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Jeanne (Atl, Georgia) on 06/10/2008
5 out of 5 stars

I had a large container of activated charcoal sitting in my cupboard the last 2 years that I rarely touch. I decided to give it a shot for body odor after reading about it on Earth Clinic. Yes, it works! You need to give it 2 days to get into your system before you notice the difference, then you need to maintain a dosage every day.

I do have a few side effects to note: Activated charcoal is best taken on an empty stomach, but I do not suggest taking it first thing in the morning. I drank my heaping tablespoon in 8 oz of water 2 days ago, then oil pulled. I ended up gagging up acid after 2 minutes of oil pulling. Yuck. This was interesting because I read that charcoal is actually a remedy for Acid Reflux! Well, then I changed to taking my charcoal in the middle of the day, before lunch. That seems to work. However, it does give me a slight stomach ache. You might also try taking it at night, several hours after dinner.

One benefit to the charcoal besides not having to use deodorant or baking soda (that irritates my skin, I must admit) is that I seem to sweat less when I have this in my system. It may be a remedy for excessive sweaters, I don't know... worth a shot. And it is a general detoxer, so that's a good thing in this hot and humid weather. Question for regular users of charcoal. Do you take it every day or is it something you need to stop every so often? Thanks!

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Replied By Jeanne (Atl, Georgia) on 06/25/2008

A follow up to my post. Please be careful if you try activated charcoal! I was getting stomach pain 20 minutes after every meal. I finally figured out that my stomach pain started after I took activated charcoal (heaping tablespoon for 2 days in a row - not a lot!). I located the pain in my stomach, found a little lump in the colon, and then used my fist to move the lump to the left. A day later my husband took over, found the lump,(which had moved slightly) and did acupressure for about 2 minutes on the spot-- ohhh yes, it hurt. But within minutes I had to run to the bathroom and the rest is history. No more stomach pain. So please be careful with the charcoal, especially if you have a sensitive stomach! I think that people's stomach aches can be often be an impacted colon. The same thing has happened to me before after eating bread and another time, after drinking psyllium without enough water!

If you press on your stomach and have a painful spot that moves slowly from one day to the next, you may have clogged your colon/intestines. Tons of water helps, but acupressure massage is best to move the obstruction to your bowels and out. One last note is that I was having normal bowel movements even while my colon was impacted, so don't rely on that (constipation or elimination) to judge, but more on the location of pain and whether or not a little lump exists.

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Replied By Yasmeen (Atlanta, GA) on 11/02/2014

This was happening to me before the charcoal. I had severe pain on my lower left. Sometimes the pain would come before my cycle, so I assumed it was that. However, lately, the pain would be random times during the month. This last time was so severe that I decided to use my fist to massage the area, and I could feel the knot. I was/am terrified. 20 minutes later, I was going to the bathroom. After that I began looking for causes and remedies... I am cleansing now with charcoal, and I am on a high fiber diet. I can honestly say I feel and smell much better.
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