Forget the hair of the dog â this popular hangover remedy could leave you with a bun in the oven.
The supposed “cure” is used for everything from removing alcohol impurities to boosting digestive health and managing cholesterol. However, experts say this panacea doesn’t actually work for any of these things.
What’s worse, taking this supplement does have real health risksâ including messing with the birth control that more than 11% of reproductive age women take to prevent pregnancy.
The culprit is activated charcoal, sold over-the-counter in pills and powders. While people often take it before drinking to prevent hangovers, there’s little evidence it actually works.
Meanwhile, research does show that charcoal blocks medications, like oral birth control pills, from getting absorbed in the digestive tract.
“Charcoal supplements ruining birth control efficacy has kept our clinic busy all year,” one Reddit user wrote.
What is activated charcoal?
Activated charcoal is considered a “natural” remedy because it’s made from burned plant fibers like coconut shells, wood and rice husks. After burning, the charcoal is superheated to create a network of microscopic pores, which makes it “activated.”
These pores act like a sponge for toxins during medical emergencies like poisoning and overdoses. The activated charcoal binds to drugs and toxins in the gastrointestinal tract, reducing their absorption and limiting their toxicity.
But charcoal won’t clear just anything. For instance, it doesn’t work on poisonings from alcohol, lye, iron, lithium, or petroleum products like gasoline.
There are also a number of myths surrounding its everyday use. While some people use activated charcoal for detoxing, bloating, digestion, weight loss, hangovers, teeth whitening and clearing acne, there’s simply not enough evidence to support any of these benefits.
Using it is especially questionable when there are risks beyond messing with your medication. It’s hard to swallow and can be accidentally inhaled, causing severe lung problems. It can also block gut function, causing nausea, vomiting, pain, diarrhea and constipation.
Recently, in part because of how popular it’s become as a supplement, activated charcoal powder has been added to all sorts of trendy foods to give them a stark black color. It’s been sold in ice cream, waffles, pizza, bread, juices and coffee.
How does it mess with birth control?
“I had a friend whose birth control failed ‘out of nowhere’ at the same time she started taking hangover pills (compressed charcoal),” said another Reddit user.
“I mentioned that it [would affect her] BC. She didn’t address it, I think because she didn’t want to feel stupid, but to her credit the packaging had no warning/info and I only put it together after a vet visit myself.”
Oral contraceptives fail about 9% of the time, usually because of missed or late pills. Yet activated charcoal adds another layer of complication.
The key is timing your doses far enough apart. One study found that birth control efficacy wasn’t impacted if the charcoal was taken three hours after the pill, and at least 12 hours before the next dose.
Other forms of birth control, like IUDs, implants, patches, rings, and injections, don’t pass through the digestive system, so activated charcoal won’t interfere with them.
Because activated charcoal is sold as a supplement, it’s not regulated by the FDA before hitting the market.
While medical experts understand its proper indications, timing, dosing and risks, over-the-counter consumers are left to educate themselves.
