Natural Health

Aloe Vera provides fantastic relief for bites and stings. This is mainly because it has a wonderful cooling effect and is also anti-puretic (relives itching). If you don’t itch it can heal much faster.

I have had numerous friends who have had bites over the summer and swear by the aloe vera as it is the only thing which has actually worked.

 Another thing that you could use to prevent bites in the first place is Aloe First. This is a spray version of Aloe Vera and also includes a few essential oils. It works really well as an insect repellant because they don’t like the smell or taste of aloe as it is very bitter. Aloe’s only natural enemy is frost, which is great as it means pesticides etc are not necessary when growing.

 We tried this against the famous Scottish Midges. They are awful and leave terrible bites, they seem to be particularly keen on my husband. So our experiment involved sending him out to cut the grass in the evening after being sprayed with aloe. He would normally be eaten alive, but this time they didn’t bother him at all.

Aloe Vera actually has the ability to increase collagen an elastin production in the skin. This means that it can repair skin abrasions approx 4 times faster than they would heal on their own, meaning it is fantastic for cuts, grazes etc.

My friends little boy fell down the stairs in his back garden and grazed his face quite severely, so she tried the Aloe Vera Gelly topically and put it on him a few times a day and within a few days he was left with pink skin and a week later not a mark.

Because the skin heals so rapidly, it leaves little or no scarring.

Again I use Aloe Vera from Forever Living Products because I believe it to be the highest quality available. Please see my earlier post for what to look for when buying Aloe Vera and so long as you follow those guidelines you can’t really go wrong.

Aloe Vera has long been known for it’s benefits on the digestive system. Many people suffering from conditions such as IBS, Chrones etc have found some benefit to drinking aloe vera.

Conditions like IBS are normally classed as being caused by stress, in other words there is no physical problem with the bowels. A similar feeling we are all familiar with is ‘butterflys in the stomach’ when we are nervous. Again there are no butterflys in your stomach but your head or mind is having an effect on your body. With IBS, a common symptom is severe cramps, this is brought on by stress and is the bowel going into spasm.

How does Aloe Vera help?

Drinking aloe vera will cause your bowel to move food through the body much quicker than normal, this in effect gives the bowel a much smoother transit and actually stops the spasms.

Although food is moved through the bowel much quicker, it is still fully digested. Another effect of drinking aloe vera is that it cleanses the digestive tract (similar to a colonic irrigation but not so severe), making it much easier for the body to digest the food we eat.

There are many companies who manufacture aloe vera products, but alas, they are not all the same. Unfortunately aloe vera is one of the most adulterated products on the market.

So what should we look for in our aloe vera products?

• First thing I look for is that aloe vera is the main ingredient. Many products only have aloe vera added to them.
• Then I check that it is aloe barbadensis miller as this is the one with the most medicinal properties.
• The next thing is if it is inner gel or whole leaf. The inner gel is the part that has all of these medicinal properties, so there is no need to bulk a product out by using the whole leaf.
• Also if it is whole leaf it has to be filtered meaning that it can upset the natural balance. No-one is completely sure why aloe does what it does, so it would be silly to filter parts out.
• Another important point is that it should be cold stabilized as if over heated, then the vitamins will be destroyed. Aloe is like a banana, and will oxidize once in contact with the air. This means that the product has to be stabilized. A quality aloe vera will be stabilized with no less than 97% being aloe vera and the stabilization process should only include natural ingredients.

These are just a few points you should look for, unfortunately a lot of companies are just out to make money. A rough guide is if you are buying Aloe Vera to drink you should pay no less than £16 per litre. Any less than this would mean you are paying for an inferior product. It also helps if the company you are buying from offers a money back guarantee.

Most of these points have been taken from an article in “Proof!” magazine which is an independant magazine who test natural products. They rated Forever Living Products as the best Aloe Vera drink and gave it 5 stars saying it is excellent.

Next time I will go into more things that Aloe can help with.

I have to say that the absolutely best product I have ever come across, with regards to burns, is Aloe Vera.

We have a tube which I keep with me everywhere I go as it can be used for so many different things.

Today I am going to tell you of my experience of it on burns.

Many times in the past, I am sure we have all experienced it, I have burnt my fingers on a hot pot off the cooker. First thing you do is normally run it under a cold tap for 20 mins (yeah right, nobody actually stands there for 20 mins lets be honest) but as soon as you stop it starts to sting again. I have even tried wrapping a cloth soaked in cold water, but you still have to top it up every few minutes.

Recently, I burnt my fingers as usual and just applied aloe vera to it, the burning eased almost instantly, although  I did have to reapply it every few minutes, but after about 5 mins there was no pain at all. Absolutely fantastic.

My daughter has also had a few accidents. She is 2 and I had a scalding hot cup of tea sitting on the floor. It was so hot I couldn’t drink it. She tipped it all over her leg and was in a terrible state. Again I just applied the aloe vera gelly a few times and within 5 mins there was no redness or pain.

For me I have always been very concerned when it came to burns, as it is one of these things where most ‘burns creams’ out there do more damage than good.

What makes aloe vera unique is that it still allows the skin to breathe and does’t cut off the oxygen supply. Also aloe vera is anti-pyretic which means it removes the heat from skin.

Just thought I would share that experience with you. Aloe Vera can be used for many things, but I’ll just cover one thing at a time.

It is also very important to know what to look for in an aloe vera product as they are not all the same. I’ll also cover that in another post.

Thanks for reading.

Jen

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