I’m discussing the dangers and advantages of aloe vera.
“Aloe Vera is one of the crucial common dwelling treatments used right this moment, however most docs know little about it. In truth, it’s dismissed as ineffective by most whereas their sufferers firmly imagine in its therapeutic properties … The same old tendency for many docs and nurses to dismiss any common treatment obtainable with out a prescription as ineffective. The aloe plant deserves a better look, nonetheless, as a result of as shocking as it might appear, a few of its makes use of could have a scientific foundation. ”It has been used medicinally by plenty of historic civilizations for millennia in any case, however not till just lately it was just lately put to the take a look at, as I describe in my video . Is aloe efficient towards blood stress, intestinal irritation, wound therapeutic and burns? .
However what sort of exams? Those that examine whether or not aloe can enhance the testes of albino rats or the ldl cholesterol and estrogen reactions in juvenile goldfish ?
Certainly, injecting aloe into the bloodstream of rats will decrease their blood stress, however feeding it to people doesn’t seem to have any blood pressure-lowering impact. Consuming aloe causes the formation of colorectal tumors in rats, whereas it seems to have an anti-inflammatory impact on the human intestinal mucosa in a Petri dish. Within the take a look at for irritable bowel syndrome (IBD), nonetheless, no profit for enhancing signs or enhancing the standard of lifetime of IBS sufferers was discovered. And no benefit was discovered for IBD .
What concerning the constructive results of aloe on wound therapeutic? Clearly they’re "so great that they appear extra like a fantasy than a truth." It works once you minimize open guinea pigs or freeze rabbit ears, as you do at 1:49 in my video can see (though be warned about graphic pictures) however with people it will possibly make issues worse. In truth, "Aloe Vera … [ connected to a delay in wound healing 19459004" DieForscheruntersuchten21FrauendienacheinemKaiserschnittodereineranderenBauchoperationWundkomplikationenhattenDieHeilungvonselbstdauertedurchschnittlich53TagewährenddiemitAloeVera-GelbehandeltenWunden83Tageunddamit50ProzentlängerdauertenForscherdachtendieAloewürdeaufgrundvonTierversuchenhelfenaberalssieamMenschengetestetwurdescheitertesie
At this point in my research it looked like the only benefit of aloe was improving the quality of cheap beef burgers one study found. But what about burns? Aloe has been used to treat burns since ancient times but, according to their timeless wisdom, people have put feces on burns too, so I wouldn't trust old medical traditions too much.
That is why we have science.
How effective is aloe vera gel compared to silver sulfadiazine as a wound dressing for second-degree burns? "The introduction of topical antimicrobial agents to date has resulted in a significant reduction in burn mortality ." Silver sulfadiazine is the most commonly used, but unfortunately it can delay wound healing and become toxic to the kidneys and bone marrow. So the researchers tried head-to-head against topical aloe gel. The result? The burns treated with aloe healed 50 percent faster and the pain disappeared about 30 percent faster. The researchers concluded that aloe had "remarkable effectiveness" in treating burn injuries. Does anyone see the flaw in this logic? What was missing from this study? A placebo control group. Why should that matter? Keep in mind that one of the side effects of silver sulfadiazine is delayed wound healing. So, maybe the aloe worked better just because it didn't delay healing but it wouldn't have worked better than nothing.
When tested against nothing – aloe vera in petroleum jelly versus petroleum jelly alone – the aloe really seemed to help, accelerated healing by about a third. And indeed, if you put all the studies together, aloe vera appears to greatly speed up second degree burn healing. Fortunately, blister-like burns are less common than burns like sunburn, which just turn your skin red. How effective is aloe vera in preventing and treating sunburn? An aloe vera cream was applied to the study participants 30 minutes before, immediately after or before and after the burn with a UV lamp . Surprisingly, the "results showed that the aloe vera cream compared to placebo has no protection against sunburn or suntan and no effectiveness in the treatment of sunburn."
It works at least on blister burns, so should we keep some aloe vera gel in the medicine cabinet? The problem is, aloe vera that you buy from the store may not contain any aloe vera at all. The product labels say that aloe vera is the first or second ingredient, but the manufacturers seem to be lying. "There's no watchdog to make sure aloe products are what they say they are," which means suppliers rely on an honor system – but too often, when health and nutrition are mixed with profit, honor goes a long way.
Key to take away
- Aloe Vera, a popular home remedy, has been used medicinally for thousands of years.
- Results from studies with aloe vera on animals differ significantly from studies on humans. Rats' blood pressure drops when injected with aloe, but there is no antihypertensive effect in humans, for example, and although drinking aloe leads to the formation of intestinal tumors in rats, it appears to be anti-inflammatory for human intestinal lining, with none in irritable bowel syndrome Benefit was found.
- Aloe has been shown to be beneficial in wound healing in animals, but human wounds took 50 percent longer to heal when treated with aloe vera gel.
- Topical aloe vera gel seems to significantly accelerate the healing of second-degree blistering burns compared to both a placebo control and silver sulfadiazine, the most frequently used topical antimicrobial agent.
- In the case of minor burns such as sunburn, researchers found that aloe vera cream was not effective in protecting or treating sunburn in comparison to placebo.
- Aloe vera gels and creams may not contain aloe vera even though they are listed as an ingredient, and since the industry is not monitored, the deception can go on.
Further information about aloe can be found at:
- Aloe Vera for psoriasis
- Can aloe cure cancer?
- Aloe for the treatment of advanced metastatic cancer
- Is aloe vera gel the best treatment for lichen planus?
What about natural remedies for high blood pressure? Check out:
- Hibiscus tea vs. plant-based nutrition for high blood pressure
- Flaxseed against high blood pressure
- High blood pressure can be a choice
- Sprinkle doubts: Sodium skeptics take a pinch of salt
- Oxygen-rich blood with nitrate-rich vegetables
- Drugs and the end of the rice diet
- How to prevent high blood pressure with a diet
- Fasting to naturally reverse high blood pressure
- Flashback Friday: How to treat high blood pressure with a diet
Further information on the prevention and treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases can be found at:
- Preventing Crohn's disease through nutrition
- The best diet for the treatment of Crohn's disease
- Dietary treatment of Crohn's disease
- Prevention of ulcerative colitis through diet
- Treat ulcerative colitis with diet
- Beating the roots: turmeric curcumin and ulcerative colitis
- Vitamin D in inflammatory bowel diseases
- Does nutritional yeast cause Crohn's disease?
- Cannabis against inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)
- Prevention of inflammatory bowel diseases through nutrition
And if you are interested in wound healing, see Benefits of nutritional yeast in cancer and Accelerated recovery an operation with turmeric .
Health,
Michael Greger, M.D.
PS: If you haven't already, you can subscribe to my free videos here and watch my live presentations:
- 2019: Evidence-based weight loss
- 2016: How Not to Die: The Role of Diet in the Prevention, Detection, and Reversal of Our 15 Most Common Murderers
- 2015: Food as medicine: Preventing and treating the most feared diseases with nutrition
- 2014: From the table to the ability: Combating diseases with disabilities through food
- 2013: More than one apple a day
- 2012: uprooting the main causes of death