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Going by the way they hype aloe vera whenever they put it in any cosmetic products, you would think it was some kind of exotic Far Eastern herb or something. The fact though is that aloe vera is one of the most common potted plants to grow around the house used anywhere in the world. As common as it is though, the benefits of aloe vera can be startlingly great. It's a wonderful healer and a wonderful health booster.

Ever noticed how diapers and sanitary napkins are able to store all the moisture you throw at them without ever letting any leak out? They use a gel to hold all the liquid in. The aloe vera plant does the same thing. The thick stalks that double as the leaves of the plant, hold a lot of water. In gel form.

Aloe vera gel brings you some pretty great health benefits. It is rich in bradykininase, a painkiller that helps soothe pain wherever it is applied. It has antibacterial qualities and anti-inflammatory compounds that help heal. When anything itches, aloe vera gel or juice can be great as a way to bring relief. It helps dilate blood vessels and it helps raise the rate of blood flow to any part of the body it is applied to.

Wouldn't it be nice if all those wonderful claims that they make for natural supplements for weight loss actually achieved a fraction of what they said was possible? Every time a new product comes on the market and promises that it will help you painlessly shed dozens of pounds in a matter of days and do it with no chemicals or artificial stuff, it never matters how many times you've had your hopes made a mockery of. You always want to believe one more time. Just in case there's still someone out there who believes in these products that have been roundly and publicly dismissed as failures, let's go over them one by one.

The Hoodia Gordonii thing certainly has everything that would make gripping listening on a late-night infomercial. The story starts in Africa and how bushmen and tribesmen would use this exotic herb to help quell their hunger pangs when they had to go out on extended hunting expeditions. You could use this too, the story goes, and never feel hunger.

It really would be nice if Hoodia did do half of what it promised. While it does do a little bit to control your body's levels of adenosine triphosphate (the hunger hormone) it only works with animals in any useful way. And anyway, when you buy one of these natural supplements for weight loss from an infomercial or another unreliable source (which seem to be the only kind of source by all accounts) you don't even get Hoodia as you're promised.