Charcoal to the Rescue!

Activated charcoal is a wonderful natural remedy for poisonous bites. I was bitten by something the other day – maybe it was a spider, I’m not sure.

How do you make and use a charcoal poultice? Here’s a simple step by step description. This is what I did.

So, first I made my mixture. I started with putting water in a paper bowl. The paper bowl is nice, so I can just throw it out when I am done.

I put about 1/4 cup of water in the bowl, but you don’t have to measure it.

I used “Charcoal It” powdered activated charcoal and ground flax seed, in equal portions. This time it was about a teaspoon and a half of each.

Ground flax seed

“Charcoal It” Activated Charcoal

I stirred it all together for about a minute. It thickens slightly because of the flax seed, and that is just perfect for my poultice.

It gets a little bit sticky also, kind of forming a jel. If it is still runny, add a little more of the ground up flax seed, until it thickens.

Then you just spread it out on a folded paper towel – for this little spider bite I made it about two inches in diameter.

Then I wrapped the paper towel around my arm, right over the area where the bite was.

After that I needed another hand and got some help from my husband. We covered the paper towel with a long strip of plastic wrap.

Then to secure it all in place, we wrapped “vet wrap” around it .

Here’s the picture of the end result.

Two hours later I took it off to take a shower. And it felt a lot better. There was still a little bump, but it was not as inflamed and it was not itchy at all.

Charcoal to the rescue!