I have always had green fingers & thumbs, but I was first introduced to Aloe Vera (Barbadensis Miller) around 7 – 8 years ago.
My friend Paul suffered from terrible Psoriasis, with patches on his hands, arms, face & forehead. To his credit, Paul tried everything to cure his condition & kept an open mind.Once all the medicinal creams & lotions and all the pills & tablets he was prescribed by his Doctors had failed, he turned to Nutrition, seeking out new information & changing his diet drastically in an attempt to rid himself of this awful auto-immune disease. He completely cut out all Wheat, Dairy, Sugar & God-knows what else in an attempt to purify his body-temple, and in fairness this did have a positive effect on his Psoriasis, reducing the outbreaks, redness, inflammation, flakiness, etc.
However, it did not cure it. At best, it kept the symptoms at bay for longer periods of time.
But they would always return.
I think it was sometime in 2007 when Paul paid me a visit – THE visit – and he was noticeably excited about something. Little did I know that, in due course, this visit would change my life! He brought an Aloe Vera Leaf with him that he had purchased Online, and it was MASSIVE. It was at least the length of my arm and just as wide..
I remember holding it – the weight, the texture, the colour, the majesty – and I was hooked! Paul demonstrated what he had learned online – how to slice open the leaf & use the gel inside. He rubbed a section of the open leaf on his forehead (where he always had the worst & most noticeable outbreaks) and the redness & flakiness immediately diminished, being replaced with a freshly moisturised look.
Within seconds, the gel had evaporated from his head, leaving a cooler looking, much lighter patch of red with no flakes at all!
The following visit, he bought me an Aloe Vera Plant as a present – much smaller than the leaf he had previously shown me – but still glowing & beautiful. And this is when my love affair with Aloe Vera really began. Paul persisted with his new & improved diet AND continued to rub Aloe Vera Leaves on his skin.
A few months later, another friend of mine said his Mother had an Aloe Vera Plant that needed splitting & repotting, as it had produced too many baby plants & was struggling in its original pot. There were three of us in the end – Ash, Dave & I – and we spent an afternoon repotting the Aloe Vera Pups. We kept three plants each & returned the rest along with the Mother Plant to Ash’s Mother (who was very happy with the results). From the initial three plants I took home, I grew over 50 plants in the first year & over 200 plants in the second! Although I say ‘I grew’ them, the truth is Aloe Vera propagates itself very generously, and all I had to do was split them up each time & replant them, ‘creating’ new plants in individual pots.
A final mention goes to another friend, John, who gave me 20 small Aloe Vera Plants in 2008 which had been left outside & gone limp from drowning in the rain! They all needed stripping & repotting & a lot of TLC, but they all recovered & grew into beautiful plants.
Since then, I have been working with & studying Aloe Vera constantly. I use it in my personal life daily, both internally by blending it into Vegetable Juices & Smoothies, and also topically on my face, skin, hair & beard. My main aim is to raise public awareness that Aloe Vera is not just a beautiful, ornamental plant which can help relieve sunburn, but also a complete vegetable – a Vegan Superfood – with an impressive range of Vitamins, Minerals, Nutrients & Amino Acids. I wish to encourage everyone to try NATURAL, FRESH, RAW ALOE VERA for themselves, especially if they have an ailment which the medical industry (because that’s all it is – an industry!) has failed to help with.
Having said that, I find it an opportune moment to repeat the old adage “Prevention is better than cure” and to remind you that you don’t have to wait until you are old, ill and / or dying to make some positive lifestyle changes!
“If diet is wrong, medicine is of no use. If diet is right, medicine is of no need.”
“Let food be thy medicine & medicine be thy food.” Hippocrates
HAPPY ALOE!! And always remember to remember your ROOTS!!
