Inflammatory Cytokines
Activated Charcoal Beads—An Effective Adsorbent for Inflammatory Cytokines.
This study, reported in the International Journal of Artificial Organs (October 2013), demonstrated that activated charcoal beads, used in monolithic columns, were an effective method for removing inflammatory cytokines directly from the blood.
These naturally produced blood factors are part of a healthy immune system that play an important part in triggering the body’s immune response to disease. But, they can easily reach beyond their healthy function and become dangerous. Pro-inflammatory cytokines tend to make a disease worse by causing fever, inflammation, tissue destruction, and in some cases, even shock and death.
In cases where the body does not regulate the release of these cytokines, an association has been linked to different diseases, such as atherosclerosis and cancer, as well as depression and other neurologically related effects to the body.
In this study, microbeads, developed from a polymer-derived activated charcoal, were incorporated into a blood-circulating system and demonstrated “good removal of the inflammatory cytokines IL-8 (100% removal), IL-6 (80% removal), and TNF (51% removal) from blood.”
Cytokines such as IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF are associated with pathological pain. It is an interesting observation, that many people have remarked to us that applying activated charcoal to a painful area of the body has relieved or modified intense pain.
Again, if activated charcoal employed in a blood dialysis device is able to remove toxic levels of cytokines, as well as other waste blood products, directly from the blood, what is to prevent activated charcoal from doing the same when taken orally or applied topically? Even though activated charcoal does not enter the blood circulatory system from either the gut or the skin, it has been well documented that charcoal has the capacity to draw toxins from both deep tissue and deep organs.
Activated charcoal Wound Dressings effectively demonstrate the above benefits by their ability to lessen pain, stop inflammation and tissue destruction, and eliminate very strong wound odors.
John Dinsley
Born in British Columbia, Canada, John Dinsley has lived, and worked from South America to the North Pole, from Nova Scotia to Nepal. He is trained as a lifestyle counselor, teaches public health programs, home remedies workshops, and has operated a family care home. He and his wife Kimberly are the owners of Charcoal House LLC. They often travel together across the U.S. and internationally to conduct charcoal workshops. He is a carpenter by trade, has managed an organic market garden business, and volunteered in overseas development work. When he is not building, teaching or gardening, he enjoys writing.
