they recommend opting for more conventional precautions, such as washing hands, wearing face masks, or eventually getting vaccinated.

But those calls seem to have been in vain.

"Garlic is the best, forget the vaccines," said Marko Jankovic, an elderly Belgrader, with the pungent smell of garlic obvious as he spoke at the crowded Kaleniceva Pijaca market. "From the vaccine, you can get sick. From garlic, you can only get bad breath."

Facing a surge of swine flu cases, Serbia's Health Ministry on Friday ordered 3 million vaccines from Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis AG.

The authorities said Serbia has about 270 proven swine flu cases and eight deaths — up from about 130 cases and two deaths at the beginning of November.

In many parts of the world, the distinct taste and smell of garlic are considered essential in many meals. But in Serbia — as elsewhere in the Balkans — many people consider it more important than that.

Garlic is kept on doorsteps or in pockets to keep vampires away, and under babies' pillows to ensure a healthy and prosperous life. Serbs often consume garlic as a snack together with slivovitz, a strong plum brandy.

These days, Serbian media often compare what happened at two popular music festivals as proof of the alleged medicinal virtues of garlic.

That's because Serbia's first swine flu cases were confirmed after the annual Exit rock music festival in July in the town of Novi Sad, where authorities say the mostly young audience indulged in beer and marijuana.

By contrast, the media say, no swine flu cases resulted from the equally popular folk music festival in Guca, central Serbia, where the generally older, more tradition audience gorged on meat dishes heavily spiced with garlic, and drank slivovitz.

For centuries, garlic has been regarded by many people around the world as a successful medical treatment for everything from indigestion to respiratory problems. Recent medical studies also have shown that garlic can reduce a person's blood pressure. 

But in Serbia, doctors are telling the public to stop considering it as a swine flu defense.

"People must take this pandemic more seriously and focus on real prevention and medicine," not garlic, said Zoran Djordjevic, a virology doctor at a Belgrade hospital.


URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33911735/ns/health-cold_and_flu/

[Murcielago]

The Roman military consumed large quantities of garlic as a means of boosting their immune systems, particularly when they were out campaigning. I suppose the breath of around 20 or 30 thousand guys who had just eaten raw garlic would have been useful in subduing enemies on the battlefield too. Its hard to fight when you are gagging.

[tinka]

     Hysop is even better if you can stand it.  It is now called "Oregano Oil "grown from the rock of the Mediterrarian. It is still the old Hysop that was used in Lev. One drop under the tongue about sends you to the moon. But we use it for everything. It comes in capsuls if you can't take the drops. It is for inside and out.

I would take the flu before taking that shot. I could not divulge where but my daughter is nurse at very national known university. She herself will not take the shot. What happens is too bad to discuss. They have several on upper floors. They took the shot. They died. She says it is not pretty.

People from east that eat monkey brains like people here eat pig brains and all of the sorts of diet get this because of the content and it is not new to get. She described what happens and all I could do was roll over. No way, no way.

[Emma]

The Roman military consumed large quantities of garlic as a means of boosting their immune systems, particularly when they were out campaigning. I suppose the breath of around 20 or 30 thousand guys who had just eaten raw garlic would have been useful in subduing enemies on the battlefield too. Its hard to fight when you are gagging.

I would have thought they would have had trouble getting close enough to fight.  The aroma would be oozing
out of millions and billions of skin pores.

[Murcielago]

Perhaps we have hit on a point that the military historians have missed. Maybe their engineering prowess, the infamous turtle formation, their innovative weapons, and all that, were just side dishes to the main battlefield entree: garlic breath/BO. Could it be that is wasn't the generals who directed the outcome of the battles, but the mess cooks? Emma, I see a compelling dissertation coming up, and perhaps a tenured position at West Point. Ancient Weapons of Mass Destruction: Garlic and the Culinary Art of War... hows that for a title?

[Murcielago]

The Egyptian workers who built pyramids were provided a daily ration of garlic. One year the Nile flooded badly, causing a shortage of garlic, so prices went up. As a cost-cutting measure, the Pharaoh stopped providing the workers with garlic. He had to rethink the matter when they revolted and threatened to stop working. Thus, garlic became the first recorded tool for union organizing.

[Emma]

I think you should start a new thread about Garlic, Uses Old and New and you might get all sorts
of information for that dissertation