A week ago I sprained my ankle badly. I decided to put a charcoal poultice right over the ankle and also on top of my foot for the swelling, to help with bruising problems and pain.

A week later no bruises where I put the poultices (I wore these for a total of 3 days) but in the areas I missed (top of the toes, low sides of the foot) are regular black and blue bruises.

But the skin where I wore the poultices is normal pink looking skin. Amazing!!!

Here is what I did:

Take powdered charcoal and place a heaping teaspoon in a glass bowl. Mix a little water with it to form a watery mixture. Be careful when mixing as charcoal seems to like to fly everywhere. You have to be patient when mixing--it takes a few seconds.

Take a paper towel and fold in half. On one end pour the charcoal/water mixture. Don't worry if the papertowel becomes wet. Fold over again so that there is a black circle on both sides of the paper towel.

Place right over the area likely to bruise (this can be used also to take poison out of a bee sting/mosquito bite/boil or any other skin problem that is painful).

Then cover with plastic wrap well enough that it won't come loose during the day or night, covering it well. I would wear it all night, the next morning make a new one and wear it all day, repeating this for 3 days. It not only healed the bruise, but stopped the pain within 10 minutes! I took no pain medications although the doctor insisted I'd need them because my sprain is a bad one. The doctor thought it was broken for sure but the x-rays indicated only a sprain.

This is a very simple treatment but wonderful for any painful skin problem. It is good to draw out poisons. You do not want to use this, however, with any suspicion of appendicitis or some internal problem where the poison should not be drawn out through the skin but instead should be displaced inwardly.

Charcoal is also good internally but this is for another post!

I've used it internally for stomach upset and it really does work to reduce the "effects" of food poisoning. Internally I take it in tablet form though know you can mix the powder into a glass of water. I suppose you could just gnaw on a piece of burnt wood

Didn't know it would work on sprains but I've heard of it being used for bee stings though I've never used it for such (as a bee keeper I get stung hundreds of times a year and they don't bother me much....anymore).

Redfog

Sounds like you've built up an immunity to bee stings redfog--I'm more allergic to them and will get a welt about the size of a silver dollar.

But I would think if those who are deathly allergic to bee stings could slap that charcoal poultice in place while on their way to the hospital might find the effects of the bee sting not so bad perhaps. I'm speaking of those who could die from a bee sting. I think they have an anti-venum they must take too but it seems the charcoal would certainly work good for them.

Charlene, if you know the internal uses of charcoal, please post away...I know that you are an expert on these things!