Here Comes the Sun… Aloe For Sunburn

Blame it on our reptilian ancestry. We seek warm rocks and bask in its life giving energy. Since we are no longer thick-skinned lizards, we sometimes ending up getting way too much of a good thing. The light of the sun gives us life, but can also slowly kill us by radiating our fragile skin, mutating cells, causing cancer.  We cover ourselves, donning artificial skins to hide our more fragile ones, keeping ourselves pale and pasty for longevity’s sake. Yet still the light beckons, hitting us on primitive level that overturns our sophisticated technological thinking. This time of year we bask in its glory despite the possible costs, and sometimes we burn.

Thankfully, we’ve invented ways to satisfy the lizard within and stay relatively safe. We have replaced out crude fake hides with magical transparent balms that keep out the harmful rays. However, even the strongest formulas cannot fully prevent the sun from getting to us if we give it enough time.

Sunburns can be nastily painful, especially for those of us who are on the pinker side of the spectrum. Once a sunburn occurs there is very little you can do about it besides covering up and letting it heal, however there are several ways you can naturally sooth the burning pain as well as help promote the healing process. One of the best things that you can use on a mild to medium sunburn is the gel of the Aloe Vera plant.

Aloe Vera has been grown and cultivated by mankind for several thousand years and utilized for its multitude of medicinal values. It has been called the “garlic of the lily family.” One of the main benefits of the Aloe Vera plant is the soothing quality of the watery inner gel of the plant’s spike-shaped leaves. This gel contains salicylic acid (the stuff found in aspirin) that relieves the pain as well as polysaccharides, which promote cell rejuvenation. It also has anti-viral properties that help keep burned flesh from getting infected. Aloe Vera gel also contains significant amounts of vitamin E, which will help moisturize your skin while you wait for the redness to go away. You might, however, want to supplement your Aloe application with a bit more of this skin friendly vitamin to help counteract the plants astringent qualities.

The sun beckons and we answer, and even with SPF 150 lotion on, we still might end up getting burned. Thankfully, our naturally primate curiosity has enabled us to find a plant that will help sooth the pain and heal our tender, non lizard skin.

Yulia Berry is an independent health researcher and author of the best selling e-book on aloe vera, “Aloe – Your Miracle Doctor.” She distributes a weeklynewsletter regarding homeremedies and has written another popular e-book “Pharmacy In Vegetables,” as well as dozens of natural health articles published on hundreds of websites worldwide. For more information, please visit her website.