Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine - Sawbones: Aloe

Episode Date: July 29, 2016

Sure, it may seem like a magical plant, but just how helpful is that big bottle of green goo on your shelf? This week: Dr. Sydnee and Justin present the medical history of aloe. Music: "Medicines" by ...The Taxpayers

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Saubones is a show about medical history, and nothing the hosts say should be taken as medical advice or opinion. It's for fun. Can't you just have fun for an hour and not try to diagnose your mystery boil? We think you've earned it. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy a moment of distraction from that weird growth. You're worth it. that weird growth. You're worth it. Alright, time is about to books! One, two, one, two, three, four! I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a sense the I'm not a For the mouth. Wow. Hello, everybody, and welcome to Saw Bones, a metal tube of misguided medicine.
Starting point is 00:01:07 I'm your girl who is Justin McAroy. Can I'm Sydney McAroy? Sydney, it is so hot. It is very hot, Justin. It's really hot, Sydney. Well, I mean, not in here. It is kind of hot in here, actually. I'm not in the AC on down here.
Starting point is 00:01:19 I think it's quite comfortable. You're, it's not a, it's not a, yeah, your body temperature is messed up. But my body temperature is messed up. That's medically medical diagnosis from just in that part. Okay, second egg. But no, it's been like super duper high here forever and it's so hot you can barely go outside.
Starting point is 00:01:38 It is, it's very hot and it's very muggy which I understand most humans don't enjoy. Yeah, but you're like deeply into it, huh? I really like humidity. I think it feels nice. I. Yeah, but you're like deeply into it, huh? I really like humidity. I think it feels nice. I think it feels like you're in a bathtub, except you're not. You're outside and the air is like the water,
Starting point is 00:01:52 except it's air, and you can breathe it. It's like air, it's like water, you can breathe. Do you need to explain that again? That's medically, Sam. Air. Air, water, you can breathe. Okay, human air, right? It's water, it's like a big humidifier.
Starting point is 00:02:06 God's just running his big ol' humidifier out there to it right there. And it feels great. It doesn't. I like when the air feels like the same as my skin. It's been good though, because we haven't had to wear a lot of sun coat, because we just don't go outside that much.
Starting point is 00:02:18 Because it's so hot. It's just too hot to go outside. We're very diligent about sunburns here in the McRoy family, but it is not always that way. Sometimes you try your best and it just doesn't work out. We are both prone to burn. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:02:30 And we have experienced that unfortunately in the past. Although we, I do want to make the point though, even though we have burnt before, we are huge advocates of sunscreen and not getting burnt. And our daughter has never gotten a drop of sun. The sun have never touched her skin. No. Her skin is as pale as the day she was born.
Starting point is 00:02:48 It has never been otherwise because I hold her down and slather her head to toe in sunscreen. It's all over. Every time she goes outside. It's a workout. It's a sun. Dead up winter, she's wearing a snow suit. There is no sun.
Starting point is 00:02:59 She is slathered in sunscreen. That's an exaggeration. But when you do get bursed, it's good because we got to cure all. I mean, you got to cure for it. It cures all some burdens. The cure all for burns. Like you're all for burns. It's a aloe. That's true.
Starting point is 00:03:13 We do use a lot of aloe for that. Yeah. And you don't even have to have an aloe plant anymore. You can just have like a bottle of that green goo. I remember getting burnt down in Florida once when I was a little kid, and Manani had an aloe plant, and I thought it was so amazing to watch her break a leaf off.
Starting point is 00:03:33 It was like something out of a crawl or some of the lady hawks, some of our fancy property to the 80s, to watch her break a leaf in half and take the goo out, put it on my skin and it actually helps. It is, isn't I remember mom had one in the window when we were growing up and her breaking that open when we get burned or something and just thinking, wow, it's amazing. It's medicine. Why are there more things like that? Like why don't we have more plants currently to help us out?
