You may remember learning about chlorophyll in your high school science class and its role in helping plants to photosynthesize.
As it turns out, chlorophyll holds a host of health benefits for humans as well. Chlorophyll can help with weight loss, damaged skin, ridding the body of toxins, and inflammation to name just a few benefits.
Vitamins and minerals found in chlorophyll are:
- Calcium
- Magnesium
- Vitamin A, E, C, K
- B-complex vitamins
- Zinc
- Selenium
- Iron
- Potassium
- Hundreds of enzymes
Let’s take a look at some benefits chlorophyll will have on your body when consumed regularly.
What is Chlorophyll, Anyway?
Chlorophyll is a green pigment found in plants and algae. It’s primary role in the plant body is to absorb light from the sun and convert that light to energy to support various functions vital to the plants survival, such as photosynthesis.
What Does Chlorophyll Do for Humans?
Chlorophyll is unique when it comes to helping the human body. Due to its molecular structure that is similar to hemoglobin, it acts the same and has a similar effect on the body when consumed.
The health benefits of chlorophyll come from its abundance of nutrients. With an impressive nutritional profile, it’s no wonder that consuming chlorophyll has so many benefits. Let’s dive into a few of these benefits below:
1. Improves Heart health
Chlorophyll effects on the heart are mainly attributed to its abundance in magnesium, which is excellent for heart health. Most people don’t receive enough magnesium through diet alone, so adding a chlorophyll supplement is perfect for hitting your daily dose of magnesium. Slowing down the oxidation of LDL cholesterol will give you increased protection from cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks and strokes. Chlorophyll also reduces your chances of developing hypertension and atherosclerosis.
2. Promotes Good Digestion
Taking a chlorophyll supplement benefits your intestinal tract by helping to cleanse your colon of waste and other built up toxins. Chlorophyll will help to stimulate your digestive tract and promote regular bowel movements. Chlorophyll is great for your gut microbiome, the good guys, and ridding the body of the harmful bacteria, you may be harbouring in your gut.
3. Full of Antioxidants
Another benefit of chlorophyll is the antioxidants it adds to our body. These vitamins include vitamin A, C, and E, plus bioflavonoids and beta-carotene. All of these offer protection against free radicals, which are responsible for cell damage. Chlorophyll also has antiseptic properties, which will help to destroy any harmful bacteria you may have within your body, even outside of your gut.
4. Detox
So far we’ve covered 4 very important health benefits of chlorophyll, but does chlorophyll detox your body? Short answer is yes. It can increase blood flow and make it easier for oxygen to be distributed throughout your body. Allowing you to flush out toxins, pesticides, and heavy metals. This is excellent support for your liver.
5. Restores Red Blood Cells
Chlorophyll benefits those with anemia and similar blood disorders as well. It does a great job in restoring the body’s red blood cells through its abundance of enzymes to cleanse the blood. Chlorophyll may help to improve anemia, build red blood cells, and even increase your energy levels
6. Fights Inflammation
Containing potent anti-inflammatory properties, chlorophyll benefits the body by cleansing it from harmful bacteria and other toxins that trigger the inflammatory response. This helps rid the body of excess inflammation and any pain caused by that inflammation.
7. Chlorophyll and Kidneys
After many studies that provided shreds of evidence, chlorophyll has shown to be one of nature’s most prolific gifts to man. One of its many benefits includes the ability to decrease the chances of developing kidney stones by preventing the formation of calcium oxalate. Patients can also use chlorophyll for kidney-related medical conditions as the vitamin K present in it forms essential compounds that improve kidney health. If you’re on dialysis you can also optimize your health with the natural solutions that chlorophyll can provide.
How to Take Chlorophyll Supplements
There are a number of chlorophyll products in the market today which generally come in tablets, liquid, IV, and powder. Many products in these forms recommend that users start with smaller doses to ascertain their body’s reaction to the supplement and prevent some known chlorophyll effects on the body arising from allergies or over-consumption. Chlorophyll can be taken in liquid form by adding a teaspoon of the powder or drops of the liquid into a glass of drinking water, swallowing the tablet like regular pills, or applying the liquid directly to the skin. Another means of taking chlorophyll is through intravenous injections which are only recommended to be done under the permission and supervision of a healthcare physician.
1. Adults
For adults, the benefits of chlorophyll in the body are significant. To harness these great health essentials, most liquid chlorophyll products would recommend that you orally consume, at most, 300mg per day. For some adults who will experience it, the side effects of chlorophyll are mild or absent when consumed in prescribed quantities. Most chlorophyll products for adults come with a prescription on the labeling to give an idea of how much of the supplement they should be taking whether it’s in liquid, powdery, tablet, or IV form. Be sure to check the product packaging or consult a physician to know the appropriate dosage to take. You can also start with smaller dosages to determine its effectiveness before increasing to the required daily maximum dosage.
2. Seniors
When ingested orally either in liquid, powder, or tablet form, chlorophyll supplement benefits could be life-changing for even seniors. It’s important to keep in mind that there is a maximum dosage for this age range. As always, it is recommended to start with smaller doses before increasing to the maximum of 300 mg per day. The recommended dosage will also be written on the chlorophyll product label or packaging for self-prescription purposes.
