Aloe Vera: What Are The Benefits?

Benefits of Aloe Vera as a Dietary Supplement

Almost all know the benefits of the herbal medicine plant Aloe Vera when

applied to the outside of our body. However, this plant does not just make

miracles on our outside but including the inside of our body! Such a

remarkable plant it is!

Aloe is a member of the lily family although it looks more of a cactus. It

has been used for its medicinal purposes since the ancient times, but only

recently has it enjoyed a rediscovery and subsequent popularity explosion.

Aloe Vera contains many components, including vitamins A, B, C, and E. Aloe

has a massive amount of minerals and enzymes, however not its entire

component has been identified yet.

Aloe Vera is also known as the "lily of the desert" or most specially the

"medicine plant". This plant is native to Africa. The plant is approximately

96% water and 4% of it includes amino acids, minerals, vitamins, enzymes,

essential oil, and glycoproteins.

When taken orally, Aloe Vera juice contains three anti-inflammatory fatty

acids. This is a help to our stomach, intestine, and colon. It aids most

specially, bowel diseases, candida ulcers, intestinal infections,

constipation, and other digestive tract infection such as colitis,

When taking Aloe Vera as a supplement, always choose the supplement with the

highest quality. The label should say that it is 80 to 100 percent Aloe

Vera. This is true to lotions that claim it contains Aloe Vera when in fact

it contains very little amount of aloe and have no health benefits.

Aloe Vera dietary supplement is now rising in our market. Aloe Vera contains

a large amount of medicinal substances used as purgative. The medicinal

substance id produced from various species of aloe, such as Aloe Vera, Aloe

vulgaris, Aloe socotrina, Aloe chinensis, and Aloe perryi.

Several kinds of aloe are commercially available such as the Barbados,

Socotrine, Hepatic, Indian, and Cape aloes. Barbados and Socotrine are the

varieties most commonly used for curative purposes.

Aloes is the expressed juice of the leaves of the plant. When the leaves are

cut, the juice that flows out are collected and evaporated. After removing

the juice, you need to boil the leaves for sometime to avoid yielding an

inferior kind of aloe. However, some leaves of other Aloe Vera species are

poisonous such as Aloe venenosa.

Aloe has been marketed for having a large number of benefits when taken

internally. Aloe have formula that are known remedy for coughs, wounds,

ulcers, gastritis, diabetes, cancer, headaches, arthritis, immune system

deficiencies and many health conditions. However, these uses are still not

yet proven.

The only proven use of aloe when taken internally is as laxative. However,

there is evidence of significant adverse side effects. Therefore, you must

consult your doctor if you plan to take Aloe Vera. Pregnant women should not

take this, because it contains anthraquinone glycosides, which is highly

purgative. High dose of the leaves in fact can cause vomiting.

Aloe's benefits to our health include, helping to lower the blood sugar

levels in diabetes patients. Aloe is a strong laxative that may have some

anti-cancer effects to humans. It is now being studied as a treatment for

asthma.

If Aloe is taken internally, it increases the actual amount of our bile. It

affects the small intestines and stimulates the muscular coat of the large

intestine thus causing purging in about fifteen hours.

Aloes also help increase the menstrual flow, since it belongs to the group

of emmenagogues. Aloes have Aloin present used for therapeutic purposes.

This causes less pain. It is a preferable drug for many forms of

constipation. Continuous use of it does not lead to enlarging the dose to

take.

There are many well-known medicines that primarily consist of Aloes.

Joyce Dietzel writes articles for for-your-vitamins.com [http://www.for-your-vitamins.com] a website dedicated to all your vitamin and supplement needs [http://www.for-your-vitamins.com/AloeVera.html].