Some Concerns about Using Medcinal Activated Charcoal

Your Concerns

The questions that follow are typical of the concerns expressed to us at our programs or by email. Given the obscure and mysterious nature of charcoal, and some of the misinformation circulating about, the concerns are understandable. We will post future questions as they come in.

It is our hope to put to rest some of the rumors about medicinal charcoal and present it as the gem of natural remedies that it really is. Considering the steadily growing number of medicinal applications of charcoal in the past few years it is not hard to project that charcoal will, before long, become a household word for more than just barbequing.

Nutritional Compromise

Hi there,
I have just placed an online order for your Colic Calm. I am wondering if you can tell me how much activated charcoal is in your product - also do you have any response to those who say that it should not be used in infants due to decreasing the absorption of vitamins and minerals? I would appreciate your speedy response. Regards,
Zoe

August 2007

Reply

Thank you for your inquiry.

Your concern about the possibility of nutritional compromise with using activated charcoal is understandable in light of the misinformation that is being circulated. We regularly get similar letters but there is no hard evidence in the scientific literature that vegetable-based charcoals compromise nutritional uptake, whether in pregnant mothers, infants, seniors, or anyone else.

There is some anecdotal reports of charcoal adsorbing man-made supplements. However, numerous animal studies have shown that daily consumption of charcoal not only poses no threat but actually can extend the lifespan, increase milk and egg productivity in cows and chickens, and improve the feed to weight ratio (a far cry from compromising the overall nutrition). For this reason charcoal is used as a daily livestock supplement in parts of Europe and Asia.

People with ostomies (these people are already at risk nutritionally because of their handicap) have ingested charcoal on a daily basis for years to help with indigestion and gas and shown no nutritional lack.

"Recent studies show very poor adsorption of vitamins and minerals or other nutrients by charcoal." Rx Charcoal (1988) by Agatha Thrash MD (pathologist and Medical Director State of Georgia) and Calvin Thrash MD (Specialist in heart disease)

Coal-based charcoal and bone chars appear to adsorb some nutrients but vegetable-based wood charcoals adsorb food nutrients very poorly. All the charcoals we recommend for human consumption are vegetable-based.

As for Colic Calm, the amount of charcoal per bottle would be less than a teaspoon. Whoever would suggest that the amount of charcoal in an eyedropper could impact a baby's nutritional uptake obviously knows little to nothing about charcoal. When one considers that a child would receive 25gms (almost one ounce) of charcoal or more in one dose if taken to an ER for poisoning, one teaspoon of charcoal spread over the life of a bottle of Colic Calm is so insignificant it is hardly worth mentioning.

In fact, where Colic Calm is not available, we recommend stirring 1 Tablespoon of charcoal powder into a bottle of water, letting the powder settle out, then pouring the "gray water" into a baby bottle and letting them drink that - the supernatant "gray water" works very well for infant colic as it does for people with Crohn's, IBD, colitis, all of whom are at risk nutritionally because of their diseases.

My "response to those who say that it should not be used in infants due to decreasing the absorption of vitamins and minerals" would be: As we become more knowledgeable about our bodies, our physiology, and what charcoal does and does not, we will be less disturbed by the false information or misinformation that is being circulated. The FDA lists charcoal as Category 1 "Safe and Effective"

I encourage you to also get our book CharcoalRemedies.com It will give you a lot of facts and over 100 testimonies from doctors and nurses, to veterinarians, to missionaries, to mothers like you who use charcoal on a regular basis for a host of different ailments. You may also want to read some of the different Stories different ones have posted on our site.

Thank you again for your interest and we encourage you in your research for better health.

In Good Conscience

"Hello John,
Thank you for contacting us [Health Directory] again. I think I don’t feel quite right about this product and must go with my intuition although you have such a wonderful website. I am sure it is serving many people well and I wish you well with it. I don’t feel this is a sustainable product since it requires the burning of wood, so that smoke is created & and trees must be destroyed. I cannot in good conscience recommend this to our readers."

Blessings, Jane

January 2007

Reply
Hello Jane,
Thank you for your reply. I must respect your feeling, even knowing that indirectly, if not directly, you and your readers utilize charcoal every single day.

Actually, if you knew more about activated charcoal and how it is made, I think you would have to agree that medicinal charcoal is eco-friendly in every way.

