In 1831, Pharmacist P.F. Touery, shocked colleagues at The French Academy of Medicine by drinking a huge dose of lethal strychnine in front of them. Miraculously, he survived. He had ingested arsenic and strychnine then chased it with activated charcoal.
In fact, activated charcoal has been used for centuries to reduce oxidative stress; lower cholesterol and triglycerides in the blood, brain, heart and liver; and prevent and stop chronic kidney disease.
This is due to the fact that just one teaspoon of activated charcoal has a surface area of approximately 10 000 square feet. It binds to and helps eliminate toxins, heavy metals, chemicals from the body. Activated charcoal has been found to absorb heavy metals, most pharmaceutical drugs, opium, cocaine, morphine, pesticides.
Additionally, you can use activated charcoal to treat insect bites, various skin ailments, diarrhoea, bad breath, constipation, poison ivy, cholera, and inflammation. It can also be used to treat snake bites in an emergency.
Activated charcoal helps lower cholesterol
Activated charcoal can also bind with cholesterol and cholesterol-containing bile acids in the gut. Thus, preventing the body from absorbing them, which helps to lower cholesterol levels.
A study conducted on seven patients with high cholesterol who took 8 grams of activated charcoal three times a day found a 25% reduction in total cholesterol. They also lowered their LDL cholesterol by 41% and increased their HDL (good) cholesterol by 8%.
It’s recommended to take activated charcoal between meals and a few hours after using any vitamin or mineral supplements, as it may interfere with the absorption of these into the body.