Garlic helps lower blood pressure: Study

Garlic supplements may lower blood pressure just as effectively as some drugs used to treat hypertension can, according to a new research review.

"Supplementation with garlic preparations may provide an acceptable alternative or complementary treatment option for hypertension," Dr Karin Ried and colleagues from The University of Adelaide in South Australia write.

Research to date on garlic and blood pressure has had "inconclusive" results, they note, while the last meta-analysis - in which the results of several studies are analyzed collectively - only included studies done up until 1994.