A number of scientists have sustained the thesis that clay has played a key role in the origin of life.[i],[ii],[iii]

Clay has been used internally and externally from time immemorial.

Traditional cultures of all continents make use of clay.

Animals regularly eat clay especially when unwell.

Galen wrote that it saved people bitten by rabid animals and the ones who have ingested poisons such as the very poisonous sea slugs.

In an experiment, a bowl of clay was presented to rats in a cage beside their bowl of regular food. The first week they ate 30% of clay as their daily ration of food. After one week they decrease their intake of clay to 4-5% per day of their total intake of food.

There is an experiment in experimental pharmacology to evaluate the efficacy of anti-nausea medications in animals; they centrifuge the animals and present them with clay. The more the animals ate clay the less efficacious was the experimental drug.

Physicians who have used clay for decades assume that it has an intelligence in its capacity to heal.

The use of clay goes right into the idea explored in the last few years of using different forces and influences locally.

It is used mainly to help the body to heal better and faster in a similar way as explained in paragraph 291 on hydrotherapy in the Hahnemann’s Organon.

Actually, the medicinal use of clay could easily be thought as paragraph 292.

Properties of clay

Clay is made primarily of oxides of silica and aluminum, but many other minerals such as calcium, iron, zinc, manganese, potassium and free silica adhere to its particles.

It is primarily an adsorbent, which means that it draws to its surface positively charged particles, as clay is highly negatively charged, and like a magnet it doesn’t release its catch ounce bound.

This being said, by an unknown mechanism to me, clay greatly limits the growth of pathogens, which are as a rule negatively charged, as most bacteria are. It has been found that bacteria adhered most rapidly to positively charged surfaces, but which doesn’t promote the growth of the Gram-negative strains. On negatively charged surfaces, other than clay, despite a slower initial adhesion, surface growth of the adhering bacteria has been found to be exponential for both Gram-positive and Gram-negative strain bacteria. Positively charged biomaterial surfaces exert therefore an antimicrobial effect on adhering Gram-negative bacteria, but not on Gram-positive ones,[iv] while clay seems to play an antimicrobial effect on all bacteria, despite being negatively charged.

Like charcoal it can absorb bad odor, even through a rotten egg of which the shell is not broken.

Internally clay has been traditionally used in cases of poisoning, food poisoning, infected wounds, gastroenteritis and dysentery.

Clay has been found to have dose-dependent antidiarrheal effect.[v]

It will neutralize most intestinal pathogens such as parasites, fungus and dysbiotic microbial growths. On the other hand, growth of Lactobacillus is enhanced in a medium containing clay,[vi] and is found to cause morphological changes in the intestinal mucosa such as an increase in villus height and an increase in the villus height to crypt depth ratio, which may explain the increase nutrient digestibility associated with clay ingestion.[vii]

Scientists came to the conclusion that the mechanism for the reduction in diarrhea in pigs fed clays is likely due to increases in the numbers of Bifidobacteria and Lactobacillus and decreases in pathogens such as Clostridia and E. coli in the small intestine. [viii]

Chickens in which clay is added to their feed were found to have favorably changed intestinal microbiota.[ix] Certain clays can adsorb free fatty acids and endotoxins in vitro and in the digestive tract which can explain its unexpected role in preventing obesity and is recommended as a prebiotic to prevent intestinal dysbiosis and obesity-associated metabolic disorders in obese individuals.[x],[xi],[xii]

Dietary toxins, bacterial toxins, and metabolic toxins can be absorbed by clay to resist nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Montmorillonite-based product is indicated to work immediately on the digestive channel and bind the toxic substances resulting in their removal from the body through the stool.

1.5 gr of clay in 50 ml of water four times a day for 3 days[xiii] or 3 or 6g/day in 2 divided doses for 5 days[xiv] was found to have a beneficial effect in shortening the duration of diarrhea and reducing the frequency of liquid stools in children.

Clay at a dose of 1.5 g thrice daily for 5 days significantly shortened the duration of acute watery diarrhea in children aged 2–5 years.[xv]

Calcium montmorillonite clay given to mice with experimental colitis was found to reduce systemic markers of inflammation, be associated with significant improvement in weight gain, and improve intestinal microbial profile.[xvi]

The use of diosmectite, which is a white clay that is sold in pharmacies in France under the name Smecta, was well tolerated at 6 g tid and was found to reduce the time to recovery from acute watery diarrhea episode in adult in a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel group study.[xvii]

In another study, the efficiency, acceptability and safety of clay associated with rehydration in ambulatory infants with acute diarrhea were investigated. Sixty-six infants, aged 1-24 months were randomly divided into 2 groups. One group of 32 infants (control group) received oral or intravenous rehydration, the other group of 34 infants (clay group) received the rehydration with clay. Both groups were comparable for sex, age, weight, diet, duration of diarrhea, body temperature, nutritional and dehydration status. Bacteriological stool examination was positive in 22% in control group and 26% in clay group for Salmonella, Shigella, Campylobacter, enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli and Plesiomonas sp. Rotavirus was found in 25% of the control group and 29% of the clay group. Seventy-two hours after therapy, 34% of infants were cured in the control group compared to 71% in clay group (p < 0.01) and 5 days after the beginning of treatment, 34% still had diarrhea in the control group compared to only 12% in the clay group (p = 0.04). The acceptability of clay was considered to be good in 30 infants (88%). No major side effect was observed. In conclusion, clay with rehydration shortens the course of acute diarrhea in ambulatory infants and may reduce the occurrence of prolonged diarrhea. Clay is well tolerated in infants with acute diarrhea.[xviii]

Clay has been found to improve the intestinal barrier, which is commonly compromised in many digestive diseases.[xix]

Ingested clay greatly decreased gut derived systemic endotoxemia in animals with experimental colitis and much more than ingested charcoal.[xx]

Clay will neutralize not only most of the toxins and poisons in the digestive tract, but also the ones that had prior been absorbed into the body.

This capacity to adsorb most but not all toxins has permitted animals and traditional cultures in time of scarcity to eat food that otherwise would be too toxic to consume.

For instances, aras which are beautiful multicolored parrots from Peru and known to be very smart, eat clay before eating the green fruit of a tree in the spring that would be very toxic otherwise. It thus privileges the aras over other animals that can not feed on these fruits when food tends to be scared in the spring, as the clay permits the adsorption of the toxic substances from the fruits that will be consumed soon afterward.

The inhabitants of Peru dip their potatoes in clay, which neutralizes the solanine that is found in greater levels when potatoes are exposed to sunlight.

It is known that clay adsorb negatively charged toxins,[xxi] and has thus been used to decrease[xxii] and cure aflatoxin toxicity,[xxiii] and to adsorb ingested pesticides and herbicides[xxiv]and effective in degrading organic compounds, including pesticides, 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, nitroaromatics, carbon tetrachloride, chlorinated and nitroaliphatic compounds.[xxv]

Glyphosate (Roundup) and paraquat are two of the most widely used herbicides that are commonly detected in the environment. Calcium montmorillonite and sodium montmorillonite clay have been found to be highly efficacious to bind these two herbicides.[xxvi]

However, in another study on the capacity of different clay to adsorb the toxin of cyanobacteria, montmorillonite had a much greater adsorbing capacity that illite and the calcium montmorillonite was much better that sodium montmorillonite.[xxvii]

However, illite had twice the capacity than montmorillonite to adsorb radioactive Cesium (2:1), and for both types of clay the calcium illite and montmorillonite had a greater adsorption capacity than sodium illite or montmorillonite by a coefficent of 2:1.[xxviii]

Similarly, illite had a 3:1 greater adsorption capacity of arsenic than montmorillonite.[xxix]

Bisphenols A and S as well as phthalates, dibutyl phthalate and di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate are ubiquitous environmental contaminants linked to adverse health effects. It was found that clay can adsorb these chemicals.[xxx]

In area of disaster most non-drinkable water can be made drinkable by simply adding a bit of clay minutes before drinking it.[xxxi],[xxxii],[xxxiii]

Some toxins might exist in foods of livestock, such as Lantana camara, a species of flowering plant that is known to be very toxic to livestock such as cattle, sheep, horses, dogs and goats. Calves were poisoned with Lantana camara and treated 5 days after with oral bentonite, five of 6 calves given bentonite and five of 6 calves given activated charcoal recovered while 5 of 6 calves in the control group died and comparing with the plasma total bilirubin concentration was statistically more appropriate in bentonite treated cows than charcoal group.[xxxiv]

Populations consuming aflatoxin (AFB1) and fumonisin (FB1)-contaminated foods may be at increased risk for hepatocellular carcinoma and developmental disorders.

Calcium montmorillonite clay at dose of up to 0.5% in diet was shown to be effective in modulating the toxicity and carcinogenicity of co-exposure to AFB1 and FB1, as demonstrated by significant reduction in number and size of hepatic foci, in alterations indicative of liver toxicity, and in levels of AFB1 and FB1 biomarkers.[xxxv]

Acute aflatoxin exposure can cause death and disease (aflatoxicosis) in humans. Aflatoxicosis fatality rates have been documented to be as high as 40% in Kenya. The inclusion of 3 g a day of calcium montmorillonite clay in a placebo (calcium) cross-over trial for 7 days for each period with a five day washout period in between. AFM1 concentrations in urine were significantly reduced in the treatment group.[xxxvi]

There was a linear decrease in aflatoxin1 in the milk of cow that were fed with increasing quantities of calcium montmorillonite clay.[xxxvii]

Clay could thus be successfully used to prevent liver cancer in areas of the USA that have the highest rates of liver cancer, such as in Latino populations that shows elevated FB1 and FB1 biomarkers.[xxxviii] This was confirmed in a study that showed decrease serum level of aflatoxin1 (p<0.0005) in the group that took clay versus placebo.[xxxix]

The use of clay significantly improved biochemical indices in the blood serum of rats with acute and chronic liver damage and acute pancreatitis.[xl]

Generally, it seems that bentonite is a reliable treatment for heavy metal poisoning. Like EDTA (ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid), a common chelating agent, it is strongly negatively charged, which permit it to bind heavy or toxic metals such as lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium and aluminium, but can as well bind with other negatively charged elements that are necessary for life such as nickel, copper, chromium, iron, zinc, calcium, cobalt, manganese, and magnesium.[xli]

For instance, in male pigs, the feeding supplementation of montmorillonite clay for 100 days significantly reduced lead concentration in blood, brain, liver, bone, kidney and hair.[xlii]

Clay was found to be effective to protect animals poisoned with cadmium.[xliii]

Consistently in sheep, it was concluded the dietary Cu bioavailability could be decreased by oral supplements of bentonite.[xliv]

While montmorillonite supplemented in diet reversed relatively cadmium-induced oxidative damage in liver and kidney.[xlv]

Clay should therefore be considered to detoxify the organism from heavy metals.

“In 1581 in Baden, Germany, a criminal condemned to hang made an unusual offer to the judge—he would volunteer to test a deadly poison on two conditions. First, that he be given a clay to eat along with the poison, and second, that he would go free if he survived. The judge agreed. The criminal consumed three-sixteenths of an ounce of corro- sive sublimate, more than double the fatal dose. Five minutes later, he swallowed the same amount of terra sigillata stirred into wine. Physicians who observed the man for several hours reported that ‘the poi- son did extremely torment and vex him, yet in the end the medicine overcame it, whereby the poor wretch was delivered and being restored to his health, was committed to his parents.’

