You have heard the expression literally a thousand times in your life, “You are what you eat.” The assumption being that whatever you put in your mouth has an effect on your body – good, bad, or indifferent. If you eat excessive amounts of starch and other things that turn into sugar, your body will thank you by developing diabetes. If you eat too much meat and not enough vegetables, your body will return the favor by making you (forgive the bluntness) bloated and constipated.
By contrast, if you eat lots of green veggies (especially those you planted and harvested yourself) and smaller portions of organic meat and eggs that you have raised, your body will sing your praises by making sure everything functions properly and that you live a long and healthy life. What about eating unconventional things, such as Bentonite clay? What will that do to your body and how will it react?
This is probably not all that out of the blue as you have probably heard a whole lot about the health benefits associated with eating clay. Unless you have been living under a rock, you already know that it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread and chia seeds. If on the other hand, you think I have lost my mind for suggesting you eat something associated with Pica, just for a moment, indulge me. Put aside the notion that you live in a civilized society, one that frowns upon the idea of eating something other than food. Think instead about why people eat it and use it for topical medicinal purposes and why they have been for eons. What’s an eon? If you go by recorded history, as far back as Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia.
Absent modern medical advances such as penicillin, fiber in a pill, ibuprofen, and triple antibiotic ointment, the Ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians used clay as an anti-inflammatory, antispasmodic associated with diarrhea, and an antiseptic. They probably used it to as an antibiotic as well.
Adding Clay To Your Beauty Regimen
Whether your idea of being prepared means that you live on a farm and are ready for anything, you sit behind a desk and are getting ready to launch your company’s latest widget, or you are a supermodel readying yourself for the next catwalk, your appearance is probably important to you. This is especially the case if you are a woman, and sorry to stereotype, but sometimes they exist for a reason. Hey, I will admit if you can; I am aware of the changes in my face. Whereas I would never use something poisonous like Botox, I won’t lie to you—if there is something natural to combat the signs of aging, I am going to use it.
Masks made from Bentonite or green clay are said to exfoliate and extract toxins from your face and reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. An added benefit of removing toxins and bacteria from your face is the reduction of acne. That alone has me excited! Despite being middle-aged, I still struggle with adult acne. After each use, your skin should be red and even tingle a little for a few days. Once the redness diminishes, your face should look younger and feel fresher. If your skin is sensitive, adding a little aloe vera after your mask should tone down the redness and soothe the irritation that is normal following use. Women describe feeling an actual electrical charge when using Bentonite masks.
Rhassoul red clay (also known as Moroccan red clay) can be used as a mask as well as for soap, shampoo, and conditioner. Using Rhassoul red clay cleansers should be like detox in a bottle, leaving your hair not just clean, but also improving your hair’s elasticity and texture. Your skin should feel softer and more supple.
Adding a few drops of essential oils such as lavender will help rejuvenate otherwise tired skin or limp hair. Because clay can be drying, you probably don’t want to use these masks more than once a week.
If you have an aversion to making an appointment with a high-priced spa to look beautiful, you can make your own masks at home by following the directions in this link.
The Many Things That Ail Us Fragile Humans
Whether the result of greasy or spicy food, acidic food such as citrus, pregnancy, repeatedly sleeping on your back, or dysphagia, you are probably all too familiar with acid indigestion, heartburn, and even GERD. You can rattle off all these symptoms given how well you are acquainted with them.
- Nausea following every meal
- Bloating
- Pockets of painful gas
- Regurgitation
- Pounding in your chest – so bad it can wake you up and leave you in tears
Welcome to the world of nearly 60 million Americans! In some form or another, acid reflux can be anything from an annoyance and painful to something very serious. Far more than just merely annoying for some people, although rare, a condition known as Barrett’s esophagus can lead to cancer.
You probably take either a prescription or an OTC medicine to keep your acid at bay, don’t you? Apart from the symptoms associated with acid reflux, you may also experience these common side effects of your medicine. With continued use, these can include:
- Weakness
- Restlessness
- Diminished appetite
- Mood fluctuations
- Nausea, even vomiting
- Difficulty with urinating
- Muscle pain and sometimes twitching
- Constipation
- Headaches
- Retarded breathing
As if these weren’t scary enough, with excessive use of antacids, you are inhibiting your body’s ability to absorb calcium, which can lead to rickets. And now thanks to your soft and brittle bones, you have just increased your likelihood of developing osteoporosis astronomically.
