3 ms·
About twenty-five years ago I product tested a hangover prevention pill that appears to have been little more than capsules of activated charcoal. IIRC, we were
by Mountain_Skies 4y ago
About twenty-five years ago I product tested a hangover prevention pill that appears to have been little more than capsules of activated charcoal. IIRC, we were instructed to take one pill before drinking and then one after every other drink. If it wasn't the drunkest I've ever been, it was close. The next day I was low on energy but was otherwise unaffected by the previous night's drinking. As one of my fellow product testers put it "I feel unreasonably ok". I suspect that the product didn't take off because activated charcoal can interfere with absorption of things you want absorbed, like prescription drugs and also because it turned your poop absolute jet black.
- selfmodruntime 4y agoThe „worst“ interaction orally ingested activated charcoal has is with birth control. BC pills are relatively tiny with a low dosage of active substance, which appears to bind to the charcoal unreasonably well. This interaction should be mentioned by OB GYNs to every woman out there, but sadly they seem to be the worst offenders when it comes to spectacularly failing at their job to inform patients. I am not mindlessly bashing, or advising against birth control. Seriously, ask women you know if they are aware that birth control fails when you‘re sick with diarrhea, take charcoal or any kind of antibiotic.
- MandieD 4y agoAnecdata: the leaflet in the packets of all the ones I’ve taken in both the US and Germany mention the antibiotics pretty clearly, the diarrhea too obliquely, but I’ve never heard of the charcoal thing!
- escapedmoose 4y agoI knew about the antibiotics interaction but not the others! That’s… mildly horrifying.
- selfmodruntime 4y agoThere is more. Epilepsy medications, obesity, antidepressants, flaxseed, alfalfa, St. John's wort, Crohns, Celiac, IBS, the list goes on and on.