Thurday July 28, 2016 (foodconsumer.org) -- Taking aged garlic extract (AGE) may help fight colds and flu, according to a new trial published in the Journal of Nutrition.

The trial involving 120 individuals aged 21 to 50 years shows that taking aged garlic extract daily during a cold/flu season did not lower risk of contracting cold and flu, but reduce the severity of the illness.

For the randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled parallel-intervention trial, healthy participants consumed 2.56 grams of aged garlic extract per day for 90 days during the cold/flu season.

After 45 days of garlic extract supplementation, γδ-T and NK cells, two types of innate lymphocytes were found to proliferate better and get activated more easily in the cells from the study group than cells from the control group.

After 90 days of garlic extract supplementation, participants in the study group who acquired cold or flu were experiencing less severe symptoms even though the supplement did not have an effect on the incidence of cold and flu significantly.

The study concludes that "AGE supplementation may enhance immune cell function and may be partly responsible for the reduced severity of colds and flu reported."  (David Liu)

Susan S Percival, Aged Garlic Extract Modifies Human Immunity, J. Nutr. February 1, 2016, vol. 146 no. 2 433S-436S