• Did you ever wonder, as you savor some nutty desert, what happens with the mountains of shells left over after processing those nuts (including coconut)? What about the mountains of sawdust left over from milling hardwood for hardwood floor products, furniture, or children’s toys? Or the low grade coal that has no commercial value?

The activated charcoal we sell is either made from sawdust (from hardwood sawmills), coconut shells, or bamboo (where I have lived and worked in Asia bamboo grows like a weed). Other common “raw materials” are pecan shells, peat, and coal, or other leftover “waste” products.

• The process of making charcoal excludes most air, which produces far far less “smoke” than a campfire or wood stove that consumes all the wood. Remember too, the invisible CO₂ is far more of a problem than the visible smoke.

The process is technically described as distillation – the water content evaporates off leaving essentially all of the raw material behind as charcoal rather than putting it all into the atmosphere.

•    The largest industrial users of activated charcoal reuse the charcoal again and again. Charcoal adsorbs toxins and wastes and will not release them unless the charcoal is reheated to high temperatures. In this way industry is able to recycle charcoal more times than your paper grocery bags.

•    When you refer to trees being "destroyed" that best describes the charcoal used for cooking or heating in developing countries, or for barbequing in developed countries (and we know that barbequing has health risks - see below).

•    I invite you to take a look at what is being done in developing countries to improve animal health and to increase milk and egg production naturally with what the people have right a hand, charcoal – for them a very versatile, renewable, and sustainable resource.

• I have worked in several foreign countries doing development work (including teaching organic gardening) and I know first hand the challenges these people have in trying to improve their lot with their limited resources. I see them spending the little hard money they have to buy drugs and chemical fertilizers when if they knew how well charcoal works as a medicinal and how dramatically it can improve their crop yields they could save their money for real benefits. The secret of Terra Preta seems to tell us, that even when we finally throw charcoal back to the earth, it just keeps on working for us.

As for living in the Western culture today without the conveniences and benefits of activated charcoal, it is inescapable. From your purified water, to fruit juices, cold pressed vegetable oils, alcoholic beverages (one huge drain on the environment), swimming pools, car air filter systems, vacuum cleaners, hospitals, nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals, teeth (IAOMT protocol for mercury amalgam removal), to fuel cells in the newest hybrid fuel-efficiency cars, licorice, house insulation and plasterboard (to detox houses and workplaces), pet foods (to adsorb toxins), and soil conditioners, charcoal quietly does its unglamorous job of protecting us from hundreds of poisons that otherwise would make us sick, our food unpalatable, or our air, water and environment more toxic (converting the corn stover to charcoal, it is estimated a 640-acre farm could retain the equivalent of 1,800 tons of carbon dioxide in the soil. That's the annual emissions created by about 340 cars)

All these benefits from charcoal even if we don't have to take a child or friend to the ER for accidental poisoning, drug overdose, or for kidney or liver dialysis, or for blood transfusions, all of which require activated charcoal.

Jane, I’m not sure if this helps, and I hope it does not come across as aggressive. But, I wonder how long before you will have a very practical reason to be thankful for this most humble of God’s simple, super natural remedies, and like some of the different schools (including the National College of Natural Medicine) you will then, in good conscience, be able to recommend it.

God’s Blessings, john

Barbequing
"I heard that charcoal can be carcinogenic. Is that true?"

Question from audience - Healthy Life Expo, Minneapolis, Minnesota

October 2006

Reply

This is not an unusual question. The answer is no, activated charcoal is not carcinogenic. In fact it is used in hospitals to help control the anemia that is often associated with cancer. We have received letters form individuals who report that cancers have decreased in size or disappeared using charcoal for themselves or their pets.

The concern about charcoal being carcinogenic stems from its connection to barbequing. This is the connection: When the fat from barbequed meat, poultry, or fish, drips onto the super hot coals it vaporizes. Because of the intense heat the vaporized fat is chemically changed into benzopyrenes which are extremely carcinogenic. These compounds project onto and potentially contaminate the meat. But the formation of these chemicals is dependant on the heat not the source of heat. In actual fact, charcoal adsorbs cancer-producing agents such as methylcholanthrene and benzopyrene, which, when free on the skin, are capable of producing skin cancer.

For more information on the medicinal qualities of activated charcoal get the book: CharcoalRemedies.com The Complete Handbook of Medicinal Charcoal & Its Applications