Hi, I’m Dr. Jeremy Lam,
and this is Dr. Michael Lam.
Today we’re going to talk about quite an interesting compound.
This has been around since the beginning of civilization.
It is called activated charcoal.
It is very different from the charcoal that we know of from the supermarket or what you use in a barbecue.
Dr. Jeremy, why don’t you enlighten us.
Activated charcoal is a fine black powder and it’s made from bone char, coconut shells, peat, coal, and olive pits or sawdust.
It’s activated by processing it in a very high temperature.
The high temperature changes its internal structure,
reducing the size of its pores and really increasing its surface area.
This results in a charcoal that’s much more porous than regular charcoal.
It works.
Activated charcoal works by trapping toxins and chemicals in the gut, so to prevent toxins from being absorbed.
If you are traveling in a foreign country,
this is one thing that you must have to prevent travelers’ diarrhea.
If you are in the emergency room and you showed up with a gastric discomfort,
one of the things that you may receive in the emergency room is this thing called activated charcoal powder.
It’s black colored. They put it in water,
they swish it around. It’s tasteless.
It doesn’t hurt, and you just drink it down.
Your bowel movement may a day later become a black color, but because of its strong absorption and absorption power,
the activated charcoal has been used in a variety of ways
from castor oil packs that is mixed with charcoal to poultices to oral pills, etc.
There are many uses. Dr. Jeremy?
Yes, some of these other uses for activated charcoal is actually teeth whitening.
I’ve used it before.
You just dip your toothbrush in some activated charcoal powder
and then just brush your teeth normally and do it two to three times a week.
That can kind of help whiten your teeth.
Other things that it’s also been known for is to kind of stop premature aging.
Some studies have found that activated charcoal also regulates cholesterol.
Sometimes it can also reduce bloating and reduce gas as well.
So, Dr. Lam, how do we use activated charcoal in adrenal fatigue specifically?
The use of activated charcoal in an adrenal fatigue setting is very interesting.
We’ve been doing it for a long time.
We’ve found from our experience that we need to really understand the properties as you have learned now.
The question is how to use it to help the adrenals.
Now, let’s take a step back.
Most people with adrenal fatigue oftentimes have liver congestion as well as what we call a polluted extracellular matrix of the interstitium.
Now, the charcoal just like it is able to absorb poisons from the gastric system if you ingest it orally,
also has the same property if you can go through transdermally.
The people who are very sensitive— and I’m talking about people who are just very weak and fragile.
We’ve used this type of activated charcoal along with other items transdermally,
to try to take the unwanted material from the body through the skin because they are too weak to be detoxed.
Now, charcoal can also be used in clothing or garments.
We use that in that capacity as well, so there are many many uses.
The key is you have to know how to use it
because if you take too much unwanted substances out of the body through the transdermal or even oral way,
you can cause the toxin load to be increased temporarily.
This temporary increased load can cause an adrenal crash.
So, while it is very useful, the way to use this becomes paramount.
The right use with the right frequency, the right intensity is critical.
Otherwise, as I said, you can make things worse very quickly
because it speaks to the strength and the potency of how charcoal works.
That’s right Dr. Lam.
Charcoal is just very powerful like you said. So, we have to be careful in those bodies that are sensitive.
Especially if you have a gastrointestinal issue such as if you already have constipation.
Charcoal can make constipation worse.
Activated charcoal is wonderful. It’s over the counter.
You can buy it online, but you have to know how to use it.
Some people use it to help the irritable bowel,
but this is not something that you want to use long term because it can actually lead to a bowel shutdown
because if you have constipated the body too much, then you can have another set of problems that can be quite severe.
That’s right.
So, like Dr. Lam said, in some medical conditions,
it’s not good to use activated charcoal such as if you have irregular digestion, intestinal bleeding.
If you had a recent abdominal surgery or you have chronic dehydration, then all these might interfere with activated charcoal.
What I think that the final take-home lesson is is that every compound has its good and bad.
You have to know the property and you have to know how to use it.
The delivery system, the intensity, the frequency and the state of the body.
That way you will be able to maximize the benefit of this compound.
That’s right. So, those are the benefits of activated charcoal.
Let us know in the comments below if you’ve used activated charcoal before and how it has helped you.
Maybe some other people can learn from that and we can learn also.
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Bye.