Aloe Vera Juice

Aloe vera juice is the liquid that comes out of the aloe vera plant when cut or squeezed.  For hundreds and probably thousands of years it has been used medicinally as a soothing balm for burns, cuts and scrapes.  Today it is used for the same purposes, and also many more.  Many people love aloe vera juice for sunburn treatment, and also find that it makes a great skin moisturizer to be used after shaving or on dry patches of skin. 

Aloe vera juice has more recently become very popular as a drink and for use internally.  As I’ve always been kind of interested in the benefits of aloe vera juice, I’ve been doing some of my own research about its use internally, but unfortunately haven’t discovered anything very favorable. 

My initial searches online yielded a whole host of site with rather outrageous claims about aloe vera juice drinks making you live long, preventing and even fighting cancers, kidney disease, heart disease, and much more.  Type in aloe vera juice in a search engine and you’ll quickly see what I mean. As you may know the Government comes down hard on companies making bogus claims for products, and these aloe vera claims look like they cross that line.

I looked a little further however and eventually came to some trustworthy health sites with articles posted by doctors and other medical professionals about aloe vera juice.  I couldn’t find anyone referring to any studies linking to any of the claims I saw in the torrent of ads I read through.  Apparently, aloe vera juice just hasn’t been tested that well for use internally. 

So even though the benefits of aloe vera juice are exalted by hosts of different sites around the internet, you’ll quickly notice that its always the ones that are trying to sell you something that make these claims.  One of my favorite claims that I came across was one that said something like ‘because aloe vera juice is 100 percent natural, it is completely safe and you can drink as much as you like’.  That may be one of the most absurd things I’ve ever read online to date.  The most deadly and toxic substances known today are completely natural.

While its is more or less non-toxic (toxicology report from NIH,) meaning it won’t kill you to drink it, drinking too much can apparently induce nausea.  The only proven medical use has been as a laxative, as it apparently is a pretty strong purgative.  Strangely enough, I never once found it advertised as a laxative, but only as ways to live longer, boost your immune system, cure cancer, and all that other rubbish. 

So while I continue to use aloe vera juice daily externally, I’m not really sold on its use as a drink.  Not only does it taste pretty bad, but it just seems like a risk not worth taking.  It could have all sorts of potential side effects I’m not aware of, which isn’t worth it when there isn’t any proven benefit except for as a laxative.  There are plenty of other laxatives out there that have been rigorously tested, and I’d feel much safer using one of those.

On the other side of the coin, the proponents of Aloe Vera say that there are a virtually unlimited number of  benefits of aloe vera juice. It is good for blood circulation, benefiting and regulating the blood blood pressure. It is good for disorders of the bones and joints as a result of its helpful amino acids and minerals. There are even  benefits of aloe vera juice to the immune system, as it helps defend the body against hostile organisms. But one of the greatest  benefits of aloe vera juice is its incredible nutritional content. It contains amino acids, lipids, and many other helpful ingredients which will boost your health and energy.

Just stay clear of the "Aloe Cures All" claims.

© 2006 Fred Jones, Gems4friends.com

More About Aloe Vera:

• http://www.aloeinformation.com/overview.ivnu
  Background info on Aloe. They say, "Aloe vera juice has been used to treat successfully a multiplicity of human ailments for a least four thousand years...."
  
  
• Aloe vera gel fails wound-healing test
  Summary of a test (from 1991) done on Aloe and wound healing.
  
  
• Aloe Talk
  Discussion forum for Aloe Vera
  
  
• History of Aloe Vera
  From ancient times
  
  
• National Institues of Health (NIH) page on botanical dietary supplements
  General interest, no mention of Aloe that I could find.
  
  
• NIH Toxcology report on Aloe

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