Anyone drink Aloe Vera juice?

[CathyA]

Just curious if anyone uses it and why. And if you've noticed that it helps in any way? I bought some recently to help with digestion, but I don't know if it works or not, since I'm doing a few other things that might also be helping.

[Rosemary]

I will be curious to hear what results you experience. I've done some reading about it and could not find anything very conclusive, so have not tried it. But as you know, things like aloe vera juice don't get the funding for real trials that big pharma's drugs do.

[RosieTR]

My sister drinks aloe juice for her Crohn's disease. She claims it helps and it's quite likely it could, since the disease is basically the immune system causing inflammation from attacking the normal gut bacteria, and aloe is known to help reduce inflammation. By that reasoning, any type of inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn's, celiac, IBD, colitis) would possibly be helped by this, and other anti-inflammatory substances should also help. As far as whether aloe helps with digestion itself, I'm not sure. For a mild food allergy, possibly: allergies are by their very nature inappropriate inflammatory responses. For something like lactose intolerance, maybe not. The difference is that lactose intolerance is when someone is lacking the enzyme to digest lactose, versus the body attacking lactose as in an allergy. It's possible even lactose intolerance creates some inflammation, so maybe aloe would even help that but I don't think this sort of thing has been sorted out well in the scientific/medical community. There is a LOT they don't know about the gut. It's likely they don't even know all the species/genus of bacteria that inhabit the gut, and they definitely don't know why people's bacterial loads differ in terms of numbers, proportions of different families/genus/species, what changes it nor what affect that has on the immune system, neurological system, propensity for obesity, etc etc etc.
Upshot: probably doesn't hurt to try unless it's pretty expensive or makes you feel ill.

[ctg492]

CathyA, How long have you been using it? When I try some new herb/suppliment, I give it three months before I make a decision.

[CathyA]

Thanks everyone.

I've only tried it for a week. I guess I'm hesitant to keep it up until I see the GI doc on Wednesday. I don't want to confuse the issue.
I also had been taking slippery elm for about 2 weeks. Its really hard to tell what's helping and what's not, since my GI tract is so inconsistent.
Every Fall, I fall apart for some strange reason, and I guess my GI tract gets to be the guest of honor this year. :(

I'll be relieved to find out for sure what's going on, since my ovary areas have been hurting and GI problems are common with ovarian cancer. I also have strange stomach problems. All this has been going on intermittently for about 16 years. It had all calmed down fairly nicely until a couple weeks ago, when it all went to hell again. Sometimes, its a real bummer being me!
About the Aloe Juice.......I use a pure Aloe with a little lemon in it. DS wanted to try it and he almost gagged. But it doesn't bother me. Sort of tastes like green olives.....which I like.
Thanks for your help!

[Jemima]

I've been having a lot of trouble with hay fever symptoms, so my podiatrist gave me a recipe containing aloe juice and grapefruit seed oil that she got at a local health food store. I haven't tried it yet, but I intend to go there and have a chat with the owner who is apparently the local, unofficial "medicine man".

I'd suggest that if you try an herbal remedy or a supplement that you try only one at a time. Wait until you get results - or not - and go from there. Some supplements and herbs can take weeks to work, others help right away. Some never help at all.