Natural Remedies: Therapeutic and Anti-Coagulant Properties of Grapes, Mushrooms, Olive Oil and Onion

Grapes

The grape, known as ‘The Queen of Fruits’, is one of the most valuable gifts of nature. Charaka, the great physician of ancient India, called it the noblest of all fruits. It has immense therapeutic value, whether eaten as a whole, with skin, pulp and seeds, or used in the form of juice extracted from grapes. This fruit possesses anti-coagulant property and it helps prevent the formation of blood clots. Its skin in particular contains resveratrol, which has been shown to inhibit blood platelet clumping and consequent blood clot formation.

Mushrooms (Black)

The Asian black fungus mushrooms are a valuable food that wards off clots. It is considered a formidable food in Chinese traditional medicine for its beneficial effects on blood. Dr. Dale Hammerschmidt, M.D., a haematologist at the University of Minnesota Medical School, once ate a large quantity of Mapo doufu, a spicy Asian bean curd dish, containing the mushrooms. After eating he noticed dramatic changes in the behavior of his blood platelets. They had much less tendency to clump.

He attributed this to anti-coagulant effect of the black mushrooms. The black mushrooms are said to contain several blood-thinning compounds, including adenosine, also present in garlic and compounds, including adenosine, also present in garlic and onions. However button mushrooms do not contain these compounds. Dr. Hammerschmidt concluded that the combination of so many anti-clotting foods in the Chinese diet such as garlic, onions, black mushrooms and ginger may help account for their low rates of coronary artery disease.

Olive Oil

This oil is a potent anti-coagulant food. It retards the stickiness of blood platelets, which may account for its artery protecting powers. This is evident from a research study conducted by British Scientists at the Royal Free Hospital and School of Medicine in London. These researchers made volunteers take three quarters of a tablespoon of Olive oil twice a day for eight weeks in addition to their regular diet. Their platelet clumping was considerably reduced. The scientists found that platelet membranes contained more oleic acid, the dominant fatty acid in olive oil, and less arachidonic fatty acid that encourages stickiness.

The olive-oil-fed blood platelets also released less thromboxane A2, a substance that commands platelets to cling together. Researchers concluded that olive oil benefits platelet function. They believed that this is one more explanation as to the people that depend heavily on olive oil, as in the Mediterranean area, have less heart disease.

Onion

Onions are an anti-coagulant food. Eating them either in raw or cooked form, helps keep blood free of clots. Harvard’s Dr. Victor Gurewich advised all his patients with coronary heart disease to eat onions daily, partly because their compounds hinder platelet clumping and increase clot dissolving activity.

In fact, onions have a truly wonderful ability to counteract the detrimental clot-promoting effects of eating fatty foods. This was shown by Dr. N.N. Gupta, professor of medicine at KG. Medical College in Lucknow. He first fed men a very-high-fat meal, with butter and cream, and discovered that their clot-dissolving activity greatly decreased. Then he gave them the same fatty meal, this time adding 55 grams of onions, raw, boiled or fried. Blood drawn two and four hours after the fatty meal showed that the onions had totally blocked the fat’s detrimental blood-clotting proclivities. Infect, 100 grams of onions completely reversed the fat’s damaging effects on clot-dissolving activity.

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