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Comment by mjsweet | Hacker News Reader

I've battled with CFS/ME multiple times in my life, each triggered by different ailments. First, it was Epstein-Barr at the end of my tenth grade, leading to two solid years of chronic CFS. Then, at 31, Chicken Pox knocked me out for roughly 18 to 24 months. More recently, from January to August 2021, I experienced "Long Covid," and this July, a bout with RSV left me grappling with CFS once again.

My symptoms include daytime fatigue, necessitating frequent 40 to 120 minute naps. The brain fog is especially frustrating, causing confusion and lack of focus.

This recurring condition has undoubtedly impacted my professional trajectory. Interestingly, the only regimen offering relief has been consuming two crushed garlic cloves daily, which I started two weeks ago. I have hypotheses about why this is effective — possibly related to garlic's blood-thinning properties, but no concrete clinical evidence to back it up.

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>daytime fatigue, necessitating frequent 40 to 120 minute naps

Few years ago I started to feel really sleepy, even fall asleep during daytime, especially at winter. Turned out to be vitamin D. Taking it helped tremendously. Measured recently - normal, but still slightly low. Increased dose.

So the advice for everyone is: do full blood panel, including vitamin D in particular.

> consuming two crushed garlic cloves daily

how did you find out about that? did this affect your romantic life?

Have your partner eat two as well. Problem solved!

that's not exactly how it works ... :/

Adult onset chicken pox is brutal. It can permanently change you.

Honestly, it was the worst 6 weeks of my life. I would not wish it on my worst enemy. Three weeks of incubation, two weeks of breakouts and a week of recovery. My employer terminated my employment two weeks after that. In retrospect, I should have pursued legal action.

> My employer terminated my employment two weeks after that. In retrospect, I should have pursued legal action.

I assume you're from the USA?

I really hear the high-life stories with some envy and respect but oh boy is there another side of the coin...

In any case, I'm sorry to hear that, and hope that it becomes an insignificant unfortunate moment not even worth mentioning in your otherwise happy life story.

Yeah I’m an Aussie and we have fairly robust workplace laws here. For a long time I thought of life as “before chicken pox” and “after chicken pox”. Pretty huge effect on my life particularly the CFS.

I mean, even here in Germany you would probably get fired for being ill for so long unless you had already passed your 1 year probation. My wife had a boss who used to fire people for absolutely anything

It's true that you can be fired during the probationary period, for any reason including "excessive" sick leave. But the probationary period is limited to six months, by law.

The probationary period at my wife's job here in Hamburg was a year

Ah. Then she was probably in a civil service position (teacher, police, etc) for which for some reason there are entirely different rules. For employees in the private sector, the limit is 6 months: https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/bgb/__622.html

But IANAL.

No, she is at a private engineering startup. Her old boss was fond of breaking the law though

The garlic is very interesting - given some of the 'blood clotting' theories about long covid - really hoping it brings you long term recovery.

Me too, Covid is a vascular disease and if garlic has the effect on the vascular system that I’m hoping for then I hope to live a longer life.

Garlic is commonly seen as (strongly) stimulating metabolism, right?

Look I think so, curious to know if the blood thinning properties of alician would enable to body to better repair itself, improve important metabolic processes?

It also wards off vampires. Which cause fatigue.

Of course I'm joking, but also wondering if there isn't a fragmented memory of a folk remedy buried in that bit of lore, alongside the "people with <disease> hated the smell" explanations.

Try some aspirin as a control and see if you get the same result.

I forgot to add a potentially relevant detail: garlic contains a compound called allicin, which has blood-thinning properties akin to aspirin. Intrigued by this similarity, I decided to run an N=1 experiment. I bought some aspirin from the pharmacy and tried it out. The results were astonishing — almost euphoric — and I felt like a new person.

Could you please elaborate, are you saying taking aspirin was better than the garlic?

The answer is yes, I think it is better. Personally I’m just not prepared to take Aspirin for more than a few days. So garlic for me. Also I think that anyone who is already on blood thinning medication should consult their doctor.

My partner eats raw garlic every morning and feels great. I definitely think there's something to it, so much so that I'll probably start. It seems like the type of thing that has almost no real negative side effects, so worst case my breath just smells in the morning.

A friend of mine recommended it over a month ago, and I marked him down as “the garlic crowd”. But after some careful reflection I decided to give it try. Glad I did!

I should also mention, and I hope others notice this thread too, that I have fermented about 5 bulbs of garlic into 1kg of raw organic honey. It takes about 10 days or so to ferment into a pleasant sweet smelling garlic odour. The garlic is much easier to eat and I don’t effect the typical garlic odour. I like to crush each clove with the heel of my palm using a knife to open it up a bit and release its juices. Then place the few dozen bulbs into a large mason jar and cover with raw unpasteurised honey. It will ferment for a few weeks, so release the pressure each day. I suggest turning the jar over and sitting it on its lid then base each morning and evening because the garlic on top tends to float up. The result is a sweet and subtle garlic smell that arises from the jar when opened. Apparently a little garlic honey drizzled on ricotta cheese smeared on sourdough toast is amazing… I’ve yet to try it but will soon!

Is it blood thinning or is it the anti-inflammatory effects? What does ibuprofen do? Take 600-800mg in a single sitting (on a full stomach).

To what extent does your regimen relieve your symptoms?

I feel clear headed, no longer require naps in the day time and just seem to have higher energy levels. I got out this weekend and completed some long overdue garden maintenance.

Where can I find out more about the garlic that isn't a homeopathic or alternative medicine site?

Would ginger have a similar effect? As I understand it, they share many properties.

I know what you mean, I was frustrated by all the pseudo crap out there...

But I did find this article that helped a bit:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4103721/

Does it have a positive effect on the vascular system? Crumbs IDK, not a clinician but I sure do feel a lot better.

Just Google "garlic blood thinner"; it's not pseudoscience, it's a very well documented effect. In fact it's not advisable to eat a lot of garlic if you have low blood pressure or bleeding disorder.

  > Would ginger have a similar effect? As I understand it, they share many properties.

recovering cfs sufferer here, and n=1 but for me, yes it seems so. from my experience garlic is definitely the more potent one (personally i prefer ginger)

  > Where can I find out more about the garlic that isn't a homeopathic or alternative medicine site?

difficult, but fwiw in japan we have something here called "gatlic injection" which you can literaly just go to a medical clinic and get

some of the uses are for tiredness, hangover, skincare etc [1]

[1] https://jsaps2017.jp/guides/article/1097/

* you might try some searching on japanese sites and google translate

** i'm not advocating for this btw, just sharing ^^)

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