“The physicians were delighted with the result. They had just proven what had been suspected for centuries: that certain clays could act as poison antidotes, though they had no idea why.”[xlvi]

The practice of eating clay by animals in the wild for the detoxification and alleviation of gastrointestinal infections has well documented. Initially, clays were introduced to farm animal nutrition as binding agents for feeding pellets and were later used as feed additives to promote growth and health of the animals. Some of these benefits were associated with improvement of the intestinal morphology and digestive enzyme activities.[xlvii]

At the same time, montmorillonite was found to have an unexpected role in preventing obesity, through the absorption of endotoxins and decreasing dysbiosis and inflammation.[xlviii]

Bentonite has also been used for the adsorption of mycotoxins.[xlix]

From the website Calcium Bentonite clay for mercury detoxification, I copied and pasted the following extracts: “Calcium Bentonite Clay is a safe, natural way to help remove mercury from the body. It can be used both internally and externally.

“Calcium Bentonite Clay has a very strong negative ionic charge so, when it comes in contact with any substance that has a positive ionic charge (such as metals, toxins, bacteria, etc), it attracts it like a magnet, and the two become bound together. The clay both attaches the substance to its surface like Velcro® and absorbs it so, as the clay passes through the system, it attracts and binds the metals and toxins, which are then eliminated from the body along with the clay.

“In conjunction with taking clay internally, external applications are also very effective. Clay baths are often used as a part of successful chelation therapy as the clay has a uniquely strong ability to pull toxins and metals out through the pores of the skin, binding to them and removing them from the body. It is also a very gentle form of chelation.

“To help rid your body of mercury, the best approach is the double fisted, internal/external approach. Take the Calcium Bentonite Clay internally (approximately 2 ounces of liquid clay once or twice a day) and take clay baths twice a week (using approximately 1-2 cups of dry powder clay per bath). Be sure you’re using a pure, natural Calcium Bentonite Clay that has a pH of at least 9.0 for best results.”[l]

A three-year old boy with an elevated serum lead level drank a daily glass of clay milk and took a daily clay bath for three months at which time the lead level had had dropped within the normal range.[li]

Many cases of autistic children have been reported in which behavior would change dramatically after taking a bath with about once cup of clay.[lii]

Clay has been reported to be effective in limiting the effect of poison ivy.[liii],[liv]

A man was stung by a jellyfish. Within minutes blisters started to appear over the strip of reddened skin over his chest. He was able to put a clay compress over the area as he had been swimming across the street from his house. The burning and stinging pain began to subside as soon as he applied the clay. After about 30 minutes he showered to remove the clay and to his surprise there was not a mark left on his body.

Many skin pathogens including Candida albicans and Staphylococcus aureus are susceptible to clay baths.[lv]

In diaper dermatitis, which is one of the most common skin disorders of infancy, bentonite is reported to act better and faster than calendula, a common treatment for this type of dermatitis.

In case of sunscreens, it has been reported that inclusion complexes of commercial sunscreens in montmorillonites have optimized functional properties such as water resistance and skin adherence, which make them good substrate in these types of skin product.[lvi] Furthermore, it is reported that sun lotions containing specific proportion of bentonite mineral are more potent than commercially available sun lotion in absorbing the highest level of UV light.[lvii]

While bentonite can adsorb many organic and inorganic materials in the GI tract, it is reported not to affect mineral metabolism[lviii] and absorption.[lix]

Ingested clay will adsorb excess blood creatinine, uric acid and urea through the gut wall.[lx],[lxi],[lxii]

Bentonite is shown to decrease the bleeding and clotting time and therefore is suggested as a hemostatic agent.[lxiii],[lxiv]

Clay has to be taken orally away from drugs that the patient is taking, a minimum of 2 hours and preferably 4 or more hours.

It is said that it has the property to adhere to parts that are sick and heal sick parts of the body, i.e., in the intestinal canal it could stay in one place for a couple of days before coming out.

It has the capacity like Calendula and comfrey to help the body to heal tissue with no or the least scaring possible.

Clay could be used in the same way as comfrey to repair broken tissues on the surface of the body or in the GI tract.

It is interesting to note that a person who has received radiotherapy and clay is applied to a part of the body, not necessarily the one that was radiated, the part may become painful under the application.

Clay can therefore be applied in the area that has been radiated in between the treatments.

Incidentally a body covered with clay is shielded against radioactive fields and clay is a good adsorbent of radioactive cesium and strontium but not iodine.

It will improve within a month the CBC profile of an anemic person.

In summary, clay

  • Supports the detoxifying process
  • Helps remineralization
  • Enhances tissue healing and regeneration
  • Is antiseptic
  • Decrease inflammation
  • Is calming by decreasing pain.

It has been found useful in:

  • Intestinal problems
  • Upper respiratory tract affections
  • Parasitic infestations
  • Rheumatism and arthrosis
  • Sciatica, lumbago and herniated disc syndrome
  • Etc.

Types of clay

You want to use either

  • kaolonite (China clay or white clay),
  • illite (for Illinois)
  • smectite such as montmorillonite (from Montmorillon in France) and bentonite which is mainly composed of montmorillonite (for Fort Benton in Montana).

Montmorillonite derived from bentonite may contain sodium or calcium. According to geologists sodium bentonite is volcanic ash that fell in seawater; calcium bentonite is volcanic ash that fell in fresh water.

“Bentonite is a rock formed of highly colloidal and plastic clays composed mainly of montmorillonite and is produced by in situ devitrification of volcanic ash. In addition to montmorillonite, bentonite may contain feldspar, cristo- balite, and crystalline quartz. The special properties of bentonite are an ability to form thixotrophic gels with water, an ability to absorb large quantities of water, and a high cation exchange capacity. The properties of bentonite are derived from the crystal structure of the smectite group, which is an octahedral alumina sheet between two tetrahedral silica sheets. Variations in interstitial water and exchangeable cations in the interlayer space affect the properties of bentonite and thus the commercial uses of the different types of bentonite.”[lxv]

Clays are not identified by their color, but by their X-ray refraction index. However, colors are commonly used to identify certain clay such as kaolin being white, but some illite can also be white. The green coloration observed is a function of a low iron oxide concentration, which is found in smectites, montmorillionites and illites.

Red clays are usually illites rich in iron oxide. Very remineralizing, they are ideal in external use for the irritated, devitalized or dull skins which they soften and purify.[lxvi]

Yellow clays are usually illites rich in iron oxide and magnesia, which have been used to sooth many pains, such as from joints and muscles, and tone the skin. Applied in masks, normal skin and hair particularly appreciate it.

Smectite clays include montmorillonites and bentonites, as well as a number of other clays. Smectites are known for their ability to trap water molecules.

Smectites are known as swelling clays, as in the presence of water, they can increase their volume by up to 30%. By trapping water, they also fix cations allowing exchanges by adsorption. They take on a gel-like texture, which can transport ions or active molecules. This property is the basis of dressing technologies for the digestive tract.[lxvii]

Smectites are the clays with optimal adsorption power. Such clays are used in medicine, as they have an optimal capacity to adsorb toxins, viruses, bacteria, antibiotics, organic acids, intestinal gases, alkaloids, etc. They have an anti-infectious role by fixing microorganisms which will then be eliminated in the stools.[lxviii]

Illites may have a greater power to absorb but the montmorillonites have a much greater power of adsorption.

Montmorillonite is the most commonly harvested clay and is generally sold green but can be found in other colors: gray, white, bluish. Its name comes from its city of origin, montmorillon located in the Vienne in France. It has a high concentration of silica (60%) (versus 17% aluminum), calcium (10%), iron (10%), magnesium (2%) and sulfur (1.5%).

Of rare purity, montmorillonite clay has superior qualities and attractiveness to any other green clay. This explains why it is the most common clay on the market.[lxix]

Montmorillonite is the most powerful of clays used in medicine due to its great ability to expand and absorb large quantities of water. It is a sodium calcium aluminum magnesium silicate hydroxide.

Bentonites have a high absorbency. Commonly found in the composition of gastric dressings, in the treatment of stomach ulcer, constipation, diarrhea, gastric reflux, etc.

Some bentonites used in industries are endowed with a strong absorbing power, up to 80 times their weight in water, allowing them to be used to dry clean fragile surfaces such as textiles, furniture, carpets, leather, marble, etc. dry and without leaving stains.

Bentonites have a volcanic and hydrothermal origin. Some bentonites are rich in sodium, others in calcium, potassium or magnesium. Sodium-based bentonites have a very high liquid absorption capacity and can be transformed into a gel from a certain concentration. In the presence of water, bentonite swells 10 to 15 times its initial volume and absorbs 6.5 times its weight in water. Having the ability to promote the penetration of active ingredients through the skin, it is incorporated into natural cosmetics. Calcium-rich bentonites are used in the digestive tract.[lxx]

Smectite are constituted of volcanic ash which were deposited in water ways.

Smectite is the richest clay in silicon oxyde (60%), magnesium oxyde (4%) and calcium oxyde (1.2%) and has the least aluminum oxyde (26%) of all clays.

Smectite is the most therapeutically powerful type of clay. For instance, on the skin it could draw a lot of stuff to the surface and because of which an eruption could develop.

The name illite refers to Illinois, USA where it was studied. Its composition is rich in calcium (14%), iron (9%) and low in magnesium. It has a mild power of absorption about 25% of its weight and a low power of adsorption.

Despite its composition, illite is a much weaker clay than a montmorillonite. Nevertheless, it has an important power of absorption. It is used as a thick poultice to be applied on various contusions (sprains…), or to absorb impurities (organic waste, microorganisms…).

Kaolin takes its name from the Chinese kao-Ling site where it was discovered. Its name is derived from the Chinese term “gao ling” translated as “high hills”. Rich in silica and low in mineral salts, it is used in the manufacture of porcelain and ceramics. It is one of the few chemically inert clays.

If the use of a smectite is too strong despite lowering its quantities then move on then to less powerful clay like the illite or the least powerful one, the white clay (kaolinite).

An extremely weak or anemic person can begin with the weakest clay, the kaolonite to eventually move to the illite and lastly to the montmorillonite or bentonite.

Illite are potassium aluminosillicates, which many prefer for its more gentle effect.

There are three types of bentonite clay, that is sodium, potassium and calcium bentonite.

The best way to identify the composition of various clays is by looking at X-ray diffraction peaks.

Often time clay will be sold as refine, super refine or ultra refine. The smaller the size of the particles, the greater is its relative surface area and the more powerful it is.

In vitro experiments have shown that only the finer fraction clays have antibacterial properties, while coarser fraction clays did not.[lxxi]

How to use it

Clay can be ingested, used locally in a poultice, in a compress, as a mask (which means the wet clay is apply directly on the skin without anything to hold it place, such as a bandage) or as clay water drops over the eyes or in a bath.

Oral use

Oral use: typically a teaspoon (5ml) of clay is added to a glass of water (250ml) six or more hours before its ingestion. Don’t mix let it seep.

For oral use, use the green ultrafine clay. It has greater capacity to help healing, while the white it is more palliative.

