5 ms·

The effectiveness is hotly debated in literature [0], but I recommend everyone keep activated charcoal in their house. At the first sign of food poisoning take

The effectiveness is hotly debated in literature [0], but I recommend everyone keep activated charcoal in their house. At the first sign of food poisoning take a couple tablets. It’s commonly used in Asia and has saved my life at least twice. For some reason it’s not as popular in the western world, but you can find it on the shelf in many pharmacies. [0] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34424785/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34424785/

ajkjk 3y ago
Valuable point, but um.. it has saved your life twice? What the heck are you eating?
- oofdoof 3y ago
  Exactly. Binarymax, spill the beans.
- binarymax 3y ago
  LOL fair question so story time I guess. First incident. In late 2005, I'm in Bangkok for business. On the 3rd or 4th night I ventured to an outdoor restaurant, and ate their "specialty" which was raw shrimp, garlic, and crushed chili. Yes, I was an idiot. On the walk back to the hotel I started to feel it. Broke out into a cold sweat, doubled over, and realized my meal was bad news. I managed to get back to the hotel and asked for help. I thought they would call an ambulance but instead they gave me some charcoal, which I had never even heard of before - but they convinced me to take it. I started to feel some relief after 30 minutes or so. I still felt terrible for a day or two, but I could tell it would have been far worse had I not taken it. Second incident. In 2012 I'm in Madrid on Business, and a colleague and I met up at a somewhat empty restaurant. We split a paella, because we were foreigners and forgot we weren't in Barcelona. We went back to our separate hotels in different parts of town. I had some charcoal with me, and realized I needed to take some. I got back home fine, my colleague went back home and ended up in the emergency room - took her about 10 days to recover. It's not something I take often (maybe once every two or three years). But I swear by it and always travel with it just in case an adventurous culinary experience ends poorly.
  - why_at 3y ago
    I'm not a doctor or anything so I could be mistaken, but my understanding was that activated charcoal is helpful for treating poisons/toxins, not pathogens like you might find in bad seafood. Unless there was a poisonous mushroom or something in your Thai food or your paella, would activated charcoal be expected to help?
    - throwup238 3y ago
      Activated charcoal is just a high adsorption material with a lot more surface area (100-1000x or so) than stomach lining so anything floating around is more likely to be trapped by the charcoal than get absorbed by your digestive system. It works with pretty much anything, good or bad, since it exploits a basic physical process of molecules sticking together.
    - binarymax 3y ago
      @why_at your comment and @throwup238's (thread name checks out) are IIRC the source of the debate. There is a porous surface area and tests/arguments of the type/size of the particle that can attach - perhaps they are inconclusive because there are lots of other things at play in the stomach and gut like biomes and various substances and surfaces and reactions. In my experience it worked and, based on my recollection I'm pretty sure in both scenarios above I would have been f*cked if not for the treatment. I'm definitely open to the possibility that it might work differently on different people - we're not all clones.
  - ajkjk 3y ago
    So maybe not "life-saving" but certainly seemed to help. Fair enough.
  - geon 3y ago
    > we were foreigners and forgot we weren't in Barcelona. What does that mean? Is Barcelona a cleaner place than Madrid?
    - niij 3y ago
porkbeer 3y ago
Its not popular because it is about as effective as a sugar pill, and cant be trademarked.
leobg 3y ago
My grandpa told me that when he was POW in WW2 he got sick. He charred wood and ate it. He lived to be 95 years old.

ajkjk 3y ago

Valuable point, but um.. it has saved your life twice? What the heck are you eating?

oofdoof 3y ago
Exactly. Binarymax, spill the beans.
binarymax 3y ago
LOL fair question so story time I guess. First incident. In late 2005, I'm in Bangkok for business. On the 3rd or 4th night I ventured to an outdoor restaurant, and ate their "specialty" which was raw shrimp, garlic, and crushed chili. Yes, I was an idiot. On the walk back to the hotel I started to feel it. Broke out into a cold sweat, doubled over, and realized my meal was bad news. I managed to get back to the hotel and asked for help. I thought they would call an ambulance but instead they gave me some charcoal, which I had never even heard of before - but they convinced me to take it. I started to feel some relief after 30 minutes or so. I still felt terrible for a day or two, but I could tell it would have been far worse had I not taken it. Second incident. In 2012 I'm in Madrid on Business, and a colleague and I met up at a somewhat empty restaurant. We split a paella, because we were foreigners and forgot we weren't in Barcelona. We went back to our separate hotels in different parts of town. I had some charcoal with me, and realized I needed to take some. I got back home fine, my colleague went back home and ended up in the emergency room - took her about 10 days to recover. It's not something I take often (maybe once every two or three years). But I swear by it and always travel with it just in case an adventurous culinary experience ends poorly.
- why_at 3y ago
  I'm not a doctor or anything so I could be mistaken, but my understanding was that activated charcoal is helpful for treating poisons/toxins, not pathogens like you might find in bad seafood. Unless there was a poisonous mushroom or something in your Thai food or your paella, would activated charcoal be expected to help?
  - throwup238 3y ago
    Activated charcoal is just a high adsorption material with a lot more surface area (100-1000x or so) than stomach lining so anything floating around is more likely to be trapped by the charcoal than get absorbed by your digestive system. It works with pretty much anything, good or bad, since it exploits a basic physical process of molecules sticking together.
  - binarymax 3y ago
    @why_at your comment and @throwup238's (thread name checks out) are IIRC the source of the debate. There is a porous surface area and tests/arguments of the type/size of the particle that can attach - perhaps they are inconclusive because there are lots of other things at play in the stomach and gut like biomes and various substances and surfaces and reactions. In my experience it worked and, based on my recollection I'm pretty sure in both scenarios above I would have been f*cked if not for the treatment. I'm definitely open to the possibility that it might work differently on different people - we're not all clones.
- ajkjk 3y ago
  So maybe not "life-saving" but certainly seemed to help. Fair enough.
- geon 3y ago
  > we were foreigners and forgot we weren't in Barcelona. What does that mean? Is Barcelona a cleaner place than Madrid?
  - niij 3y ago

porkbeer 3y ago

Its not popular because it is about as effective as a sugar pill, and cant be trademarked.

leobg 3y ago

My grandpa told me that when he was POW in WW2 he got sick. He charred wood and ate it. He lived to be 95 years old.