Starting point is 00:04:00 Well, I mean to be fair that we, there are some that would argue we do. Yeah. But we kind of do a podcast about how a lot of them don't work. Oh, yeah, that's a good, that's a good argument. But let's talk about aloe. Let's talk about aloe. First of all, thank you, Leslie, for recommending this topic.
Starting point is 00:04:19 Aloe is probably the most commonly used medicinal plant. I think it's the one most people are familiar with. If you were to say like name a plant that has a medicine, most people would say, I don't know, aloe. I mean, there are others, but most people would say that, I think. Yeah. Especially, specifically aloe vera.
Starting point is 00:04:35 Okay. Is what you're usually talking about? Because there are aloe, there are different alos. There are lots of alos. Aloe is not one plant. There are many types of aloe. They're part of the lily family. I didn't know that. Allovera, specifically, what we're talking about is native to Northern
Starting point is 00:04:50 Africa. And the one that you're thinking of that people will call the true allow, the one true allow, is allobarbidensis miller. You know, I went to school with an allobarbidensis miller. Actually actually sweet girl. No. Little slow but sweet. If you've seen the, you've probably seen the aloe plant. Have you have, and it's got these thick, pointy kind of triangular shaped sort of leaves, is that fair to say?
Starting point is 00:05:17 Yeah. And they're real thick, and they're kind of firm on the outside. And the leaves have different parts. There's like the outer protective layer, like the rind of it. If you break it open, there's the sap, which is like this just really bitter fluid in it that actually is specifically there so animals don't eat it. Oh, weird. We taste bad.
Starting point is 00:05:37 Okay. You know, it's an evolutionary kind of thing. It adapted to be bitter. That can't stop us though. No, it doesn't stop us as I'll tell you about it. Nothing stops us. No, once we get our mindset on something, we're pretty humans.
Starting point is 00:05:51 Yeah, nothing stops us. No matter how bad the idea, nothing stops us. There's the musilage gel, which is the inner part of the leaf that you take out that actually makes like what we think of as aloe, like the gooey gel stuff. All right. Like there's a liquidy stuff and then there's like a gooey stuff. And then there's the actual like inner gel, which is, that's the best part of the gel. That's a good, they're real, really good gel.
Starting point is 00:06:17 The dank gel. That people will tell you has like the essential amino acids that you need. People who like say that aloe cures things other than, you know, a burn. Okay. Because there are those. That's unfortunate. As we'll get into it.
Starting point is 00:06:35 But aloe goes back a really long time. We have been using aloe to cure various ailments since we were using anything to cure various ailments essentially. It was one of our favorite plants to cure various ailments, essentially. It was one of our favorite plants to eat and rub on ourselves. As we are want to do with plants. In Mesopotamia, Ella was eaten because it works well as a laxative. Oh, great.
Starting point is 00:06:58 Man, what kid does this plant do? I mean, don't use it as a laxative. Oh, okay. It will give you severe abdominal cramps, but it will make you poop a lot. We got that wrong for you then. It does do that. There are just better ways of doing that. And it was kind of regarded as sacred,
Starting point is 00:07:13 but that's largely because at the time, disease was thought to be like a curse, like something evil. To a de facto sacred. Exactly. Anything that, I don't know, it would have to be sacred to clean you out that efficiently. It must be the work of God.
Starting point is 00:07:28 Oh, it's the X-lax. They put a little altar around that, a little temple for it. The Egyptians were fans of Aloe. It is said that it was used in the beauty regiment of Cleopatra. I found that multiple places, but I also found multiple sources
Starting point is 00:07:45 that said this could probably just a legend. I don't know. That sounds like something that would be on a beauty website. Doesn't it? Doesn't it? It's a little questionable. Cleopatra's beauty secret. The secret of the Nile revealed today. I'm sure I've seen that commercial now that you say that.
Starting point is 00:08:01 It sounds real. I feel like I definitely have. So maybe Cleopatra did use it. It was used at the time. Let me say that. And it was used for a lot of skin issues. So the idea that it would have been rubbed on your face to keep your skin looking nice is not that far-fetched. It had a lot of religious significance.