Typically it is prepared in the evening and taken in the morning while still fasting, or it is prepared in the morning and taken before bed, especially for the people with constipation. Only then before drinking do you mix it with a wooden spoon and drink it all.

One can pour the water on the clay or sprinkle the clay on the water and let it stand at the very least 20 minutes to 2-5 hours but overnight or throughout the day is the rule.

You can also expose the glass with the mix of clay and water to sunlight.

Clay water can also be drunk daily. A most convenient way would be to mix 1/4 cup of the clay to a large glass pitcher of water, stir it up and keep it in the fridge. Within a few hours, the clay will settle to the bottom and some of the water will be almost clear. Then drink the water on an as desired basis pouring off a glass at a time. When you start getting more solids off the bottom than you want to drink, refill the pitcher with water a 2nd time and mix again, as the 1⁄4 cup of clay is enough to treat one gallon of water. Then resume drinking the water off the top until you start getting more solids than desired. At that point wash the pitcher out and start over with a whole new batch. An alternative way when using this method is to stir the pitcher of water up each time, so that when the water is gone, the clay is gone as well. One to three glasses of clay water is commonly used in this way. Some say that drinking the clear water off the top gives basically the same results as drinking the clay itself.

Don’t use clay with metals because of their electric charges. Use glass bowls and wooden spoons preferably. If you keep wet clay in a jar make sure that the lid is made of plastic as metal will rust.

So the best it is to take the clay in the morning before ingesting anything else, or last thing in the evening. Try different clay and see which one is best for you.

Some people will begin to only drink the water without mixing the water before drinking. The clay stays at the bottom after having soaked in the water for many hours.

Of course in an acute case or case of emergency, 1 to 3 tablespoons can be mixed and taken readily or taken within 5-10 minutes after putting the clay in the water. And this can be repeated a few or more times a day, depending of the case.

The longer you wait after putting the clay into the water the gentler is the effect of the clay.

The prescription has to be adapted to each patient. For instance, in an acute or subacute case of intestinal inflammation, one to three tablespoons in water 2-3 times a day may be needed to be taken until the pain and inflammation are gone.

In France, there exist five different prescription clay items with indication for acute and chronic diarrhea, flatulence, reflux, pain from affections of the esophagus, stomach and duodenum and colics. There exits on nutritional supplement to improve intestinal transit.

External use

Clay can be used externally in the powder form in the case of burns, or as a poultice, compress or even as a bath.

You can apply the clay cold, lukewarm and warm. On an inflamed area or an area that is already warm such as the liver, you can apply it cold.

If you did apply a cold poultice, and the patient is unable to warm it up, apply to it a source of heat such as hot water bottle or beanbag.

Warm only the clay you need for an application, as clay can only be warmed up once. It can be done in a double boiler or close to a radiating heat including the sun.

It can be used externally like any of our vulneraries, such as Calendula, in cases of injuries, burns, infected wounds, inflammatory states, bedsores, etc.

It can be used as a poultice or a compress.

Clay poultices are very easy to use.

Put some clay in a wood or glass bowl and had a bit of water on top. The water will be absorbed.

Prepare the mix in order that it doesn’t drip.

With a wooden spatula or spoon, it can be applied on an absorbent paper towel folded twice like a letter anywhere from 0.5-2.5 cm tick (1/4-1 inch) and applied the clay directly on the skin.

You apply the clay side of the paper towel to the skin which will be secured by elastic mesh tubular bandage (it comes in rolls that you can cut the needed size) or you can a cohesive bandage the area to secure the clay. Some have successfully used a thin plastic wrap (such as Saran Wrap) to hold a poultice in place and to prevent it from drying. But be careful with such a wrap around a limb not to fold the wrap which can bind to tightly and forma tourniquet.

For the head and neck you can use a scarf.

Don’t put plastic. The clay must breath.

If it is well wrapped it should not dry.

If necessary, don’t let it dry by keeping it humid.

Leave the poultice for a minimum of one hour preferably a couple of hours or longer, all night long is even better.

On average a poultice can be kept on for only one hour in more superficial cases such as wounds, for two hours in cases of abscesses, carbuncles, felons, burns, infections, inflammations, etc., and overnight in cases of in-depth ailments, such as kidney or liver problems.

Poultice can put only on one organ at the time but as many places on the limbs. So can do liver and elbow and knee, but can’t do liver and uterus at the same time.

How long? For an injury a week or so. For a chronic problem it depends of the problem and the person health status, but for weeks and sometimes months.

But when healing begin to be observed, let’s say after one month in a very debilitated patient with an old chronic problem, don’t stop once healing has commence and it will continue as long as you are using the clay.

Clay doesn’t stain. If you drop some on clothes or bed sheet, don’t try to remove it while it is wet. Wait until it is dry. You can then rub it and it falls into a powder.

The clay used in a poultice can only be used once.

For digestive problems, it can be used orally but external application of clay maybe the most beneficial. Many conditions of the digestive tract will be relieve and often time permanently cured by the use of oral clay, such as burning of the stomach, heartburn, reflux, abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhea and constipation.

You can sprinkle directly dry on open wounds or burns, especially if it wet from sanious exudations, if the wound is dry apply the wet clay.

In cases of ascites or edema or a wound that would be full of dirt you can sprinkle sea salt on the clay poultice.

In cases of otitis media, a wet paste of clay can be applied behind the ear and the pain should come down with 7-8 minutes.

Compress: clay can also be used in a compress, especially for large area like the chest or varicosities on the legs.

It is made by dipping a face cloth or larger cloth in waters that contain one tsp of clay for each 250 ml of water, wringing it in order that it doesn’t drip and applying it like a poultice, and covered with wool to hold the warmth.

Clay compress are less powerful applications, but can be useful in weaker persons.

However it has the advantage of being used like a heating compress in hydrotherapy.

You make a more watery mix, that has been stirred and in which you dip the compress it the bowl, wring it lightly so that it doesn’t drip. You can apply a light sheet of cotton sheet (muslin) between the compress and the skin.

In areas that require rebuilding of tissues (damaged kidneys, broken bones, damaged joints, etc.) a warm application of clay is preferable, or even better would be cold application covered with wool, which would becomes a heating compress, as in hydrotherapy.

Clay baths

A cup or more of clay in a bathtub can have a significant detoxifying effect. Soak in the bath for 30 to 45 minutes. If you don’t have access to a tub, you can achieve similar results by simply soaking your feet in a bucket of clay water. Use a bucket/basin of water as hot as you can stand and add 2-3 tablespoons of the dry clay. Soak for 30-45 minutes as with a bath. No plumbing problems have been reported from draining clay water through the drain of the bathtub. However, do not reuse the water for anything. One lady thought she could use it to water her plants and she killed every plant in her house because of the toxins and heavy metals the clay had drawn from her body.

Contraindications

For external use there are no known contraindication. However for oral use, patients with advanced organ failure, such as with heart, kidney or liver, or with extreme constipation or intestinal obstructions only clay water should be ingested and not clay milk.

Posology

For oral use the typical dosage is one teaspoon in 200-250 ml of water per day or ½ tsp for children up to 10 years old.

A typical “clay cure“ is one glass with one teaspoon taken once a day with water for three weeks or so (listen to your body), followed by one week of rest, which can be repeated or then taken occasionally, or once every two weeks.

When the body says its enough, stop it and resume it when it feels correct to resume.

However in case with severe dysentery, one could repeat a tsp in a glass of water 1 or 2 more times in a day.

The best time to take clay is in the morning on an empty stomach or in the evening before bed, or 15 but preferably 60 minutes before a meal.

The typical clay cure is qd for three weeks followed by a one week rest. And then 7 days on alternating with 7 off indefinitely.

But people can change this protocol, longer or shorter, depending on of how they feel.

Many of the protocols to use were based on the long experience of Raymond Dextreit. However Jade Allègre, who is a ND and MD who did her medical thesis on clay, has often increased the quantity of ingested clay and the frequency in order to accelerated recovery, as Dextreit had less experience with the internal use of clay.

In cases with abscess or with discharges the clay should be changed every hours around the clock until an improvement is seen. As improvement set in, it can be changed q1 1/2h with clay compresses during sleep that can be changed once.

There would then be changed q2h and with one compress left all night.

For debilitated patients with long chronic diseases one large poultice a day left from 2-4 hours would be sufficient, otherwise there is a risk to further weakens the person.

In less weak persons, 2 large poultices a day may be necessary to sustain a good recovery.

Like with hydrotherapy, you have to adapt the application of clay to each individual, their state of health and their problem, in terms of thickness of the clay applied, the size and temperature of the application, and the duration.

A sign that your application was good if it has remained lukewarm and the clay is almost dry when you remove the poultice.

If the clay is sticking to the skin on removing the poultice, just drip some water between the skin and the clay and it will release.

You wash the skin with a tepid wet face cloth without soap.

The paper towel is then folded over the clay and dispense, and can’t be used a gain as it is full of garbage. Face cloths used for compresses and be washed, dried and reused.

For a poultice, take an absorbing paper towel, folded twice like a sheet of paper for a letter.

With a wooden spatula or spoon, put about 1-2.5 cm of clay. (0.4-1 in).

You apply the clay side of the paper towel to the skin which will be secured by elastic tubular bandage (it comes in rolls that you can cut the needed size) or you can a cohesive bandage the area to secure the clay.

For the head and neck you can use a scarf.

Compress: it could also be used as a compress, especially for large area like the chest or varicosities on the legs.

You make a more watery mix, that has been stirred and in which you dip the compress it the bowl, wring it lightly so that it doesn’t drip. Yau can apply a light sheet of cotton sheet (muslin) between the compress and the skin.

In area which required rebuilding of tissues (damaged kidney, bone fractures, damaged joints, etc.) then a warm application is preferable.

Warm only the clay you need for an application, as clay can only be warmed up once. It can be done in a double boiler or close to a radiating heat including the sun.

Precautions

Oral use

With oral use: if someone gets constipated from oral clay, interrupt its intake until the patient passes a stool and start again until the BM becomes normal.

An alternative approach will be to dilute the clay in more water and drink in between meals throughout the day.

A reminder that clay has to be taken away from drugs that the patient is taking, a minimum of 2 hours and preferably 4 hours.

Complications

Complications related to the correct usage of clay seem to be mostly related to healing reactions, such as skin eruptions or discharges. A physician who has used clay on a daily basis for decades and often time in large populations couldn’t recall any negative effect. In her humanitarian mission around the world, she reported that in close to 80% of emergency problem could be simply dealt with the use of clay.

Local applications

If an application even if applied warm becomes too cold it is better to remove it and start again or wait a bit longer like the next day for the next applications, and make sure to warm up the patient.

If the patient is weaker after an application, it means the application was too large, left too long or made too often.

Beware of the application on an open ulcer such as a varicose ulcer it may at first get larger and deeper and dump a lot of stuff and discharges and be bloody before the reconstruction will become visible.

Pregnant women can use clay especially to deal with the nausea of pregnancy and in traditional cultures pregnant women would ingest clay to heal the GI tract and to get rid of parasites that could be associated with anemia.