3. Children
Although doses vary for each type of chlorophyll supplement, the average dose is about 100mg per serving. But nevertheless, the US FDA approved that young children over 12 years old can safely consume up to 300 milligrams of chlorophyllin daily. Because of the many acclaimed uses of chlorophyll in the human body, ChloroGlow has introduced both shots and drops that can easily be added to a daily routine.
4. Athletics
Athletes can enjoy the chlorophyll benefits associated with boosting energy and revitalizing the body for performance. With a daily dosage of 300mg, athletes can take advantage of the great benefits of chlorophyll to power through energy-draining activities.
5. Major Illnesses
Chlorophyll is said to be very effective against a number of serious illnesses such as cancer, anemia, and heart diseases. The intravenous form of chlorophyll is mostly taken for this use and requires the presence and help of a doctor or healthcare physician.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Tablet VS Liquid Chlorophyll Benefits
Chlorophyll comes in different forms including liquid and tablet but do the two forms of chlorophyll provide different levels of benefits when used? Well, some studies say that liquid chlorophyll is better because it is more easily absorbed by the body but there is no hard evidence that differentiates the benefits of the two forms of these chlorophyll supplements. However, the FDA recommended dosage for both forms of chlorophyll is from 100mg to 300mg per day. This means that the benefits received from taking liquid chlorophyll or its tablet form depend on the amount you consume daily.
When consumed orally, the benefits of liquid and tablet chlorophyll include the ability to build your blood by improving the quality of red blood cells, enhancing weight loss, detoxification, and a host of other benefits. You can incorporate chlorophyll into your daily meal by either adding it to your drinking water or making it a part of your food recipe.
2. What Does Liquid Chlorophyll Do that Tablets Can’t?
Liquid chlorophyll may be better than tablets because they are absorbed by the body more quickly than the tablet form. But if it’s composed of the same quantity of chlorophyll, there’s no real difference in chlorophyll effects one would suspect when taking either form of the supplement. There are no serious risks of taking tablets or liquid chlorophyll but some people have reported side effects like diarrhea and discolorations.
3. How Long Does it Take for Chlorophyll to Work in the Body Once Consumed?
The purported benefits of drinking liquid chlorophyll are many and you may be asking yourself how long it takes for you to start seeing results. Some users recorded a boost in health in as little of 1 week of taking liquid chlorophyll while for others it took a little longer. For those who apply it topically, you may want to continue doing so for as long as three weeks or more before you can start noticing the changes. Typically, the time it’ll take to start seeing results of taking chlorophyll is unique to each individual and more studies need to be conducted to get a complete consensus.
From improving stomach health and removing toxins from the body to boosting metabolism, energy and reducing skin inflammations there appear to be many chlorophyll uses for the human body. Adding chlorophyll into your daily dietary routine is not a bad idea as it is one of the simplest ways to get recovery from a number of health issues as mentioned above.
4. Is Chlorophyll Good for Your Skin?
Aside from improving health, boosting energy, and fighting illnesses, Chlorophyll has shown its potential of reducing skin inflammations and preventing bacterial infections in skin wounds. Studies have found that medical ointments made with chlorophyll derivatives prove to be more effective on wounds than other products. Consuming chlorophyll in quantities between 100-300mg per day can also help you treat ulcers and skin lesions due to its wound-healing potential. More so, when applied topically on the skin it can be effective against mild acne, pores, and skin burns.
Another important benefit of chlorophyll is its ability to reduce skin cell damage with the abundant presence of antioxidants. The vitamins and minerals in chlorophyll including vitamin A, C, E, and K, along with bioflavonoids and b-carotene play an important role in repairing damaged cells. The antiseptic properties of chlorophyll destroy bacteria and help strengthen tissues.
5. What Does Chlorophyll Do for Mental Health?
It’s no surprise that the food we eat plays an important role in how we feel. The healthier you are the lesser the chances of dealing with mental health issues like anxiety and depression. Because chlorophyll is the life force of plants it could also help invigorate the human body to live a more happy lifestyle. Aside from boosting internal body and skin health, there are some reported chlorophyll effects on mentally ill individuals.
Many studies report that this supplement is great for improving mental clarity, enhancing stress management abilities and can also play an important role in preventing mental decline among aging adults.
Some scientific research also reports that the pathways which synthesize chlorophyll in plants help them improve stress resistance and may have similar effects in humans. When chlorophyll liquid drops are consumed orally, the genetic manipulation in the compound may yield benefits in stress tolerance and improved physical and mental health. Chlorophyll extracts from plants such as wheatgrass have been implicated in this medical health benefit which may also include reduced musculoskeletal aches and pains in addition to other chlorophyll drop health benefits listed in this article.
Taking chlorophyll can help improve your emotional health, detoxify and rejuvenate the liver which handles all the toxins we constantly bombard our body through unhealthy food, drinks, and excessive medication. The liver which is an organ that stores anger essentially plays an important role in our mental health. Therefore, consuming recommended dosage of chlorophyll to decrease the burden of the liver through detoxification can help reduce anger, anxiety, and other toxic emotions.
