The secret to safe and effective medicine (maintaining or returning to good health) is caught up with the question of how to fix what ails us without suffering from side effects from the medicines we use. There are certain choices we make in life and many of them take us far away from Nature and the basics of life. The earth, though, is literally our mother and has given us part of her in the form of natural medicines to fix what ails us.

The use of clay for both internal and external use puts in our hands the healing power of mother earth and there is little that can compare or compete in the world of medicine. There is no healing system more powerful than that which employs Nature’s primordial substances, materials so pure and close to nature that they yield benefits without the typical side effects of most medicines.

For many of us it is hard to imagine actually eating clay, and few people employ it topically. But the power of its exquisite purity is indispensable in the age of toxicity for there is nothing that has a stronger pulling power on the impurities in the body then clay does. Where I live we have scorpions, and believe me when one of my kids got bitten, clay is the first thing I raced for and it worked quickly to draw the venom out. I have used clay packs on my eyes, sleeping with them through the night bringing soothing relief to the stress they were feeling as I was battling cataracts.

For those suffering from gingivitis or any other infection or decay in the mouth it’s good to know one can pack the clay into the mouth. For instance, many people have used it when they have a toothache, putting a clay pack in their mouth for an hour each day for four days.  Not only does the pain go away, but the infection is drawn out by the clay.

In another essay I will discuss the use of clay externally with special attention paid to using clay in detox and chelation protocols to facilitate removal of mercury and other heavy metals. In this chapter we will talk about starting ones day with a glass of clay. Actually, we don’t eat clay we drink it.

Healing clays, which have been used by indigenous cultures since before recorded history, offer us a wonderful, safe, inexpensive and effective medicine for the 21st Century. On every continent there are people who eat earth. “The Native Americans call it “Ee-Wah-Kee” meaning  “The-Mud-That-Heals”. Bentonite, as well as other types of healing clay, has been used by indigenous cultures since before recorded history, but it’s only now that scientists are gradually beginning to understand what force brings them to do this. It is not only humans who indulge in a bit of clay every now and then.  Parrots, cattle, rats, elephants and chimpanzees also partake.

All health begins and ends in the gastrointestinal tract.
If we cannot properly digest and absorb nutrients from
our food, we set the stage for an imbalanced immune
system and the onset and progression of chronic illness.
Dr. David Brownstein

The pure healing power of the earth evident in living clays creates a better platform for the body to recover from illness because it propels the immune system to health, strengthening the body to a higher point of resistance, something no allopathic medicine achieves. Clay maintains its molecular integrity; it does not break down and assimilate into the body. It maintains a molecular whole as it passes through the body acting like a vacuum cleaner or sponge carrying poisons out of the body. Since clay is not digested and assimilated as it passes through the alimentary canal, the clay and the absorbed positively charged ions are both eliminated together. It also pulls toxins through the skin when applied topically in clay baths.

Clay’s immediate action upon the body is directly on the digestive channel. This involves the clay actually binding with the toxic substances and removing them from the body with the stool. It performs this job with every kind of toxin including those that occur naturally as by-products of the body’s own health processes, such as metabolic toxins.

Our exposure to general chemical toxins in the environment is only getting worse, thus any reasonable and cost effective method that reduces concentrations of toxic metals and other poisonous chemicals in the human body will find great use in the 21st century (the Age of Toxicity). Our world has never been as toxic as it is today and it will be even more toxic next year and the year after that. No one can maintain a totally pure state but we can approach medical treatments with an intelligence that will protect from most harm and disease.

In the 21st century the center of pharmacology needs to be
shifted away from medicines that add to peoples already heavy
toxic burdens to medicines and protocols that reduce these burdens.

Inasmuch as mercury is omnipresent in the environment, as are a host of other chemicals like lead and halogenated hydrocarbons (halocarbons) from the plastic industry, it is virtually impossible for humans to avoid exposure to a growing list of chemicals that are mixing together in our blood streams and cells. Thus there is a need for detoxification protocols that increase daily elimination for healthy people as well as chelation protocols for adults and children who have been devastated with mercury and other chemical poisoning.

The need to eliminate heavy metals and other toxic chemicals
from the body is a life long activity thus it behooves
us to find the most natural and effective way to do that.

Substances that are toxic to our bodies come at us from all directions: the air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink, the cleaning products we use, and the metabolic waste produced inside us.  Toxin build-up in the body contributes to premature aging and chronic and degenerative diseases. Huge tonnages of pollutants are put into the air every day and the 20 odd tons of mercury are bio-accumulating stressing our physiology to the limit.

Detox and chelation can be made easier, shorter
and more effective with the help and use of clay.

Clay assists the body’s eliminatory process by acting as a bulking agent, similar to psyllium fiber, sweeping out the old matter that doesn’t need to be there.  It is not digested in the same manner as food as it passes through the alimentary canal.  Instead, it stimulates intestinal peristalsis, the muscular contractions that move food and stool through the bowels.  The clay and the adsorbed toxins are both eliminated together. This keeps the toxins from being reabsorbed into the bloodstream, which is a safer way to go about the detoxification process, and is one of the reasons I ingest clay everyday. Many naturopaths recommend ingesting clay on a daily basis to maintain optimal health. Generally, it is suggested that one to two teaspoons  of clay mixed in water be taken  daily. It is recommended to take the clay on an empty stomach first thing in the morning for best results.  If you cannot take it first thing in the morning, at least make sure that it is in on empty stomach. If you’re taking any medication, it is recommended to wait 1-3 hours before ingesting clay, but please check with your physician, as medications vary in time release and content.