In Africa, schistosomiasis, also known as snail fever, is very common is caused by parasitic flatworms infestations that typically affect the urinary tract and the intestines. Common symptoms of schistosomiasis include abdominal pain, diarrhea, bloody stool, or blood in the urine. These parasitic worms leave the body including the ones in the kidney when clay is ingested

A newborn infant, you can give one teaspoon of clay water tid preferably before nursing.

An African woman who was disabled since youth with painful recurring crisis due to drepanocytosis or sickle-cell anemia was greatly recovered after starting to ingest clay morning and night. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9cmwb–V94)

Very refined clay can be used to brush teeth, and a little piece if of clay can be used against a tooth that is painful or has an abscess. Similarly it can be used on an aphthae.

To whiten teeth: 1. Put one tbsp of white clay and one tbsp of see salt in a glass of water. 2. Stir with a wood spoon to mix. 3. Put a sip in your mouth. 4. Switch the liquid all over your mouth for two minutes. 5. Spit the liquid back into the sink. 6. Repeat until the end of the glass. 7. The next day, do the same but replace the clay with sea salt. 8. Alternate clay and sea salt every other day for 3 weeks, then take a break for a week and start again.

Because of its remineralizing, anti-infectious and healing virtues, it has been reported that brushing teeth with green clay will fortify the enamel of the teeth by depositing minerals such as magnesium, silica, and calcium, contributes effectively to the elimination of dental plaque and participates especially in replacing the destroyed cells.

I was told that by a person who comes from Haiti and is about in her 60s that her sister has brushed her teeth with clay for all her adult life and is the only one in the family who has not had any cavity for decades.

It is believed that minerals in bentonite clay, which is rich in calcium, silica and magnesium provide a basis for this remineralization.[lxxii]

Experiments in astronauts demonstrated that weightlessness leads to a rapid bone depletion, “so various remedies were sought to counter that. A number of pharmaceutical companies were asked to develop calcium supplements, but apparently none of them were as effective as clay. The special clay that was used in this case was Terramin, a reddish clay found in California. Benjamin Ershoff of the California Polytechnic Institute demonstrated that the consumption of clay counters the effects of weightlessness. He reported that “the calcium in clay …is absorbed more efficiently … [clay] contains some factor or factors other than calcium which promotes improved calcium utilization and/or bone formation.” He added, “Little or no benefit was noted when calcium alone was added to the diet.”.[lxxiii]

It has thus been reported that bentonite clay can actually help heal minor tooth decay and damaged enamel. Also the minerals in bentonite clay neutralize the acid and raise the pH of the mouth to up to 9, which neutralizes acid loving bacteria that are associated with tooth decay and gum disease.

Further, bentonite clay is being used as toothpaste and has been reported to clean off plaque and tartar, and its superfine particles are very effective at polishing teeth.[lxxiv] Because they are so fine, these particles gently scrub the surface of teeth without harsh abrasives that can damage enamel.[lxxv] It has apparently been used since ancient times to whiten teeth.

Holistic dentists recommend using clay rather than having your teeth be whitened by a dental hygienist, “Instead of taking dental treatments to whiten your teeth, you can whiten your teeth using bentonite clay toothpaste. The dental treatments have side effects which can lead to other problems. They can also damage your enamel or can thin the upper layer. This makes your teeth more sensitive to harmful substances whereas bentonite clay has no side effects and can treat all the problems of teeth.”[lxxvi]

Indications

We all know the great benefit of using Calendula, Marcelin or comfrey on infected or non-healing wounds;

Or Aloe on burns (in deep wounds and burns the thin layer between layers in an onion can be applied directly in the damaged surface to enhanced its healing).

Or Arnica on severe contusions;

Or Symphytum on deep lacerations or in cases with a comminuted fracture.

Clay can be used locally and orally for a number of benefits for all the above conditions.

Neal Bosshardt (see the references at the end) gives the following indications:

For external use: Arthritis, acne/facials, athletes foot, bruises/black eyes, boils, hemorrhoids, burns/sunburns, cellulitis, cold sores, menstrual cramps, diaper rash, ear aches, eczema, insect bites (spiders, bees, chiggers, scorpions, mosquitoes), infections/lymphangitis, ingrown toenails, nail fungus, poison Ivy/poison oak, scrapes/road rash, shingles, sores that won’t heal, sprains, sties

For internal use:  Acid indigestion, acid reflux/heartburn, allergies/hay fever, celiac disease, colitis, constipation, diabetes, diarrhea/dysentery, diverticulitis, detoxifier, food poisoning, gout H-pylori, hiatal hernia, irritable bowel syndrome, Crohn’s disease menstrual cramps, parasites, rotavirus, stomachache, toothache, ulcers.

Here are some cases reported by Bosshardt:

A man with ulcerative colitis so bad that he was considering having part of his colon removed drank one to two quarts of Redmond Clay water every day for a month. He felt so much better than he had been when he was taking up to 30 pills a day (including some steroids which had some nasty side effects) that he quit taking all medications and just continued to drink the Redmond Clay water. After 6 months of being symptom free, he had a colonoscopy and they found his colon looked better than it had for ten years. The doctor said, “It is as if you had never had the disease”.

A couple whose month old baby was constipated due to the formula that was supplementing their breast feeding, began mixing the formula with Redmond Clay water. All constipation went away and the baby had normal bowel movements.

A woman was having up to 17 bowel movements each day, so uncontrolled that she had become homebound. After a week of drinking a glass of Redmond Clay water every day, her bowels were totally controlled and normal. She came to our office to thank us for giving her the ability to go out in public again without fear of embarrassment

ELECTROLYTE REPLACEMENT: 
A cross country ski instructor uses Redmond Clay routinely whenever he has students experiencing any signs of dehydration, nausea, or altitude sickness.

Another fellow who was supposed to be scheduled for surgery for his bleeding ulcers decided to try the Redmond Clay first. He drank one glass of the Redmond Clay water twice a day, and also kept taking his regular ulcer medicine. After three days he felt so much better that he quit taking the prescription medicine. After a month he went in for an examination; all the bleeding ulcers had quit bleeding and all the small ulcers had disappeared.

ACNE:
 To use for acne, cover the entire face with a layer of the gel about the thickness of icing on a cake. Leave on for about 30 to 45 minutes; wash it off before it is totally dry.

Many local teenagers have called it „zit killer‟. One 15 year old boy had been using the Redmond Clay gel on a regular basis for his complexion and had no blemishes at all. Then he went on vacation and camping trips for three weeks in a row. After three weeks without using it, his face was full of blemishes especially along the hairline of the forehead. He used the Redmond Clay gel every night for two weeks and was completely blemish free.

DETOXING:
 A lady who was experiencing a lot of pain from nerve damage left by a case of shingles earlier in her life soaked her feet every night in foot baths using the Redmond Clay. Within three days she was so pain free she was sleeping through the night and felt better than she had for twenty years. She told her friends of the result and several of them soaked their feet and had similar results. (Note: she was also the one who killed her house plants with the water from the foot baths.)

SPIDER BITES:
 A lady in Arizona kneeled down in her garden and felt a bite from a spider. She caught the spider and took it to the hospital with her where it was identified as a Brown Recluse. They treated the bite but told her there would be an extensive recovery period. After keeping the bite packed in Redmond Clay gel for two days, she said it was totally healed.

A fellow was bitten on the forearm by a Brown Recluse spider and in spite of being treated by a doctor, the wound continued to get worse. After two weeks a large part of the center of the wound looked like raw hamburger. A friend applied Redmond Clay gel to the wound and covered it with gauze. Daily the clay gel was washed off and replaced with new clay gel. One week later it was 90% healed. A week after that it was totally healed.

In cases of burns:

In burns, clay can be sprinkled directly over the burned area when it is wet from sanious exudations, or it can be applied in a semi liquid form or in a poultice, or even used in a bath. Don’t let the clay dry up over a burned area by wrapping it in plastic or using a plastic bag.

Clay will help to quickly reduce the inflammatory response, draw healthy new blood into the damaged area, prevent infections and at once promote tissue regeneration. When dirt is in the burn areas the use of clay will effectively help its removal as well as other waste and foreign materials.

A one part clay and two parts water mixture can be kept in the kitchen in a glass Mason jar with plastic lid, whose opening is large enough to be able to quickly dip one’s hand into it when a burn occurs.

The pain should stop in less than a minute. In a first and mild second degree burn, once the pain is gone the clay can be gently removed with warm water. In more serious second degree and third degree burns, a poultice can be applied over the burned area and kept on wet for a least a couple hours and even better overnight. A plastic wrap is used over the poultice to prevent it from drying. Continue applying wet clay until the burned area has turned into pink skin. Such burns heal two or three faster than expected and this without scarring, in fact with a restitutio ad intergrum, which is unheard without such an intervention.

Here is an example of such healing: a four-year girl put her hand on a hot stove and incurred a second degree burn to most of her hand and a third degree burn on the tips of her finger and the heel of her hand. At once her mom removed her hand and saw that the skin had already been removed and was quickly turning into charcoal on the stove. The little girl’s hand was immediately dipped in a jar containing two parts water and one part clay and then the clay-covered hand was put into a plastic bag to prevent the clay from drying. With fifteen minutes, she had falling asleep in her mother’s arms and slept until the next morning. On the following day, the girl got up without experiencing any symptom but the mother decided to keep the bag on all day. However, she saw her later that day bicycling. That evening her mother removed the bag, wash the clay off with running warm water and to her surprise all the skin had regenerated without any sign of the burn with the exception of the heel of the hand where the burn had been the most severe and now the new skin was pink.

In another example, a man incurred severe burns of both eyes from a corrosive liquid. He applied clay poultice directly on his eyelids that he kept all night and for four hours each day. After four days, most of the lesions had disappeared. He then applied compressed for one more week during the nights only but with an absorbent paper between the lids and the clay for greater comfort. Two weeks later he saw the ophthalmologist who was stunned to realize that most of the lesions had completely healed.

In radiation burns, clay can be used as a poultice directly over the burned area, or the affected person can also lie in a bathtub with clay water in it, and a tablespoon of clay in a glass of water can be ingested once to three times a day in more serious cases.

Pain and the bleeding of wounds stop readily on the application of clay.

Beware that when first applied to a bedsore it will at first become deeper, as the deeper dead tissues is being removed and then it is followed by a healthy granulation.

Beware also that cabbage, which has also been used successfully on stomach ulcers and bedsores, contains what has been called vitamin U which is in fact S-methylmethionine, which has been shown to quickly heal peptic ulcers. The juice or the flattened raw cabbage leaves can be used for this purpose.

The ingestion of bentonite clay has been suggested for its antacid and antiflatulence properties.[lxxvii],[lxxviii]

Clay induced compositional changes in intestinal microbiota, which can be considered as a prebiotic effect, thus suggesting that bentonite may be a potential prebiotic functional supplement.

Buruli ulcerarions is a good example of the power of the use of clay.  

There is no known effective non-surgical treatment for patients with buruli ulcerations other than the use of clay. 

Buruli ulcerations are caused by a germ, Mycobacterium ulcerans, that belongs to the same family of organisms that cause leprosy and tuberculosis. As M. ulcerans produces a toxin – mycolactone – which destroys tissue, infection leads to destruction of skin and soft tissue with large ulcers usually on the legs or arms.

