Benefits of Activated Charcoal

Activated charcoal is a fine, odorless, black powder often used in emergency rooms to treat overdoses. Its toxin-absorbing properties have a wide range of medicinal and cosmetic uses.

What is activated charcoal?

Activated charcoal is not the same substance as that found in charcoal bricks or burned pieces of food.

The manufacture of activated charcoal makes it extremely absorbent, allowing it to bind to molecules, ions, or atoms and remove them from dissolved substances.

Making activated charcoal involves heating carbon-rich materials, such as wood, peat, coconut shells, or sawdust, to very high temperatures.

This “activation” process strips the charcoal of previously absorbed molecules and frees up bonding sites again. This process also reduces the size of the pores in the charcoal and makes more holes in each molecule, increasing its overall surface area.

As a result, one teaspoon of activated charcoal has about the same surface area as a football field.

uses of activated charcoal

. Kidney health

Activated charcoal may be able to assist kidney function by filtering out undigested toxins and drugs.

Activated charcoal seems to be especially effective at removing toxins derived from urea, the main byproduct of protein digestion.

Intestinal gas

Activated charcoal powder is thought to be able to disrupt intestinal gas, although researchers still do not understand how.

Liquids and gases trapped in the intestine can easily pass through the millions of tiny holes in activated charcoal, and this process may neutralize them.

In a 2012 studyTrusted Source, a small sample of people with a history of excessive gas in their intestines took 448 milligrams (mg) of activated charcoal three times a day for 2 days before having intestinal ultrasound examinations. They also took another 672 mg on the morning of the exam.

Water filtration

People have long used activated charcoal as a natural water filter. Just as it does in the intestines and stomach, activated charcoal can interact with and absorb a range of toxins, drugs, viruses, bacteria, fungus, and chemicals found in water.

In commercial settings, such as waste-management centers, operators often use activated carbon granules for one part of the filtration process. Dozens of water filtration products are also designed for at-home use, using carbon cartridges to purify water of toxins and impurities.

A 2015 studyTrusted Source found that water filtration systems that used carbon removed as much as 100 percent of the fluoride in 32 unfiltered water samples after 6 months of installation.


Diarrhea

Given its use as a gastrointestinal absorbent in overdoses and poisonings, it follows that some people might propose activated charcoal as a treatment for diarrhea.

In a 2017 review of recent studies on the use of activated charcoal for diarrhea, researchers concluded that it might be able to prevent bacteria and drugs that can cause diarrhea from being absorbed into the body by trapping them on its porous, textured surface.


Teeth whitening and oral health

Dozens of teeth-whitening products contain activated charcoal.

Many oral health products that contain activated charcoal claim to have various benefits, such as being:

• antiviral

• antibacterial

• antifungal

• detoxifying

Activated charcoal’s toxin-absorbing properties may be important here, but there is no significant research to support its use for teeth whitening or oral health.


Skin care

Researchers have reported that activated charcoal can help draw microparticles, such as dirt, dust, chemicals, toxins, and bacteria, to the surface of the skin, which makes removing them easier.

Deodorant

Various activated charcoal deodorants are widely available. Charcoal may absorb smells and harmful gases, making it ideal as an underarm, shoe, and refrigerator deodorant.

Activated charcoal is also reported to be able to absorb excess moisture and control humidity levels at a micro level.

Skin infection

Around the world, many different traditional medicine practitioners use activated charcoal powder made from coconut shells to treat soft tissue conditions, such as skin infections.

Activated charcoal may have an antibacterial effect by absorbing harmful microbes from wounds.


Medical uses of activated charcoal

In the emergency room, doctors may sometimes use activated charcoal to treat overdoses or poisonings.

Activated charcoal can often help clear toxins and drugs that include:

• NSAIDs and other OTC anti-inflammatories

• sedatives

• calcium channel blockers

• dapsone

• carbamazepine (Tegretol)

• malaria medications

• methylxanthines (mild stimulants)


If a person is conscious and alert, doctors may give them a drink made with a powdered form of activated charcoal mixed with water. Medical staff can also administer activated charcoal mixtures via feeding tubes in the nose or mouth if necessary.

An individual must take or be given activated charcoal within 1 to 4 hoursTrusted Source of consuming a toxin for it to work. The charcoal cannot work if the person has already digested the toxin or drug and it is no longer in the stomach.