How Can Aloe Vera Make You Healthier?

Aloe vera is widely known, yet oddly it’s little appreciated for all its possible health benefits.

Although it looks like a cactus, the Aloe vera plant is actually a member of the lily and onion family. So it’s a succulent - ie. it holds water in its fleshy leaves. Its’s been used medicinally for thousands of years, and has been known for its healing qualities for as long as records have been kept. Even as far back as 6500 B.C aloe vera was used and revered for its curative properties.

Still, it comes as a surprise to most people that aloe vera is not just treatment for minor cuts and burns. Of course, it’s very effective as a topical salve or ointment. However, taking aloe vera as a food supplement can offer enormous health benefits most people are completely unaware of.

To understand the benefits of aloe vera, we need to understand that a lot of our health problems come from two areas—a weakened or compromised digestive system, and a weakened or compromised immune system.

» read more: Can Aloe Vera Improve Health

Reasons For Taking Aloe Vera Everyday

Aloe vera is completely safe. It comes from the aloe vera plant, and it’s been used for centuries. It’s also very versatile - it’s called an ‘adaptogen’ because it adapts to the body’s needs.

Many people know about the benefits of using Aloe Vera externally on the skin for cuts, bruises, dry skin, rashes, sunburn and so on. But not many people know about the health benefits of taking aloe vera internally.

Most of the benefits of taking aloe vera come from the fact that it contains so many different nutrients: vitamins, minerals, amino acids and trace elements. In aloe vera these vitamins and minerals are in a perfect balance that’s ideally suited for the body to use for its own healing and repair.

So although many people might consider Aloe Vera to be a ‘miracle cure’ or a ‘wonder plant’ - it’s probably more true that because aloe vera contains so many different nutrients, the body can use those nutrients to better heal itself…

» read more: Health Benefits of Aloe Vera

Aloe Vera can help Digestive Disorders

Most of us take digestion for granted… until something happens that interrupts the otherwise normal flow of digestion. Under normal conditions, it’s effortless, requires no intervention from us, and remains for the most part outside our awareness.

But for a growing number of people, digestion is not that simple. Either from disease, food intolerances or allergies, that vision of digestion is merely wishful thinking.

When digestion goes awry, it can mean a wide range of symptoms from constipation and/or diarrhoea, stomach aches, cramps, heartburn and reflux. It might be just one of these digestive symptoms, or a combination of them. And they’re not only painful or uncomfortable, but they can grossly a person’s quality of life. And it also means that the problem needs attention.

» read more: Aloe Vera & Digestive Problems

How Aloe Vera Helps with General Health

Like many things, it’s easy to take our health for granted. Until we lose it, that is. And it doesn’t take much to make us recognise that our health is really something we should treasure and protect as best we can. Even a bad cough or a cold can make us feel lousy enough to swear we’ll do something about ‘keeping healthy’ as soon as we feel better…

But how many of us know exactly what we ’should’ do, yet often seem to do the exact opposite. Not you? Good.

We all know we ’should’ eat at least 5 portions of fruit and veg a day. Most of us know we ’should’ drink at least 2 litres (yes litres!) of pure water a day… But how many people actually do that… every day?

Not many. Which is probably why we have to wait so long when we go to see the doctor!

There could be an answer however, in a natural plant - Aloe Vera. Although historically Aloe Vera has only been considered beneficial for skin complaints and a few minor digestive upsets, it can actually help in both preventing and treating a wide range of illnesses, conditions and diseases.

As more and more research was carried out on Aloe Vera, people started to recognise the wide range of properties that the aloe plant contained. And in turn, those properties could be used by the body to help heal a wide range of conditions.

» read more: General Effects of Aloe Vera and Health

Can Aloe Vera Help Allergies

Aloe Vera and its effect on allergic reaction has been well documented. Some of the allergies that pure form Aloe Vera provides great relief to are: pollen, chemicals, dander, perfume, dust mites and certain foods.

Allergies or allergic reaction can be caused by many things - some can be passed on by our parents and some can be provoked by the environment we live in.

In some it is the combination of hereditary weaknesses of digestion, nutrition, and environment. In order to reduce the conflict with allergies it is necessary to strengthen connective tissue called collagen. When the collagen tissue is weakened in the nasal passages, lung tissues and intestinal tract cell walls allow foreign bodies to enter via the blood stream, which causes and the allergy or the allergic reaction.

This reaction can be stopped or reversed by using Aloe Vera.

Pure form Aloe Vera has an acidic pH, which persuades the body to produce the correct amounts of hydrochloric acid to improve your digestion. A person with allergies sometimes are inflicted with a weak digestion, which will not allow the body to absorb the correct amount of nutrients from the foods and supplements consumed. Once the body starts receiving the correct amount of nutrients, it will start producing collagen and will build up tissue structure to stave off and fight the allergies.

» read more: Allergies And Aloe Vera

Can Aloe Vera Help IBS

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is sometimes known as spastic colon, mucous colitis, spastic colitis, irritable colon or nervous stomach. - it is a condition that affects the functioning of the bowel and usually causes the sufferer mild to acute abdominal pain and unusual bowel habits.

IBS is reasonably common - around 40% of visits to gastroenterologists are because of irritable bowel syndrome. It is estimated that around 15% of the UK population has suffered from IBS at one time or another.

IBS can be quite difficult to diagnose and quite often a sufferer will not seek medical attention and just assume that he or she has a nervous stomach.

The condition is often described and classified as being a functional disorder that is controlled by the brain. Functional disorders are hard to identify exactly and so an endoscopy, x-ray, or blood test will not identify the condition. IBS is diagnosed from the characteristics of the symptoms rather than any physical examination.

Symptoms Of IBS

The symptoms of IBS are wide ranging and can cause mild to severe suffering. The usual symptoms are abdominal pain and discomfort - this usually occurs in the lower abdomin. Unusual bowel movements and chronic diarrhea, constipation, or both – either mixed or in alternation are other common characteristics.

Other less common symptoms include

• Bloating
• Nausea
• A Premature Feeling Of Fullness
• Heartburn

» read more: Aloe Vera And IBS