In a podcast conversation on The Joe Rogan Experience with UFC bantamweight contender Cory Sandhagen, host Joe Rogan shared an unconventional health remedy that might surprise his listeners: raw garlic cloves.
The discussion revealed Rogan’s simple yet effective approach to warding off illness, while also touching on the ancient medicinal properties of this common kitchen staple.
When the topic of fighting off infections came up during their conversation about athlete health and staph infections—a serious concern for mixed martial artists—Rogan casually mentioned his personal wellness hack.
“If I’m not feeling good, I’ll eat garlic,” he explained. But Rogan doesn’t just incorporate garlic into his cooking; he eats it raw, consuming three to four cloves at a time.
“You your body’s like, ‘Whoa,'” Rogan described the experience of eating raw garlic. He compared the sensation to taking medicine, noting that it genuinely feels like you’ve ingested something powerful and therapeutic. While acknowledging that raw garlic “tastes nasty,” especially while you’re eating it, Rogan emphasized that the medicinal effect is worth the unpleasant flavor.
The conversation took this turn after Sandhagen discussed his own battles with staph infections—a recurring nightmare for combat athletes who regularly train in close contact with others.
Sandhagen mentioned using garlic supplements during one particularly severe knee infection, taking 10 to 15 high-potency garlic pills daily. His approach was so effective that he joked about the digestive cleanse it provided.
What’s remarkable is that modern science actually supports these anecdotal experiences. During the podcast, they discovered a fascinating study about a thousand-year-old Anglo-Saxon remedy found in Bald’s Leechbook, an ancient manuscript.
This medieval recipe, which included garlic and onion, was found to effectively kill MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), one of the most dangerous antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The researchers who tested this ancient remedy were astonished to find it almost completely wiped out the deadly pathogen.
Rogan also explained that garlic has been used across cultures for centuries, particularly as a way to prevent food poisoning. “There’s a reason why like a lot of people use it in their food. A lot of cultures use it in their food. It’s to prevent food poisoning,” he noted. The antimicrobial properties of garlic aren’t just folklore—they’re biochemically real.
For athletes like Sandhagen, who must be extremely conscious of what they put in their bodies while managing weight cuts and intense training schedules, finding natural remedies becomes crucial. Sandhagen explained that after experiencing multiple severe staph infections that required antibiotics, he began incorporating more garlic, turmeric, and fermented foods into his diet as preventive measures.