Antibiotics fail to kill Mycobacterium Ulcerans. Surgery is the only option, and quite often, surgery fails; one must surgically eliminate every last bit of mycobacteria in order for the surgery to succeed. Furthermore, surgery often leaves increased scarring.

Mycobacterium ulcerans produces a lipid toxin, mycolactone, which destroys the fatty tissues under the skin (George et al., 1998; 2002). The infection is immuno-suppressant, so no pain is felt as the mycobacterium grows and destroys adipocytes (fat tissue). No white blood cells are called to attack the disease, so no inflammation occurs. [lxxix]

“Buruli ulcer is a chronic, necrotizing disease of the skin caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans. It is the third most common mycobacterial disease of immunocompetent humans with endemic rates in much of central and western Africa. In some West African communities, Buruli ulcer has replaced tuberculosis and leprosy as the most prevalent mycobacterial disease. Currently, the accepted treatment of M. ulcerans ulcers larger than 5 cm is surgical excision of the necrotic lesion and subsequent skin grafting. The characteristic ulcers (Figure 1) lead to very extensive skin loss; damage to nerves, blood vessels, and appendages; and overall deformity and disability. While surgery is a standard treatment for large ulcerative lesions, combined antibiotic therapy with rifampin and streptomycin reduces the extent of surgical excision and infection recurrence (WHO, 2004). However, the predilection of the disease for underprivileged populations of developing world countries makes the cost of complex surgical procedures prohibitive.”

“Line Brunet de Courssou, a French humanitarian working in the Ivory Coast of Africa, observed the suffering of many tribal communities where mostly women and children were afflicted with Buruli ulcer. Growing up in France, she had used a local green clay on wounds and experienced rapid healing from application of a clay paste to bug bites, stings, and cuts. She imported French clay to the Ivory Coast in an attempt to treat the skin infections of the tribal communities, and she carefully documented (photographically) the healing effects of clay on patients suffering from Buruli ulcer (Williams et al., 2004). The dry French green clay was hydrated and applied as a paste directly to the ulcerated and extended healthy skin of infected patients. Throughout the course of treatment, the clay packs were removed and renewed at least once a day, with saline solution used to clean the wounds. One of the clay samples was not as effective in killing M. ulcerans as the next (from a different supplier) but was more suited for promoting skin granulation after the mycobacteria were killed (Brunet de Courssou, 2002). [lxxx]

[lxxxi]

A physician reported the following: “As a physician, after reading articles about the results of clay on Buruli ulcer (Nexus magazine n°90, January-February 2014) I tested the clay on 2 patients :

– A varicose leg ulcer that did not heal in a 70-year old woman: the ulcer healed in a few days (mixture of clay and olive oil).

– A sacro-coccygeal cyst that had been lying around for months in a 17-year-old man who was depressed about it: also healed in a few days (mixture of clay, honey and olive oil).”[lxxxii]

A diabetic patient incurred a severe injury in an already gangrenous limb. As it was not healing through conventional means cabbage juice was tried which was followed by clay application, which lead to complete healing of the wound. See the pictures.[lxxxiii]

A man incurred severe burns of both eyes from a corrosive liquid. He applied clay poultice directly on his eyelids that he kept all night and for four hours each day. After four days, most of the lesions had disappeared. He then applied compressed for one more week during the nights only but with an absorbent paper between the lids and the clay for greater comfort. Two weeks later he saw the ophthalmologist who was stunned to realize that most of the lesions had completely healed.[lxxxiv]

Oral use of clay will lower serum level of cholesterol down within one month.

It can be used over an area of spinal or foraminal stenosis to help dissolve the extra bony deposits. (Anecdotal)

Jade Allègre said that she had seen very good results patients with neurodystrophy syndrome with overnight clay poultice.

Pain associated with osteoporosis tend to disappear, which is thought to be due remineralization of the bone. Nanotechnologists have suggested that when calcium bentonite clay particle comes in contact with lead it adsorbs it while at the same releasing a molecule of calcium and thus be beneficial in people with osteoporosis.[lxxxv]

It was found in in vitro and in vivo experiments that a calcium-bentonite clay inhibits osteoclastogenesis, stimulates osteoblastogenesis, and alleviates osteoporosis.[lxxxvi]

It is interesting to note it is indicated as much in patients with hypotension and hypertension, and in patients with constipation or diarrhea. Jade Allègre suggested that clay reset the metabolism by affecting genetic expression. She pointed out that there might be a relationship of clay and the original formation of DNA.

Like with hydrotherapy it can affect any part of the body where circulation would benefit the area or healing is required.

Other interesting indications would included:

Degenerative joint diseases, as in weight bearing joints such as the hips or knees. At first the pain decrease and the mobility increase progressively and after months of daily applications you can expect a full recovery, with clear improvement on radio-imaging.

After the cycle of 10 treatments over 10 days of mud therapy (a mix of spring water with clay and other minerals) for a duration of 15 minutes, patients with knee osteoarthritis had improved the knee flexion angle and OA-related pain, stiffness and physical function and they reported a better health-related quality of life. Serum concentrations of IL-1β, TNF-α, IL-8, IL-6 and TGF-β, as well as eHsp72, were markedly decreased. Besides, systemic levels of cortisol increased significantly. These results confirm that the clinical benefits of mud therapy may well be mediated, at least in part, by its systemic anti-inflammatory effects and neuroendocrine-immune regulation in OA patients.[lxxxvii]

In a recent study on knee osteoarthritis, ninety-two adult people with grade I–III knee joint OA were divided in three groups: group I:  the subjects received 10 mineral water bath (about 45g/l) taken every other day plus physical therapy; in group II subjects received 10 peat mud (composed of naturally formed organic and mineral colloidal compounds) baths of 20 minutes duration given every other day plus physical therapy; and in group III subject physical therapy alone every other day.  After treatment and after one month of treatment there were significant beneficial change in the intervention group (group I and group II) and in particular, in pain, walking speed, test of 5 sit downs/stand ups flexion range, extension range, and flexor and extensor strength.[lxxxviii]

A man reported waking up one morning with a very swollen left knee:

He tried different anti-inflammatory ointment as well as NSAIDs and found no relief after 4 days. On the fourth day he went to bed with a clay poultice over his left knee, on which he used a plastic film to hold the clay plaster in place, and woke up the next morning with a much reduced swelling.[lxxxix]

Cataracts: a poultice can be applied to the forehead or over the eyes or use the clay water as for glaucoma below.

Glaucoma: A patent was obtained in France for the use of clay water to treat people with glaucoma. A mix of 3 parts water with one part of very fine green clay is left to rest for one week in a close jar. The water is removed with a dropper from the top without disturbing the sediment at the bottom of the jar. 

It is stated in the patent: “This eye drop is intended for the treatment of glaucoma in order to lower hypertension to the point of normalizing the intraocular pressure. It facilitates the evacuation of the aqueous humor which, when it is too full, exerts an annoying, even dangerous pressure on the optic nerve. Another advantage: since this clay water has no contraindications, there is nothing to prevent several instillations (3-4 instillations per 24 hours) if necessary.”

“But it was still necessary to dare to instill it in a sick eye and moreover when you have but one eye. And from the very first days I felt the benefits. I was on the right track, with long-term confirmation. And last but not least, considering the simplicity of this natural product, its cost price would be much lower than all those currently on the market.”

In Africa, a naturopath reported using one liter of urine or any drinking water in which he puts 250g of green clay and 200g of powder vegetable charcoal and let it rest for one week. One drop per eye every two hours was prescribed in a patient with glaucoma. Six weeks later after his first patient who had tried this protocol the internal eye pressure had returned to normal.

Quick changes were observed in a number of autistic children after every bath with clay water.[xc]

For the resorptions of unwanted tissues and excrescences, such as postsurgical adhesions, which clay can be applied not before 4 weeks after an operation in order to let the tissues to bind correctly, as clay could pull out the sutures.

Like with hydrotherapy, uterine tumors and polyps have been rejected by the body by the local applications of clay. There was a case reported that had a huge uterine polyps, the size of an orange, three weeks before surgery she began using clay poultice on her lower abdomen. Within three days of its application the bleeding had stopped and at the time of surgery she was never surgically open because the tumor had separated, descended and was removed by the surgeon like a baby being born.

A mother experienced a sudden drop of energy. Her blood test showed auto-immune thyroiditis with a very level of anti-thyroid antibodies. She remembered that as a kid her mom used clay poultice when she had otitis media. She therefore decided to do clay poultices on her thyroid at night. After ten days she noticed a very strong odor in the room. Her husband compared the smell to an infected wound. This odor remained for the following three nights. She then decided to do the poultice every other night. Three weeks after the initial blood tests she repeated them to find out that this time they had returned within normal range.

A nursing mother developed a breast abscess and began a 3-week clay cure. She noticed that by noon after the first ingestion of clay the chronic eczema she had had all her life one her hands had disappeared and that by evening there was no trace of the breast abscess.

About one month before beginning this clay cure she had gashed her finger deeply. She didn’t want to go the hospital with her newborn baby to get stitches and it was too complicated to do it through her family doctor. She decided to keep the two sides of the cut tightly bandaged for five days, after which it seems that it was holding.

However within 10 days into the clay cure large vesicles and pimples started to develop around the scar of her finger which lasted five days to eventually heal completely. The remarkable aspect of this is that after those five days of eruptions she couldn’t not see any more mark of the cut.

She further reported that she stopped being sick after the 21-day clay cure each time one of her three other children would bring a bug home from the day care or the school.

A pregnant nurse began to miscarriage. After being examined, she decided to return home and apply clay poultice every night until delivery.

Some years later the same nurse was told that her newborn baby would never talk or walk. She decided to feed him with bottles full of clay, aside from her milk. She reported that this child not only walked and talked, but married and had his own children.

Some years later the same woman severely incurred a severe injury to her foot with a plough, as the foot was almost completely separated at the angle joint. Surgeons didn’t have much hope to save her foot when gangrene developed and amputation was now considered. She decided to return home and began to apply clay poultices, which were renewed every five minutes by her husband. Her foot healed completely.

A woman in her 40s decided to try a 21-day clay cure by first drinking the clay water, prepared by just adding the clay to the water, let it sit for 12 hours and drink only the water without sitting the clay into it, for five days of the cure.

She drank her first glass of clay water at 9 in the morning and reported that within hours all the chronic painful cuts she chronically had on her fingers that are related to chronic eczema close and at the same time she was less bloated.

She also reported that during that first afternoon she had had a swollen lid for some time (a sty?) began to resolve and a chronic shoulder pain also began to disappear all within hours of drinking that first glass of clay water.

In that first afternoon she also reported that one of her recurrent headaches disappeared and never had another headache until reporting what she experienced which was about one month after she had begun the cure and at the time of beginning a second 21-day clay cure.

At bedtime she felt that the leftover of the pain in the shoulder was further disappearing as if it was being drawn to her stomach.

On the nineteen day of the twenty-one day cure, she developed much chest catarrh that lasted for five days (a healing crisis?).

At the end of the cure, she also reported that her skin had become smoother, the one of her face less oily and the one of her body less dry. She finally said that she felt lighter with a feeling of being more full of life and that her chronically obstructed nose due to allergies was opening up at the same time as she was drinking the clay.

One week after having ended her first cure, she decided to begin a second one because she still had remnants of chronic eczema and long standing sciatica that had all mostly disappeared during the first cure.

