Activated Charcoal - Editor's Choice

Over the years, Earth Clinic readers have sent us many reports about their treatments for Activated Charcoal. The editors at Earth Clinic consider the below posts to be some of the most helpful and informative and have named them 'Editor's Choice'. We hope that you will find this useful.
The comments below reflect the personal experiences and opinions of readers and do not represent medical advice or the views of this website. The information shared has not been evaluated by the FDA and is not intended to diagnose, treat, or prevent any disease or health condition. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional for medical concerns.

Tooth and Mouth Care

Posted by Vicky (Ohio) on 03/02/2017
★★★★★

Editor's Choice

I couldn't live without activated charcoal. It is so good for so many things. I buy a box of 100 cheap tea bags, I cut the top off of them and dump out the tea and discard. I then put about a teaspoon of activated charcoal in the empty bag, fold over the top and tape it with scotch tape. I keep them sealed in an air tight container. If I get any tooth or gum pain, sore throat or signs of thrush I wet one of of the charcoal filled bags and place on the sore area, I change it after several hours or even sleep with it in all night. AMAZING!! This stuff really works! I have also wet the bags and put on bee stings etc. Just remember charcoal only works when it is kept wet, so if you are using it for a bite or sting you need to keep the bag moist by covering it with some type of plastic wrap etc.


Jaw Bone Infection

Posted by Faith (Tacoma) on 03/22/2016
★★★★★

Editor's Choice

Activated Charcoal For Jaw Bone Infection

Activated charcoal has amazing power to absorb thousands of times its own weight in gases, heavy metals, poisons, and other chemicals. It has no side effects .

I was very ill with unknown illness 2 years to find the cause. It was a jaw bone infection. I had it after oral surgery, a fistula formed and the infection moved to front of my mouth and my temple was swollen. My MD gave me some stuff but I had a reaction to it. I decided to just mix charcoal with distilled water and pack into the infected areas mouth did this daily for several hours I also went to bed with a poultice in my mouth I put a towel over my pillow I made a poultice for my swollen temple . It was nothing short of miraculous I was healed! I also took a bunch of Grapefruit Seed Extract (GSE), collodial silver, garlic and oregano oil and mega vitamin C.


Chemo Detoxing

Posted by Cameron (Brisbane, Qld, Australia) on 10/24/2011
★★★★★

Editor's Choice

Charcoal works in the Colon just as effectively as it does in the stomach and for the same reason as an enema. It prevents any toxins in the gut from being reabsorbed by your body from your gut due to a slow or blocked bowel. There are no better alternatives for ERs than charcoal, medical research shows charcoal as the most effective primary treatment for poisoning or drug overdose and is effective until at least an hour after poisoning/overdose. Do not administer Charcoal to a person who is unconsious except in the most dire circumstances.

My daughter has Leukemia and we were forced by Authorities to submit her for Chemotherapy, she had a severe reaction to a Chemo drug during treatment and eneded up in ICU, then a regular ward for 3 weeks recovering. I use Charcoal to detox the Chemo drugs out of her now to avoid side effects. Recemntly though she had some Doxorubicin an extremely dangerous Chemo drug along with Pegaspargase, we did not get home to administer the charcoal until at least 4 hours after her dose, all of a sudden she was suffering from severe abdominal pain, nausea, joint, bone pain and vomiting. I gave her 1 tablespoon of charcoal in juice and she was in bed asleep less than 5 minutes later with no more syptoms. I am the biggest fan of Charcoal, I have a lot of experience applying it and have done extensive reading about the most amazing and under rated substance I have ever discovered. I never ever leave home without it now.

Charcoal is still the treatment of choice at virtually all ERs that I am aware of, current 2011. Charcoal is the most effective remedy for poisons and toxins of all sorts, it has no known side effects of any sort except to make your Poo go black. Charcoal is not known to ADsorb Nutrients from the body! Charcoal is effective for anything except Solvents, Acids, Highly Alkaline Products or other petroleum based products. Ruling out those few things, it leaves us with an effective remedy for bites and stings of all sorts including spiders and snakes, please seek urgent medical attention for snake or spider bites. To use Charcoal as First Aid for snake or spider bites, apply as a wet Poultice, covered in plastic wrap to stop it drying out. Change as often as possible until you recieve medical help. You can also use Charcoal in a bath, it relieves pain almost instantly.

Diahhrea, Stomach Pain, Nausea, Topical Ulcers and a host of other conditions all can be treated with Charcoal. Nausea can be stopped in as little as 1 minute, vomiting stops in less than 5 minutes, retake charcoal if the charcoal slurry is vomited until vomiting stops, usually less than 3 times. Diahhrea, take a tablespoon in water or juice after each runny stool, your next firm stool will be quite black but do not worry. For Topical Ulcers, make a Poultice with 3 tablespoons Charcoal and 3 tablespoons Starch or Ground Flax Seed (keeps moisture in) and apply this to the cleaned Ulcer site on the back of a clean dressing. Cover the dressing with Plastic to stop the poultice drying out, change every 4 hours to 6 hours.

