Growing up, my mom stayed at home and raised me, she passed down many stories from her mom and grandma and so on. To this day I continue to learn new stories. This one, was one that I recently came to know and I will share, with hopes that if for whatever reason you find yourself or a loved one in a similar situation, you can use this little piece of knowledge. Healing the body from the poison that can come from a strong overwhelming emotion.

When my grandma was pregnant with my youngest uncle she witnessed a scene that caused her to have a strong emotional response. She rushed to my great-grandmother’s place and my great-grandma fed her a spoonful of the burnt ashes from the stove, potentially saving my uncle from a miscarriage. As with any advice, take it with a grain of salt, my great-grandmother was the healer of the town, it was a middle of nowhere mountain town and going to the big town doctor was expensive and timely, she made remedies and brought babies into the world and had a certain knowledge that was helpful for the people there.

My mom recently came across a finding that helped confirm the action my great-grandma took on that day. Similar to the burnt ashes, activated charcoal can be given to help victims of poison. There is a certain type of poison that can be absorbed through the body in moments of strong immediate emotion, people can internally poison themselves with anger, shock, a scare, intense grief, you get the idea. The effects of activated charcoal can be produced by burning any consumable dry grain on hand such as bread or a tortilla to a char black state (preferably with fire) and ingesting it. The though is that the poison produced is then absorbed by the burnt char and is able to be dispelled from the body rather than being absorbed.

So if you ever find yourself in such circumstances or with the ability to help such circumstances, you have this knowledge to carry with you, from my great-grandma to my grandma to my mom to me to you.