Healing Clays

Applying restorative clay to external wounds and ingesting it for internal illness was common practice for prehistoric native peoples of North, Central and South America, ancient Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, the Essenes (authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls) as well as the people of old China and Arabia. Today, the art of healing with the earth is officially known as pelotherapy. Implementing healing clay use around the world continues to grow with such applications as hydrotherapy, balneology, natural medicine and alternative medicine. Pollution of the world further leads people to explore how clay heals and cleanses through ingestion and topical applications.

History

• The first proof of the therapeutic qualities of clays is found written on clay tablets from Mesopotamia dating to around 2500 B.C. In the 2nd century A.D. Greek philosopher and physician Galen wrote a treatise on clay therapy for internal and external healing. Others in history used healing clay, including 19th century German holistic healing advocates Sebastian Kneipp and Adolph Just, who kept clay for use as one of their most valued remedies because of the natural healing qualities it provides.
  With the purest form of green clay coming from France, societies and cultures there benefited from healing clay for centuries by external applications and eating this compound for internal ills. In World War I, the French mixed clay with edible mustard to keep troops free of dysentery while Russian soldiers' rations contained 200 grams of clay for treating internal maladies of life in the trenches and external wounds of combat.

Green Clay

• Healing clay is green. Bentonite is the basic green clay. Bentonite comes in hues of dark gray to dark green and is composed of mostly Montmorillonite, with minor concentrations of cristobalite, zeolite and quartz. Depending on where the clay deposits come from, the amounts of these concentrations in curative clay vary. The locations of green clay around the world often take on the name of the region they are discovered-Bentonite was found near Ft. Benton, Wyoming, and Montmorillonite near the Montmorillon region in France. The world's largest deposit of green healing clay is in Bavaria.

Volcanos Give Birth to Clays

• All clay is volcanic ash blown into the air as lava spews from the cone. The brownish ash settles to Earth, forming volcanic rock as it hardens. Through millennium of water washing over the volcanic rock, amalgams of minerals form and part of these mixtures develop into clay. All clay draws its characteristics from the percentage of its chemical components and elements. The way these compounds relate to one another physically and chemically is what differentiates the types of clay from one another. Smectite is one result of this process. Composed of the hydrated sodium calcium aluminum silicate mineral, smectite is the source of green healing clay.

Healing

• External uses for green clay for skin infections include putting it on boils, eczema and psoriasis. Clay is used in poultices for eye infections, wounds and abscesses. Ingesting healing clay as a natural cleansing agent continues to develop globally as more people choose to incorporate natural and alternative healing to combat pollutants. Bentonite clay added to contaminated water immunizes it from a long list of various bacteria, making it safe to drink. Though there are basic applications for the variety of uses to heal internal health issues as well as wounds, rashes and other body trauma---as with recognized medical applications, treatments and pharmaceuticals, the individual must test and adjust the amount and application of the clay to determine what gives the best results.

Protection From Radiation

• A standard practice of Russian scientists is to apply the bentonite of green clay to hands, face and body, prior to wearing radiation suits when working with radioactive materials. In the clean up of the Chernobyl site, bentonite use absorbed the poisonous radioactive isotopes left from the melt down of the nuclear plant. Deriving many minerals used for health supplements to augment better living comes from green clay.