Overview
Activated charcoal attracts chemicals and other toxins from the body and flush them out. This protects your body from absorbing those harmful toxins and keeps you healthy. Use activated charcoal for health and beauty as this natural remedy is also getting approvals of modern medicine.
Some of the popular uses of activated charcoal include bloating and gas relief, drug overdose relief and teeth whitening.
If you haven't tried activated charcoal for health and beauty, then reconsider your choices now.
What is Activated Charcoal?
Activated charcoal is made from a variety of sources including coconut shells, bone char, saw dust, peat, petroleum coke and coal.
For health and beauty purposes activated charcoal made from coconut shells is most effective.
There are two basic processes of making activated charcoal - steam activation and chemical activation. Both methods of activation produce almost similar quality of activated charcoal.
Once the charcoal is activated it gets a huge capacity to absorb chemicals and toxins. Doctors are now extensively using activated charcoal for treatment of poisoning and drug overdose. The activated charcoal absorbs these toxins from the guy before the body does. Then they are flushed out.
The charred wood from fire or the charcoal you use for your grill and barbeque is not activated charcoal. So do not use them for health and beauty purposes. All these kinds of charcoals are raw material for activated charcoal.
How Does Activated Charcoal Work?
The most important aspect of usefulness of activated charcoal is that it does not get absorbed in the body. It just gets flushed out. So whatever it traps also gets flushed out with it.
Due to its high porosity, activated charcoal has huge capacity to attract and bind chemicals and toxins. The mechanism of adsorption works on the basic molecular chemistry.
The porous structure of activated charcoal has negative charge which attracts positive charged molecules of gases, chemicals and other toxins. So these molecules are bound to its porous surface and get flushed out of your body during defecation.
Benefits of Activated Charcoal
Activated charcoal offers health and beauty benefits. Some of the main uses are listed below.
Activated Charcoal for Poisoning Treatment
Activated charcoal has been in use for centuries to treat poisoning. Doctors around the world in trauma centers are using it to treat drug overdose and various kinds of poisoning.
It is more useful when used within 5 minutes of drug overdose. The usefulness goes down to 50% within the first 30 minutes and tapers down rapidly thereafter.
Activated charcoal has been found very useful in treatment of overdose of prescription drugs and OTC drugs such as aspirin and acetaminophen. It also treats overdose of some sedatives.
Poisoning of heavy metals such as iron, lithium and potassium is not possible with activated charcoal. Even Alcohol and acid poisoning can't be treated with activated charcoal. Doctors in trauma centers call the shots on whether to use activated charcoal or not depending on case to case basis of poisoning and drug overdose.
If it is decided to use it, then a dose of 50-100 grams is administered. Another dose can be administered after 6 hours if required.
Activated Charcoal for Health
1. Lowers Cholesterol
Researchers have found activated charcoal helpful in lowering cholesterol.
- It works in two ways to improve your cholesterol levels.
- It reduces overall cholesterol as well as LDL
- It increases Good cholesterol HDL
- The HDL/ LDL ratio which indicates heart health is significantly improved due to reduction in LDL and increase in HDL.
A study reveals a dose of 8 grams of activated charcoal 3 times a day for four weeks on the patients of hypercholesterolemia
- Reduced Total cholesterol by 25%
- Lowered LDL by 41%
- Increased HDL by 8 %
If you plan to use the above doses of activated charcoal for your cholesterol reduction then consult your doctor and do it under medical supervision and monitoring.
2. Reduces Bloating and Gas
Activated charcoal reduces bloating and gases. Some studies have found that it also reduces odor caused by gas forming foods.
3. Improves Kidney Functioning
Activated charcoal reduces the load on kidney. It reduces the number of waste products that your kidney needs to filter. It bounds urea and other toxins to eliminate them through feces. Thus reducing load on the kidneys.
If you are suffering from chronic kidney disease then this load reduction helps in improved kidney functioning. For a person with proper kidney functioning activated charcoal may not offer much kidney functioning benefits.
Activated Charcoal for Beauty
1. Tooth Whitening
It is believed that it absorbs plaque when Activated charcoal is used as a toothpaste. Though its tooth whitening benefits have been widely popular no major studies have conclusively proved it.
2. Skin Treatment
It is believed that activated charcoal can bind bacteria, therefore its use in acne treatment has increased. Other bacterial infections and insect bites have also been treated with activated charcoal.
You can make a facial mask with Activated charcoal, honey and water to deep cleanse your skin. It can also be used as body scrub.
It has a dehydrating effect so use it sparingly. Daily use is certainly not recommended.
3.Hangover Reduction
No scientific evidence available but a lot of people use it for hangover prevention
How Safe Is Activated Charcoal?
Doctors have found activated charcoal useful in certain cases of drug overdose and poisoning. It also reduces gas and bloating.
- It generally flushes out itself completely from the body.
- Its external use for hair and beauty doesn't cause any harm.
- You should not ingest activated charcoal without consulting a doctor.
Since activated charcoal has capacity to bind molecules, you should not take it when you take vitamin, Supplements and other nutrients. It will not allow those nutrients to get absorbed by the body as they will bind to it. Keep a gap of 3 hours between consuming supplements and activated charcoal.
Other Tips and Precautions
- Use coconut shell based activated charcoal for best results in oral health.
- Activated charcoal powder can be messy so use it with care.
- Don't get mixed up between barbeque charcoal and activated charcoal. Both are very different and ingesting barbeque charcoal can be dangerous.
With its multiple benefits activated charcoal certainly is one good product to use it for your health and beauty.