In the early part of the last century, chlorophyll was considered an important medicinal tool in the remedying of many common health complaints. At the time it was in widespread use for pain relief, ulcers, skin disorders and even as a breath freshener.
Sadly, in the years following World War Two, the rise of the financially powerful pharmaceutical corporations saw medicine detour along the drug/chemical route and chlorophyll meet the same fate as so many other remedies provided by the nutrapharmacy: it was replaced by chemical antiseptics.
It is gratifying then to discover that as the pharmaceutical Dark Age begins to yield to a new enlightenment, chlorophyll is making a comeback. Renewed interest in it is most definitely justified and it is worth taking a brief look at what it is and what it can do for you.
Chlorophyll is a pigment, specifically the green pigment that gives leaves, seaweed, algae, spinach. Broccoli and so forth their color.
Chlorophyll is very similar in its molecular structure to heme, the red oxygen-carrying pigment in our blood. The difference between them is that the heme molecule contains the element iron at its centre, whereas the chlorophyll molecule, also an oxygen-carrier contains magnesium. Chlorophyll is a powerful oxy-generator for human beings: its assimilation through the ingestion of plants that contain it enables oxygen to be efficiently taken up by the blood cells.
Without sufficient oxygen we become sluggish and low in energy and the metabolism becomes slow. The 1931 Nobel Prize Winner for physiology and medicine, Dr Otto Warburg, established that oxygen-deprivation was a major cause of cancer.
It is not for nothing then that we are told "eat your greens." It is very sound advice indeed because as a general rule, the greener the plant, the richer it is in the oxygen-carrier, chlorophyll.
Chlorophyll’s benefits to your health are many: pain relief, ulcers, skin disorders, freshening the breath and helping your body obtain more oxygen as discussed above, plus aiding the health of your digestive system; acting as an anti-inflammatory and anti-septic; preventing infection; accelerating the healing of wounds; minimizing the damaging effects on the body of pollutants and so on.
It not only combats bad breath but does the same with body odour, acting as a kind of deodorant for your inner organs.
The biochemist Lita Lee, PhD., pointed out: "Chlorophyll appears to stimulate the regeneration of damaged liver cells, and increases the circulation to all organs by dilating blood vessels. In the heart chlorophyll aids in the transmission of nerve impulses that control contraction. The heart rate is slowed, yet each contraction is increased in power, improving the efficiency of cardiac power."
Chlorophyll also evidently helps to balance the body’s alkalinity and reduce acidity. There are many influences that can make your body acidic: stress, excess protein and fat, for example, and when your system becomes even slightly acidic, the risk of disease is significantly raised.
There appears to be a link between this excess acidity brought about by ingesting too much protein and osteoporosis. The acidity causes calcium to be utilized to buffer the acid. The calcium is taken from the bones and then lost to the body in the urine.
Therefore, eating food rich in chlorophyll has the added benefit of correcting excess acidity and thus reducing the incidence of ill healthy and osteoporosis.
There is another advantage that ingesting chlorophyll has over pharmaceutical treatments: the environment is not polluted in its manufacture and it is food and thus part of the organism’s natural evolution. Therefore, chlorophyll does not act upon the organism like a pollutant, suppressing one symptom at the cost of throwing the body’s systems out of whack and causing a knock-on effect of adverse complications elsewhere.
In short, chlorophyll is damned good for you and you would be wise to eat lots of foods that contain it; particularly green vegetables such as broccoli and spinach and sea-greens such as seaweed and algae.
Wild blue-green algae is a higher source of chlorophyll than any other plant or algae and herein lies yet another very strong argument for the health benefits of including the algae in your diet in the form of a supplement.
There is a free book available at Well Healthy that will tell the layman all he needs to know about what Wild Blue Green Algae is and why has been dubbed a miracle super food and a nutrient power house.
