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Activated Charcoal really works!
My adult son has been vitamin A free for about 1.5 years, but during that time he was taking SSRI antidepressants and ADHD medication so he didn't want to take activated charcoal. During the 1.5 years on the zeroA diet he has improved a little bit, but not that much. He stopped taking the medications the end of Summer this year (and went through some nasty withdrawals) and also moved out on his own about the same time. He was just home with me for 2 weeks and I had him take 2 charcoal capsules with breakfast and lunch each day. We started noticing changes after one week on the charcoal! And he did too! After 2 weeks the changes in him are amazing! He is talking, laughing, communicating, doing projects, cooking, taking the initiative and taking part in life! He just left to back to his own place, but he sees the improvement and is going to keep taking the charcoal capsules!
I've been taking activated charcoal the whole time I've been on the zeroA diet and I have steadily improved (with no detox setbacks), but I didn't really have any evidence that it was important, until now! Truly amazing!
That is great news! I tried AC a bit in the beginning and should have stuck with it I guess. I think I was unsure the best way to use it. Did you read somewhere that it was best to take with food? I had it in my mind to take on an empty stomach. Also, which brand do you use?
Thank you!
Hi Romaine,
Yes! You should try it again! I take coconut charcoal powder and mix about a half tsp in some water. My son is taking 2 capsules with a meal (much easier than the powder). Here is an amazon link to the ones we use, but I think they are all about the same.
Organic Activated Coconut Charcoal 1200mg, 180 Capsules Pills for Digestive System, Bloating, Prevent Hangovers, Detoxification, Teeth Whitening https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FYW5R54/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_sxtaEbN6EDFTD
The best time to take activated charcoal is right before you eat (especially a fatty meal) so that when your liver puts out bile along with a bit of vitamin A, the charcoal binds to the vitamin A and it exits the body as waste.
Good luck!
But charcoal can bind everything possible... yeast, candida, SIBO toxins, biotoxins from mold, parasite toxins, various toxins in the body, gut endotoxins, heavy metals. I'm just a little skeptical that if someone doesn't improve 1.5 years on zero VA diet that charcoal is the reason for his improvement. He has improved but there could be another cause.
And charcoal binds vitamins, minerals if taken with food, supplements, perhaps the vitamin A binding benefit is greater than the loss of minerals and nutrients - and it can be a good idea to try. I've always taken charcoal in the past before going to bed - could work all night in my body and detoxify.
I will try a few days apple pectin with a big meal and then charcoal for a few days - and I wonder if I can see any effect because I am still very fatigued after a big meal with fat, I don't have digestive problems, the first months on low VA diet it was almost a comatose state - and I aways eat beef with beans.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2612535
"Other parameters, including the serum concentrations of vitamin A, E and 25(OH)D3 remained unaffected."
...but who knows if it can bind the bile, it may work.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7392829
"Activated carbon (AC) has been shown to be effective in reducing serum cholesterol and triglycerides. The mechanism for this action is proposed to be a result of the removal of bile salts in the gut. Based on these data, the adsorption of bile salts by AC appears to be a likely mechanism for AC-induced reduction of serum lipids."
or soluble fiber and eating beans:
https://www.todaysdietitian.com/newarchives/120913p16.shtml
"Information is still emerging on the exact mechanisms by which soluble fiber helps lower cholesterol, but “it’s believed that viscous fiber interferes with the reabsorption of bile acids in the intestines,” explains Joan Salge Blake, MS, RD, LDN, a spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. “Bile acids are high in cholesterol and are released into your intestine by your gallbladder to help with the digestion of fat. The bile acids are likely ‘grabbed’ by the fiber before they can be reabsorbed by the body. They then end up being excreted along with the fiber in your waste products. Your body replaces these lost bile acids by removing cholesterol from the blood to generate new bile acids in the liver. Blood cholesterol levels are lowered as a result.”"
pectin:
https://www.nature.com/articles/ejcn2011208
"Viscous, gelatinizing citrus pectin modifies bile acid enterohepatic circulation, increasing cholesterol excretion into stool (Martinez de Prado et al., 1981; Ide and Horii, 1989; Ide et al., 1990; Fernandez et al., 1994; Terpstra et al., 2002). Highly esterified pectin induced greater reductions in plasma TC and TAG in Syrian hamsters than less esterified pectin (Trautwein et al., 1998). In conventional and germ-free rats (Dongowski and Lorenz, 2004) with increasing degree of methylation (34.5–92.6%), more bile acids were transported into the lower intestinal tract and excreted; secondary bile acids decreased."
I think the reason my son didn't initially improve on the diet was because of the medications he was taking. SSRI's stop the degradation of vitamin A and load your body up with more toxic chemicals. It's also quite possible that some people have a much harder time getting rid of vitamin A. The bile exit route may be the most reliable because it doesn't rely on enzyme pathways that are compromised.
Activated charcoal binds most strongly to hydrophobic fat soluble molecules like vitamin A and cholesterol. It binds much much less to water soluble molecules.
