JOIN USDon’t run to a doctor and get yourself high doses of medication for food poisoning. Instead, try charcoal - a simple and sufficient antidote, suggests Dr S Vatsala.
Instances of food poisoning are frequent these days. A simple and effective remedy to get immediate relief from food poisoning is to orally take fine charcoal mixed in water. Charcoal, as a fine powder, is one of the finest absorptive and adsorptive agents. It is a natural deodorant and disinfectant.
It can absorb and hold several toxins, be it a poisonous gas, heavy metal or chemical.
Charcoal powder is used to cure gas/ flatulence and help an upset stomach. It is commonly used in emergency treatment for specific kinds of poisonings and drug overdose to keep the poison from spreading into the body. In the southern states of India, the practice of giving fine charcoal formed from burnt Acorus calamus (plant used in traditional medicine) to infants regularly is prevalent.
Since ancient times
The use of charcoal in healing has been known since the Egyptian civilisation. Charcoal can be used internally and also externally as a poultice. Medical text books from late 18th and early 19th centuries talk about the use of charcoal in detail. For example, London Pharmacopoeia 1856 says: Charcoal mixed with crumbs or yeast has long been a favourite material for forming poultices among army and navy surgeons.
The charcoal poultice has also obtained high character in hospital practice as an application to ulcers and gangrenous sores and recently this substance has afforded immense relief in numerous cases of open cancer, by soothing pain and facilitating the separation of the morbid structure from the surrounding parts......It is in general use in all naval, military and civil hospitals.......charcoal has been mentioned by many of the British authors as an useful remedy in certain forms of fever and dysentery as they occur in tropical climates.
How it works
Charcoal absorbs the toxins mechanically and holds. It is a surface phenomena. A powder has larger surface than a lump and hence more absorption. Charcoal is an inert substance and is eliminated as solid waste with the absorbed toxins trapped in it.
Do it at home
Any charred vegetable matter gives charcoal. An easy way of making charcoal powder at home is to fry jeera on a dry pan, until it is charred completely. This can be powdered in a mixer and stored. Less than half a teaspoonful of this powder mixed in cold water, taken orally will bring relief from any discomfort in the stomach, food poisoning or gas or indigestion or acidity.
Why charcoal
When you are sick, in pain or battling some infection, why should you first consider a simple and natural remedy like medicinal charcoal instead of pharmaceutical drugs?
These are some good reasons why you should choose this natural remedy:
It works
For food poisoning and drug overdose.
For digestive and other gastro-intestinal problems, such as acid reflux, diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting and gas.
For poisonous bites, including those of bees, hornets, scorpions and snakes.For allergic reactions to poisonous plants.
For infections, including pink eye, diabetic ulcers, abscesses, urinary tract infection and gangrene.
For diseases such as gout, tetanus, diphtheria, cholera.
It’s safe
Rated category 1 (safe and effective) by the FDA.
Has no adverse side-effect.
Non-habit forming; indefinite shelf-life.
It’s easily accessibleUniversally available around the world, even during calamities and times of war.
In hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and health food stores.
Requires no prescription, license or degree.
(The author is a retired professor of Chemistry)