It also does that to your body. You just have a lot more body to spare. It’s very hazardous to inhale, just like any abrasive material. It is very absorbent, so ingesting it may have the same utility as eating other absorbent substances such as those in Kaopectate and Pepto-Bismol.
Hi. Here’s a totally legitimate article about feeding diatomaceous earth to chickens. Believe it or not, they actually found it to be beneficial:
http://ps.fass.org/content/90/7/1416.long
I also have a link for one more older article. They fed DE to pigs, chickens, and cows and found that it had no effect:
From the link to that 15-year-old publication (there don’t seem to be any newer studies cited in PubMed)*:
“Placebo-controlled studies will be necessary to confirm our findings.”
Oh, and if it hasn’t already been pointed out - “food grade” doesn’t mean “safe to ingest on a continuing basis”. There is currently a woo craze for “food grade” concentrated hydrogen peroxide, which is supposed to be good for pretty much whatever ails you. Boosters have failed to notice that “food grade” hydrogen peroxide means it is approved to use for cleaning food processing equipment, NOT for drinking.
*probably because the Giant Pharma Lizards Don’t Want You To Know.
DE is on the FDA’s Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) list. In other words companies have been putting it in food for a long time before FDA thought to ask whether its dangerous. Nobody has died yet ( that we know of) so it’s probably ok.
According to the FDA, daily consumption of the predominant form of silicate is 0.3 mg/kg per day. It sounds like these web sites are advocating much larger doses but given that people haven’t been keeling over left and right, I’m guessing that the quantities proposed aren’t acutely toxic. Silicates are found large quantities in OTC drugs like Kaolin as well.
http://www.fda.gov/Food/IngredientsPackagingLabeling/GRAS/SCOGS/ucm261274.htm
A few years ago these folks woulda been diagnosed with pica. Now they’re on the cutting edge of…whatever you wanna call this. Personally speaking, I’ll take a good steak over sandblasting my alimentary canal.
morgensd
Also good for making Dynamite. Does your stomach need stablising to prvent it going off accidentally?
Only after All-You-Can-Eat burrito night.
My exwife grew up in a dirt poor community of central Mississippi. She tells me they ued to eat red dirt, she couldn’t remember how her mother fixed it but it was in a soup like mix. I have to wonder if they did not use that as a parasite control of some kind.
Eur. J. Med. Res. 1998 Apr 8;3(4):211-5
Diatomaceous earth lowers blood cholesterol concentrations.
In this study 19 healthy individuals with mild hypercholesterolemia were studied during a 12 week period. Serum lipid levels were measured before the study and every two weeks. The lipids measured included cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides levels. Results showed that Diatomaceous Earth intake was associated with a significant reduction of serum cholesterol compared to baseline (285.8 +/- 37.5 mg/dl = 7.40 +/- 0.97 mM) vs (248.1 mg/dl = 6.43 mM, -13.2% from baseline; p<0.001) at week 6.
Conclusions state that Diatomaceous Earth is capable of reducing blood cholesterol and positively influencing lipid metabolism in humans.
Here is the pubmed link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9533930
Crystilline silica is the one that is dangerous if inhaled. High quality food grade DE is typically less than 1% crystilline silica and the rest is amorphous silica.
I love how people on this board jump all over anything natural and immediately dismiss it as ignorant without really reading it. I shouldn’t be surprised, though. This same board poo-poos the dangers of fluoride-- another supposed “natural” substance added to our water to supposedly help our teeth. Little do most people know that the fluoridating chemical used is fluorosilicic acid or aka hydrofluorosilicic acid, which is scavenged from the smoke stack scrubbers at phosphate fertilizer production plants. It is not purified or processed in any way prior to being added to the water supply. Samples of HFSA have been tested by 3 independent laboratories and found to be 18-19% fluoride, upwards of 40% aluminum, and also contains contaminants such as lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium and others.
For those of you on this board who are so big on FDA approval and studies, the FDA has NOT approved this chemical for human consumption, and there are no studies supporting the safety or effectiveness of this chemical for human consumption.
One of the largest studies ever done looking at the effectiveness of public water fluoridation is the 1986-87 NIDR study that looked at 39,207 school aged children divided up into 3 groups based on fluoridation status of their area: fluoridated, non- fluoridated and partially fluoridated. There was no statistically significant difference across the three groups with regard to tooth decay.
I’ve even challenge the founder of this site, Cecil Adams, on these facts and guess what I got? Crickets… Ditto from the guy who runs Quackwatch-- got some email responses from him, which amounted to some ad hominem attacks, but no refutation of any of the facts presented.
So forgive me if I don’t put a whole lot of stock into what straight dope says. Any of you on here are welcome to challenge me, I enjoy shredding people on this subject.
Moderator Note
Welcome to the SDMB, HootieMcGrudy.
Please note that this is the General Questions forum, which is for questions with factual answers. The first part of your post fits in perfectly with this forum, and is in line with the current topic, which is diatomaceous earth.
Fluoride and fluoridation is a different topic, though. Anyone who wishes to discuss this, please do so in a different thread so that this topic does not get hijacked.
One last note. At the end of your post you welcome people to challenge you. The General Questions forum is for factual questions and is not a debate forum. If you wish to debate, please do so in the Great Debates forum.
You left out that the study was a non-placebo-controlled pilot study, which the authors acknowledge and which is essential for confirming the results.
I have been taking DE for a month now…I’ve notice better skin and stronger hair, but I have a Candida infection so I decided to stop taking DE for a few days and I started with probiotics instead. I love the idea of DE but I’m tired of reading random comments of random people…so I started to have a look at scientific articles…DE does NOT seem effective on nematode bacteria (in beef steers at least).
Here is the article:
http://www.allaboutbeetles.co.uk/default.aspx?process=download/Files/Documents/Doctorate/_Fernandez_Woodward_Stromberg_1998_Anim_Sci_66_635-641.pdf
This thread will not die. Perhaps we should feed it crushed diatoms.