Aloe vera is very an incredible medicinal plant brimming with nutritional benefits. It is a succulent plant and section of the lily family (Liliaceae), the identical family that garlic and onions fit in with.
Different elements of the plant are used for different purposes and aloe vera has both bodily and mental applications.
I like to juice aloe and then use it in my clear skin juice and recently started making fresh aloe vera salads. I also prefer to add aloe to my smoothies to achieve some of the important things about this incredible plant. (Update: Due to the tremendous amount of emails I now receive each week about aloe, I will include here that I don’t consume aloe daily. Its medicinal, and like every plant medicines, shouldn’t be consumed everyday. I use my intuition when working with plant medicines and don’t usually consume it for more than a week at any given time. When I do use aloe within my smoothies or juices, I cut some aloe about one inch long and open up the skin and only add in the clear inner gel with the aloe plant.) Be sure to see the last section about over-use of this plant in addition to dose recommendations.
I consume fresh aloe, because that’s what I get access to. (Want to experience fresh aloe? Check out our Raw Food Hawaii Retreats and come join us to get a life-changing experience.) When I didn’t get access to fresh aloe, I drank the Lily from the Desert Organic Aloe Vera Juice. I recommend buying smaller bottles and drinking it in a couple of weeks upon opening. See below for natural aloe-vera dose recommendations.
Top 12 Benefits of Aloe Vera
Aloe Vera contains over 200 active components including vitamins, minerals, amino acids, enzymes, polysaccharide, and efas – not surprising it’s used for such a wide range of remedies! The bulk of the aloe leaf is loaded with a clear gel-like substance, that’s approximately 99% water.
Humans purchased aloe therapeutically for more than 5000 years – now that’s a long-standing history! The list of benefits and effects just for this miraculous plant are lots of.
Here is often a list with the Top 12 Benefits of Aloe Vera (including some medicinal uses):
1. Aloe Vera Is High in Vitamins & Minerals:
Aloe Vera contains many vitamins including A, C, E, folic acid, choline, B1, B2, B3 (niacin), B6. Aloe Vera can be one in the few plants that contains vitamin B12.
Some in the 20 minerals within Aloe vera include: calcium, magnesium, zinc, chromium, selenium, sodium, iron, potassium, copper, manganese.
2. Aloe Vera (www.aloevera.net.pl)is High in Amino Acids & Fatty Acids
Amino acids are the building blocks of protein. There are about 22 amino acids which can be necessary for the body and it is said that 8 of those are essential. Estimates in the amino acids present in aloe vary from 18-20 amino acids, effortlessly 8 essential amino acids.
Aloe vera also may include quite an amazing range of efas. Aloe contains three plant sterols, which can be important fatty acids – HCL cholesterol (which lowers fats within the blood), campesterol, and B-sitosterol. All are useful when you are reducing symptoms of allergies and acid indigestion. Other fatty acids include linoleic, linolenic, myristic, caprylic, oleic, palmitic, and stearic.
3. Aloe Vera is definitely an Adaptogen
Aloe vera can be a well-known adaptogen. An adaptogen is a thing that boosts the body’s natural capability to adapt to external changes and resist illness. It is thought that aloe’s power as an adaptogen balances our bodies’s system, stimulating the defense and adaptive mechanisms with the body. This allows you an increased capability to cope with stress (physical, emotional and environmental stress like pollution)
4. Aloe Helps with Digestion
Poor digestion is related to many diseases. A properly functioning intestinal tract is one from the keys and foundations of health. Aloe could soothe and cleanse the intestinal tract and help improve digestion. The interesting thing about taking aloe internally is that, because it is surely an adaptogen, it will help with either constipation or diarrhea, making an effort to regulate your elimination cycles by any means you need. It’s been an excellent remedy for people with problems such as irritable bowel syndrome as well as acid reflux. Aloe can also help to decrease the quantity of unfriendly bacteria along with our gut keeping your healthy intestinal flora in balance. Aloe can be a vermifuge, which means it helps to eliminate the body of intestinal worms.
5. Aloe Helps in Detoxification
Aloe Vera is often a gelatinous plant food, much like seaweeds and chia seeds. The main profit to consuming gelatinous plant foods in your diet is always that these gels undertake the intestines absorbing toxins in the process and get eliminated with the colon. This will help the proper elimination of waste from your body and profit the detoxification of the body.
6. Aloe Alkalizes the Body
Disease cannot manifest in an alkaline environment. Most people are living and subsisting on mostly acidic foods. For great health, remember fondly the 80/20 rule – 80% alkaline forming foods and 20% acidic. Aloe vera is an alkaline forming food. It alkalizes the body, assisting to balance overly acidic dietary habits.
7. Cardiovascular Health
There hasn’t been lots of studies conducted on aloe’s impact on cardiovascular health, but there is some research showing that natural aloe vera extract injected in to the blood, greatly multiplies the oxygen transportation and diffusion capabilities with the red blood cells.
According to a study published within the 2000 issue with the British Medical Journal, beta sitosterol helps you to lower cholesterol. By regulating hypertension, improving circulation and oxidation of the blood, lowering cholesterol, and making blood less sticky, natural aloe-vera juice might be able to help lower potential risk of heart disease.
8. Aloe Helps Boost the Immune System
I think due to the stresses in our daily lives, everyone can use an enhancement to their immunity processes. The polysaccharides in natural aloe vera juice stimulate macrophages, which would be the white blood cells of one’s immune system that deal with viruses.
