Okay, the Schumer has hit the fan, and we are in TEOTWAWKI times. A family member or your group member (or several) has had a major medical occurrence– an event that has drained much or all of your antibiotic supply and many of your medicines. Then what will you do when you or someone you know receives a poisonous snake, spider, or insect bite? Or, what will you do when perhaps someone is experiencing food poisoning, cholera, jaundice, bacterial infections, ulcers, or has a badly infected wound at a time when your medicine cabinet is all but empty?
I want to propose that if you haven’t already, you need to become acquainted with the use of ACTIVATED CHARCOAL (and regular charcoal). Charcoal is an adsorbant. No, I didn’t misspell the word. Charcoal doesn’t absorb; it adsorbs. Technically, that means that it causes a substance to form on its surface, as opposed to absorb, which means to soak up or to take it up. What does charcoal adsorb? Poisons and toxins; that’s its specialty. It’s important to mention here that when talking about the role of charcoal in healing, this does not include charcoal briquettes used in grilling food, and it is NOT the black stuff on burnt toast, which is not charcoal at all.
Many of the uses of activated charcoal have been discovered in Third World countries when, faced with serious medical situations WITH NO AVAILABLE DOCTOR OR NURSE, charcoal was used as a last-ditch effort to remedy the condition. In many instances the results were short of astounding.
Charcoal is rated by the U.S Food & Drug Administration as Category 1: safe and effective for acute and toxic poisoning. Hospitals throughout the U.S. have charcoal in their ER’s. It has no known poisonous side effects.
What is so wonderful about the health and healing process is that the good Lord has provided us with so many means of bringing us (and our animals, too) back to health: antibiotics, drugs, medicines, herbs, and many alternative healing modalities. The sole purpose of this article is to urge you to add charcoal to that list. It has most definitely carved out its niche in vital life-saving situations.
Hopefully, by now, you have decided that you want to know more about charcoal’s uses and, perhaps, even begin to experiment with it. At this point I’d like to point you in the direction of several great books on the topic. The best book to start with has an unusual title. The title of the book is: Charcoal Remedies.com —The Complete Handbook of Medicinal Charcoal & Its Applications. The author—John Dinsley—had lived and traveledRx: Charcoal – Startling new facts about the world’s most powerful clinical adsorbent extensively in Third World countries and participated in many of these serious health conditions where no doctor or nurse was available. Not only does the book include a great section on the science and history of charcoal and the details of using charcoal but is also filled with anecdotal stories of its use. Mr. Dinsley also has a corresponding web site for charcoal called—you guessed it: www.charcoalremedies.com. His web site includes a newsletter, known as the “Charcoal Times”, which includes further examples of uses that people have had and want to share with others.
Two or three additional books you might want to consider to round out your information on the topic would be:
- Rx: Charcoal – Startling New Facts About the World’s Most Powerful Clinical Adsorbent by Agatha Thrash, MD & Calvin Thrash, MD (New Lifestyle Books)
- Activated Charcoal – Antidote, Remedy and Health Aid by David Cooney (Teach Services Inc.)
- The Biochar Debate by James Bruges (Chelsea Green Publ.)
The last book listed pertains to charcoal’s role in amending soils, especially dry soils with low fertility. Charcoal has the ability to hold moisture and nutrients, thereby preventing them from leaching away. Regardless of my enthusiasm over this topic, I have no personal attachment to any web site or any of the books mentioned above. This is just an attempt to assist my fellow preppers.
Lastly, I will close with a story of my own personal experience in using activated charcoal. Four or five years ago, I noticed one day that I acquired a tooth abscess, which was no shock to me. The red streak was already progressing upward. In my childhood years, the “4 Basic Food Groups” that I ate were: pop, chips, candy, and ice cream. Even though, in my adult years, I’m thoroughly committed to healthy eating, I’m still bearing the consequences of those early years. Before I called to make an appointment with the dentist, I decided to take an empty tea bag and placed about a teaspoon of activated charcoal in it. I then folded down the open side several times, sealing the charcoal in. I placed it between my lip and my gum, setting it right over the abscess. I took a sip of water and held it in my mouth, tilting my head so that the tea bag would get very moist. I did that about three times, to make sure the charcoal was laden with water, and I held that tea bag in my mouth for six or seven hours. When I took the tea bag out, the abscess was gone– not partially gone but completely gone! I know that you’re still supposed to go to a dentist anyway, but I thought I’d wait until I noticed any further problems. There were no further problems. Two months ago (which is 4-5 yrs. after the abscess) I had a thorough dental exam, including full-mouth x-rays, and nothing was indicated as a problem on that side of the mouth. To repeat: I am not advocating that you omit the role of the dentist when it comes to a tooth abscess; I should have gone. However, in TEOTWAWKI times, there may be no dentist.
You need to educate yourself about how to use charcoal and how NOT to use it. You need to learn how to make charcoal and store some up. Activated charcoal is more effective in medicinal uses but has to be purchased, as the production of it can’t occur in ordinary environments. As with anything, there is a learning curve. These recommended books should do a pretty good job of educating you on charcoal’s role in health and healing. Good luck! God’s blessings to all.
HJL Adds: Most Emergency Medical Services no longer use or advocate activated charcoal, but it is important to understand why. EMS is concerned with getting the patient to a health care facility where long-term and intensive/invasive care can be performed. EMS deals with relatively short transport times. In all topical cases, activated charcoal will not have enough time to do any good in an EMS environment. The one area where it can do good is in the case of poisonings. Unfortunately, activated charcoal, while not toxic, disturbs the digestive system and almost always results in emisis (throwing up). In the short transport times involved in EMS, the emisis actually is a greater concern, because it is usually aspirated, causing additional problems. In Austere medicine scenarios, the value of activated charcoal is much higher than in an EMS situation. Just be prepared for the emisis, if the charcoal is ingested.