Bentonite Clay

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Bentonite, medicinal powdered clay which is also known as montmorillonite, derived from deposits of weathered volcanic ash.

It is one of the most effective natural intestinal detoxifying agents available and has been recognized as such for centuries by native peoples around the world. Whatever the name, liquid clay contains minerals that, once inside the gastrointestinal tract, are able to absorb toxins and deliver mineral nutrients to an impressive degree, says Knishinsky. Liquid clay is inert, which means it passes through the body undigested.

Technically, the clay first adsorbs toxins (heavy metals, free radicals, pesticides), attracting them to its extensive surface area where they adhere like flies to sticky paper; then it absorbs the toxins, taking them in the way a sponge mops up a kitchen counter mess.

There is an electrical aspect to bentonite’s ability to bind and absorb toxins. According to Yerba Prima, a company based in Ashland, Oregon, which markets Great Plains’ Bentonite, the clay’s minerals are negatively charged while toxins tend to be positively charged; hence the clay’s attraction works like a magnet drawing metal shavings. But it’s even more involved than that.

Once hydrated (combined with water), Bentonite has an enormous surface area. According to Yerba Prima, a single quart bottle can represent a total surface area of 960 square yards or 12 American football fields. Bentonite is made of a great number of tiny platelets, with negative electrical charges on their flat surfaces and positive charges on their edges.

When bentonite absorbs water and swells, it is stretched open like a highly porous sponge; the toxins are drawn into these spaces by electrical attraction and bound fast. In fact, according to the Canadian Journal of Microbiology (31 [1985], 50-53), bentonite can absorb pathogenic viruses, aflatoxin (mold) and pesticides and herbicides, including Paraquat and Roundup. The clay is eventually eliminated from the body with the toxins bound to its multiple surfaces.

According to Sonne’s Organic Foods of North Kansas City, Missouri, a company that markets Detoxificant (a liquid montmorillonite), “There is no evidence that bentonite has any chemical action in the body. Its power is purely physical.”

Clay’s absorptive and absorptive qualities may be the key to its multifaceted healing abilities. Knishinsky reports that drinking clay helped him eliminate painful ganglion cysts (tumors attached to joints and tendons, in his case, his wrist) in two months, without surgery.

According to Knishinsky, benefits reported by people using liquid clay for a period of two to four weeks include: improved intestinal regularity; relief from chronic constipation, diarrhea, indigestion, and ulcers; a surge in physical energy; clearer complexion; brighter, whiter eyes; enhanced alertness; emotional uplift; improved tissue and gum repair; and increased resistance to infections. “Clay works on the entire organism. No part of the body is left untouched by its healing energies,” he notes.

A medical study by Frederic Damrau, M.D., in 1961 (Medical Annals of the District of Columbia) established clearly that bentonite can end bouts of diarrhea. When 35 individuals (average age 51) suffering from diarrhea took two tablespoons of bentonite in distilled water daily, the diarrhea was relieved in 97% (34 of the 35 patients) in 3.8 days, regardless of the original cause of the problem (allergies, virus infection, spastic colitis, or food poisoning). According to Dr. Damrau, bentonite is “safe and highly effective” in treating acute diarrhea.

Knishinsky’s research suggests that the regular intake of liquid clay (typically one to three tablespoons daily, in divided doses) can produce other benefits including parasite removal from the intestines, allergy and hay fever relief, and elimination of anemia and acne. For example, clay helps anemia because it contains both types of dietary iron (ferrous and ferric) in an easily assimilated form; it reduces discomfort from allergies by quickly neutralizing allergens that would otherwise produce allergic reactions; and it reduces heartburn and indigestion by absorbing excess stomach acids.

However, clay’s forte is probably its role as a general internal detoxification and cleansing agent. According to Keith Payne of White Rock Mineral Corporation in Springville, Utah, clay scrapes and cleans the lining of the colon. “As the colon becomes cleaner, its ability to absorb minerals and other nutrients increases, making the minerals even more bio-available, thus giving more energy.”

White Rock’s clay, called Bentonite Minerals, contains 71 trace and ultra-trace minerals, including many that are probably unknown to most consumers, such as ruthenium, tellurium, and thulium. Trace minerals enable the body to absorb nutrients”they are the bonding agents in and between you and food,” explains Payne.

Bentonite Minerals are derived from an ancient seabed formation in Utah; according to geologists, the clay formed when a layer of volcanic ash fell into what was, long ago, a shallow inland sea. “As the ash filtered through the seawater, it collected pure minerals, forming a layer of highly mineralized clay,” says Payne.

The best way to drink clay is on an empty stomach or at least an hour before or after a meal or immediately before sleeping at night, says Knishinsky. Typically, clay is available as a thick tasteless, pale-grey gel, but it also comes as a powder or encapsulated.

Generally, it is advisable to start with one tablespoon daily, mixed with a small amount of juice; observe the results for a week, then gradually increase the dosage to no more than four tablespoons daily, in divided doses. Drinking clay can be an annual spring cleaning of your gastrointestinal tract or it can be a symptom-focused, self-care method.

More About Bentonite:

Since bentonite has such strong absorptive powers, some may be concerned about whether it might absorb necessary nutrients from the alimentary canal as well. Experiments have shown that one would have to make bentonite clay 50% of their food/nutritional intake for it to be harmful to them.

It is important, however, not to take any nutritional supplement at the same time as the bentonite. Especially when used with psyllium, the bentonite will absorb anything of nutritional value such as herbs, friendly bacteria, and vitamins, as well as toxins, bad bacteria and parasites. Be sure to wait 1 hour after doing a bentonite drink before taking anything nutritional.

