Aloe Very is possible the most popular and well known herbs in today’s society. It grows as a large, cactus-like plant – in fact many people think it actually is a cactus, when in fact it’s actually part of the lili family’s succulent “aloes”.

Most people already know that aloe vera is wonderful for pain, particularly the kind you get from burns. Whether cooking burns or sun burns, aloe is often used to take away the pain. It’s known as a contact healer though, because it not only takes away the pain, it stimulates healing on the affected area as well.

Aloe can be used for sore nipples by nursing mothers, and the juice can be used as an eye drop too. Used as such, it can help improve the eye’s circulation and sight.

Another little known use of aloe vera is to relieve itching from chicken pox, poison ivy, and poison oak. And drinking aloe vera juice for several days can expel pinworms too.

Aloe vera is wonderful for many kinds of skin problems too. Since it helps remove dead skin and promotes the growth of healthy living cells, it not only helps wounds and burns heal faster but it can help your skin improve in general too.

Because it has such great results for both skin and hair care, it’s common to find aloe vera in many types of beauty and cosmetic products. One of the reasons aloe vera is so useful as a healing herb though, is because it can penetrate all three layers of your skin. This can create wonderful results when aloe vera is used with other all natural ingredients that won’t harm your body.

Unfortunately aloe vera is often mixed with harmful chemicals, colorings and additives that can be harmful to your body. And since the aloe vera penetrates your skin so well, it helps carry those toxins deeper into your body as well.

This is one of the reasons aloe vera suntan lotions tend to sting. These popular products often contain alcohol and perfumes added to the aloe vera, so when you apply them to a sunburn, the pain isn’t often taken away as you’d expect. Instead it stings or hurts when it goes on, then it doesn’t really feel any better later. It also doesn’t seem to heal as fast as you’d expect it to.

Using pure, 100% aloe vera juice or gel however, almost always relieves the pain as soon as you put it on, and the healing happens much faster too.

So be sure to read product labels, and understand what you might be putting into your body when buying aloe vera products. My recommendation would be to stick with 100% natural and pure if at all possible.

NOTE: Statements in this article may not be approved by the FDA, and are not made by a licensed medical practitioner or physician.

Chickweed is another little known herb which has a wide variety of medicinal and wellness uses. Chickweed is actually an edible plant which can be used as a table vegetable, and it can be used to create teas, or “green drinks”. It’s quite high in Vitamin C, calcium, magnesium and potassium too.

Chickweed is another contact healing herb. That means it relieves pain in addition to stiumlating healing as soon as it’s applied. It can be used both internally and externally for healing, and has even been used throughout history to stop bleeding in the stomach and bowels.

Chickweed is an excellent addition to poultices, ointments and salves too. It not only decreases pain, but it helps reduce swelling as well. I’ve created poultices which included chickweed, to bring down swelling and reduce pain in torn ligaments. It’s especially useful for this when mixed with pure aloe vera juice, because the aloe vera helps penetrate all three layers of the skin, and this allows the chickweed to reach the underlying damaged areas and begin removing the pain and starting the healing process.

Chickweed in tea form is excellent for use as an acne wash, and it can even be added to a bath to help with sores, rashes, boils and burns.

This herb is also excellent for blood vessels and your circulatory system. Taken internally it helps purify the blood and carry out toxins, and is even known to help with blood poisoning too. It also dissolves plaque in blood vessels, as well as dissolving fatty tumors and substances then removing them from the body.

Chickweed is also a little known herb which helps with weight loss. It actually works as an appetite depressant and is used in many weight loss herbal combinations.

A general cleansing combination you can make yourself in fact, which helps you lose weight, is a combination of Chickweed, Mandrake, Licorice, Safflowers, Echinacea, Black Walnut, Gota Kola, Hawthorne Berries, Papaya, Fennel Seed and Dandelion.

You can add extra chickweed to decrease your appetite more and help aid in losing weight. Personally I don’t use the combination noted above though, because it seems like an awful lot of stuff to buy. So instead I use a general cleanser such as Chlorophyll, and take Chickweed along with it. Sometimes I’ll also add in Echinacea since that helps normalize blood sugar levels too, which also helps your body lose weight and shed fat.

NOTE: Statements in this article may not be approved by the FDA, and are not made by a licensed medical practitioner or physician.