Starting point is 00:08:17 For instance, you could hang it in a doorway to ward off evil. It was used to treat something that was probably tuberculosis, like if you read. I mean, they weren't calling it that, but that's probably what we're talking about. Infectively, I'm assuming. Yes. And if you read the Ebers Papyrus, which we reference a lot, it advises many curious
Starting point is 00:08:34 for many things, including aloe for any kind of inflammation or pain. It's weird. I kind of feel bad. Like, we give all time to people a hard time on the show a lot, but like this is a tough one because yeah, I see what you guys are going with this. Like I can see why you would think Aloe would be good for all this stuff because it, I mean, fair dinkum,
Starting point is 00:08:55 if you put it on your skin, actually get a sunburn, that's feel better. Like, it feels nice. It feels nice. And it looks, I will say this, the Aloe plant looks like it's some sort of secret medicine because they're leaves and then you break them open and they're secret medicine. Secret medicine.
Starting point is 00:09:08 Secret medicine. And that looks like something, I don't know if I'm like a video game or something. Like you don't expect that to happen and then it's there and so I understand that. I understand that. It looks more magical than a lot of plants. Aloe had a price associated with it. Aloe was valuable. So for instance, if you're going to attend a funeral
Starting point is 00:09:27 of someone who was important, especially like a, you know, like a Pharaoh or someone who was, you know, well regarded, well thought of, higher in the caste system, you would want, you would bring something to it. I don't want to say like a price, there wasn't like an admission price. But if you were going to show up, you better bring something. Sure. Don't come empty handed.
Starting point is 00:09:47 Look at the product. Because you know, people were buried with all of their worldly possessions. And lots of things they didn't possess that were kind of offered up with them. And a pound of aloe was a pretty well accepted. Like this is something you could bring to a funeral and would make you look pretty good. Now, the more aloe you could bring the better, the idea being that if aloe keeps us, it was supposed to give us longevity, keep us alive longer, keep us looking younger and that kind of thing that it would also be good for a dead person like to spiritually.
Starting point is 00:10:18 Sure. And they would just provide them immortality. And they would just bear it with them. Yeah. Wow, hot tip for solbums listeners, if you all can get out there, there's some free aloe in the ground just like sitting there. If you find an old timey temple,
Starting point is 00:10:30 it's just gonna be chock full of free aloe. Are you telling them to rob graves for aloe? Aloe. Graves for free aloe. I don't, I'm not gonna tell our listeners to rob graves. No, but like also like where you could free aloe. What you also could have gone with also go with that as it's only this a plant and it's almost certainly dust.
Starting point is 00:10:48 It's another angle. You could take the thwart my plant if you're just going to be antagonist. Listen, I'm a doctor, not a botanist, okay? Care enough. It was also used with Mer when you were prepping like bodies and clothes for burial. That kind of thing. You know, we think about Mer a lot, but Allo is also part of that. That's actually mentioned biblically as well. It was associated with youth and beauty and immortality. There's a legend that the nights of
Starting point is 00:11:13 Templar made a drink out of Allo and Palm wine and hemp, and they called it the elixir of Jerusalem, and it was used to like make you live longer. I didn't know the nights of Templar were real. I thought that was something from the Da Vinci God or something. It's a very sassan's creed. Yeah, something like that. Apparently they're real, right? I don't I can't help you with this
Starting point is 00:11:32 one. Sit. I'm sorry. You're not there. Why are you trying to? I mean, tricked. I thought I don't know. Again, I'm a doctor. I'm not a historian. Yeah. Okay. Let's just hope the nights temple are real.
Starting point is 00:11:44 This episode is where I tell you all the things I am not an expert in. There is an island of Secotra, which is near the Horn of Africa, and it is known for having lots of alloplants grow there. And there is a legend, and then this is known to be like possibly not true, like this is a legend. We don't know that this is necessarily the motivation, but Alexander the Great conquered this island. And one of the legends about why he did this was because Aristotle said, hey, they've got like a lot of aloe there.