She reported about this second cure 50 days after having begun it in order to be able to report the long-term changes.

Two years before she had had bilateral otitis (worse on the right side) that took many courses of oral and local antibiotic treatment before it disappeared over a period of about six months. Within a few days of the second cure, she noticed that her right ear began to be obstructed and with much lower hearing.

She tried to clear her ear with a q-tip and noticed on pulling it out that it was covered with a green stuff. She contemplated two possible course of action: 1) I go back to my primary care practitioner (PCP) who will likely prescribe another course of antibiotic pills and drops, or 2) I wait and watch. She decided to follow the second course, wait and watch.

There was a swollen lymph node below the right ear and daily she was cleaning the green excoriating pus that was literally dripping out of her right ear. About two weeks later she had a regularly scheduled appointment with her PCP. He looked in her ear and said that she had eczema in her external auditory canal that had become infected. He prescribed a cream that she never used but instead did some clay poultices around the ear. I finally all cleared up.

Jade Allègre reported some observations that point to the possibility of ingested clay has an effect on distal parts of the body.

For instance, she reported that while on her mission she had injured two fingers and one became infected. Just before boarding she quickly applied clay by mistake to the non-infected finger but noticed that the pain was immediately relieve in the infected finger.

She applied clay to the finger of a man who had an infected finger with lymphangitis. As soon as she applied the clay the man said that he felt some pulling under his armpit. She palpated the armpit to notice that he had swollen axillary lymph glands.

A woman who a breast fibroma made a three week cure with oral clay and reported that she began to have multicolor discharges coming out from her nipple as the cysts were disappearing.

A man in his mid 50s who had become a tyrant in her family since he had been suffering from quite intense stomach pain. He began a three-week cure of oral clay. He first noticed that his moods normalized as the stomach pain disappeared but reported that both his testicles began to swell. While waiting get to see his treating physician he noticed that he started to have greenish red discharges coming out of his penis. Soon the discharges stopped he was fine. He had apparently developed a venereal disease while in the army 30 years earlier.

In her missions, Jade Allègre had multiple occasions to save the limbs of people who had been bitten by very venomous snakes by the simple local application of clay. She said that it appears the clay draws the venom out of the body through its initial point of entry.

Here is another similar testimony: “I’ve had two great results with the clay on dogs. First, my Border collie had a tick that I missed until it was the size of a dime. I got it off but the area around it was severely swollen and infected. I put some on when he went to bed. The next morning it had healed so well I couldn’t even see where the tick had been. Later a friend’s pit-bull puppy got into a nest of fire ants, with big red welts all over his stomach. Again, after leaving it on overnight, he was like new the next day.”[xci]

And this report also: “While moving a ladder from behind the shed, I disturbed a wasp nest. They stung me about ten times. I put clay on the stings right away and immediately felt it soothing the pain. Most of the stings were not noticeable anymore within an hour. The worst ones, which were on my forehead, took several hours, but then ceased to swell as well.” — July 3, 2016. [xcii]

Like Silica, it has been successful to pull out imbedded foreign bodies to the surface.

Jade Allègre reported the following observation. A 22-year old woman had an infected ovary, which swelled as large as 15 cm. She received many antibiotics and while being hospitalized, one of her friends brought her back home and she began applying clay. Within a week the fever was gone and on examination the ovary had returned to its normal size.

Oral use of clay helps milk production in nursing mothers.

A man reported that the local clay got rid of a chronic fungus toenail infection: “Over the last few months my husband has put healing clay on his toenail, which is thick from a fungal thing. He’s had it for 10 years or so. His toenail started drying up and cracking apart. Now it’s about half gone (with a new, normal looking toenail underneath). Just a few months, it looks like it’s fixing the problem, when doctors kept wanting to prescribe a liver-damaging costly drug.”[xciii]

I had a patient with three basal cell carcinoma on her forehead, the biggest was about two inches in diameter. They all disappeared with the used of clay.

Here is another similar case: “I have used it on a small reoccurring Basil-Cell Carcinoma. In the past when the Carcinoma would show up, I would go to my doctor and she would freeze it off. Now as soon as the area starts to show signs of reoccurring I cover it in the clay overnight and in the morning it has receded. I keep the clay on it for another day and it is gone. No freezing no healing wound and no more scarring. It seems to pull various toxins out of the skin. I keep a jar of it around the house and take it with me on hikes and road trips. I have passed it along to friends who have reported similar beneficial results. Thank you for sharing this amazing healing clay with me.”[xciv]

Or this story: “I’ve been using the clay and it’s miraculous. I have this unexplained growth on my lower leg that will not heal for 2 years now. I recently had it biopsied for cancer which it’s not, but still need third, fourth opinions… It’s almost gone from a few days of using the clay. I like it a lot and have already referred others to your website. Thank you.” — June 24, 2016 [xcv]

Over 100 years ago of Julius Stumpf, a German physician and scientist used white clay from Germany to treat during epidemics of cholera and diphtheria; he also used I in patients with gangrene; ulcers of the tibia; and the skin disease eczema.[xcvi]

Can turn mal-presentation of the baby in the womb. It has been taught to midwives who report that usually within an hour the baby has turned.

It can be used right after each radiotherapy treatment; start with thin poultice 1 cm, as they are well tolerated they can become thicker.

It can be sprinkle directly right on a fresh wounds and burns.

If there is dirt imbedded in the wound it will be attracted to the clay on the surface (remember Silica and the expulsion of foreign bodies).

Jade Allègre travels the world to bring cheap medical help to poor populations.

In one of expedition she was the only of a team of European MDs and other health care workers who didn’t take any drugs and vaccinations to protect herself against infectious diseases or food poisoning, but took instead three glasses of non-purified water every day, but each containing one tsp of clay. She was the only who ate raw foods and drank the local water without being treated except with the clay. After one month she was the only person of the expedition that had not been hospitalized for a serious infection or gastroenteritis.

She reported that in the spring of 2020 she received three testimonies of people who said they had had Covid with pulmonary affections and recovered within a few days by using clay:

“A 6-year-old girl, an 83-year-old man and a 48-year-old lawyer…These three people, who had symptoms that really resembled what is described for coronavirus, seem to have been cured almost instantly by a clay catch. That is, all of a sudden they started to breathe better, stopped coughing, and returned to a normal temperature.”

She subsequently treated fifteen patients with Covid-19 and all fifteen recovered fairly quickly. Soon after the clay has been ingested patients begin to feel better and within three hours they fall asleep to wake up feeling much better. The next morning they often feel almost completely recovered. 80% of the patients felt totally better in two hours and 100% felt recovered better in 48 hrs.

However, she remarked that when the treatment was stopped as the patient was feeling well this was often followed by a relapse. From that point on she had them continue drinking one tablespoon of clay in a glass of water 2-3 times a day for 4-6 weeks.

Her protocol was 2 to 3 tablespoons of clay in a glass of water three times a day.

coronaviruses were nearly a hundred years old, where in 1930

(2)

Allègre’s experience is supported from facts known about coronavirus and the interaction of clay with viruses.[1]

Coronavirus was first isolated in chickens affected with bronchitis. About 39 coronaviruses have so far been identified to coexist in animals.

It is interesting to note that coronavirus replication takes place mainly in the intestine, which would thus constitute their principal reservoir.

As clay carries a negative charge and that virus at physiological pH are charged positively they would be easily adsorbed by clay,[xcvii] which is well known phenomenon in nature,[xcviii] and in vitro with clay water.[xcix]

Recent research has shown that SARS-CoV-2 remains in the gut for up to three months after viral infection, despite the fact nasopharyngeal samples were negative.[c]

It was also found that clay ingested by animals has the capacity to adsorb 99.99% of the coronaviruses present in their guts.[ci]

Montmorillonite clays in particular have been found to have a high capacity to adsorb viruses.[cii]

When consuming clay it is preferable that the clay has been first evaluated for their heavy metals, as in nature some clay can high in heavy metals such as lead and cadmium which can accumulate in consumers of such clays.[ciii]

In the book of Raymond Dextreit, three brands of clay are mentioned.

I verified with Cattier and they confirmed that their clays are never in contact with metal during its handling, but that its green clay is heated at 350˚C for 20 minutes, while its pink clay is dried in the sun.

Montmorillonite clays like the one of Cattier have certain physical properties that makes them superior to other clays to favor healing, which include its capacity to come in an out of a gel formation with water (called thixotropic property), its high capcity to absorb water and its high capacity for cation exchange .  These properties could be varied in clay minerals depending upon the nature of interstitial water and exchangeable cations in the interlayer space. [civ]

When the kaolin minerals, kaolinite and dickite, are heated at rates from 5 to 300 C/min there are two large and significant heat effects. The lower one, a broad but intense endothermic effect, is associated with the loss of water and the dissociation into an exceedingly intimate mixture of amorphous alumina and amorphous silica.[cv]

How are the above properties of the montmorillonite Cattier clay affected as it is heated at 17.5˚C/min?

Montmorillonite clays like the one of Cattier have certain physical properties that makes them superior to other clays to favor healing, which include its capacity to come in an out of a gel formation with water or capacity to absorb or lose water in response to changes in humidity content in the ambient environment (called thixotropic property, when water is absorbed, it fills the spaces between the stacked silicate layers), its high capacity to absorb water and its high capacity for cation exchange . [cvi]

These properties could be affected by heat. For instance when kaolin clays are heated at rates from 5 to 300 C/min there are two large and significant heat effects. The lower one, a broad but intense endothermic effect, is associated with the loss of water and the dissociation into an exceedingly intimate mixture of amorphous alumina and amorphous silica.[cvii]

Do you know are the properties of water absorption and capacity for cation exchange of the montmorillonite Cattier clay is affected as it is heated at 17.5˚C/min?

Examples of good types of clay

In Europe: https://amzn.eu/d/e73K6vc

In Canada:

French green clay, either Cattier or Argiletz or is available here:

https://laparapharmacie.ca/search?query=argile+verte  (they do ship it out all at a very reasonable price at about $3. Per pound.

or

https://www.avril.ca/boutique/fr/cattier-argile-verte-surfine.html

In the US:

The two French clay that we recommend, Cattier or Argiletz are also available in the USA but the price is 10 times more than in Canada and 30 times than in France.

In the USA there are other types of clay of high quality such as:

Redmond Clay: is a mix of calcium and sodium bentonite clay from central Utah that is safe to eat: https://www.amazon.com/Redmond-Clay-Natural-Bentonite-Soothing/dp/B0BVGHHQGN/ref=sr_1_5?crid=3SEOBWQJJTWOR&keywords=redmond+clay&qid=1686393947&sprefix=redmond+clay%2Caps%2C103&sr=8-5

A good food grade calcium bentonite: Tierra Buena Premium Food Grade Clay

For a food grade sodium bentonite clay: Fossil Power Food Grade Bentonite Clay

http://www.greenclays.com

Bentonite: https://www.amazon.com/Bentonite-Clay-Food-Grade-Powder/dp/B01G2IFKE4/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=green+clay+bentonite&qid=1601861237&sr=8-3

https://a.co/d/efTi1yd

Calcium bentonite per 5 pounds:

https://a.co/d/j5LbrZT

References:

https://jade-allegre.com/argiles/?lang=en  (This Jade Allègre website and it’s supposed to have an English version, but I couldn’t access it)

http://www.greenclays.com

http://www.antibacterialclay.net

http://www.eytonsearth.org

Raymond Dextreit. L’argile qui guérit

Raymond Dextreit. Our Earth, Our Cure. (Also titled The Healing power of clay.)

