Can you eat activated charcoal when pregnant?
In this brief guide, we will answer the question: “Can you eat activated charcoal when pregnant?” We will also discuss why activated charcoal became popular, the benefits or harm caused by the ingestion of that kind of substance during pregnancy and different alternatives to eat activated charcoal.
Can you eat activated charcoal when pregnant?
Yes, you can eat charcoal when pregnant because it is not a toxic substance. But you should do that while attending your doctor’s clinic on the right frequency, taking the substance only under some supervision. Activated charcoal has a lot of benefits for your health and has become popular for different reasons, but you should be aware of some risks.
Why did activated charcoal become so popular?
Activated charcoal became so popular because it’s a cheap, easy to find and consumeable substance. It has been found in cosmetics such as skincare masks, shampoos, conditioners and toothpastes for a while now and consumers say it really does something for the quality of your skin and hair. The therapeutic use of activated charcoal isn’t new either.
The use of activated charcoal in a therapeutic way has been noticed since ancient times by Egyptians and Greeks. Indians Americans used it as an alternative method for poison desintoxication. The french pharmacist Gabriel Bertrand made a mix of activated charcoal and arsenic, a powerful poison, and survived even after the ingestion.
Activated charcoal is made in a considered cheap process by exposing charcoal derived from some types of wood to very high temperatures, from 800 ºC to 1000 ºC, leading to a low oxygen burn. It also can be originated from coconut peels or oxen and cows bones, resulting in an activated carbon with high value.
What are the health benefits of eating activated charcoal when pregnant?
The health benefits of eating activated charcoal when pregnant are many. It helps lower your cholesterol, it helps with diarrhea, heartburn and acid reflux, it can reduce abdominal pain and discomfort such as indigestion or gas and it relieves one of the most common symptoms of pregnancy: morning sickness.
As pregnancy can became handy during the nine months, the mothers can also count with activated charcoal for beauty purposes, as it has been demonstrated along the recent years that the substance can whitening your teeth by removing annoying stains, remove toxins from your skin avoiding acne and clean your hair better, due to its porous nature.
Are there risks of eating activated charcoal when pregnant?
Yes, there are risks of eating activated charcoal when pregnant. However, no risks are reported for the fetus yet by safety agencies such as the FDA , but for the mother. Everything depends on the dose and the purpose of your ingestion of activated charcoal. If you do it often, it can decrease the absorption of nutrients of your food by being a porous substance.
Activated charcoal can lead to serious dehydration if taken in a large dose, so make sure you drink a lot of water to keep hydrated If you eat activated charcoal. Dehydration can give you dizziness, fainting and low blood pressure, which are things pregnant women are best to avoid.
As pregnant women may take different medicine for blood pressure, pregnancy diabetes or headaches, you must be careful by the drug interaction between the ones you’ve been taking and the ingestion of activated carbon. Drugs such as:
- Potassium Citrate
- Safinamide
- Samidorphan
- Nalmefene
should not be taken with activated charcoal, because it might have an interaction between them and lead it to a change on the effect.
By eating activated charcoal, you should be aware that security agencies, like the FDA, don’t specify any dose that gives you the benefits already cited above. So you must be careful to not take activated charcoal in higher doses than the ones your doctor or health consultant advised you.
What are the alternatives to eat activated charcoal?
There are many alternatives to eat activated charcoal, but everything depends on your symptoms. For constipation, you can increase the ingestion of fruits and vegetables with high fiber content. To detox your body, you should drink a lot of water and always stay hydrated.
To keep your blood pressure, blood glucose and cholesterol under normal levels, you can do activities that exercise your body, such as walking in the morning, pilates, yoga and dancing. Stretching every morning right after waking up is also a good alternative for removing the toxins of your body and relaxing your mind, that way preventing headaches.
Conclusion
In this brief guide, we have discussed the question: “Can you eat activated charcoal when pregnant?” We have also talked about the reasons activated charcoal became popular, the benefits or harm caused by the ingestion of that kind of substance during pregnancy and different alternatives to eat activated charcoal.
Hope you found this blog useful. If you have any questions, please let us know.