Starting point is 00:12:16 You should conquer them. Yeah, and it's just there and they buried it. There's dummies. It's just waiting for you to scoop it out. It's just all there. So go get it. And he did know it is known that Alexander the Great used Aloe in his soldier, like for his soldiers in battle.
Starting point is 00:12:32 He would have carts with Aloe plants, like live growing plants on them, carted alongside the soldiers on the battlefield. So that if someone got wounded, you would have like instant Aloe. Aloe boy, Aloe boy over here. Exactly. It's sort of like the water boy on it.
Starting point is 00:12:47 After they won every fight they would dump a cask of aloe on the Alexander and the Ten. No, it would be huge a lamb buzzer for sure. Not just you don't mean the actual plants. He actually started trying to lose at some point. I'm pleased I can't go through it. Please stop throwing aloe plants, please. They're so sprainy. Um, so I'm pleased I can't go through it. Please stop throwing at allo plants, please make me. Please, they're so spiny.
Starting point is 00:13:05 Um, so, so I mean, maybe he did. He liked to allo, who was a fan of it, he used it on wounds a lot, maybe he did. In India, it was called the Silent Healer, as it spread throughout the world, it got different names in China, the harmonic remedy in Russia, the elixir of longevity. It's also mentioned in Song of Solomon in the Bible, which, to my understanding, is the sexy part. The racy part of the Bible. Yeah, it's a little racy.
Starting point is 00:13:26 That's what Justin tells me. It's called Bible After Dark. Is that what you call it? I can't we call that one. You're when you were not a kid in Sunday school. Is that you? There's a racy stuff. Let's open the Bible and song a Solomon.
Starting point is 00:13:40 Yeah. Find out about life. It spread along trade routes because like I said, it had a value, it had value to it. It could be traded for other goods and products and things and so its medical use is expanded from there. We see it advised by discorities to be used for everything. This is when you really start to see aloe as kind of a panacea. So boils, itchy skin, as kind of a panacea. So boils, itchy skin, all serrated genitals.
Starting point is 00:14:06 Sure. Which I mean, I imagine you're just gonna try anything on at that point. Bruising, bleeding, your tonsils gum, or throat problems, it was good for sunburn. Hey. Yeah, acne, hair loss, as well as particularly good for soothing the foreskin.
Starting point is 00:14:22 Just when it's had a rough day. That was. Sorry. Okay, just when it's had our rough day. I was sorry. Okay, moving on. Plenty agreed with actually a lot of plenty, plenty of the elder, plenty of the elder show show friend, friend of the show, friend of the show, friend of the show, plenty of the elder, agreed with a lot of these uses.
Starting point is 00:14:39 You actually checked out a lot of the ones discorities had claimed and was like, oh, let me look into this. Oh, you're right. Yes, I agree with all these things definitely. Yes, good. I'll put this in my book too, which is always what Plenty said about anything. Yeah, that works. It works on that too. Sure. Probably works for them. Who am I to sit here and judge? He also added, by the way, because he had to put his on spin on spin on everything. Oh, yeah. He got to remix everything.
Starting point is 00:14:59 He added that it was also good for leprosy and that it could be used as an anti-perspirant. Sure. So leprosy and that it could be used as an antiperspirant. Sure. So leprosy, sweating, you know, all things. Can we establish something real quick? And you probably will talk about this a little later maybe, but like it does relieve pain, right? That's not a whole thing. Like of a sunburn or something.
Starting point is 00:15:18 Yeah. It is soothing for sunburn skin. Sothing. Yes. But it is not, okay, so you're making a distinction between whether or not it blocks pain receptors in the brain as pain relief, right? Well, yeah, well, yeah, I mean there are other ways to soothe pain other than blocking pain relief receptors in the brain though. Right. That is one method of pain relief.
