Are there any aloe vera side effects in our Aloe-Spa treatments? Are there any aloe vera contraindications?

In general terms, aloe vera may be used both for internal and external uses.

During thousand of years aloe vera has been used for its medicinal, health and beauty properties (particularly in skin care). While Cleopatra used Aloe to enhance her beauty, Alexander Magnus conquered the Socotra island to have aloe vera supplies for its soldiers.

Aloe vera offers numerous benefits due to its properties and is used in ulcers, burns and many diseases from general infections to arthritis, diarrhea, constipation, indigestion, haemorroids, cardiac disease, mosquito bites, tendinitis or urinary infections, among others.

When you drink aloe vera you must have certain precautions, particularly for the laxative effects. Anyway, such laxative effects has relationship with the final aloin content of the juice or capsule. More aloin it has, more laxative effects.

However, in our Aloe-Spa treatments, most products are for external uses, where aloe vera has many possitive effects for the skin and it´s applied to most types of skin with benefitial results.

The case is different for our Aloe-Spa tretaments where aloe has internal use, because it must be drink or eaten. Aloe vera has unusual side effects in very rare ocassions. If any side effects appears when using aloe vera, one must stop inmediately and consult a doctor or health care professional. At some cases, aloe vera side effects may be caused by a long term use of aloe juice, gel, capsule or pill.

In our detox and nutrition programs, the spa goer health conditions must be verified, and franchisee must check if the customer has a good health condition and the cases where aloe may have any contraindication.

Drinking aloe juices may have contraindication, in the following situations:

• When you have abdominal pain
• When you are a child
• When you are pregnant or becoming pregnant
• When you are menstruating
• When you are breast feeding
• When you have inflamed intestinal disease, appendicitis, ulcerative colitis or Crohn´s disease *
• When you have some eating disorders like anorexia or bulimia
• When you are taking antiarithmic medication or medication with cardiac glycosides
• When you are taking diuretics or corticosteroids

It has been reported that sotmach cramps or intestinal spasms may be a result of an overdose of aloe vera juice. Dehydration is another cause of large aloe vera juice ingestion. Some cases of diarrhea are reported after drinking aloe vera juice, but it usually may happen when aloe vera juice has a high aloin content into the formulation. Same situation happens when kidney problems are observed. Mostly, it is due to the high aloin percentage into the juice. For those reasons, we at Aloe-Spa offers juices with minimum aloin content or no aloin. Pink or red color urine may be observed in certain cases after aloe vera ingestion.

Consult a doctor before use if you are under medical supervision.

Pregnant or lactating women should consult a doctor before using any product.

*Aloe vera gel has been claimed to have anti-inflammatory effects on inflammatory bowel diseases or ulcerative colitis. See our main Aloetrade America site for general research on aloe vera.