Aloe can be an immune enhancer due to its high amount of anti-oxidants, that assist combat the unstable compounds known as free-radicals, adding to the aging process. (Free radicals certainly are a bi-product of life itself, it is really a naturally occurring process but we could overload ourselves with unnecessary free-radicals by living an unhealthy lifestyle). Aloe is also an antipyretic which suggests it used to reduce or prevent fever.
9. Aloe Vera is Great to the Skin
Because of aloe’s well-known healing properties for skin, aloe is one from the primary compounds used inside the cosmetic industry. It is really a known vulnerary, (meaning it may help heal wounds) and is great for applying topically to burns, abrasions, psoriasis and also to bug bites. Aloe acts as a possible analgesic, acting to help relieve pain of wounds. It’s feels especially good to slice a stem of aloe, place it within the fridge and rub it on sun burnt skin – the immediate soothing effect feels as though an absolute lifesaver. Aloe can also be an antipruritic: A substance that relieves or prevents itching. Aloe vera is definitely an astringent: that causes the contraction of body tissues, typically utilized to reduce bleeding from minor abrasions.
Due to aloe’s high water content (over 99% water) it can be a great strategy to hydrate, moisturize and rejuvenate your skin layer and fits in doing my general guideline: “Don’t put anything onto the skin that you wouldn’t eat!” Aloe enhances the elasticity of skin making it more flexible through collagen and elastin repair. Aloe can be an emollient, helping soften and soothe your skin. It helps supply oxygen to the skin cells, enhancing the strength and synthesis of skin tissue and induces improved the flow of blood to skin through capillary dilation.
10. Aloe vera is a: Disinfectant, Anti-biotic, Anti-microbial, Germicidal, Anti-bacterial, Anti-septic, Anti-fungal & Anti-viral:
Wow, I think that covers all anti- bases. Okay, I admit, that has been just a sneaky way to incorporate another 8 reasons why you should keep an natural aloe vera as a handy (to to mention beautiful) house plant and incorporate it’s uses into the healthy lifestyle. Aloe vera’s ingredients are sulphur, lupeol, salicylic acid, cinnamic acid, urea nitrogen and phenol which can be substances that avoid the growth of disease-causing microorganisms and act as being a team to supply antimicrobial activity thus eliminating many external and internal infections, also active against bacteria. It can also help to treat fungal and viral infections.
11. Aloe Helps Reduce Inflammation
Aloe Vera contains 12 substances, including B-sisterole, which can help to slow down or inhibit inflammation. This could possibly help with painful joints due to stiffness and help improve joint flexibility.
12. Weight Loss – A Secondary effect
Improving your digestion, and detoxifying one’s body will have an extra effect of promoting weight reduction because once you start to improve your digestion you naturally eliminate more efficiently, which is a primary manner in which we all detoxify – through our bowels. This will lighten your toxic load on your system and will offer you more energy.
Aloe Vera Intake Precautions
This plant is exceedingly medicinal, yet there are a few cautions against long-term use. Just because a little works, doesn’t mean that a lot is a bit more beneficial. This is definitely an incredibly potent plant and will be used which has a level of respect for the potency. Long-term use can bring about loss of electrolytes, especially potassium.
carrot-iconTip: Avoid taking aloe internally in pregnancy, menstruation, when you have hemorrhoids or degeneration with the liver and gall bladder.
Aloe Vera Dosage
I know there are many aloe vera juices on the market and some of which may actually be great products. Like I already mentioned, I think for which it is, Lily from the Desert organic aloe juice offers a fantastic product. However, like I always say: “fresh is best”. Aloe plants can grow virtually anywhere. When I was surviving in Canada, I used to have several indoor aloe plants plus they did rather well. Now that I live in Hawaii, aloe grows everywhere, so I don’t must buy the juice, I just ensure it is myself. Some companies selling aloe juice advice that we should get it ‘regularly’ but I don’t necessarily agree. We need to take care of this plant because medicine that it’s and by tuning into our bodies we are able to really start noticing if we’re pulled to this plant for some degree of healing. Would we take medicine unnecessarily without our systems really needing it? Probably not, and that’s the identical with plant medicines. If you’re experiencing a digestive ailment or have a sun burn, use it for a short period of time because of its course in treatment (1-2 weeks) then stop and wait at the very least a month before beginning again.
When I was surviving in Vancouver, I bought a big jug in the aloe juice and was taking shots of it within the morning. One of the ways that we can tune into your body is to simply notice immediate reactions. When I first started taking it, my body system was totally fine by it, the tastes didn’t bother me, and I could tell it had been ok for my figure. After a fortnight, I would take a photo and I would get a bit of a gag reflex. Our bodies are incredible at talking with us. This was my sign that the aloe medicine had run its course in treatment and so I stopped taking it and I didn’t start taking it again for no less than another month or two.
Oftentimes, when folks see a product that promotes weight-loss onto it, people have a tendency to by-pass their intuition and tend to forget that their is really their best guide. I don’t think in different culture, aloe was used internally everyday – most traditional cultures realize that more isn’t always necessarily better and then use it when it really is actually needed. This way, it ensures the use in the effectiveness in the constituents of the flower when we are in need of computer.
One last note about aloe vera juice; it does use a strong pungent taste, if you decide to can’t cope with taking it straight, mix it inside your smoothie or add it to some green juice.
Enjoy the numerous benefits that Aloe Vera has to offer! Want to try fresh aloe vera right here around in Hawaii? Check out our Raw Food Hawaii Retreats! We offer both group and private raw food retreats which are super fun and absolutely life changing.