Starting point is 00:15:35 But it doesn't numb the skin. Well, I would say this, if it soothes the skin and you get pain relief from it, then it is relieving pain. All right, are you as semantics here? I am, I am. That is just semantics. Yes, it does. People will, there's something that doesn't necessarily
Starting point is 00:15:49 imply medicinal though. Like if you rub ice on it, that doesn't make it medicine. Right. Okay. There you go. Okay. Ding ding ding.
Starting point is 00:15:58 All right. Ding ding ding. Is the heating pad on your back when your muscles are sore medicine? No, sweetie. You're a doctor, you should not miss. No, I'm just okay. It's pretty me my point.
Starting point is 00:16:08 Anyway, the Chinese material in the 7th century talked about also using it for stiny cytos as well as skin-conditioned skin conditions are a common theme with all of this. A lot of people agree that if you have something wrong with your skin and you put aloe on it, it at least feels better, even if it's not getting better. It was brought to the new world largely by the Jesuit priest of Spain, who it was even said that it was like brought on ships, like the plants, themselves were grown and like carried across the oceans and brought on ships. It's mentioned that maybe even Christopher Columbus had this. Well nice. I'm not sure. And it was used for various
Starting point is 00:16:42 healing purposes, and then they also found other versions of alloplants growing in the new world already. So we began to see that this was widespread, which again kind of perpetuated this idea, like, oh, this must be like a magical healing plant because it's everywhere. Right. Everywhere humans are found. Anybody else? Tell them about some more. Well, I'm going to tell you about some more, but first, why don't you come with me to the
Starting point is 00:17:05 building department? Let's go! The medicines, the medicines, the ask you lift my cards for the mouth. Hey Max Fun Community, this is your friend Elizabeth Gilbert, author of ePreyLove and a bunch of other stuff. I am a longtime member, supporter, and devoted follower of Maximum Fund. And now finally, I have my own podcast on the network. It's called Magic Lessons. And it is me coaching people through their creative issues and problems. This season, we have some amazing creators that were helping through their joys and struggles of making something out of nothing. And then I bring in special guests like Glen and Doyle Melton,
Starting point is 00:17:43 Brandon Stanton, Martha Beck, the poet Mark Nipo, Michael E. and Blacks, Sarah Jones, Gary Shingart. These amazing friends of mine to come and help coach these people so that they can get their work done. I hope you'll tune into it. It's called Magic Lessons, and it's all about love. All right, so you said you had some other folks for me to hear about. Yeah, that's true.
Starting point is 00:18:05 The really interesting thing is we go through the history of Aloe is that every culture who came in contact with Aloe was like immediately intrigued by its possible medicinal uses. And part of that is through the where it came from. If it was, like I said, if the Jesuit priests were bringing it to the New World and saying, hey, look at this medicinal plant, obviously you would assume it was. But even other places where they didn't necessarily have
Starting point is 00:18:32 that first contact kind of assumed had medicinal value. There was a Swedish doctor, Uranus, who devised a heathtonic based mostly around allot is the active ingredient, there are other ingredients, but it is considered the active ingredient. And it was a Swedish bitters. So we've mentioned before on the show, where you may already be familiar with the idea
Starting point is 00:18:52 that there are a lot of alcoholic things. I don't know if it's, I don't wanna call it a beverage. Bitters aren't really a beverage. No, I mean mixers, I guess. It's like a mixer. A lot of things like mixers that were initially devised as sort of like health tonics where
Starting point is 00:19:08 you could get like secret drinking in, especially during pro-abession. Mixers isn't even right either, because mixers would to know imply like OJ or Ginger Ale or something. Yeah. I don't know what you would say. Temple. Temple? Whatever you would want to call bitters.
Starting point is 00:19:23 A dash or something cheerful. And and initially it was something that didn't necessarily taste very good, but a lot of things like that were thought to be good for you. Sure. It was supposed to contain a lot of things that, you know, were like, health tonics, like good, good boosters to your health and that kind of thing. Um, and then the, the secret bonuses that it was also alcoholic. And so you could get like secret drinking and even though the government wasn't letting you. And bitters, in case you didn't try them, aren't that bitter? You know, bitters aren't bitter.