Scientific research has shown that bentonite’s absorptive action is due to five characteristics. First, it has a large and varied mineral content. Second, it has a negative electrical attraction for positively-charged particles. Third, its particles (being shaped like calling cards), have the wide surfaces negative-polarized and the edges positive-polarized, which give it an incredible negative pulling power. Fourth, the very minuteness of the particles of bentonite gives a large surface area in proportion to the volume used, thus enabling it to pick up many times its own weight in positively-charged particles. Fifth, to obtain maximum effectiveness in the human body, it must be put in a liquid colloidal-gel state.

Though bentonite has been used internally by the American Indians for hundreds of years to help detoxify the bowels, Dr. Anderson recommends that when using it internally, we always use it with psyllium, as a psyllium shake. The reason for this is that some people fear that bentonite could get stuck in the gut. We do not know for certain if this has ever occurred with anyone, but just to be safe, use it with psyllium. Dr. Anderson suggests this because psyllium is known to help prevent undesirable inorganic minerals from entering the system. Dr. Anderson also explains that he has consumed as much as 1/4 cup of Hydrated Bentonite right out of the bottle many times. Why would he do this? Because he had eaten something that was contaminated. The bentonite eliminated the problem immediately.

Bentonite is known for its highly absorptive properties and its ability to draw out and bind heavy metals, drugs and other toxins from the body. This clay has been used for thousands of years as both an internal and external purification aid.

Bentonite is one of the volcanic ashes. It is not a drug or chemical composition made in a laboratory. It is a product of Mother Earth. Bentonite in ages past was blown into the sky by volcanic action, which sifted down to help impregnate the soil with its 25 to 35 trace minerals. Bentonite, under a high-power microscope, is seen as extremely minute rectangular particles, similar in shape to a business card. When hydrated, it generates and maintains a very strong electromagnetic field, which allows it to attract and hold unwanted , non-nutritive substances such as pesticides and other toxins so that they can be eliminated from the body.

Radiation:

Dr. Bernard Jensen, N.D., D.C., PhD., suggests using bentonite to absorb radiation from the bones. Since so many of us are subject to various forms of radiation, whether from X-rays or television or computers, this would be something to consider. This could be extremely important for those who have undergone radiation treatment for cancer. Some people take about a cup of extra thick liquid bentonite and put it into their bath water. Others have used a full quart and more. It is highly effective in drawing out toxins. But too much, or too long exposure, will dry out the skin.

Bentonite and Psyllium Drinks

Recipe for B&P’s

Put the following ingredients into a glass

1 tbsp. liquid Bentonite Clay (‘Innovite’ brand)

1 tbsp. Whole Psyllium Husk (not powdered) I’ve been using ‘Flora’ brand, Indian Whole Psyllium Husk.

Then add a bit of cold water, (pure or filtered water) to make a paste. Fill glass up with water, stir. Drink quickly before it turns into oatmeal. Chase with another glass of water.

Day 1: Start with one drink in the morning upon waking. Keep a bottle of warm water by your side and drink lots in the morning with or without lemon juice to get your bowels started, naturally.

Day 2 and on: Basically, everyone is different. Some people can jump right in and within a few days be taking 4 B&P drinks a day. Others need to go slowly, starting with one for a few days, see how their bowels move and then add another one last thing before bed. The goal is to get up to between 3 and 5 a day.

Your first Bowel Cleanse using B&P’s can be done for up to 6 months for your first bowel cleanse. You can eat normally, but well, during the Bowel Cleanse with Bentonite and Psyllium and get out lots of mucoid plaque. It’s best to try to avoid mucous-forming foods like meats, white bread, sugar, dairy.

The Key: is to drink the B&P drinks on an empty stomach. You must not eat for one hour before taking the drink and one hour after drinking the drink. That is very important. The Bentonite Clay needs to absorb toxins and the Psyllium husks need to scrub out the corners of your intestines all by themselves. Food will interrupt their work!

One must drink lots of warm water while doing the B&P bowel cleanse – to ensure that you don’t get constipated. Remember that warm water stimulates peristalsis (the bowels) and cold water doesn’t. Drink at least 2 quarts of warm water a day or half your body weight in ounces per day.

Tools of the Trade

Many people will be grossed out by this idea. But if you can’t see what you’re eliminating, then there’s no reward! The investigative type might want to place an old colander in their toilet and eliminate into that. Then take your chopstick and check it out.

Most likely when you get up to taking at least 3 b&p drinks a day, for a few days in a row, you will be passing what is known as: mucoid plaque. This is the old, putrefied, toxic fecal matter that is stuck to the corners of your colon and small intestine. Mucoid plaque forming foods are: milk, wheat and meat. So unless you have never eaten those foods, you will have mucoid plaque.

Mucoid plaque comes in all shapes and sizes depending from what area in your GI tract it’s from. Some of it looks like ‘ropes’ – disc and balls held together by a ‘string’. These ropes can get quite long! Beware! Depending on one’s diet these can be medium brown (vegetarians) to black – some people have mixed green in them. They are quite rubbery and strange.

Colonics (professional enema) will also get this rubbery old fecal matter out as well. It just seems pretty easy to get it out with the bentonite and psyllium husks. The B&P’s really do the trick! People have found all sorts of things in their bowel movements like coins, crayons and other things that have been there since childhood!

Once all this stuff is out, you will be able to absorb nutrients efficiently, feel great, more energized, allergies can go away. This can cure many ailments.

While doing this cleanse it is helpful to imagine that with each elimination you are getting rid of old outworn, unneeded thoughts, ideas and feelings.

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