All about ALOE

Right this minute, someone – somewhere – is using aloe vera to heal something. Millions grow the plant themselves and others keep a container of aloe on hand for those times when nothing else will do.

Although the most common use in the US is for burn treatment, including sunburns, aloe has five major applications. The first three are wound healing, skin conditions, and digestive disorders. These are also folk uses of aloe known since ancient times. The other two may be surprising: cholesterol management and immunes system enhancement. All five areas are backed by science.

IS IT MAGIC?

For our ancestors, effectiveness determined aloe vera’s use. Today, science is validating its healing properties. The aloe plant is between 99 and 99.5 percent water. All the power of the plant is in that tiny one to one-half percent. Water acts as a carrier for those potent nutrients. The solid material contains over 75 different ingredients, including vitamins, minerals, enzymes, amino acids, anthraquinones, sterols, lignins, saponins, salicylic acid, and perhaps most interesting, biological sugars. Before discussing the sugars, let’s look at the other components.

Aloe contains most of the major vitamins, excepting vitamin D, but including the important antioxidants vitamins A, C, and beta-carotene (the vitamin A precursor). The B vitamins thiamine, niacin, riboflavin, choline and folic acid are also present.

. As many as 13 of the 17 minerals necessary for human nutrition have been found in aloe. These include sodium potassium, calcium, magnesium, manganese, copper, zinc, chromium, sulfur, and iron.

The presence of magnesium may explain aloe’s facility for soothing itchiness. As people with allergies know, a substance called histamine is released in many allergic reactions. Histamine causes intense itching, watery eyes and nose, and pain. Magnesium inhibits the formation of histamine.

When taken orally, several of the enzymes found in aloe, such as amylase and lipase, aid digestion by breaking down sugars and fats. Another important enzyme produces an anti-inflammatory effect. This adds to aloe’s reputation for pain relief.

As you recall, amino acids are the building blocks of proteins. The body needs 22 amino acids to build the proteins it needs. Of these, eight are called essential amino acids, because (like vitamins) the body cannot synthesize them. Instead, we must get them from food. Aloe vera is a rich source of amino acids, providing 20 of the 22 necessary amino acids and 7 of the 8 essential amino acids.

Anthraquinones is a long word for important phytochemicals found in the yellow sap of the aloe plant. In large amounts, these compounds have a laxative effect. However, in smaller quantities, their general bitterness appears to stimulate digestive secretions, bile flow, and the upper digestive system as a whole. Secondly, anthraquinones are potent antimicrobial agents, especially toxic both to Shigella dysenteriae (the well known dysentery-causing bacillus) and to Staphylococci (cause of the notorious “staph” infection).

In 2004, the Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology published a study by Chen, et al, demonstrating that anthraquinones are also anti-inflammatory in nature. Used topically, these compounds give aloe its capacity to absorb ultraviolet light and reduce the formation of melanin and any tendency to hyper-pigmentation (patches of darkened skin).

Sterols are the secret to aloe’s cholesterol-lowering potential. This capacity of plant sterols has been known for over 50 years. They are essential components of plant cell membranes and resemble cholesterol. Sterols inhibit the absorption of cholesterol in the small intestine by up to 50%. In turn, this can lower LDL blood cholesterol by up to 14%.

Salicylic acid is an aspirin-like compound possessing anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties. Used topically, it helps wounds to heal more quickly without scarring. Lignin found in all plants (and different from lignan, the fiber in flaxseed) is an inert woody substance that gives topical aloe preparations their singular ability to penetrate to the dermis, carrying other active ingredients deep into the skin. Last, saponins are soapy substances with antiseptic properties. When making a purchase of aloe for internal use, shake the container. Some bubbles should result. No bubbles, not enough aloe.

HOW SWEET IT IS

This is no ordinary sugar. It isn’t in the baking aisle or in packets for coffee. These are biological sugars that are essential to life. They are structural components of our cells, involves in cell-to-cell communication. Each of our cells is coated with eight essential sugar communicators. Without them, cellular communication is greatly compromised.