Starting point is 00:19:53 They're the pepper of the drink. So good bitters of try. It might taste better than you think. I just wrote that poem about bitters. No, you didn't. I did. You just wrote that poem. Yeah. Just wrote that poem about bitters. Really? Yeah. Are you messing with me? No, you didn't I did you just wrote that poem. Yeah, just wrote that poem about bitters really yeah Are you messing with no I wrote it just sounds like a jingle? It does it does sound like a jingle, but I wrote it off top of my head TM TM right now trademark it Okay, mail it to yourself later. Okay, mail mail us this podcast later. Yeah, I Every put this podcast in an envelope and anyway with one dollar and mail it up this podcast in an envelope. Anyway. With $1 in mail it up.
Starting point is 00:20:24 No wait, this is written in a money on a scam. I was kind of around a scam. Don't listen to me. I'll stop scamming you now. So the health tonic, Swedish bitters, it was an ounce of aloe, a gross of zedowary root, gentian root, the best of saffron, a gross of fine rhubarb root, a gross of large fungus, a gross of teriac venetian, all mixed with a pint of good quality brandy, let brew for 10 days, then filter. That sounds great. There it is. And then the doctor's prescription of this, so
Starting point is 00:20:59 you have big bottle of it now, right? Okay. You got a big bottle of it. So what you're going to do is take seven to eight drops every morning, and that's only seven to eight drops. That's kind of a bummer except, except you could dilute it in wine. Perfect, okay. So seven to eight drops, you didn't wine.
Starting point is 00:21:17 If you wanna use tea or boi in, you can, but I mean wine. And then, you know, you're gonna live forever without needing to ever have bloodletting done. Perfect, excellent. That was the specific thing. It was remedy to fix. You won't need a doctor to cut you and bleed you. It's a good alternative, a fun alternative. Which what I love about that is, let's imagine that the doctor prescribing it to you is like
Starting point is 00:21:42 also the doctor who would, you know, if you were sick, bleed you for that illness, if you take this, I don't have to bleed you. Well, it's like, it's like a threat. Listen, I shouldn't even be telling you this. My manager is in the next room and if he heard me trying to cut us out of a bloodletting sale, he would just kill me. But really, if you pick up this bottle of bitters, you're not going to need to be bleeding bloodletting. But don't see it seriously. You didn't hear that from me. Also, you get to drink it in wine. You get to drink it whenever you want. In Sanskrit, Allah is known as Gertakumari.
Starting point is 00:22:13 Kumar means girl. And it was believed that this plant has something to do with the energy of women, as specifically young women, and like a rejuvenating, revitalizing effect on women and our female nature. And all of that is to say it was prescribed for your lady times. Oh great, okay.
Starting point is 00:22:33 For your difficult monthly visitor ant flow. Got it. No, you don't need to lay it out for me anymore. When you're surfing the crimson waves. Okay, I'm 35. Like I get it. I know what's happening here. So it was prescribed for periods to like, I don't know.
Starting point is 00:22:49 Chill. Chill, chill, chill. Chill women out. Thank you. That's exactly what I want when I'm in my period. Hand me some aloe. Just chill. I'll throw that out and just take the wine.
Starting point is 00:22:59 Thank you very much. Around 1100 and through the Middle Ages, there was Hilda Gard of Bingen, who was famous for using allows. She was a Benedictine nun. And she recommended that you start using allows for Ictris, which means it's related to John Dess. Too much Billy Ribbon.
Starting point is 00:23:20 Got it. I don't know where we're going over there. So basically some sort of liver problem, any kind of infections of the stomach, headaches, dental, carries, so cavities. That's the very, and that's actually something that persists to this day, this idea that allos good for cavities. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:23:35 And then any kind of ulcers as well. And so you start to see, again, more wound care, more and more wound care being done. And throughout the ages, a lot of these ideas about what Aloe could be good for and what you can use it for have kind of stuck. So as we go around the world, you've seen a lot of different cultures. Aloe is still being used as kind of like a folk remedy or a, you know, and I don't mean like in their, like a doctor's prescribing Aloe instead of some sort of medicine. I'm really talking about like home remedies, folk medicine.
