Garlic vs L-Lysine for immunity
Short answer: For immunity, users rate them about the same: 100% report improvement with Garlic (8 reports) and 100% with L-Lysine (9 reports).
Garlic has 142 meta-analyses and 194 randomized trials on PubMed; L-Lysine has 7 and 59.
Based on 133 reports about Garlic and 53 about L-Lysine. Not medical advice.
| Garlic Supplement | L-Lysine Supplement | |
|---|---|---|
| Users say it helped | 77%helped40 reports · medium confidence | 65%helped21 reports · medium confidence |
| Verdict | Mostly positive | Mostly positive |
| Research | AResearch: Strong | AResearch: Strong |
| Meta-analyses / RCTs | 142 / 194 | 7 / 59 |
| Mainly used for | ||
| Heart & lipids % reporting improvement | 95% (19) | — |
| Immunity % reporting improvement | 100% (8) | 100% (9) |
| Common side effects | nausea, headache, garlic smell, constipation | stomach issues |
| Typical dose reported | 500 mg / 2x daily | 2 g / before bed |
Conclusion: There is moderate to high level of evidence from randomized controlled trials that the Ayurvedic herbs guggulu, garlic, and black cumin are moderately effective for reducing hypercholesterolemia. In addition, minimal evidence was found for any side effects associated with these herbs, positioning them as safe adjuvants to conventional treatments.
Medicina (Kaunas), 2021 ↗“For me, it's garlic that works. I use these capsules called Allacin Max, and at the first hint of a cold or a bug I start taking them and the cold never develops into anything.”
Based primarily on case reports ornithine levels can be reduced by using a protein restricted diet, pyridoxine supplementation (variation-dependent) and/or lysine supplementation. The lack of pre-defined clinical outcome measures and structural follow-up in all included studies impeded conclusions on clinical effectiveness. Future research should be aimed at 1) Unravelling the OAT biochemical pathway to identify other possible pathologic metabolites besides ornithine, 2) Pre-defining GACR specific clinical outcome measures, and 3) Establishing an international historical cohort.
Mol Genet Metab, 2021 ↗“Finally, I started to take L-lysine for a different issue. Immediately I saw that I could lay my head down at night and go to sleep like I could before. That was several months ago and I continue to sleep regularly.”
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Percentages come from first-hand user reports and are not clinical outcomes. Talk to a doctor before starting, stopping or combining anything. How we rate