(NaturalNews) As long ago as 1550BC, activated charcoal was documented for use in treating medical conditions. It has been used by North American Indians to treat bruises, inflammation and skin infections. Activated charcoal has also been reported to help lower cholesterol, triglycerides and lipids found in the blood.
A single teaspoon of activated charcoal has a surface area of approximately 10 000 square feet. It adsorbs (binds to and helps eliminate from the body) poisons, heavy metals, chemicals and intestinal gases that have thousands of times more weight than it has, making it very effective in detoxing and eliminating toxins and poisonous substances from the body. It is also able to adsorb many different pharmaceutical drugs, opium, cocaine, morphine, pesticides (among them DDT), chemicals, mercury and even lead.
Activated charcoal can be used to treat skin ailments, diarrhoea, bad breath, constipation and body odour. It can be used as a poultice to treat insect stings, mushroom poisoning, poison ivy, cholera, dysentery, bites and inflammation. It can also be used to treat snake bites in an emergency. Babies born with jaundice have been known to be treated with activated charcoal as well.
Read the rest of the article here:
http://www.naturalnews.com/032570_activated_charcoal_cholesterol.html
Interesting article, Mia! Amazing that activated charcoal has so many wide ranging benefits to our health and environment ~ I have activated charcoal filters for my drinking water supply ~ It’s good at trapping organic” chemicals as well as things like chlorine ~ The water filters will remove certain impurities and once all of the bonding sites are filled, an activated charcoal filter stops working ~ So just a reminder to myself – at that point I need to replace the filter!
Sometimes the old ways work the best…
Thanks Coralina and Johannes for your comments. 🙂
Coralina, I am so very glad that this article reminded you to change the filters for your drinking water! 🙂 Now, I guess I should remember to change the filters on my shower, too! 🙂 These filters with activated charcoal do make a big difference in removing impurities from the water we drink and bathe in.
I also had the occasion last Summer and Fall to use activated charcoal to use on a poisonous spider bite. My seven year-old son was bitten on the leg by a hobo spider. Hobos are among the most poisonous spiders that we have in the U.S. At first, we thought the bite was just a mosquito bite and treated it accordingly. But, the next morning, his leg was swollen, discolored, and had red-streaks running from it, and was feverish.
I applied a poultice of goldenseal, burdock, echinacea, dry vitamin E, and organic aloe gel and changed it every four hours. After the infection was gone (less than 24 hours), we changed the poultice to activated charcoal and dry E in a base of organic aloe juice. The first day we changed the poultice every four hours. After that, we replace it twice a day.
I am happy to say that my son’s leg Healed completely with no loss of tissue or scarring. His recovery time was about 4 months, which is far less than the usual recovery time under allopathic care of 6 months to 2 years. Most people under allopathic care for these bites purportedly suffer tissue damage and scarring that result in very unsightly disfigurement. Some people even require amputation due to the severe tissue damage caused by the migrating poisons from the spider’s bite.
I think we were very lucky to have had the activated charcoal to use for my son’s leg. In this case, the old way definitely worked best! 🙂 I definitely recommend having activated charcoal on hand for emergencies. I do like it for detoxing, as well – just not taken too closely to vitamin and mineral ingestion.
Just a late comment here………….I just had the occasion to use activated charcoal to help someone who had cobalt and hexavalent chromium poisoning. This person experienced positive results in less than one hour. He has a long way to go, but the activated charcoal has provided a safe way to begin the immediate removal of these heavy metals.