Starting point is 00:24:01 That's the same kind of stuff you find in the US, especially in like rural places here, I see a lot of this kind of thing. But in the Philippines, it's often used with milk and you drink it for like kidney infections, aloe and milk. In Japan, you can find a lot of yogurt flavored with aloe. I guess they're also aloe flavored beverages.
Starting point is 00:24:21 Oh, wow, okay. Which I've never had. I've never thought of aloe having a flavor, but I'm sure, I guess it might. I mean Oh, wow, okay. Which I've never had. I've never thought of having a flavor, but I'm sure I mean, I guess it is. I mean, it must, yeah. And then in India, there's a region that uses it in its curry, famously. Oh, okay.
Starting point is 00:24:33 Now with days, it's used for mainly skin stuff, specifically burns, right? I think that's where we all kind of think of aloe being used. My first thought, yeah. Right, you can either get the plant itself or like the green jelly stuff that comes in a bottle that you can slather all over yourself and you got a sunburn It's tried for anything on skin so you'll see especially a lot of like
Starting point is 00:24:54 naturopaths or herbal kind of herbalist kind of websites like you'll see it recommended for any kind of skin condition Like put it on your eggs. I'm a put it on your psoriasis. I think, I think, I think, I've put all along before. I think it feels good. It feels good. I think if you have like an inflammatory skin condition that is uncomfortable, it would help in that regard. Now, is it fixing the problem? That's a whole other issue.
Starting point is 00:25:19 So there've been studies done to see on burns. A lot of studies on, especially like minor little burns, like not major hospitalized burns But minor burns and sun burns Does it actually heal the burn faster? I don't know some studies say yes I mean like impressively so like I found studies that were like it will reduce On average the days that it takes to heal something by nine days, which is like a crazy amount of time Yeah, that's I mean that's it That would be huge if it really did that.
Starting point is 00:25:47 But then there are other studies that say there really is no difference. What do you put just one of our science? It's not a big deal. And I mean, what you'd have to do is go study by study and critique how many people were in it, what methods did they use, what kind of burns did they have, what were the differences between the people,
Starting point is 00:26:01 where some of them sicker than others and so they would heal slower already. What kind of aloe was used on everybody was at the exact same amount. I don't know. I didn't read every single one of these studies, so I'm not gonna be able to tell you that. Everybody can agree though,
Starting point is 00:26:14 that you shouldn't put it on open wounds. And there was one only one that studied that suggested maybe aloe made your healing time a little slower. So based on all of the other evidence saying that it either helps or doesn't hurt, maybe Aloe made it, made your healing time a little slower. So based on all of the other evidence saying that it either helps or doesn't hurt, I would say that it probably, at least, doesn't hurt. I think you can at least take that home. If Aloe makes something feel better and it's not an open wound, then it's not dangerous
Starting point is 00:26:37 for you to put on it. And even if it's not necessarily making things heal faster. Some people do drink, as I mentioned, the juice for elaxative. Don't do that. Don't do that. It'll give you stomach cramps. Right, exactly. That's my official recommendation. Hey, that's, we're doing that, Justin. This podcast. Which is true. I mean, it will work as elaxative. That is true, but do not use it. Not worth the price. There are many things that work as elaxative. We've covered many of them on the show. There are small trials that are checking it out for things like inflammatory bowel disease,
Starting point is 00:27:09 like all sorts of colitis, and also for irritable bowel syndrome. But a lot of this is early and inconclusive and small. I mean, allows everywhere. A lot of people, like I said, have alloplanths in their windowsill. So as we've alluded to before, it's going to be hard to get like a big giant, well-funded, double-blind study for a lot of this stuff. There's just not cash in it. No.
