by Paul Fassa
Health Impact News
Diatomaceous earth (DE) is an inexpensive natural compound with multiple uses. As a food grade powder it can be used to detox heavy metals, parasites, and microbial pathogens. It also distributes silica internally. Silica is an important component of bone matter. So is magnesium, which is to a lesser extent part of DE.
Without silica and magnesium, supplementing calcium alone is dangerous. Calcium’s assimilation into building bone matter depends on both silica and magnesium as well as vitamin D. Without proper assimilation into bone matter, calcium remains in the blood and can literally calcify in the arteries, creating arteriosclerosis.
DE is known for its ability to safely eliminate bugs of all types, including bedbugs, from dwellings, gardens, and small organic farms. It’s safe because it is non-toxic to humans and animals. Chemical insecticides are toxic to mammalian nervous systems. That’s how they work on insects, by destroying their nervous systems.
Diatomaceous earth works on insects externally by desiccating (completely drying) their exoskeletons or hard outer surfaces, which they need to survive. So yes, this inexpensive abundant material can be used in various ways safely as long as it is food grade DE.
How Diatomaceous Earth Works to Improve Health Internally
The word diatomaceous means full of diatoms. Diatoms were once single celled oceanic algae that became part of ocean floors. After the waters receded they became fossilized and part of the exposed earth matter.
They absorbed silica from the hard matter in ocean floors to create frustules, hardened hydrated silicon dioxide outer shells that preserved and fossilized the diatoms which would become part of dry land years later. These double layered frustules protected the diatoms from alien intrusions of viruses and other microscopic matter.
Yet the negatively charged frustule outer surfaces are just porous enough to attract heavy metal molecules and capture them enough to escort them out. It’s known that silica has an affinity for binding with aluminum, an established contributor to Alzheimer’s disease, and eliminating it through urine and feces.
These now inorganic hard frustule coated diatoms are generally comprised of a mixture of 33 percent silica, 19 percent calcium, 5 percent sodium, 3 percent magnesium, and 2 percent iron. There are 15 other lesser traces of boron, manganese, titanium, copper and zirconium.
Diatomaceous earth particles are quite tiny and hard. But food grade DE is crushed into an extremely fine powder that makes it easy to mix into a solution with water or juice. There’s only slightly chalky taste and texture. Yet food grade DE is just abrasive enough to “gently scrub” the inner walls of our gastrointestinal (GI) tract from beginning to end without damage to the GI tract.
Recommended dosage from most sources: One teaspoonful mixed well in water or juice away from food. Then two teaspoonfuls away from food after feeling comfortable with that. This author has used tablespoon amounts at times without problems.
Note: Avoid inhaling DE into your lungs or getting it into your eyes. Those areas may not be so resistant to DE’s mild abrasive qualities. The powder’s fine dusty quality could invade those areas and cause harm over time. However, there are no recorded incidents of eye and lung damage from DE.
Mucous buildups in the small intestines from processed foods, cooked foods, and partially undigested proteins block the villi on the inner surfaces of those intestines. Villi are tiny protrusions that carry blood from the circulatory system to absorb nutrients from foods in the small intestines of the GI tract.
It’s estimated that the intestinal surface area containing these tiny nutrient grabbers is around the size of a tennis court. That’s a lot of area to “gently scrub” in one body to restore an improved nutritional absorption from a more proper diet afterward using DE daily for some weeks.
The large intestine is wider and shorter than the small intestines. The colon is part of the large intestine, and colon cancer is often due to its diminished inability to extract toxic wastes and eliminate them as feces. Excess mucous and even hardened fecal matter can disrupt this function, causing toxins to accumulate and even find their way back into your blood.
Many alternative or functional medical practitioners and consider the mainstream medical understanding of normal for two to three bowel movements weekly woefully inadequate. They say if you’re not having two to three bowel movements daily that’s not normal health.
So DE performs a vital function by “gently scrubbing” the GI tract which includes the stomach and both the small and large intestines. A small faction of modern Western allopthic medicine has only recently begun to embrace the traditional oriental medical axiom that good and bad health begins in the gut.
DE removes heavy metals by an electrical attraction known as adsorption (notice the “d” in place of the “b”). Adsorption of heavy metals takes place because DE’s particle surfaces are negatively charged sufficiently to attract heavy metals and some viruses that are positively charged. Thus they bind and eliminate heavy metal molecules through feces or urine and take them out of the body.
From Horses to Humans
Much like DMSO was originally used topically on horses’ injuries or arthritis before Dr. Stanley Jacob, M.D., began successfully experimenting with DSMO on humans in the 1960s, DE has a long history of use on horses and farm animals internally to rid them of parasites and worms. It’s only been recently that DE has caught on with humans.
Testimonials from human users indicate improvements in blood pressure, reduced or eliminated candida overgrowth infections, and improving bone health, metabolism and overall energy. Others report easy weight loss and improved digestion, less gas and bloating. Arthritic individuals have reported improvements from using DE.
Diatomaceous earth users also report cosmetic enhancements of smoother skin and better nail and hair growth. Silica, a large part of DE, is vital for creating collagen, the main protein that creates connective tissue in all parts of the body, especially when combined with vitamin C.
Comparing Food Grade DE to Food Grade Activated Charcoal Powder
They are both inexpensive extremely fine powders easily mixed in water to consume for internal needs. While activated charcoal is too messy and useless for pest control, DE excels there. Although activated charcoal is an excellent teeth whitener, DE is often used in toothpaste or it can be used with baking soda (not powder) as well.
Over time, DE provides some measure of bone matter, cartilage, and tendon rebuilding along with joint repair. Activated charcoal does not provide those constructive measures, but it is a top notch antidote for acute poisoning and excellent overall detoxification agent.
Regarding published studies, it’s important to realize that even without published studies, mainstream medicine’s poison control and E.R. uses food grade activated charcoal powder as an antidote for ingested poisons, poisonous insect and snake bites, and pharmaceutical overdoses. That’s because it has worked that way for several years. So don’t expect much study with DE either.
Charcoal also works with an adsorption mechanism. But unlike DE, it lingers in the intestines long enough to allow the fine powdered activated charcoal to coat the intestinal villi. This gives an opportunity for several cycles of blood to go through the villi often and become exposed to charcoal’s adsorption process. (Source)
In other words, neither DE nor activated charcoal get into the blood. But with activated charcoal the blood comes to it while it remains coated on the small intestinal villi. Thus more toxins are removed from the body as a whole.
That’s why some medical practitioners, such as West Palm Beach, Florida Dr. Al Sears, M.D., recommend using activated charcoal powder for overall detoxification daily for two weeks at a time. Both are safe and inexpensive. Using one over another depends on your needs and comfort zone. It may be wise to alternate using both for different periods of time.
Sources:
GI tract issues excerpted from Kindle book – World Without Cancer and Candida
http://diatomaceous.org/what-is-food-grade-diatomaceous-earth/
http://diatomaceous.org/heavy-metal-detoxification/
https://draxe.com/diatomaceous-earth/
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