Hello and welcome to the Nutrition Facts podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Michael Greger.

Now I know I'm known for explaining how not to do certain things. Just look at my books,

how not to die. The one I'm working on right now, how not to die it. But what I actually

have to share with you is quite positive and boils down to this. What's the best way

to live a healthy life? Here are some answers. It's time for the Nutrition Facts grab bag where

we look at the latest science and a whole variety of topics. Our first story, just in time for

that sunburn you just got at the beach, looks at the risks and benefits of aloe vera.

Aloe vera is one of the most popular home revenues and used today, yet most physicians know little

about it. In fact, most dismiss it as useless while their patients firmly believe in its healing

property. The usual tendency of most doctors is to dismiss as useless any popular remedy that can

be purchased without a prescription. However, the aloe plant deserves a closer look because

surprising as it may seem, there may be a scientific basis for some of its uses. It has after

all been used additionally for thousands of years by a number of ancient civilizations,

only recently though, has it been put to the test. But the tests have been like finding out if you

can use aloe to ameliorate the damage of albino rat testicles, or affecting the cholesterol and

estrogen responses in juvenile goldfish. Yes, if you inject aloe into the bloodstream of rats,

their blood pressure drops, but if you feed it to people, it doesn't appear to have any blood

pressure lowering effect. In rats, drinking aloe causes colorectal tumors to form, whereas appears

to have intime-slumptory effects on human intestinal lining in a petri dish. But when you put it to the

test for irritable bowel syndrome, no benefit was found from proving symptoms or quality of life

in IBS patients. What about IBD, inflammatory bowel disease? No benefit found there either.

What about the beneficial effects of aloe in wound healing? Evidently so miraculous as to see more

...