It Turns Out Garlic Isn’t Just a Seasoning But an All-Around Helper

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Many of us used to hate garlic when we were young. Its bitter and acrid taste left many of us believing that this was something we would be best to avoid eating. But we all learned later that garlic is actually really good for our health and our immune system. But did you know that garlic can be useful during a fishing trip or can even help you get rid of a toothache?

Bright Side has found 10 alternative ways to use garlic and these methods can prove to be very helpful!

1. Repair glass

Now, this is not a joke about the superpowers of Garlic-Man, but it seems like garlic can be useful not only when we are talking about health, but also when we are talking about a clumsy person and your favorite glass. Garlic is a natural adhesive. That means that we can use the sticky juice from it as glue for fragile items. All we need to do is to crush the cloves to get to the sticky stuff, which works well as a bonding agent.

2. Relieve a toothache

Sometimes we just can’t find the time to go to the dentist and suffer through a toothache in the hopes that it’ll just go away by itself. This is where garlic can come to the rescue. Because of a large amount of cysteine inside it, garlic has an anesthetic effect. All you’ll need to do is just rub it on the tooth that hurts and it will relieve the pain for a little while. It’s important to keep in mind that the garlic will not help cure the underlying reason for your toothache, so if you’re in pain, it’s best to schedule a visit to the dentist.

3. Facial cleanser

If you prefer natural skin care products instead of chemical ones, garlic can replace, for example, your facial cleanser. Garlic contains powerful antiseptic, antiviral, and anti-fungal properties. That means it can help fight adult acne, acne scars, and many other skin diseases and allergies. There are 2 ways to use garlic if you want to see results. The first one is to apply the garlic directly to the skin: rub the face with a thin layer of garlic and rinse well after 15 minutes. The second one is to give garlic an opportunity to do its job from your stomach.

4. Heal Athlete’s foot

Regardless of how it happens, this unpleasantry can happen to anyone but the good news is that it can be healed! You put garlic cloves into hot water and soak your feet for 30 minutes. It seems like albicans (fungus) are sensitive to garlic. Because of a wide range of active principles, garlic is anticandidal and can be a very effective remedy.

5. Stop ear infections

Ear infections are usually cured with the help of antibiotics, but they can also be cured with garlic. This remedy is particularly recommended for children since they can be too young for regular medicinal prescriptions.

In order to cure an ear infection at home, squeeze the garlic cloves to get the garlic oil. Warm it up a bit and add a few drops into a pipette and drip it into the ear. It’s recommended to consult a doctor first, but it is said that warm garlic oil does work.

6. Clear the snow

Apart from being useful to your health, garlic can also be a great helper in other parts of your life. For example, during the winter season when you need to spend hours shoveling your driveway. Garlic not only has oil, but it also contains salt which is perfect when it comes to making ice and snow melt. But be careful because it works, but it also smells!

7. Remove a splinter

Anyone who has ever had a splinter knows how dangerous they can be. It’s best to take it out as soon as you notice it, but this can be extremely difficult and painful sometimes. Oftentimes, attempts to remove a splinter can result in pushing it down further into the skin, which can lead to serious consequences. The next time you notice a splinter, place a thin slice of garlic on the splinter, fix it with a plaster, and go to bed. The next day, you will notice that the splinter is no longer stuck in your skin. You’ll get the same result if you use an aloe leaf, as well.

8. Insect repellent

Summer is the season of mosquitoes and other unpleasant little bugs. While you can invest in some bug spray, you can also choose to save money and just eat more garlic since mosquitoes do like like those who smell like garlic. Garlic can also help you keep pests off plants, which means that you have a cheap and natural way to protect your garden. The smell may be strong at first, but the good news is that it dissipates quickly.

9. Fish bait

As we said before, garlic is absolutely unattractive for insects, but it turned out that garlic attracts fish. Especially, if you are fishing at a lake or a river, in other words, anywhere without saltwater. Most likely, you are going to get crappies and walleyes. Somehow, they decided that they really like garlic.

10. Hair care

Garlic has high levels of allicin, which is really helpful in the fight against dandruff. It can also put a stop to hair loss problems. Allicin anti-microbial properties help kill germs and bacteria, which are responsible for causing damage to the scalp.

You can rub sliced cloves of garlic on your scalp or use garlic oil to massage the problems areas on your scalp and let it sit for 30 minutes before washing it off.

Bonus

And the last, but the most important thing to remember: garlic is the best vampire expeller! And not only vampires but all range of evil spirits disappear when garlic is around. The reason is that garlic makes your blood antibacterial, which is synonymous with “not tasty at all” for vampires. As for other bad spirits, the air around things you put garlic on is absolutely unacceptable for the bad guys.

Were any of these tips surprising to you? How do you use garlic? Share your thoughts with us in the comments!

Illustrated by Alena Tsarkova and Natalia Tylosova for BrightSide.me