Month: May 2007

Newstarget has an excellent article on the benefits of Aloe Vera. Check out this brief excerpt:

The aloe vera miracle: A natural medicine for cancer, cholesterol, diabetes, inflammation, IBS, and other health conditions

“When I say aloe vera is the most impressive medicinal herb invented by nature, I don’t make that statement lightly. Of all the herbs I’ve ever studied — and I’ve written thousands of articles on nutrition and disease prevention — aloe vera is the most impressive herb of them all. (Garlic would be a close second.) There is nothing on this planet that offers the amazing variety of healing benefits granted by aloe vera. In a single plant, aloe vera offers potent, natural medicine that:

– Halts the growth of cancer tumors.
– Lowers high cholesterol.
– Repairs “sludge blood” and reverses “sticky blood”.
– Boosts the oxygenation of your blood.
– Eases inflammation and soothes arthritis pain.
– Protects the body from oxidative stress.
– Prevents kidney stones and protects the body from oxalates in coffee and tea.
– Alkalizes the body, helping to balance overly acidic dietary habits.
– Cures ulcers, IBS, Crohn’s disease and other digestive disorders.
– Reduces high blood pressure naturally, by treating the cause, not just the symptoms.
– Nourishes the body with minerals, vitamins, enzymes and glyconutrients.
– Accelerates healing from physical burns and radiation burns.
– Replaces dozens of first aid products, makes bandages and antibacterial sprays obsolete.
– Halts colon cancer, heals the intestines and lubricates the digestive tract.
– Ends constipation.
– Stabilizes blood sugar and reduces triglycerides in diabetics.
– Prevents and treats candida infections.
– Protects the kidneys from disease.
– Functions as nature’s own “sports drink” for electrolyte balance, making common sports drinks obsolete.
– Boosts cardiovascular performance and physical endurance.
– Speeds recovery from injury or physical exertion.
– Hydrates the skin, accelerates skin repair.

Truly, there is nothing else that compares to the medicinal potential of aloe vera.”

There are pure aloe vera juice products on the market that I have used and enjoyed… if it is very pure, it “tastes” just like water… which means it has pretty much no real taste, but it is a great addition to your herbal remedies!

Wow! Is there no end to the good news on Vitamin D!??! Take a look at this:

Low-cost vitamin D supplement blocks tuberculosis (TB) for six weeks after a single dose

“Scientists have shown that a single 2.5mg dose of vitamin D may be enough to boost the immune system to fight against tuberculosis (TB) and similar bacteria for at least 6 weeks. Their findings came from a study that identified an extraordinarily high incidence of vitamin D deficiency amongst those communities in London most at risk from the disease, which kills around two million people each year. The research, funded by the Wellcome Trust, the Department of Environmental Health at Newham Council and Newham University Hospital NHS Trust Respiratory Research Fund, is published online in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. Whilst a diet of oily fish can provide some vitamin D, the main source of the body’s vitamin D comes from exposing the skin to sunlight. In Britain, however, the amount of sunlight is usually insufficient to make vitamin D in the skin between October and April, and much of the population becomes deficient during the winter and spring. Researchers from Queen Mary’s School of Medicine and Dentistry, London, and the Wellcome Trust Centre for Research in Clinical Tropical Medicine, Imperial College London, studied patients at Newham University Hospital and Northwick Park Hospital in London who had been exposed to TB. They found that over 90% of such patients had a vitamin D deficiency.”

Take a look at that last statement! “90% … had a Vitamin D deficiency…” Wow. As I say, get 20 minutes of sunlight on your skin a day! Allow your body to produce natural Vitamin D!

So, if you could use a natural substance with no side effects that was readily available and inexpensive to treat a condition, would you use it rather than expensive drugs? Well, check out this story!

Topical Honey Tested As A Treatment For Diabetic Ulcers, UW Study

“Editor’s note: Antibacterial properties of honey are not news. It is very easy to understand why it is effective against bacteria. But how many doctors would use honey to treat ulcers is another story. Doctors are trained to prescribe drugs and honey is not a drug, meaning that use of honey may be limited even if it is found to be effective in fighting bacteria. Complications from a 2002 car accident left Hurlburt, a borderline diabetic, with recurring cellulitis and staph infections. One of those infections developed into a troublesome open sore that, despite the use of oral antibiotics, continued to fester for nearly eight months. Then Hurlburt’s physician, Jennifer Eddy of UW Health’s Eau Claire Family Medicine Clinic, suggested she try using topical honey. Within a matter of months, the sore had healed completely. ‘I remember thinking, holy mackerel-what a difference,’ says Hurlburt, who can’t use topical antibiotics because of allergies. ‘It’s a lot better than having to put oral antibiotics into your system.'”

This is yet another example of using natural treatments being better, more effective, and cheaper than drugs. Hopefully, folks will begin to understand this and “come around” to natural methods!

“Experts believe that treating wounds with honey has tremendous potential for the approximately 200 million people in the world with diabetes, 15 percent of whom will develop an ulcer, usually because of impaired sensation in their feet. Currently, every 30 seconds someone somewhere in the world undergoes amputation for a diabetic foot ulcer. In 2001, treating diabetic ulcers and amputations in U.S. patients cost $10.9 billion.”