Cooking neutralizes allicin, so you need raw garlic for its antibiotic properties. Many doctors will tell you that a compress of mashed garlic can keep cuts and wounds clean and free of infection. There are some reports that applying garlic directly to skin cancers makes the tumor disappear within weeks.

The most significant recent discovery is that garlic also kills viruses. This means that the next time you feel a cold or flu coming on, add a few cloves of raw garlic to your chicken soup and you'll not only feel better for a while, you'll beat the illness outright. " If you do it early enough, you may not even get sick," says Dr. J. North, chief of microbiology at Bringham Young University. Now I personally eat a clove of garlic at the first indication of a sore throat or the sniffles or just when I feel I may be getting sick. I'll eat it for about three days, and I haven't been down with the cold or flu in about six years. Sometimes it may feel the virus is trying to get a hold on me but it never really gets a grip on me. And yes I believe it's all due to the Stinkin Rose.

Dr. North's data shows garlic extract kills with near 100 percent effectiveness; human rhinovirus which causes colds, parainfluenza3, a common flu and respiratory virus, herpes simplex1, which causes fever blisters, herpes simplex2 responsible for genital herpes. In addition, garlic has killed the poliovirus with 90 percent effectiveness and proven capable of tackling the deadly HIV virus. Once scientists identify the active virus-killing chemical in garlic, they may be able to make a concentrated pill for treating these very serious ailments.