Calcium Bentonite Clay by Perry A~ (~ is for Arledge) (2015), which has received five stars on Amazon is an excellent book with a good section on Testimonials that she accumulated through her own experience of the use of clay for nine more years after the publication of her first book on clay in 2006, Living Clay—Nature’s Own Miracle Cure, as well from readers who reported their observations, some really amazing, on their themselves or their family members.

Upon a Clay Tablet, the Definitive Guide to Healing with Homeostatic Clay, Volume I By Jason R. Eaton (2009) Four and half stars on Amazon. It summarized many books and large studies, including its used in traditional cultures.

Other potential resources:

We Eat Clay (And Wear it, too!) (Personal stories of the healing results of Redmond Clay). Neal E. Bosshardt. 2003-2011. (It can be downloaded free: https://jade-allegre.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/we-eat-clay.pdf)

Clays and Health: Properties and Therapeutic Uses (2017) (English version of a book first published in French).

How Clays Work: Science & Applications of Clays & Clay-like Minerals in Health & Beauty by Galina St George (2016) Five stars on Amazon

Healing Earths: The Third Leg of Medicine: A History of Minerals in Medicine by W. Rudolph Reinbacher (2002)

The Clay Disciples by Cano Graham (2006) Four stars on Amazon


[1] This part of the research on the interaction of clays with coronaviruses was conducted by an interested patient who is a scientist and who became interested in clay after having experienced its benefits.


[i] Bernal, J. The Physical Basis of Life; Routledge and Kegan Paul: London, UK, 1951.

[ii] Yang, Dayong, et al. “Enhanced transcription and translation in clay hydrogel and implications for early life evolution.” Scientific reports 3 (2013): 3165.

[iii] Graham Cairns-Smith. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Cairns-Smith

[iv] Gottenbos, Bart, et al. “Antimicrobial effects of positively charged surfaces on adhering Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria.” Journal of antimicrobial chemotherapy 48.1 (2001): 7-13.

[v] Tishin, A. N., et al. “Application of enterosorbent on the basis of montmorillonite in acute diarrhea (experimental study).” IP Pavlov Russian Medical Biological Herald 25.4 (2017): 551-564.

[vi] Garmasheva, L. L., et al. “INTERACTION OF LACTOBACILLUS PLANTARUM 337D UKM B-2627 STRAIN CELLS WITH CLAY MINERALS IN VITRO.” Mikrobiolohichnyi zhurnal (Kiev, Ukraine: 1993) 78.4 (2016): 11.

[vii] Subramaniam, Mohana Devi, and In Ho Kim. “Clays as dietary supplements for swine: A review.” Journal of animal science and biotechnology 6.1 (2015): 38.

[viii] Subramaniam, Mohana Devi, and In Ho Kim. “Clays as dietary supplements for swine: A review.” Journal of animal science and biotechnology 6.1 (2015): 38.

[ix] Chalvatzi, S., et al. “Dietary supplementation with the clay mineral palygorskite affects performance and beneficially modulates caecal microbiota in laying pullets.” Journal of Applied Microbiology 120.4 (2016): 1033-1040.

[x] Joyce, Paul, et al. “Contrasting Anti-obesity Effects of Smectite Clays and Mesoporous Silica in Sprague-Dawley Rats.” ACS Applied Bio Materials (2020).

[xi] Lee, Eun‐Sook, et al. “Effects of bentonite Bgp35b‐p on the gut microbiota of mice fed a high‐fat diet.” Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture 98.11 (2018): 4369-4373.

[xii] Xu, Pengfei, et al. “Microbiome remodeling via the montmorillonite adsorption-excretion axis prevents obesity-related metabolic disorders.” EBioMedicine 16 (2017): 251-261.

[xiii] Madkour, Ahmed A., et al. “Smectite in acute diarrhea in children: a double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial.” Journal of pediatric gastroenterology and nutrition 17 (1993): 176-176.

[xiv] Guarino, Alfredo, et al. “Smectite in the treatment of acute diarrhea: a nationwide randomized controlled study of the Italian Society of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Hepatology (SIGEP) in collaboration with primary care pediatricians.” Journal of pediatric gastroenterology and nutrition 32.1 (2001): 71-75.

[xv] Mujawar, Quais Mohammad, et al. “Efficacy of dioctahedral smectite in acute watery diarrhea in Indian children: a randomized clinical trial.” Journal of tropical pediatrics 58.1 (2012): 63-67.

[xvi] Zychowski, Katherine E., et al. “Mitigation of colitis with NovaSil clay therapy.” Digestive diseases and sciences 60.2 (2015): 382-392.

[xvii] Khediri, Faouzi, et al. “Efficacy of diosmectite (Smecta)® in the treatment of acute watery diarrhoea in adults: a multicentre, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel group study.” Gastroenterology research and practice 2011 (2011).

[xviii] Lexomboon, Udom, Supha Harikul, and Oliver Lortholary. “Control randomized study of rehydration/rehydration with dioctahedral smectite in ambulatory Thai infants with acute diarrhea.” The Southeast Asian journal of tropical medicine and public health 25.1 (1994): 157-162.

[xix] Mahraoui, L., et al. “Apical effect of diosmectite on damage to the intestinal barrier induced by basal tumour necrosis factor-alpha.” Gut 40.3 (1997): 339-343.

[xx] Gardiner, K. R., et al. “Adsorbents as antiendotoxin agents in experimental colitis.” Gut 34.1 (1993): 51-55.

[xxi] Williams, Lynda B., Shelley E. Haydel, and Ray E. Ferrell Jr. “Bentonite, bandaids, and borborygmi.” Elements 5.2 (2009): 99-104.

[xxii] Vila-Donat, Pilar, et al. “Tri-octahedral bentonites as potential technological feed additive for Fusarium mycotoxin reduction.” Food Additives & Contaminants: Part A (2020): 1-14.

[xxiii] Mitchell, Nicole J., et al. “Short-term safety and efficacy of calcium montmorillonite clay (UPSN) in children.” The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene 91.4 (2014): 777-785.

[xxiv] Moosavi, Maryam. “Bentonite Clay as a Natural Remedy: a brief review.” Iranian journal of public health 46.9 (2017): 1176.

[xxv] Fomina, Marina, and Iryna Skorochod. “Microbial Interaction with Clay Minerals and Its Environmental and Biotechnological Implications.” Minerals 10.10 (2020): 861.

[xxvi] Wang, Meichen, et al. “Montmorillonites Can Tightly Bind Glyphosate and Paraquat Reducing Toxin Exposures and Toxicity.” ACS omega 4.18 (2019): 17702-17713.

[xxvii] Liu, Yen-Ling, Harold W. Walker, and John J. Lenhart. “Adsorption of microcystin-LR onto kaolinite, illite and montmorillonite.” Chemosphere 220 (2019): 696-705.

[xxviii] Staunton, Siobhan, and Muriel Roubaud. “Adsorption of 137 Cs on montmorillonite and illite: effect of charge compensating cation, ionic strength, concentration of Cs, K and fulvic acid.” Clays and clay minerals 45.2 (1997): 251-260.

[xxix] Manning, Bruce A., and Sabine Goldberg. “Modeling arsenate competitive adsorption on kaolinite, montmorillonite and illite.” Clays and clay minerals 44.5 (1996): 609-623.

[xxx] Orr, Asuka A., et al. “Insights into the interactions of bisphenol and phthalate compounds with unamended and carnitine-amended montmorillonite clays.” Computers & Chemical Engineering 143 (2020): 107063.

[xxxi] Wang, Meichen, Sara E. Hearon, and Timothy D. Phillips. “Development of enterosorbents that can be added to food and water to reduce toxin exposures during disasters.” Journal of Environmental Science and Health, Part B 54.6 (2019): 514-524.

[xxxii] Phillips, Timothy D., et al. “NovaSil clay for the protection of humans and animals from aflatoxins and other contaminants.” Clays and Clay Minerals 67.1 (2019): 99-110.

[xxxiii] Zhu, Runliang, et al. “Adsorbents based on montmorillonite for contaminant removal from water: A review.” Applied Clay Science 123 (2016): 239-258.

[xxxiv] McKenzie, R. A. “Bentonite as therapy for Lantana camara poisoning of cattle.” Australian Veterinary Journal 68.4 (1991): 146-148.

[xxxv] Xue, Kathy S., et al. “Modulation of pre-neoplastic biomarkers induced by sequential aflatoxin B1 and fumonisin B1 exposure in F344 rats treated with UPSN clay.” Food and Chemical Toxicology 114 (2018): 316-324.

[xxxvi] Awuor, Abigael O., et al. “Evaluation of the efficacy, acceptability and palatability of calcium montmorillonite clay used to reduce aflatoxin B1 dietary exposure in a crossover study in Kenya.” Food Additives & Contaminants: Part A 34.1 (2017): 93-102.

[xxxvii] Maki, C. R., et al. “Calcium montmorillonite clay for the reduction of aflatoxin residues in milk and dairy products.” J. Diary Vet. Sci 2.55558710.19080 (2017).

[xxxviii] Ramirez, Amelie G., et al. “Lifestyle and clinical correlates of hepatocellular carcinoma in South Texas: a matched case-control study.” Clinical gastroenterology and hepatology: the official clinical practice journal of the American Gastroenterological Association 15.8 (2017): 1311.

[xxxix] Pollock, Brad H., et al. “Intervention trial with calcium montmorillonite clay in a south Texas population exposed to aflatoxin.” Food Additives & Contaminants: Part A 33.8 (2016): 1346-1354.

[xl] Nikolaevich, Tishin Anton, et al. “Preclinical study of pharmacological activity of enterosorbente on the basis of montmorillonite.” Research Results in Pharmacology 3.3 (2017).

[xli] Bhattacharyya, Krishna Gopal, and Susmita Sen Gupta. “Adsorption of a few heavy metals on natural and modified kaolinite and montmorillonite: a review.” Advances in colloid and interface science 140.2 (2008): 114-131.

[xlii] Yu, D. Y., X. L. Li, and W. F. Li. “Effect of montmorillonite superfine composite on growth performance and tissue lead level in pigs.” Biological trace element research 125.3 (2008): 229-235.

[xliii] Abbès, Samir, et al. “Inactivation of cadmium induced immunotoxicological alterations in rats by Tunisian montmorillonite clay.” International immunopharmacology 7.6 (2007): 750-760.

[xliv] Ivan, M., M. de S. Dayrell, and M. Hidiroglou. “Effects of bentonite and monensin on selected elements in the stomach and liver of fauna-free and faunated sheep.” Journal of dairy science 75.1 (1992): 201-208.

[xlv] Kim, Song Gwan, et al. “Effects of montmorillonite on alleviating dietary Cd-induced oxidative damage in carp (Carassius auratus).” Biological trace element research 141.1-3 (2011): 200-206.

