Here's to mud in your eye!

When people in my life become sick or injured, they either come to me for one of my ‘magic potions’ or they hide from me because they fear my ‘magic potions’.  Both approaches bring me a degree of amusement.  However, I’m a Healer at heart and I’d prefer to be helping someone with his or her health issue instead of laughing as they try to hide their ailment from me.

I don’t like to be pushy with my ‘alternative healing ways’ but when I see someone I know and care about suffering, I will make suggestions.  Recently, someone close to me developed a large and intrusive sty on his eyelid.  I know from my extensive training in Western Herbalism that a rigorous treatment of ‘tea bag therapy’ would likely clear up the situation.  Most people’s lifestyles don’t really allow for as much downtime as that would require though.  So I suggested the next best thing.  Coal!

Activated charcoal has been used medicinally for centuries.  It can absorb many times over its own weight in gasses, fluids, and toxins.  I always keep some charcoal capsules on hand in case of food poisoning.  (This is not a reflection on my cooking…simply a precaution.)

I seriously expected some resistance when I suggested to my ‘Subject’…”How about we make some mud out of coal and put it on your eye and see what happens?”  He must have been miserable because he was way more willing than expected. 

We used about 1tsp of medical grade activated charcoal and just enough water to make a paste.  Then we put the paste on a piece of gauze and applied it directly to his eye.  Next we applied a warm, moist compress and left it on for 30 minutes.  We did one session early in the day and another later in the evening.  That’s all it took.  The coal drained all the fluid from the sty.  The eyelid is a bit dry but with proper moisturizing will be just dandy in a few days.  The ‘Subject’s’ only complaint was “That stuff is a bitch to wash off.”

If you choose to use charcoal for Healing purposes, please do your research first!