Starting point is 00:27:33 And I mean, I don't have a strong suspicion that it's the secret cure to everything that we've been missing all along either. So that's the other thing. If you're going to put all the money behind something, you better have a pretty darn good reason to think it's a secret remedy. But it is the beauty secret of the Nile. It is that, it is that. It's been tried on diabetes as well. And like I mentioned, like cavities, same thing.
Starting point is 00:27:56 I don't know that there's enough convincing evidence out there. You will find it recommended on the internet for everything. Every thing. Guys, yes. you will find it recommended on the internet for everything. Yes. And what I would say is that it does moisturize your skin and it soothes burns, makes them feel better. I've used them on sunburns and it does in fact make them feel better and possibly, possibly makes you heal a little faster.
Starting point is 00:28:19 Maybe it doesn't, maybe it does, I don't know. I see a lot of the reasoning. I thought this was interesting. Over and over again, the reason that people think that Aloe works. Do you know what it is? Because it's been around for a really long time and a lot of different people use it. And it's green. Well, I don't know.
Starting point is 00:28:37 It seems helpful. It does, I mean, it doesn't look magical to me, but that green gel does look like something that would like do like it looks like an active compound. Yeah. It actually looks like it might make you turn into a superhero. Yeah, it doesn't do that though. You're pretty sure no commencing double blind studies.
Starting point is 00:28:54 Do you want to try it out? I'd rather not. That being said, there's one other better thing I would say than using aloe on a sunburn. What's that? Don't get burnt. Yes. I think that's the most important thing. Yes, aloe will help with your sunburn. You'd be better off never having to use aloe on a sunburn. What's that? Don't get burnt. Yes. I think that's the most important thing. Yes, aloe will help with your sunburn.
Starting point is 00:29:07 You'd be better off never having to use aloe on a sunburn because you never got sunburn in the first place. It's don't get sunburn. It's damage every time, folks. That's absolutely right. Wear sunscreen, use some common sense, reapply. Don't mess around with it. Folks, that's going to do it for us.
Starting point is 00:29:20 Thank you so much for listening to our program. Thanks to the taxpayers for letting us use their song, Medicines is the intro and listening to our program. Thanks to the taxpayers for letting us do their song, Medicines is the intro and outro to our program. And thank you to the maximum fun network for having us as a part of their family. There's a lot of good shows you can listen to there, like Stillbuffering, which Sydney hosts with her sisters. It's about teen life yesterday and today.
Starting point is 00:29:41 There's the Adventures on which is the game where I play D&D with my brothers. And another brand new, non-max fund podcast we wanted to mention to you all. That's right. You may remember my dad, well, country Tom, Tom Smirl from Stillbuffering or my Uncle Michael,
Starting point is 00:29:57 it's Campy Mike from Stillbuffering. They have, they're new podcasts, they're in podcast, Court Appointed, which is the, kind of the history of some crazy, interesting, funny laws and the legal history behind different issues. For instance, like their first episode was on Pokemon Go and all of the legal issues surrounding that. Michael is a real lawyer, so he actually has expertise on these things, and my dad makes
Starting point is 00:30:22 a lot of dad jokes about it. Yeah, so it's not, if you're a fan of this show, it's not completely dissimilar from this with Krona, more of a legal take, but it's called Kord Appointed, and it's on iTunes, and you can also find it on Facebook, they have a group there, but check it out.
Starting point is 00:30:37 I think you like it. It's good. And it's recorded right here in Solbo and Studio, and you'll find it to watch Virginia. Folks, that's gonna do it for us. Thank you so much for your time, until next week. My name is Justin McRoy. I'm to watch Virginia. Folks, that's gonna do it for us. Thank you so much for your time until next week. My name is Justin McRoy. I'm Sydney McRoy. And as always, don't draw a hole in your head. Alright! Maximumfund.org
Starting point is 00:31:10 Comedy and Culture, Artist-owned Listener-supported

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