I just have to look outside my door here in South Florida to find one the most potent and versatile anti-aging plants on earth.
For many years I’ve been advising my patients here at the Wellness Center to keep an aloe vera (Aloe barbadensis miller) plant in their house or garden. It comes in handy to heal sunburn damage. It also relieves pain from skin injuries, inflammation, and itching from bug bites.
But aloe vera isn’t just a topical first aid ointment. You can also eat aloe vera for your skin.
Researchers recently found that taking aloe internally works on your skin from the inside out. In fact, aloe vera gel can reverse the signs of skin aging in just 90 days.
Just One Teaspoon of Aloe a Day Reverses Photo Damage in Skin
For thousands of years traditional healers used aloe vera gel internally to soothe the digestive tract. It helps relieve heartburn, IBS, Crohn’s disease, constipation and many other digestive disorders.
Studies supported using topical aloe for skin healing, and oral aloe for digestion. Then researchers in Korea wondered whether taking aloe orally could have any effect on aging skin.
They recruited 30 healthy women over the age of 45. The women took either 1,200 mg (about a quarter teaspoon) or 3,600 mg (less than a teaspoon) per day of aloe vera gel. The researchers measured clinical signs and biochemical changes in the women’s skin before and after they supplemented with aloe vera gel.
Their results were remarkable.1 After just 90 days, facial wrinkles improved significantly in both groups, and facial elasticity improved in the lower dose group.
In the Annals of Dermatology the researchers concluded “aloe gel significantly improves wrinkles and elasticity in photoaged human skin.”
They found drinking aloe gel increased production of collagen, the basic structural component of skin. Better collagen support means fewer wrinkles.
But here’s what’s most amazing. Aloe also worked way down at the DNA level. It decreased gene activity that causes collagen to become damaged in the first place.
Aloe benefits your skin three ways. Topically it repairs damage. Taken internally it helps rebuild collagen. And deep in your DNA it fights to prevent collagen breakdown.
Put Aloe Vera’s Anti-Aging Power to Work Today
I recommend getting your gel from an aloe vera plant growing in your own home or garden. They’re inexpensive and you can find them at any garden store.
Cut an aloe leaf from your plant. Drain any dark red liquid between the rind and the gel. You don’t want to eat that “resin” or “latex.” It contains a laxative called “aloin” that can cause diarrhea.
After draining, peel off the skin of the leaf with a sharp knife. You’ll be left with a piece of gel that looks like a fish fillet. That gel is precious. It’s 96% water but also contains over 200 healing phytonutrients.
The gel can have a bitter taste. To drink it, add equal parts of the gel and some fruit juice to your blender. Or add a couple of tablespoons of aloe gel to your favorite smoothie.
Not up to harvesting your own aloe vera gel? You can easily find the juice in health food stores or online. Look for products that contain at least 85% aloe vera juice. Watch out for added sugars and preservatives.
Besides healing your skin, aloe vera can detox your digestive system. The gel moves through your intestinal tract and picks up toxins along the way. It drags them out through your colon.
Detoxing your system is a great way to make your skin shine from within. That’s why I added aloe vera to my new Purity Beauty Cleanse.
1. Soyun Cho, Serah Lee, Min-Jung Lee, Dong Hun Lee, Chong-Hyun Won, Sang Min Kim, Jin Ho Chung. Dietary Aloe Vera Supplementation Improves Facial Wrinkles and Elasticity and It Increases the Type I Procollagen Gene Expression in Human Skin in vivo. Ann Dermatol. 2009 Feb;21(1):6-11. Epub 2009 Feb 28.