Because I had some tummy troubles in the night*, I looked at my supply of activated (medicinal) coal in the medicine cabinet and read the usage directions, and wondered:
It seems that coal works purely mechanical by adsorption. How does it “know” to adsorb only the “bad” bacteria who are making you sick after food poisioning/ causing you diarrhoe, and not adsorb all the other “good” bacteria and minerals that are naturally in your stomach and intestine?
Or does it simply absorb everything and it’s neglectfully to not print a warning: “after eating coal, eat some yoghurt to stock up on your beneficial bacteria again”?
If you are having diarhoe, how much water will the coal bind and carry away, and how much salt - do I need to replenish afterwards? (The instruction says to dissolved the tablet in water and take, but not how much).
The instruction pamphlet says “Take for food poisioning and diarrhoe. Do not take for feverish diarrhoe”.
Um why not? How high a fever? Food poisioning often comes not only with stomach pains, but also terrible headache and slightly elevated temp for me - does that count already?
The pamphlet further lists on how many kind of poisioing (= accidentally ingesting harmful substances, as opposed to food poisioning = food gone bad with bacteria) it won’t work: metalic poisions, pesticides etc.
Is that a matter of the size of molecules that need to be adsorbed? Polarity of molecules? Something else?
The Medical Applicationssection of your own cite should provide most of your answers. Activated charcoal is highly porous charcoal that acts like a sponge. It is more effective on some substances than others because of it’s physical properties. Possibly because of it’s physical properties it has other beneficial effects besides absorbing toxins, such as a reaction by the lining of the stomach or intestines to it’s prescence that minimizes damage from toxins, but I don’t know if any such thing is established. You can assume that activated charcoal is not going to remove too much of anything from your body in a single dose. It doesn’t swell up to many times it’s original size like some sponges, so it’s going to remove a volume of substances less than it’s own initial size, and most of that will be water.
I still don’t understand how mechanical adsorption can distinguish between the harmful kind of bacteria and the beneficial kind, or if it mostly adsorbs water, how it can mop up the poision/ bacteria in one swoop, too - there is much more water than poision in the gut, I think?
If I have coloured water on the floor and use a sponge, the sponge will simply mop up the water regardless of the colour.
So how can coal mop up the poision only, but not the minerals I need / the illness-bacteria, but not the digestion-bacteria?
Or does coal indeed mop up everything, and after taking it, I need to take salts and yoghurt? Then why doesn’t it say so on the instruction?
It does not discriminate and it does not pick up bacteria. It is like you described a sponge. Much of the damage from food poisoning from the bacteria itself but toxic waste products of the bacterias metabolism. AC will grab that. Instructions for use of things like this in poisonings should be done with qualified medical guidance or be administered by medical personell who are already familiar with its use.
It cannot tell what is a toxin. It will also adsorb (not absorb as in like a sponge) various vitamins, minerals, so on. Basically a few hours loss of nutrients is not a big concern when dealing with potentially fatal poisonings. It will also not adsorb certain toxins very well, such as lithium, iron and alcohols.
I am not aware that it adsorbs bacteria very much at all. The toxins that pathogenic bacteria produce maybe, but I am not aware of its use for that.
I am not familiar with using it for non-specific tummy troubles; I think of it as something to use on the way to or once in the Emergency department. If I had it I would only take it upon the guidance of poison control or an expert with access to the database advising its use in that circumstance.
Firstly, it’s CHARcoal, not coal. Different product entirely!
The stuff is only good for what is in your actual stomach, not for the entire digestive tract. By the time it hits the intestines, it’s already absorbed all it can.
It’s for IMMEDIATE use after ingesting poison. The whole idea is to soak up everything before it gets a chance to enter the bloodstream in the intestines. For that reason, when it is used as an antidote, you need good follow-up care by a doctor to determine how much poison managed to get past the charcoal, and how the patient needs to be treated.
The note in the instructions about it being useful in ICU for poisons in the bloodstream don’t make much sense to me, unless the charcoal is used as a filter in dialysis. After the bad stuff is in the blood, nothing taken by mouth is going to help.
I’ve never heard of using activated charcoal for food poisoning or gastroenteritis. I could see where it might help a bit if something spoiled has been eaten, but by the time you know you have food poisoning, you’re barfing up your guts and the idea of swallowing black stuff would be unsurmountable.
With gastroenteritis (with fever), an OTC gut rumble medication, like Immodium or Pepto-Bismol, are the usual treatments.
“Activated coal” is listed at wikipedia as an accepted alternate to “activated charcoal,” but I’ve never heard it used. It’s always “activated charcoal” here. I don’t think we in the US use activated charcoal for gastroenteritis, food poisoning or other bacterially induced diarrhea - which would probably be why it specifically excludes “feverish diarrhoe”.
We use it for poisonings and accidental overdoses of some chemicals or drugs (including alcohol, although that practice is not universal). I don’t know if activated charcoal would absorb and/or aid in the excretion of bacteria or not, but it if does, it would not discriminate between “good” and “bad” bacteria." It does not discriminate between stomach acid liquid or water or poison, it adsorbs what it touches. I suppose you’d be at risk for malnutrition or dehydration if you used it frequently, but here in the US, it’s not something most people use without the advice of a physician or Poison Control. Most people get through their whole lives without ever taking activated charcoal.
I’m not sure, even if they *were *used for bacterial infections, that it would be “negligent” to not mention restoring gut flora with a probiotic or yogurt is a good idea. That’s not generally listed in the patient information of antibiotics, either. It’s something a good nurse will mention, but it’s considered the nurse’s job, not the charcoal manufacturer’s.
Activated charcoal is pretty miraculous stuff. I used to put a teaspoon (!) of very finely powdered charcoal in my DE filter , and it would turn the yellow, dingy water of my 50 gallon fish tank absolutely crystal clear. It was really something to witness.
I happened upon this forum while looking for info on the effects of activated charcoal on bacteria. Some good info here. I found a source from PubMed that apparently displays, dose dependent, activated charcoal adsorbs e. Coli and VTEC in its entirety, but to a much lesser extent, the natural gut flora.
This is not entirely accurate. Some drugs (for example Dilantin, IIRC) are absorbed-secreted-absorbed-secreted … in the gut. In such cases, activated charcoal can bind to the drug rather distally in the bowel (where it had been secreted into the lumen following earlier absorption) and, at that point, prevent its (re)absorption.
And, to echo what DSeid said, the charcoal is NOT binding to bacteria, although it DOES bind to the toxins they may have produced. And, since it is the toxin that is often the cause of diarrhea, and not the bacteria per se, the charcoal can, therefore, ameliorate the diarrhea.
Finally, with respect to “feverish diarrhea”, I suspect it’s a disclaimer simply because diarrhea with fever may indicate a) serious infection or b) non-infectious causes of diarrhea (such as Inflammatory Bowel Disease, gut ischemia, etc.) or c) many other illnesses where charcoal will be ineffective (and possibly confusing, i.e. it may make the stool appear to be black, as if from old blood).