Whole Leaf Aloe Vera A Holistic Protocol For The Immune System

Excerpts By Scott J. Gregory
O.M.D. Fifth Edition

Aloe Vera
For over five thousand years, folk medicine has celebrated the juice of the Aloe vera plant for its unique healing properties. Only recently, however, has modern medicine begun to unlock the deeper secrets of Aloe and to place the “miracle plant” under laboratory scrutiny. The Aloe plant is a succulent, consisting of thick green leaves with a gelatinous substance inside. Aloe juice, properly processed, contains a wide variety of healing constituents. The principal attributes are: antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, and anti-viral.
Aloe Vera - Antiseptic
The Aloe Vera plant produces six antiseptic agents: Lupeol, a natural salicylic acid, urea nitrogen, cinnamic acid, phenol, and sulfur all demonstrate anti-microbial effects. Lupeol and salicylic acid also have analgesic effects.
Aloe Vera - Anti-Inflammatory
Aloe contains three plant sterols, which are important fatty acids-HCL cholesterol (which lowers fats in the blood), campesterol, and B-sitosterol. All are helpful in reducing symptoms of allergies and acid indigestion. These compounds also aid in arthritis, rheumatic fever, both internal and external ulcers, and inflammation of the digestive system. The stomach, small intestine, liver, kidneys, and pancreas can all benefit from these anti-inflammatory effects.
Aloe Vera - Anti-Viral, Anti-Bacterial
Recent research has suggested some exciting new possibilities. Aloe not only provides vigorous overall immune system support, but aids directly in the destruction of intravascular bacteria. The reason is Aloe’s unique polysaccharide component. The body’s natural “complement system” a critical defense system involving a series of proteins only needs to be activated in order to attack bacteria. It is the polysaccharides that trigger these proteins in a sequence called the “cascade phenomenon” to take on a doughnut shape and insert themselves into the surface membranes of bacteria. Through this action they literally create holes in the bacteria, exposing the pathogens’ interior to surrounding fluids, causing their death.
Aloe Vera - Effects in HIV and AIDS
In an article in the Medical World News, December 1987 issue, titled “Aloe Drug May Mimic AZT without Toxicity,” Dr. H. Reginald McDaniel stated, “A substance in the Aloe plant shows preliminary signs of boosting AIDS patients’ immune systems and blocking the human immune-deficiency virus’ spread without toxic side effects.”

In the summer of 1989, internationally recognized AIDS expert Terry L. Pulse, M.D., conducted a systematic study of a unique nutritional regimen combining the use of an Aloe vera drink with a supplementation powder and fatty acid capsules. The objective was to determine if this nutritional regimen would help to restore the patients immune systems and increase their ability to fight current and future infections.

Twenty-eight patients remained with the study through its 180-day period. Whereas initial rating showed 16 patients classified with full-blown AIDS, at 180 days all 16 had improved so dramatically that none could any longer be placed in that category. Additionally, two were accorded a MWR (Modified Walter Reed scale) classification of 0 - or HIV negative - at the end of the study. Subsequently, an additional five patients achieved a 0 rating on the MWR scale.

Dr. Pulse’s and Dr. McDaniel’s studies, though preliminary, became the catalyst for rapidly-expanding interest in the anti-viral and immune-enhancing potential of Aloe.

A unique feature of the polysaccharides or long-chain carbohydrates in Aloe is their remarkable ability to pass through the stomach and digestive tract and into the circulatory system without being broken down by stomach acid or digestive enzymes. By a process called endocytosis, they are taken up into the cells of the intestinal lining intact and extruded into the circulatory system, where they are able to fulfill their immune-supporting functions.

Whole-Leaf Aloe Concentrate
In the past decade the marketplace has been flooded with Aloe drinks, and almost all of these have been flooded with water. In fact, many are, so dilute as to be of almost no benefit. Recent years, however, have seen the promising development of new technologies enabling the best processors not only to produce stable concentrates of Aloe, but to utilize the whole leaf. It is now known that the polysaccharides are concentrated close to the rind, where these sugars are produced, though these layers were previously discarded due to the presence of undesirable Aloe resins, aloin or Aloe emodin. But now, state-of-the-art filtering technologies permit the removal of these highly purgative components without significantly reducing the healing agents of Aloe.

Within the rapidly-growing field of Aloe research, no one has done more than Dr. Ivan Danhof, M.D., Ph.D. Recognized as one of the world’s top experts on Aloe, Dr. Danhof has helped to pioneer critical work aimed at isolating Aloe’s healing agents and developing the most favorable processing and stabilizing techniques. Importantly, these new techniques use only limited heat (called “cool processing”).