Q & A: Constipation resulting from treating the liver with charcoal

Question:  hello sir, This is Josephine. I wrote you sometimes about my brother-in-law in Nigeria with liver problem.Thank you for your mail, its indeed helpful but I need clarification on one issue. it seems the charcoal drink is making it difficult for him to pass excreta. he finds it difficult to easy himself. sometimes its take three to four days before he could ease himself since the time he started the charcoal drink. Although to the glory of God he has more strength than before. We purchased activated charcoal frombuyactivatedcharcoal.com so we are sure he is using good charcoal. What do you advise? Thanks Josephine. Answer: Hello Josephine Thank you for contacting us. In America, most people are dehydrated, people just do not drink enough water. So when people begin taking charcoal some will get constipated as your brother-in-law is experiencing. It is a fairly good guess that he is not drinking enough water through the day. Even I get a little constipated when I take charcoal when I do not drink enough water. First he can experiment taking less charcoal (as he begins to drink more water). He will find a point where he is not experiencing the constipation. He can also place a poultice over his liver area in the front, and on his back over the kidneys, and wear it at night. This will help the liver very much. Here are a few more suggestions that may help constipation:

• have a set time to get up in the morning – drink a large glass of warm water – go to the toilet and sit
• do this every day and soon he will “train” his bowels to move
• once he has a schedule he must stick to the schedule
• exercise also helps to move the bowels – going for a walk relaxes the bowels
• using a warm enema will also relax the bowels, but...
• a small COLD enema works better because it stimulates the lower bowel to contract
• increasing the amount of fibrous foods in the diet such leafy green vegetables and whole grains in place of white flour and white rice

I hope this will give you brother-in-law some ideas how to take care of the constipation while he continues to treat the liver. (Make sure to also check out our 2 other Liver blog post Q & A: Activated Charcoal for Hepatitis C and Liver Function And Q & A: How can I tell if a liver poultice is working? ) Sincerely John Dinsley