Activated charcoal is an actual detox product, which is why you should avoid it | The Outline

Activated charcoal is an actual detox product, which is why you should avoid it | The Outline: Activated charcoal is regular charcoal that’s been exposed to extremely high temperatures in order to expand its surface area, making it more adsorbent (molecules to adhere to its surface area, like a magnet). The first known record of charcoal’s use as a teeth-cleaning agent was in Ancient Greece, from a written demonstration by Hippocrates. It was found to have “detoxing” properties in 1831, when a French pharmacist, P.F. Touery, swallowed 10 lethal doses of the poison strychnine before treating himself with activated charcoal in front of an audience at the French Academy of Medicine. But it wasn’t until 1963 that activated charcoal became emergency rooms’ first line of defense to relieve toxic stress on poisoned patients though gastric irrigation (more commonly known as “getting your stomach pumped”).