I have been taking it with only the first meal of the day, just in case it binds beneficial things. But it must be taken right before or during a fatty meal so that the liver puts out bile and the activated charcoal can bind the vitamin A.
Quote from MaryAnn on December 24, 2019, 6:47 amI think the reason my son didn't initially improve on the diet was because of the medications he was taking. SSRI's stop the degradation of vitamin A and load your body up with more toxic chemicals. It's also quite possible that some people have a much harder time getting rid of vitamin A. The bile exit route may be the most reliable because it doesn't rely on enzyme pathways that are compromised.
Activated charcoal binds most strongly to hydrophobic fat soluble molecules like vitamin A and cholesterol. It binds much much less to water soluble molecules.
I have been taking it with only the first meal of the day, just in case it binds beneficial things. But it must be taken right before or during a fatty meal so that the liver puts out bile and the activated charcoal can bind the vitamin A.
Yes, this is possible with SSRI's. But personally I don't take any medications and have been eating beans, apples almost every day, coffee enemas and it seems that after every big meal I have symptoms of overtaxed ALDH, ADH enzyme pathways or symptoms of liver problems - light nausea, shakiness, fatigue, tachycardia, dizziness, sometimes druck and light pains in the liver.... (but I had never positive liver tests). I wonder if I have some genetic weakening in these enzymes...or I am so toxic. I have charcoal powder and I will test it for the next days, two doses with main meals. Thanks for your advice how to take it.
Lately I have been waking up at the same time every night between 1am and 3am and I sweat a lot- and this can be liver. https://www.bodhiclinic.com/why-is-my-liver-waking-me-up/
In the last days, I feel like ALDH and ADH enzymes have stopped working...I know my body very well and this is not normal what is happening. I have after every meal - even cooked whole rice with apples without fat symptoms of alcohol intolerance! - it is worse than at the beginning. And I am taking now sylimarin, NAC, alpha lipoic acid, liver herbs and teas... it doesn't work. It also affects the liver but I don't have problems with my liver but with drained ALDH and ADH enzymes. I don't feel any progress on this low VA diet last weeks, something is going wrong. And I am not deficient in nutrients. I'm thinking about this Grant theory and it makes sense to me:
"There’s yet another possibility, and that is that as people go very low on the consumption side of vitamin A, then the body’s perceived inbound threat is reduced, and the production of the dehydrogenase enzymes is slowed or even shutdown. Whereas, the backflow of retinyl esters from the liver is not quite the right molecule to trigger production of the dehydrogenase enzymes. This little sub-theory is actually supported by several people who have reported that keeping just some vitamin A content foods (like a single egg per day) in their diet prevents and quickly abates their “detox” setback cycle."
A will add before every meal 1-2 tablespoons of cooked lima beans (this amount is not high in oxalates), apple pectin or charcoal. For regular bowel movement acacia soluble fiber - is very gentle and good for bifidobacteria and food grade castor oil internally+liver castor oil packs. If it doesn't help after one week, I will add one egg daily.
https://uni5.co/index.php/en/earth-therapy/castor-oil-cleansing.html
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3161159/
"Overall, studies on ADH knockout mice indicate that ADH1 provides considerable protection against vitamin A toxicity whereas ADH4 promotes survival during vitamin A deficiency, demonstrating largely non-overlapping physiological functions for these two enzymes in retinol metabolism. ADH3 appears to function redundantly both in prevention of retinol toxicity and vitamin A deficiency, a role which is consistent with its ubiquitous expression."
And if our diet is very low in VA longterm, something is going on with these enzymes.... maybe the enzymes that protect us from VA deficiency are activated (even if we have still enough VA in the liver) and the enzymes that protect us from toxicity are slowed.
A few weeks ago I did an experiment with two eggs and two oranges but my VA toxicity symptoms have worsened (intracranial pressure headaches) and probably it was too much of VA! but I think it will take some time, maybe a few days until these enzymes adapt, maybe the detox will slow down and the activity of ALDH will increase. But if we don't feel any progress for weeks, something is wrong.
https://trvthandhealth.wordpress.com/2019/09/01/vitamin-a-depletion-diet-my-17-month-update/
"Another general trend is that as I have reduced my VA intake, I have become more sensitive to VA foods, or you could say, that my tolerance for VA has decreased. I am very interested to find out if I will remain highly sensitive to VA foods even after my VA stores are depleted..."
Why he is so sensitive to VA foods? Because he is still dumping VA and even a small increase in VA in the blood will make his symptoms worse? (I don't believe this because his progress is not steady and actually stopped for some time). That would make sense for the first few months on low VA diet - it was happening to me regularly. But what if after a few months or a year on this diet this hypersensitivity is due to altered functioning of our ALDH, ADH enzymes? And maybe it is counterproductive to have a very low, zero VA content in our diet after some time and this will even slow down the depleting of VA reserves in the liver.