Posted by Larry Hoover on April 27, 2007, at 10:56:27
In reply to does Charcol detoxify the body of meds?, posted by meAgain on April 26, 2007, at 20:38:18
> Does anyone know if the charcol capsules from the vitamin store aid in cleansing the body of the toxins from meds. or is there a good way to detoxify the system safely ..i feel yucky..been on so many meds for years!!! thanks..
In a word, no. Charcoal absorbs certain kinds of chemicals, and they stay in the GI tract (with the charcoal) until they're excreted in feces. Only if something is in the GI tract can charcoal absorb it. The GI tract is external to your body. You are a long tube.
Some metabolites, and even a few drugs, I guess, are excreted via bile. That puts them back in the GI tract, from which they can be partially reabsorbed. If you use charcoal to reduce the reabsorption, you could accomplish much the same thing by simply reducing the dose of the drug you're taking.
Charcoal is going to reduce your body's ability to absorb certain key nutrients. It's used in emergency rooms to reduce absorption from the stomach in overdose situations, but that only works if the stuff is still in the stomach (or duodenum, perhaps). It's not going to magically pull "toxins" out of the body.
If you want to support your liver function, take milk thistle (sylmarin), and ensure you have ample dietary sources of cysteine, to keep glutathione availability at a maximum.
The yucky thing might respond to increased exercise, improvement in sleep hygiene, and such like. I don't think charcoal is going to de-yuck you.
Lar
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:753793
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070426/msgs/753940.html