You may swear by your trusted aloe vera for sunburn after a day spent way too long in the sun. But did you know aloe vera is the oldest medicinal plant used for other health benefits?
We can trace aloe vera as far back as 3500-4000 BC, when the Egyptians, and many generations after them, used it for its various healing and health properties.
To this day, aloe vera is still used for its anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, soothing, and detoxifying properties. It is also packed with vitamins and antioxidants.
Due to all these powerful properties, many are using aloe vera for detox purposes. A combination of these properties, minerals, vitamins, antioxidants, and beneficial plant compounds, aids the body in cleansing itself by getting rid of toxins, improving immunity, and aiding digestion.
But first, we must know why the body needs to detoxify itself, what causes toxins, and how you can assist the body in detoxing with aloe vera.
Why Detox?
Detoxification is a crucial process in the human body as it eliminates a build-up of toxins in your body.
Toxins that accumulate over time can lead to health issues and significantly affect your health in the long run. Toxins can cause constipation; poor digestion; bloating; fatigue; joint pain; muscle ache; skin problems; bad breath; heart disease; cancer; arthritis; food allergies.
By removing toxins, or detoxifying, you are cleansing your body of waste on both a cellular and deep tissue level.
The body can detoxify itself, mainly through the liver, kidneys, bowels, lymph, and skin. Unfortunately, we live in a time where our food, water, sleep, exercise, and environmental quality could be better—making it extremely hard for the liver to do an outstanding job all by itself.
And this is where our bodies need some extra help from our actions to improve the detoxifying process.
Quite a few lifestyle factors and poor bodily functions can increase toxins in the body. These are some leading culprits:
Constipation can cause the accumulation of harmful bacteria, yeast, and parasites in the body, increasing toxins and an underperforming immune system.
Poor digestion of complex foods like animal protein, dairy, complex carbs, fiber-rich foods, and sugar leads to the accumulation of waste and toxins in the body.
The build-up of mercury, lead, arsenic, and plastic particles in the body initiates toxicity and can lead to chronic poisoning.
Lifestyle factors including alcohol, smoking, sugar-laden foods, and foods high in saturated fats.
