Toxin Binders and Their Role in Healing
As a wellness advocate and a patient with an extensive wrap sheet, I get lots of inquiries about what supplements I take and what has helped me make the most progress in my healing journey. Binders are one area of supplementation that continue to draw ever so much inquiry and attention. So what are binders? Which one to choose? How do they work? Who needs them?
Most people are familiar with activated charcoal, the most common binder. It’s been used even in mainstream medicine for emergency treatment in poisoning and can be lifesaving in many circumstances, absorbing up to 60% of poisonous toxins. But in the realm of chronic illness, Lyme disease, and autoimmune disease, how can binders help us? What is their role?
WHAT BINDERS ARE AVAILABLE?
There are a few types of binders on the market, over the counter, that appear to have similar efficacy in terms of toxin absorption. My 3 favorites are:
- Activated Charcoal (this one is derived from coconut)
- Bentonite Clay
- Takesumi Supreme (this one is derived from bamboo and is my #1 top pick)
I personally was recommended Takesumi Supreme years back through a trusted healthcare professional and as I have used all three, charcoal, clay, and bamboo, Takesumi is my favorite. I mix it into water or green juice and have even included things like lemon juice, Slippery Elm, and Milk Thistle to create a fantastic detox drink that I can honestly say I can FEEL different after drinking (and the next day).
I like to take Takesumi Supreme regularly and especially if I have eaten things that are not my body’s favorites. I also take it during periods of high illness. For example this February our elementary school was overrun with Norovirus. There were literally 15+ kids in the nurses office daily for weeks, news crews documenting the event, and the health department investigating based on the high numbers of absences (over 100 some days). People were dropping like flies, vomiting on the front lawn of the school, and it was spreading veraciously through our neighborhood. In fact I know of very few people who got off unaffected. While anecdotal, I grabbed my Takesumi Supreme and began giving it to my family daily. I cannot say 100% that it was causative (or preventative as it were), but nobody in my family got it. Again, I am not making a health claim before anybody decides to literally lose their mind over this paragraph, but I do personally find it beneficial as this is not the first time it has helped me under this circumstance. Additionally, you can read HERE how activated charcoal was effective in absorbing E. Coli, an undesirable pathogen – so the potential to help in communicable illness is there.
WHAT ROLE DO BINDERS HAVE IN CHRONIC ILLNESS?
In my personal experience, many chronically ill patients also have other extenuating circumstances contributing to their illness. These include but are not limited to: 1) an impaired ability to detox (ex. MTHFR and other methylation complications), 2) impaired gut health (overgrowth of pathogens, undergrowth of helpful bacteria), 3) higher levels of opportunistic infections. All three of these issues make it more difficult to escort out toxins, which binders are extremely helpful in executing.
For example: A Lyme disease patient often has high bacterial loads coupled with poor gut health and an overgrowth of yeast like Candida. So let’s say this patient begins a protocol including rx antibiotics, herbs, and a clean diet. Without a doubt there will be a release of toxins that comes from both bacterial die off as well as candida die off, not to mention all the other things that happen when a person cleans up their diet. Let’s also say that this person has some detox difficulties and that escorting all of these toxins out of the system places extreme demands on the liver, coupled with the complication that some of these toxins (due to issues like MTHFR) just recirculate in the blood stream or worse, start to settle back into the tissues and organs. This is where binders can help ease the burden on the patient, sweeping up toxins and die off and pulling them out of the body through regular waste.
Take Candida alone… When large numbers of yeast and fungal cells are rapidly killed, a die-off (or Herxheimer reaction) occurs and metabolic by-products are released into the body. The amount of Candida cells being killed makes this very different form the regular cell elimination that forms part of the Candida albicans lifecycle. When these cells die, they release all the noxious substances that they contain, including (according to some sources) at least 79 different toxins. This long list of toxic substances includes ethanol, uric acid, and acetaldehyde (read more on this HERE). If a chronically ill patient already has a difficult detoxing AND they are treating other opportunistic infections on top of candida, one can only imagine how taxing this can be on the liver and other organs. Binders help attract these toxins and move them through the system, giving a break to the liver as well as preventing up to 60% of their absorption on your body’s behalf.