[xlvi] Eleanor Herman. The Royal Art of Poison: Filthy Palaces, Fatal Cosmetics, Deadly Medicine. 2018: p. 28-29.

[xlvii] Slamova, R., et al. “Clay minerals in animal nutrition.” Applied Clay Science 51.4 (2011): 395-398.s

[xlviii] Xu, Pengfei, et al. “Microbiome remodeling via the montmorillonite adsorption-excretion axis prevents obesity-related metabolic disorders.” EBioMedicine 16 (2017): 251-261.

[xlix] Slamova, R., et al. “Clay minerals in animal nutrition.” Applied Clay Science 51.4 (2011): 395-398.s

[l] Calcium Bentonite clay for mercury detoxification. https://www.foodsmatter.com/environment_chemical_sensitivity/heavy_metals/articles/bentonite_clay.html

[li] Perry Arledge. Calcium Bentonite Clay. 2015

[lii] Perry Arledge. Calcium Bentonite Clay. 2015

[liii] Marks Jr, James G., et al. “Prevention of poison ivy and poison oak allergic contact dermatitis by quaternium-18 bentonite.” Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology 33.2 (1995): 212-216.

[liv] Epstein, William L. “Topical prevention of poison ivy/oak dermatitis.” Archives of dermatology 125.4 (1989): 499-501.

[lv] Antonelli, Michele, and Davide Donelli. “Mud therapy and skin microbiome: a review.” International journal of biometeorology 62.11 (2018): 2037-2044.

[lvi] Coelho, Genoveva Luciana Negve, et al. “Preparation and evaluation of inclusion complexes of commercial sunscreens in cyclodextrins and montmorillonites: performance and substantivity studies.” Drug development and industrial pharmacy 34.5 (2008): 536-546.

[lvii] Movahedi, M. M., et al. “Production of a Novel Mineral-based Sun Lotion for Protecting the Skin from Biohazards of Electromagnetic Radiation in the UV Region.” Journal of biomedical physics & engineering 4.1 (2014): 9.

[lviii] Hu, Caihong, et al. “Zinc oxide–montmorillonite hybrid influences diarrhea, intestinal mucosal integrity, and digestive enzyme activity in weaned pigs.” Biological trace element research 149.2 (2012): 190-196.

[lix] Wiles, Melinda C., et al. “Toxicological evaluation and metal bioavailability in pregnant rats following exposure to clay minerals in the diet.” Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part A 67.11 (2004): 863-874.

[lx] Zhang, Yan‐ting, et al. “Montmorillonite adsorbs creatinine and accelerates creatinine excretion from the intestine.” Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology 61.4 (2009): 459-464.

[lxi] Ma, Zhao, et al. “Montmorillonite adsorbs uric acid and increases the excretion of uric acid from the intestinal tract in mice.” Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology 61.11 (2009): 1499-1504.

[lxii] Cao, Y. X., et al. “Effect of montmorillonite on diffussion of urea between blood and intestine and on absorption of intestine in rats.” Zhong yao cai= Zhongyaocai= Journal of Chinese medicinal materials 32.2 (2009): 249.

[lxiii] Mortazavi, S. M., et al. “Development of a novel mineral based haemostatic agent consisting of a combination of bentonite and zeolite minerals.” J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad 21.1 (2009): 3-7.

[lxiv] Mortazavi, S. M. J., et al. “CoolClot, a novel hemostatic agent for controlling life-threatening arterial bleeding.” World journal of emergency medicine 4.2 (2013): 123.

[lxv] Adamis, Zoltán, Richard B. Williams, and József Fodor. Bentonite, kaolin, and selected clay minerals. No. 231. World health organization, 2005.

[lxvi] François Hernot. L’Argile à l’officine. Thèse de doctorat en pharmacie. 2016 http://dune.univ-angers.fr/fichiers/20073109/2016PPHA5426/fichier/5426F.pdf

[lxvii] François Hernot. L’Argile à l’officine. Thèse de doctorat en pharmacie. 2016 http://dune.univ-angers.fr/fichiers/20073109/2016PPHA5426/fichier/5426F.pdf

[lxviii] François Hernot. L’Argile à l’officine. Thèse de doctorat en pharmacie. 2016 http://dune.univ-angers.fr/fichiers/20073109/2016PPHA5426/fichier/5426F.pdf

[lxix] François Hernot. L’Argile à l’officine. Thèse de doctorat en pharmacie. 2016 http://dune.univ-angers.fr/fichiers/20073109/2016PPHA5426/fichier/5426F.pdf

[lxx] François Hernot. L’Argile à l’officine. Thèse de doctorat en pharmacie. 2016 http://dune.univ-angers.fr/fichiers/20073109/2016PPHA5426/fichier/5426F.pdf

[lxxi] Haydel, Shelley E., Christine M. Remenih, and Lynda B. Williams. “Broad-spectrum in vitro antibacterial activities of clay minerals against antibiotic-susceptible and antibiotic-resistant bacterial pathogens.” Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy 61.2 (2008): 353-361.

[lxxii] Ross, Clarence S., and Earl V. Shannon. “The minerals of bentonite and related clays and their physical properties 1.” Journal of the American Ceramic Society 9.2 (1926): 77-96.

[lxxiii] Medicinal clay. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicinal_clay#cite_ref-26

[lxxiv] Is Bentonite Clay Good for Healthy Teeth? https://holisticdentistryusa.com/is-bentonite-clay-good-for-teeth/

[lxxv] Lindsey Elmore. Bentonite Clay: The secret to healthy gums and teeth

https://medium.com/@lindsey_58509/bentonite-clay-the-secret-to-healthy-gums-and-teeth-8763b3697943

[lxxvi] Is Bentonite Clay Good for Healthy Teeth? https://holisticdentistryusa.com/is-bentonite-clay-good-for-teeth/

[lxxvii] Linares, C. F., and A. Torres. “Modified bentonite with Na2CO3 as possible antacid medicament.” Studies in Surface Science and Catalysis. Vol. 158. Elsevier, 2005. 2073-2080.

[lxxviii] Tishin, Anton N., et al. “Physico-chemical properties of montmorillonite clays and their application in clinical practice.” (2017).

[lxxix] Williams, L. B., et al. “Killer clays.” Natural antibacterial clay minerals. Mineralogical Society Bulletin 139 (2004): 3-8.

[lxxx] Williams, L. B., et al. “Killer clays.” Natural antibacterial clay minerals. Mineralogical Society Bulletin 139 (2004): 3-8.

[lxxxi] Williams, L. B., et al. “Killer clays.” Natural antibacterial clay minerals. Mineralogical Society Bulletin 139 (2004): 3-8.

[lxxxii] https://jade-allegre.com/argiles/temoignages/?lang=e

[lxxxiii] http://www.jade-allegre.com/temoignages/infirmiere2.pdf

[lxxxiv] https://jade-allegre.com/argiles/temoignages/?lang=en

[lxxxv] Wungu, Triati Dewi Kencana, and Muhammad Rifqi Al Fauzan. “A Density Functional Theory Study of a Calcium-Montmorillonite: A First Investigation for Medicine Application.” Journal of Physics: Conference Series. Vol. 739. No. 1. IOP Publishing, 2016.

[lxxxvi] Kim, Gyeong-Ji, et al. “Effect of Nano-Montmorillonite on Osteoblast Differentiation, Mineral Density, and Osteoclast Differentiation in Bone Formation.” Nanomaterials 10.2 (2020): 230.

[lxxxvii] Ortega, E., et al. “Anti-inflammatory effect as a mechanism of effectiveness underlying the clinical benefits of pelotherapy in osteoarthritis patients: regulation of the altered inflammatory and stress feedback response.” International journal of biometeorology 61.10 (2017): 1777-1785.

[lxxxviii] Varzaityte, Lina, et al. “The effect of balneotherapy and peloid therapy on changes in the functional state of patients with knee joint osteoarthritis: a randomized, controlled, single-blind pilot study.” International Journal of Biometeorology (2019): 1-10.

[lxxxix] “Soigner avec de l’argile ???” (blessure articulaire, arthrose, etc) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC3y0GKu6X8

[xc] Perry Arledge. Calcium Bentonite Clay. 2015

[xci] http://www.antibacterialclay.net/testimonials.htm

[xcii] http://www.antibacterialclay.net/testimonials.htm

[xciii] http://www.antibacterialclay.net/testimonials.htm

[xciv] http://www.antibacterialclay.net/testimonials.htm

[xcv] http://www.antibacterialclay.net/testimonials.htm

[xcvi] THE MAN WHO SAVED ONE MILLION LIVES. https://web.archive.org/web/20100119225128/http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2007AM/finalprogram/abstract_129316.htm

[xcvii] Zerda, Katherine S., et al. “Adsorption of viruses to charge-modified silica.” Applied and environmental microbiology 49.1 (1985): 91-95.

[xcviii] Lipson, STEVEN M., and G. Stotzky. “Effect of proteins on reovirus adsorption to clay minerals.” Applied and Environmental Microbiology 48.3 (1984): 525-530.

[xcix] Syngouna, Vasiliki I., and Constantinos V. Chrysikopoulos. “Interaction between viruses and clays in static and dynamic batch systems.” Environmental science & technology 44.12 (2010): 4539-4544.

[c] Covid-19 : persistance du SARS-CoV-2 dans l’intestin trois mois après le début des symptoms. https://www.lemonde.fr/blog/realitesbiomedicales/2020/12/03/covid-19-persistance-du-sars-cov-2-dans-lintestin-trois-mois-apres-le-debut-des-symptomes/comment-page-1/

[ci] Clark, K. J., et al. “In vitro studies on the use of clay, clay minerals and charcoal to adsorb bovine rotavirus and bovine coronavirus.” Veterinary microbiology 63.2-4 (1998): 137-146.

[cii] Block, Karin A., et al. “Disassembly of the cystovirus ϕ6 envelope by montmorillonite clay.” MicrobiologyOpen 3.1 (2014): 42-51.

[ciii] Orisakwe, Orish Ebere, et al. “Cadmium and lead in geophagic clay consumed in Southern Nigeria: health risk from such traditional nutraceutical.” Environmental geochemistry and health 42.11 (2020): 3865-3875.

[civ] Uddin, Faheem. “Montmorillonite: An introduction to properties and utilization.” Current Topics in the Utilization of Clay in Industrial and Medical Applications 1 (2018).

[cv] Insley, Herbert, and Raymond H. Ewell. “Thermal behavior of the kaolin minerals.” J. Res. Natl. Bur. Stand 14.5 (1935): 615-27.

[cvi] Uddin, Faheem. “Montmorillonite: An introduction to properties and utilization.” Current Topics in the Utilization of Clay in Industrial and Medical Applications 1 (2018).

[cvii] Insley, Herbert, and Raymond H. Ewell. “Thermal behavior of the kaolin minerals.” J. Res. Natl. Bur. Stand 14.5 (1935): 615-27.

Picture of André Saine, N.D., F.C.A.H.

André Saine, N.D., F.C.A.H.

André Saine is a 1982 graduate of the National College of Naturopathic Medicine in Portland, Oregon. He is board-certified in homeopathy (1988) by the Homeopathic Academy of Naturopathic Physicians and has been teaching and lecturing on homeopathy since 1985. He is considered one of the world’s foremost experts on the subject of homeopathy.