June 18, 2014

Aloe Vera: Health Benefits You Need To Know!

Photo by Miguel Bruna on Unsplash

Aloe Vera, a well-known soothing herb, can be traced back to ancient cultures. In fact, this plant has played a major role in natural medicine for over 5,000 years! Aloe Vera is part of the lily family, Liliaceae, alongside garlic and onions, two foods also well-known for their great health benefits.

This soothing herb promotes health-boosting effects from the active constituents it provides – vitamins, minerals, amino acids, enzymes, polysaccharides, fatty acids, and more. Altogether, Aloe Vera offers around 200 nutritious ingredients! Most of the Aloe Vera leaf is filled with a clear, gel-type material, made up of around 99% water. When it comes to medicinal use, Aloe Vera can be used either on the skin or ingested in supplement form. Its soothing abilities for the skin may be the most well-known of its many benefits, but there are endless others you may not know about!

Here are just a few of the excellent health benefits of Aloe Vera

Vitamins & Minerals

Aloe Vera naturally contains Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Folic Acid, and Choline. It’s also a wonderful source of B-Vitamins, providing Vitamins B1, B2, B3 (Niacin), B6 and even Vitamin B12, which is found in very few plants. The plant also offers a whopping 20 minerals to help you reach optimal health, including Calcium, Zinc, Magnesium, Selenium, Iron, Potassium and Copper.

Digestive Health

This soothing herb is great for your overall digestive health. It’s known to soothe and cleanse the digestive tract, rid the body of unhealthy bacteria, and keep the healthy bacteria well-balanced. It works as an “adaptogen”, which means it enhances your body’s ability to adapt to external changes in the environment and better fight off infections. It levels out all the organs and systems in your body, adapting to these changes in order to provide whatever health benefits you need. For example, whether you are constipated or have diarrhea, Aloe Vera’s adaptogenic properties will help to even out the digestive process and relieve the issue.

Immune Health

The polysaccharides in Aloe Vera offer a fantastic boost for overall immunity; they stimulate the white blood cells, the cells in your immune system responsible for fighting viruses. Aloe Vera also has great antioxidant benefits, which help your body fight “free radicals”. Free radicals are damaging compounds your body creates naturally as a result of aging, or because of unhealthy lifestyle factors like poor diet, smoking, lack of exercise, etc.

Skin Health

Often used in cosmetics and other skincare products, Aloe Vera is widely known for its soothing effects on the skin. Since it is made up of over 99% water, it’s great for hydrating and smoothing your skin. Aloe Vera is also very effective in healing more harmful skin damage, including burns, cuts and wounds. It may also be used topically for bug bites and sunburns – keep this in mind during the summer months! Aloe Vera acts as an analgesic, or soothing agent for burns, cuts, bites and wounds. It also works as an antipruritic (helps prevent itching) and an astringent (allows body tissue to contract to help stop bleeding).

Fights Infections, Detoxifies the Body, and Reduces Inflammation

Aloe Vera’s health-boosting ingredients include a helpful lineup of substances that increase antimicrobial activity to fight off unhealthy bacteria, viruses and fungal infections. Aloe Vera also helps detoxify your system by absorbing toxins in your intestines when it moves through the digestive system, and it aids in inflammation reduction with ingredients like B-sisterole, which helps slow down the body’s inflammatory response.