The Superfood Experiment! Aloe Vera!!

Ok – so I thought aloe vera was only good for one thing – putting on sunburns - boy was I wrong… Besides having numerous vitamins, minerals, etc, etc, and yes, etc… it is also helpful for all types of digestive problems like colitis, ulcers, irritable bowel syndrome, and “Reducing Inflammation, Radiation Sickness, Cancer, Heart Disease, and Diabetes” – which is a section title under benefits on page 168. Wow – who knew!  Personally, I feel like every time I turn around someone I know or love is being affected by cancer or diabetes. I had an Aunt pass from cancer, I currently have an Aunt fighting cancer, and my mother and mother-in-law both have diabetes.

There was a study done in Italy on forty-eight patients – half were treated with some dosage of aloe vera, which was added to their main treatment drugs, while the other half was not. Of the ones treated with the aloe vera – two actually had improvement, and fourteen stabilized. In the group without the aloe vera, only seven stabilized. As I mentioned above, I have an Aunt fighting cancer, so I decided to go on-line and order her some aloe capsules which she agreed to take. At this point, why not - right?

Also mentioned above is that aloe vera can help with diabetes. Raw gel of fresh aloe vera has aided in the normalization of blood sugar, helping to lessen the symptoms of diabetes. I found more interesting information regarding the diabetic benefits of aloe vera on the web...

6)Aloe Vera Gel


Although aloe vera gel is better known as a home remedy for minor burns and other skin conditions, recent animal studies suggest that aloe vera gel may help people with diabetes.


A Japanese study evaluated the effect of aloe vera gel on blood sugar. Researchers isolated a number of active phytosterol compounds from the gel that were found to reduce blood glucose and glycosylated hemoglobin levels.

http://altmedicine.about.com/cs/conditionsatod/a/Diabetes.htm
http://altmedicine.about.com/od/herbsupplementguide/a/Aloe.htm


Other benefits – Hydration, Glutathione (which is an antioxidant critical to the production of white blood cells), helps keeps the kidneys healthy, also aloe vera has been used topically to treat: abrasions, acne, athlete’s foot, blemishes, brown spots, burns, eczema, hemorrhoids, insects bites, insect stings, jellyfish stings, poison ivy, poison oak, psoriasis, rashes, scarring, skin allergies, skin cancer, skin infections, staph infections, stretch marks, sunburns, varicose veins and wounds… Of course, I can only speak to my experience with sunburns, and do agree that aloe vera works well in this instance.

Here are a few more links that talk more about aloe vera and its healing benefits….

http://www.naturalnews.com/021858.html


http://health.centreforce.com/health/aloe.html

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