'aloe, aloe!' (natural body lovin')

gotta love when close friends move house and have a massive over haul of all their goodies. today's score is of the green and potted kind. aloe vera to be exact.

i have not so enjoyable memories of aloe vera from my childhood (which i now look back on and reminisce about). my mum used it when i got sun burnt. she used to take one of the 'leaves' and slice it in half, then smear the aloe gel from inside the leaves all over my sunburn. except she would use the 'leaf' as an applicator and those nasty little spikes you can see on the edges of the leaves would sometimes scratch my tender, crimson skin. and trust me, that stung like crazy!

however, her insistence that the mild smelling, jelly-like goo that made up the majority of the inside of the aloe leaf was actually quite beneficial for healing my sunburn now seems to warrant a closer look. so i did a bit of digging, considering i am now in possession of rather large, healthy pot of green, spikey, gooey, supposedly sunburn healing goldmines.

aloe vera has been used in traditional medicine in China, Japan, Russia, South Africa, Jamaica, Latin American and India. medical research has reported that aloe can be used to heal first and second degree burns, making my mum's use of it as a treatment for my childhood sunburn spot on. it can also be used to treat other burns, and to help relieve insect bites and stings.
aloe also has antibacterial and antifungal properties, aiding in treating minor skin infections (like boils, grazes, or cuts), and have been shown to inhibit the growth of the fungi that causes tinea.
it also has potent moisturising capabilities (which have been flogged commercially), so used in it's purest form straight from the plant, or mixed in with your favourite natural organic body moisturiser, it will prove to be beneficial both for healing and protecting your skin.

and as an interesting tid bit, in clinical studies, aloe compounds have been successfully used to reduce gingivitis and plaque (in your mouth). but i wouldn't go out and start chewing on it (although there are some claims regarding aloe's internal health benefits, i'm not confident of their validity so i won't post them, but click on the link if you are interested), from memory, it doesn't taste that nice!

so to get your mittens on those amazing (external) health benefits get yourself some aloe, break off a leaf, slice it in half and smear that clear jelly-goo all over yourself.

just watch out for the little spikes.

x