Posts tagged with 'digestion'

Can Aloe Vera Improve Health

Jun 04, 2008   Categories: Aloe & Immune System, Feel Better with Aloe

How Can Aloe Vera Make You Healthier?

Aloe Vera and Health

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. It’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.

We’re not necessarily talking about clinical symptoms here; it’s often the case that people might say they’re fine, and there’s nothing to worry the doctor about, but they’re run down, or getting a lot of coughs and colds, or suffering from low-grade constipation, diarrhea and other digestive symptoms. Many people do have problems in their digestive tract and just think it’s normal, or ‘just how it is’.

It doesn’t have to be.

Our diets in the Western world are generally very high in sugar, salt and saturated fats. There’s also a heavy dependence on wheat and gluten – bread, pasta, cakes, etc. Over time, if there’s not an adequate supply of roughage in the diet, or other vitamins and minerals are depleted, it can cause problems in the digestive system.

Many people have a mild sensitivity to wheat; and over time, the walls of the small intestine can become inflamed and consequently allow toxins and tiny food particles to escape into the bloodstream. This is known as ‘Leaky Gut Syndrome‘. The result is that the immune system and the liver are constantly forced to expend their energy fighting off these toxins and particles, which they see as foreign.

As you might expect, when the immune system is occupied fighting internal ‘enemies’, it becomes compromised and can’t adequately fight off real intruders like viruses, bacteria, and other pathogens. Wound healing is affected as well, because the body’s repair system is already stretched trying to repair the gut. Our immune system is an extraordinary mechanism, but it simply can’t fight everything at once.

The overall result for most people is a sub-clinical (ie. nothing to worry the doctor about) set of symptoms which might include fuzzy headaches, lethargy, increased colds, coughs and sore throats, not sleeping well, stomach upsets, diarrhea, constipation, or alternating between the two, bloating, gas, generally feeling tired, run down and under-the-weather….

Most people think this is just a sign of getting older, or something they have to live with. In fact, because this happens over a long period of time, most people don’t remember a time when they felt really great. So they consider it completely normal. It isn’t!

The good news about leaky gut syndrome and the weakening of the digestive and immune systems is that Aloe Vera can help both problems; and it can do so relatively quickly. In doing so, it improves overall health and makes you feel better, more vibrant, refreshed and generally ‘good’.

Aloe Vera gently cleanses and repairs your digestive tract, restoring the natural balance and regularity of your intestinal and digestive processes. This is much more important to overall health than many people realise. It might seem obvious, but adequately processing and digesting your food – and absorbing the vital vitamins and minerals from your food – is essential to good health. (Your food does contain lots of vitamins and minerals, doesn’t it? The vitamins & minerals they add to sugared breakfast cereals don’t count!)

When your digestive tract is healthy and is properly processing your food, then your liver and immune system can concentrate on doing their ‘proper’ job of cleansing the blood and defending and repairing your body.

Aloe Vera SupplementBy taking an aloe vera supplement every day, you’re improving your health naturally, and strengthening your immune system. And as you know, when you’re feeling good and generally healthy, it’s much easier to accomplish everything you want to during the day…

Aloe Vera can bring almost immediate results in feeling better. It’s pure, non-allergenic, and completely safe.

Aloe Vera Supplement




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Health Benefits of Aloe Vera

Jun 02, 2008   Categories: Aloe Vera & General Health, Health Benefits of Aloe

Reasons For Taking Aloe Vera Everyday

Aloe Vera plantAloe 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…

Jan De Vries Recommends Aloeride – Read More

Here are a few of the health benefits of taking aloe vera:

Detox
Aloe vera is a great natural detox aid. With our stressful lives, the pollution around us and the junk foods we eat, we all need to detox now and again. Some more often than others! Taking aloe vera supplements provides a rich cocktail of vitamins, minerals and trace elements to help our bodies deal with the everyday stresses of our lives.

Healthy Digestion
A healthy digestive system ensures we absorb as many of the nutrients from the foods we eat as possible . Since aloe vera has natural detoxing abilities, taking aloe vera can improve bowel regularity and increase protein absorption. It also helps to decrease the amount of unfriendly bacteria and yeast in our gut. Aloe vera has been shown to help reduce and soothe heartburn and other digestive problems. Aloe Vera and IBS

Immune Support
Aloe vera is full of anti-oxidants – little powerhouses that fight free radicals within our body. Free radicals are the unstable compounds produced as by-products of metabolism. They’re thought to contribute to various illnesses and diseases as increasing the ageing process. Taking aloe vera regularly gives the body a good supply of anti-oxidants, which boosts the immune system. Aloe Vera and Immune System

Reduce Inflammation
Aloe vera contains 12 substances which slow down or inhibit inflammation, without any side-effects. Many people say that taking aloe vera juice helps with their stiff, swollen or painful joints.