OTHER ROLES OF BINDERS
In addition to die off toxins, binders can help in an array of other situations including:
- food poisoning
- accidental ingestion of actual toxins
- possible prevention of communicable viral infections
- absorption of cholesterol within the stomach and intestines
- helping to reduce nitrogen-containing waste products. A low-protein diet combined with activated charcoal has been found to benefit elderly people who have advanced kidney disease
- reduce side effects of chemotherapy
- whiten teeth (yes it’s oddly true)
- helping remove toxins and impurities from skin – my absolute favorite products for this include this charcoal soap and mask
DO BINDERS INTERFERE WITH NUTRIENT ABSORPTION?
One question that arises is if binders indeed reduce the efficacy of prescription meds, do they also rob us of necessary nutrients? This topic still has room for research but what I have found so far is that binders like activated charcoal, bentonite clay, and takesumi supreme (bamboo) do not appear to absorb nutrients in any quantifiable amount (if at all), at least in animal studies. Dr. V. V. Frolkis is a Russian gerontologist who found in his study that activated charcoal may even extend life (counterintuitive to shortening lifespan by removal of nutrients). “Charcoal added to the diet of sheep for six months did not cause a loss of nutrients, as compared with sheep not receiving charcoal. … 5% of the total diet was charcoal. It did not affect the blood or urinary levels of calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, inorganic phosphorus, potassium, sodium, zinc, creatinine, uric acid, urea nitrogen, alkaline phosphatase, total protein or urine pH.”{V. Frolkis, et al., “Enterosorption in prolonging old animal life.” Exp. Gerontol. 19; 217-25, 1984}
WHO NEEDS BINDERS?
I am not one to make a blanket statement about any particular supplement. I am not your healthcare provider and I know that individual differences always come into play here. That said, having a binder like Activated Charcoal, Takesumi Supreme, or Bentonite Clay on hand can most certainly come in handy, whether used as a daily supplement in the case of chronic conditions, or as a go-to supplement in the case of toxin ingestion or food poisoning. It is something I have grown to really rely on and I can honestly say I FEEL the difference when I incorporate it and when I do not. So my personal opinion is that it is a great item to keep stocked. If you do plan to take it regularly, just make sure to space it away from actual pharmaceuticals (antibiotics, birth control, thyroid medications) to be on the safe side. And as always consult your practitioner regarding proper dosing.
I cannot say more of how fantastic this post is! I’ve never considered using a binder but now I plan on showing my functional med dr this before our next meeting. I have the highest candida he has seen and am 2 weeks into his elimination protocol, but not the detox portion. I’m wondering how beneficial one of these could potentially be for me and healing not only the candida but other issues for me, hashimoto’s, high liver values (told fatty liver disease). I know it’s not a cure but if there is a potential to feeling better when I eat something that doesn’t agree I will take it! Thanks again.
Hi! I came across your article because it sounded interesting! I just switched to a mostly paleo diet after going through whole 30 and realizing how much better I felt all around and after I stopped having migraines! I use the Beauty Counter charcoal bar and mask and love them but I never knew you could also consume activated charcoal? I’m most curious of your mention about those with MTHFR having trouble with toxins building up in their system. I have a double copy of this gene in fact and I’m wondering if you can direct me to where I should even start in researching this or taking care of this problem! Thank you! (Also, I absolutely love your legit bread recipe and my children even enjoy it too!)
To learn more about MTHFR I would go through Amy Yasko’s website and Dr Ben Lynch! Thanks for the kind words, I hope you find lots of info. I am homozygous MTHFR also!
So interesting! Heading to Amazon now to purchase!
When you say to space it away from other medications. How much longer after taking thyroid and birth control pills is recommended? If medication is taken in the evening is the idea to take this the at night?
They recommend 2-3 hours I think.
A while back you posted a recipe for your “black lemonade” what was in it?
I found you while I was hunting for more info about milk thistle, a binder this fairly well-researched kid had never heard of and HAD to read the entire article as soon as you referred to yourself as “a patient with an extensive wrap sheet”.
As a fellow patient with an extensive wrap sheet (btw-I am totally stealing this) I was wondering if you had posted this ” fantastic detox drink that I can honestly say I can FEEL different ” recipe anywhere?