Individual sugars are called saccharides. In nature, they hook together in chains as polysaccharides. Currently the main focus of aloe research is a group of polysaccharides called mannose. Amazingly, mannose is one of those eight essential sugars. Research on the functions of mannose explains aloe’s healing properties more than any other single constituent.

Mannose molecules occur in many lengths, weights, and sizes called chains. The varying sizes determine healing properties. Like pearly in a necklace, ranging from short strands with small pearls to very long heavy strands with large pearls, the heavier and longer the polymannose chain, the more biologically valuable its function in the body.

ALOE FOR YOUR HEALTH

The number of aloe studies has tripled since 1990. Folk uses are being reinforced while the healing potential of its components is being defined and substantiated. Work with the essential biological sugars in particularly important. In this section, we look at the five major aloe applications and more.

Immune Boosting

Mannose is so stimulating to the immune system that one company is allowed to make the claim that their product “enhances the immune system.”

According to a 1988 study published in the Journal of Immunopharmacology, mannans activate white cells, stimulate communication between immune cells, and stimulate bone marrow activity (where some immune cells are formed). Mannans enhance TNF release, producing an anti-tumor effect, helping to destroy abnormal cells. For over two decades, research has found aloe mannans to be antiviral and helpful in the treatment of AIDS.

Lastly, aloe counteracts the immune-suppressing effects of ultra violet B exposure (sunburns). Keep in mind that all whole leaf aloe preparations contain mannose.

Skin Repair

Aloe’s effects on skin and on wound healing have been recognized for thousands of years. According to James Duke, Ph. D., studies since the 1930s have shown that aloe speeds the healing of burns, wounds, frostbite, and other skin conditions. It relieves itching, pain and swelling from all kinds of rashes including heat rash, diaper rash, rash caused by poisonous plants, hives, scabies, ringworm, and athletes foot.

Approved by the FDA for use with oral ulcers/canker sores, a 2005 article in General Dentistry supports the successful use of aloe for the treatment of many oral health problems. These include canker sores, cold sores, herpes virus, gingivitis, and lichen planus. Aloe was used topically and ingested.

Beyond this, studies have shown that aloe can provide extremely effective treatment for psoriasis. A 1996 year-long double-blind, placebo-controlled study of 60 people with psoriasis found that applying a .05% aloe vera cream 3 times daily eliminated symptoms in 86% of cases.

Aloe’s capacity to penetrate to the dermis, bringing nutrients and removing toxins, is behind its speedy and impressive healing ability. Not surprisingly, aloe brings relief to dry skin, and is found in many lotions and moisturizers.

Good Digestion

Whole leaf aloe vera is an herbal bitter. Studies at the Linus Pauling Institute show that six ounces of aloe juice taken three times daily increase protein digestion and absorption, decrease bowel putrefaction, and improve intestinal pH.

Aloe’s anti-inflammatory properties are soothing to mucous membranes and have been shown to reduce pain and inflammation in the digestive tract. The mucous lining of the gastro-intestinal tract resembles the skin. The same phytochemicals that soothe our skin can soothe our insides. Food allergy relief is another benefit of healing the gut limit.

Important to ruptured diverticula, aloe soothes and reduces bleeding time. The editors of The Sensitive Gut: A Harvard Medical School Book (2001) recommends it for functional dyspepsia (indigestion with no known cause) and garden-variety indigestion. Other sources cite it for Irritable Bowel Syndrome and leaky gut. Aloe has shown some success in the treatment of peptic ulcers because it relieves symptoms and helps control the overgrowth of bad bacteria such as H. pylori, the bacteria implicated in this condition.

At the far end of the line, aloe has been suggested as a stool softener for the hemorrhoids and anal fissures by physicians of Germany’s Commission E and by Ayurvedic practitioners. (Drink a half-cup 3x/day until the condition has cleared.) Constipation is a condition often associated with hemorrhoids. In this case, take 4 ounces of aloe with 4 ounces of apple juice first thing in the morning on an empty stomach.