Volume 22, Issue 3, 15 March 2015, Pages 352–361
Garlic for hypertension: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials
Abstract
Background
In the past decade, garlic
has become one of the most popular complementary therapies for blood
pressure (BP) control used by hypertensive patients. Numerous clinical
studies have focused on the BP-lowering effect of garlic, but
results have been inconsistent. Overall, there is a dearth of
information available to guide the clinical community on the efficacy of
garlic in hypertensive patients.
Aim
To systematically review the medical literature to investigate the current evidence of garlic for the treatment of hypertension.
Methods
PubMed,
the Cochrane Library and EMBASE were searched for appropriate articles
from their respective inceptions until August 2014. Randomized,
placebo-controlled trials comparing garlic vs. a placebo in
patients with hypertension were considered. Papers were independently
reviewed by two reviewers and were analyzed using Cochrane software
Revman 5.2.
Results
A total
of seven randomized, placebo-controlled trials were identified. Compared
with the placebo, this meta-analysis revealed a significant lowering
effect of garlic on both systolic BP (WMD: −6.71 mmHg; 95% CI: −12.44 to −0.99; P = 0.02) and diastolic BP (WMD: −4.79 mmHg; 95% CI: −6.60 to −2.99; P < 0.00001). No serious adverse events were reported in any of the trials.
Conclusion
The present review suggests that garlic
is an effective and safe approach for hypertension. However, more
rigorously designed randomized controlled trials focusing on primary
endpoints with long-term follow-up are still warranted before garlic can be recommended to treat hypertensive patients.
Graphical abstract
Keywords
- Garlic;
- Hypertension;
- Blood pressure;
- Randomized controlled trial;
- Systematic review
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