You may also try Charcoal as a Poultice for Kidney or Liver problems as it will help detox these through the largest organ of your body(skin) quite easily and effectively, change every 4 to six hours, you will notice a urine smell, this means its working.


Bloating

Posted by Killer Bees (Brisbane, Australia) on 05/15/2008
★★★★★

Editor's Choice

I had the same problem as Sharon from Santa Fe. I'm 42 now and for the last couple of years, I've had problems with everything I eat making me bloated and uncomfortable. I've tried everything I can think of, including elimination diets, with no luck. But activated charcoal really worked for me. I take 2 tabs in the morning and then 2 at night, each time about an hour after eating to give my body time to digest the meal's nutrients. I don't usually take it at lunch time because I only have soup or tea and that doesn't seem to upset me too much. I didn't have the diahorrea. My stools were solid and did change to a very dark brown/black and I felt very cleaned out. They passed more easily as well. I'll keep taking the tabs twice a day until I feel like I don't need them. My thanks to Sharon from Santa Fe for recommending this product. Girl, you rock!


Digestive Problems

Posted by Norman (Edmonton, Canada) on 06/21/2007
★★★★★

Editor's Choice

Our family has used activated charcoal tablets as a quick remedy for digestive problems for years. In Asia one can buy them for pennies, and with the spicy foods there and possible diaheria at times they are a life saver. Recently I moved back to Canada and feel like I am in a 3rd world country. Anything connected with health and well being is either unavailable or overpriced. How sad that we can not even buy a harmless product that can save ones life when an accidental poisoing occurs. You will only realize how much Canada has peddled backwards in the past 10 years when you visit other countries.


Tooth and Mouth Care

Posted by Keith (Orlando, FL) on 10/05/2006
★★★★★

Editor's Choice

Was reading the remedies and just wanted to add the following: I am a medical missionary that uses natural methods of healing. I encounter several different diseases and sickness in my line of work.

One remedy that I have never seen fail for toothache pain, is charcoal. It will stop severe toothache pain in about 20-45 minutes in most cases! I will give you an example with my wife. She begin to have tootheache pain last year (2005) around the time of thanksgiving. She began to call dentists for an appointment; however, the soonest that she could get an appointment was 2 weeks! To make a long story short, the pain became unbearable. It radiated all the way to her temple on the side of the bad toothe.

So I took activated charcoal, added a little water, stirred to a paste consistency, placed it on a gauze(a piece of cotton t-shirt could also be used) and placed it directly over the toothe. I had her press down very gently. I then offered a prayer.

In about 12-15 minutes the pain that was radiating up to her temple begin to subside. In about 20-30 minutes my wife, who had been in such great pain, that she was in tears, and was unable to even sleep, dropped off to sleep.

The next day we also started her on a program of drinking 2-3 glasses per day of a table spoon of the charcoal mixed with a glass of water. She did evidentally go to the dentist only to find that a small cavity had exposed a nerve, and infection had set in.

The charcoal worked on the infection because it is the inflammation that causes the pain. So by pulling or drawing the poisons from the infection(the underlying cause) the inflammation is addressed.

A friend of mine, who is also a very experienced medical missionary, with more than 30 years of hands on experience, even running a natural clinic in Tennessee for a long time, and having a 45-50% success rate with 4 stage cancer, (conventional success rate with 4th stage cancer is about 5%" gives the following alternative for toothache pain and abcess.

These are direct quotes: "Mix 3 tablespoons charcoal,1/2 teaspoon clove oil, 1/3 teaspoon cayenne pepper, ½ teaspoon olive oil (enough to make a paste), and 1 teaspoon of golden seal. He states: " This remedy is strictly for pain in the jaw or tooth pain. Pack this around the tooth that is giving you problems. If you can cover the tooth up it will generate heat. That will remove the pain faster than any toothache remedy. Try it. You will feel the heat and you can go wash your mouth out. If you are in a lot of pain the heat is comforting. The pain of the poultice drawing is less than the throbbing of the toothache.[The mixture] should be quite thick, about the consistency of natural peanut butter. You want to be able to mould it around the tooth, so that it will stick."

The next is for an abcess specifically.

His words: "If you have an abscess with a lot of swelling, you cannot get that tooth pulled until you get the abscess under control. This recipe is famous for getting that abscess down 3 parts Slippery Elm, 2 parts baking yeast, 4 drops cloves, 1/3 teaspoon cayenne pepper. Add a little water, enough to make a paste. It will be gummy due to the slippery elm. Then pack this mixture around the gum. The slippery elm, like charcoal, draws the inflammation, the cayenne stimulates the cells around the tooth to release toxins and the cloves are added for the reputation as a pain remedy, especially in toothache.