The most important health benefits of Bentonite clay include its ability to expel heavy metal toxins, increase nutritional wellness, boost skin health, oxygenate the body, protect the gastrointestinal system, strengthen immunity, and improve gum and dental health.
What is Bentonite Healing Clay?
Bentonite, kaolin, smectite, montmorillonite, and Fuller’s earth are some of the commonly found healing clays in many markets. These particular types of clays are often volcanic in nature, so they are packed with concentrated minerals and nutrients for the body, making them the equivalent of a nutritional supplement. Whether you consume their nutrient-rich substances or apply them directly to your skin, it is important to know exactly what you are putting in or on your body. You can create a healing clay paste to apply to the skin, like a mud bath, or consume this clay in regulated amounts like any other food or drink. Due to the unusual impact this could have on your system, it is important to slowly introduce healing clays to your diet and carefully monitor its effects on your body, as there are certain associated risks. [1]
In traditional times, the consumption of earth or soil happened across the globe and is called geophagy. Although the idea of eating dirt, soil, or clay seems like something we leave behind as curious children, people around the world have been consuming and applying healing clays for thousands of years, with surprising effects.
Bentonite, the healing clay. Photo Credit: Shutterstock
Health Benefits
Let’s take a closer look at some of the health benefits of healing clay. [2]
Skin Care
If you suffer from some type of skin condition, such as eczema, psoriasis, or frequent breakouts, when you mix healing clay with water to form a paste, it can be placed over the affected area and help to remove or bind with toxins and other unwanted materials on your skin. When you remove the clay, you also remove these compounds, which can cause breakouts, inflammation, and poor health of the skin. [3]
You may have already used healing clay at some point in the past, even if you didn’t realize it. A mud bath is essentially a full-body healing clay treatment but is more regular or small-scale applications, it can have even more powerful effects.
Oxygenation of the Body
Research has shown that healing clay, particularly the bentonite variety, can attach to excess hydrogen in the cells, thereby promoting additional oxygenation if your body is already well-hydrated. This can result in increasing the energy levels and better-functioning of organ systems that are receiving an appropriate amount of oxygen. [4]
Digestive Aid
If you tend to have an unhealthy diet, there is a good chance that your stomach is high in acids, and that imbalance can result in a variety of gastrointestinal conditions, such as inflammation, diarrhea, acid reflux disease, and others. The alkaloids found in high concentrations in healing clay, especially calcium bentonite healing clay, can balance this acidic presence and significantly reduce pain and discomfort in the stomach. [5]
Powerful Mineral Profile
One of the main reasons why geophagy was so widely practiced around the world is that these clays have very powerful minerals such as calcium and many others which are essential for human health. If you are nutritionally deficient, such as an anemic patient with too little iron, consuming regulated amounts of healing clay can rapidly boost your mineral content, just as a normal mineral supplement. [6]
Increase in Probiotics
Although many people think of bacteria as a negative thing, there are certain beneficial bacteria found in our gut that are called probiotics. They promote healthy and efficient digestion, but heavy metal toxicity in the gut can eliminate these probiotics. Calcium bentonite clay can help expel these heavy metal toxins and provide a healthy environment for the probiotics to return and improve gut health. [7]
Oral Health
In small concentrated amounts, you can use healing clays such as bentonite clay, rich in calcium and potassium, directly on the gums and teeth to prevent bacterial infections and prevent dangerous conditions. Again, before oral consumption, always consult a trained medical professional and discuss the options for using healing clay.
Boosted Immune System
Aside from strengthening the immune protection of your gums and teeth, consuming healing clay can protect your entire body from pathogen invasions and harmful foreign agents. Healing clay can protect the gut wall, thereby, protecting the bloodstream from absorbing harmful materials and localizing dangerous compounds so they can easily be expelled from the body. [8]
Word of Caution: Geophagy as a general practice should not be adopted, but a regulated use of healing clay can be very beneficial for your body. In other words, don’t just start eating soil or clay that you find, as healing clays are specific combinations of important nutrients that will do you more good than harm. Be sure to discuss any new herbal remedy (topical or internal) with a trained physician.