What if clay could reduce your acid, restore your stomach to the perfect pH and eliminate your need for antacids?
In the U.S. and other developed countries, cholera is a non-issue. However, it is a very big deal in many third world countries. Could eating clay be the natural vaccine to prevent and treat cholera?
Whether the result of radiation exposure, pregnancy, under or overactive thyroid or insufficient iodine in the diet, goiter can be pretty uncomfortable. If it is your thyroid that is causing your goiter, this means that the pituitary gland and hypothalamus aren’t producing and releasing enough of the hormones necessary to regulate your thyroid naturally. Coughing, hoarseness in the throat, and difficulty breathing and swallowing are the usual symptoms associated with goiter. Weight loss can occur with goiter, along with fatigue and difficulty sleeping. Although rarely fatal, goiter is extremely uncomfortable.
Could eating clay be a natural substitute for the standard goiter treatment?
There are several ways someone can come in contact with Staphylococcus (usually shortened to staph). Sometimes introduced through a cut or open sore on the body, the insertion of a catheter or breathing tube, staph is bacteria that develops and requires antibiotics to treat. Staph can be no big deal – a round of antibiotics usually does the trick. If left untreated, staph can travel to the heart, to the lungs, through the bloodstream or directly to the bones. In extremely rare instances, people carry a strain of staph that is resistant to most antibiotics. This strain is known as Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
Although thankfully rare, the result of MRSA can be quite serious, including kidney failure and heart failure. Those with a weakened immune system are more susceptible to MRSA than healthy people. If you have loved ones in the military who are doing tours of duty abroad, it might be best to caution them against getting a tattoo until they are stateside as they are at risk for MRSA. Cleanliness at tattoo parlors is an issue everywhere, but more frequently in countries without stiff regulations.
What if eating clay could the standard treatment for MRSA and other bacterial infections?
If you are among the roughly 50 million Americans who live with some form of arthritis, you know how painful and sometimes debilitating it can be. Whether it is autoimmune related, such as is the case with Rheumatoid Arthritis, the result of an injury, joint-pounding sports (running on concrete, football, hockey, tennis, etc.), being overweight, or simply age such as with osteoarthritis, you have tried everything from OTC NSAIDs to acupuncture to increased exercise and for RA, injectable drugs. Did you know that arthritis is the most common cause of disability in the United States? That was news to me, however as I thought about it further, my joints started aching. Of course, it is about to rain here too.
Could clay actually make your joints stronger and keep them lubricated so you never have to feel the pain of arthritis again?
Prevention Trumps Treatments And Cures
What if rather than popping a pill for everything, you weren’t susceptible to any of those conditions because you ate clay? The question is, would you? You would probably want to know that it really works first, wouldn’t you?
Since 2007, researchers at Arizona State University have been conducting myriad studies to determine whether clay – Bentonite and green specifically – is the next wonder drug. What started as a team of two, geochemist Lynda Williams and microbiologist Shelley Haydel, with a meager budget, began a mission to find out whether clay could:
- Relieve pain and inflammation associated with arthritis
- Prevent staph, cholera and skin infections
- Be a natural substitute for antibiotics
- Eliminate the need for thyroid and goiter medication
- Get rid of acne forever
Their study has garnered so much attention and momentum that researchers from Western Carolina University and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (Seattle) are now collaborating with them. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is funding a few of their studies to prove clay’s efficacy. The fact that NIH is involved means little to me, because all it means is that while it was easy for Big Pharma to poo-poo the wonders of clay, regardless that people have been using it for thousands of years, now that these lone researchers have been able to make considerable headway in their studies, they want a piece of the action.
And so what if these researchers are successful in confirming what Cleopatra, the Ancient Egyptians, the Mesopotamians didn’t need studies and years of research to know? Could it really mean that by simply eating clay, or using it topically, you could eliminate the need for half of what’s in most people’s medicine cabinets?
Well, this would be great news for us and really bad news for Big Pharma.
I for one would not lose a moment’s sleep thinking of how many billions of dollars they stand to lose.
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