Healthy Skin
Taking aloe vera supplements adds a rich supply of raw materials to your diet, which can produce and maintain really healthy skin. The skin replaces itself every 28 days. Using the nutritional building blocks of aloe vera, the skin can use these nutrients daily to help combat the effects of ageing. Aloe vera also helps in soothing minor burns, cuts, scrapes and skin irritations. Aloe Vera and Acne

Regulate Energy Levels
Taking aloe vera allows the body to cleanse the digestive system. Our diets include many substances which can cause fatigue and exhaustion. Taken regularly, aloe vera flushes out these impurities, allowing the body to divert more energy to healing and repair, not just digestion. This ensures a greater feeling of well-being, allowing energy levels to increase and helps maintain a healthy body weight.

Daily Dose of Vitamins & Minerals
Aloe vera contains vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, B12 (the aloe vera plant is one of the few plants in the world to contain vitamin B12), C, E, Folic Acid and Niacin. The human body cannot store some of these vitamins, so we need to supplement them regularly through our diet. The minerals found in aloe vera include Calcium, Sodium, Iron, Potassium, Copper, Zinc, Manganese, Magnesium, Chromium and more… Plenty of good nutrition in aloe vera!

Dental Health
Aloe vera is extremely helpful for your mouth and gums. As well as its natural anti-bacterial and anti-microbial actions, it contains vitamins and minerals which promote cell growth and healing. Many people report that aloe vera helps with bleeding gums and mouth ulcers.

Recent research has shown that adding good foods to our diets, rich in naturally occurring vitamins and minerals, is far better than adding supplements alone. The good news is that Aloe Vera is considered a food, rather than a supplement. So taking aloe vera is probably better than taking supplements alone, because our bodies can absorb all the nutrients in aloe vera more easily, and utilise them more effectively.

Aloe Vera Facts




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Aloe Vera & Digestive Problems

May 27, 2008   Categories: Aloe Vera & Digestion

Aloe Vera can help Digestive Disorders

Aloe Vera Digestive Problems

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.

Do You Suffer From IBS

Constipation is one of the most common digestive complaints. The definition of constipation includes infrequent bowel movements (although that by itself does not necessarily indicate constipation), difficulty passing a stool, and the feeling that there is incomplete evacuation of the bowels. Other symptoms of constipation include abdominal pain, bloating and distention.

Often constipation can be attributed to a diet low in fibre, inadequate fluid intake, or a sedentary lifestyle. Constipation can also occur as a side-effect of medications.

Diarrhoea is usually caused by parasites, bacteria or viruses. It can also indicate a chronic underlying condition, such as Crohn’s disease. In the western world, diarrhoea, although uncomfortable for a few days, is not usually life-threatening.

In the third world, where real dangers of dehydration are present, diarrhoea treatment needs to be swift to prevent complications. The usual treatment for diarrhoea is to replace lost fluids with an electrolyte mixture of water, sugars and salt.

heartburnHeartburn occurs when stomach acids come up through the oesophageal sphincter and irritate the soft tisues of the oesophagus, causing pain and inflammation. The pain is usually intense and felt over the breastbone near the heart. (Which is why it’s called heartburn, although it has nothing to do with the heart.)

The oesophageal sphincter is a ring of muscle that should allow food to travel only in one direction – downwards into the stomach and so into the rest of the digestive system. If the symptoms of acid reflux become chronic, it can lead to gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GERD or GORD depending on whether the US or British way of spelling oesophagus is used).

The treatment for acid reflux vary widely, but commonly a change of diet to less fatty foods and reducing caffeine is required, along with eliminating foods that cause reflux.
Drug treatment may be antacids, proton-pump inhibitors (PPI’s) or H2 blockers. If severe, surgical intervention may be called for.

As you can see, there’s a wide range of digestive complaints – and these are just the most common problems with digestion. Treatments range in effectiveness. And often people just live with the symptoms – either because they’re so used to the symptoms, they don’t feel it’s worth bothering their doctor; or because the treatment they’ve had in the past didn’t work.

Aloe Vera has been used successfully for centuries to combat skin conditions and bowel conditions. And although it might sound unlikely that a natural plant can help with skin conditions as well as digestive problems, it’s worth considering that the lining of the gut is endothelial tissue – like the skin.

Aloe Vera is full of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients that can help heal stomach and digestive disorders. Research has shown that it balances and modulates the immune system, so lowering food intolerances, and the body’s reaction to them. (This is not a licence to take Aloe Vera, then continue eating foods you know irritate you!)

It can also soothe the stomach and help with acid reflux very quickly, as it forms a semi-protective barrier on the endothelial lining of the oesophagus; so it can help reduce the symptoms of heartburn.

Aloe Vera is reknowned for its effect of the bowel – particularly on helping both constipation and diarrhoea. It soothes, heals and allows the gut to return to its normal state of functioning. Healthy and normal.

Recommended Products For Digestive Problems

aloeride-tabletsTablet form aloe vera is extremely beneficial. Aloeride is a completely natural aloe tablet but manufactured to phramaceutical standards.

Unlike some aloe products that claim to be 100% pure aloe vera, Aloeride contains the Barbadensis Miller variety of the substance which is by far the most potent of all the aloe species. More about Aloeride




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