How many uses for activated charcoal are actually effective?

For many years, activated charcoal has been produced and sold over-the-counter as a product promising all sorts of optimum health benefits. granular carbon supplier

It is widely known that the substance is used to help remove impurities from water intended for drinking purposes and the same thinking is applied when it comes to use for the body. Activated charcoal, however, is only really an officially approved substance intended for counteracting chemical poisoning or overdose when administered in a hospital environment.

Nevertheless, it is a highly popular product for alternative treatment uses that include detoxification / cleansing, overall gut health, skin and beauty treatments and even teeth whitening. Just how many uses for activated charcoal are actually effective? Is it safe to use? Should it be considered a health trend? Here’s what we could find out…

In medical settings, activated charcoal is classed as an antidote with the purpose of counteracting toxic substances in the body. Charcoal as a substance has featured in medical practice for hundreds of years as an antidote for patients displaying signs of poisoning.

One of the first descriptions of the adsorbent properties of charcoal took place during the 1700s. The first-time charcoal was clinically used appears to have taken place during the early 1800s. During this period clinical effects associated with poisoning were observed in both human and animal patients.

During 1831, French pharmacist Professor Pierre-Fleurus Touéry swallowed a lethal dose of the highly toxic strychnine (a colourless and bitter crystalline alkaloid used as a pesticide) mixed with charcoal as a way to demonstrate its adsorbent effects. The pharmacist put his on body on the line as a means to show that the ingestion of charcoal could counteract the poisonous effects of the pesticide when taken soon after consuming the toxic substance. It is said that he suffered no major ill effects, thus making his point.

Others in the medical field also began administering oral charcoal for the same purposes. One example is the American physician, Dr Hort who is said to have saved the life of a patient who had ingested mercury bichloride (a chemical compound of mercury and chlorine) with the administration of charcoal. Such examples of successful administration of the substance prompted refinement in order to better benefit from its adsorptive properties. Regardless of these impressive abilities, charcoal was not hailed as a ‘miracle medicine’ and thus was not widely used.

Still, studies assessing its potential clinical benefits continued into the early 1960s when a published review outlined the product that is now in use, describing its benefits in the treatment of poisoned patients. https://www.coconutactivatedcarbon.com In clinical practice, even today, it is used, but not necessarily as a first-line treatment. If it is used, activated charcoal is frequently given following gastric emptying (either by means of lavage – a washing out of the body using water or medicated liquid solutions, or emesis / vomiting) in patients exposed to toxic substances (including those who have taken an overdose). If used in this way, it is more common practice in the emergency room as a once off poisoning event treatment method.