What Is Diatomaceous Earth?
Diatomaceous earth is a chalk-like substance that is composed of fossilized diatoms that have formed together into silica deposits. The silica deposits are grounded into a fine powder called diatomaceous earth.
There are two different grades of diatomaceous earth; food grade and pool grade.
- Food grade diatomaceous earth is safe to use for the home, yards, and animals to name a few.
- Pool grade diatomaceous earth is altered by high heat and is only safe to use in pools.
Be sure to buy 
for natural solutions.
It is most commonly used as a natural insecticide and is great to use on your furry friends to get rid of fleas. 
How Do I Use Diatomaceous Earth?
There are many uses for diatomaceous earth. In fact, it is one of the most used ingredients in my !
Here are just a few natural solutions that are featured in my book:
- Scouring Powder
- Carpet Stain Remover
- Carpet Deodorizer
- Refrigerator Deodorizer
- Trash Can Deodorizer
- Car Deodorizer
- Eliminate Asian Lady Bettles
- Eliminate Cockroaches
- Eliminate Fleas
- Eliminate Ants
- Eliminate Bed Bugs
- Eliminate Hornets & Wasps
- Eliminate Mice
- Natural Garden Pesticide
- All Natural Lice Treatment
Now that is a wide variety, isn’t it? And this list just names a few…there are so many more uses for diatomaceous earth.
You can get a free preview of my book here and also sample some of my solutions: Take a Look Inside – 23 Natural Solutions That You Can Try Out TODAY!
But before you start browsing around, go ahead and that will leave you wondering — “What did I ever do without this stuff”? Seriously, it is that powerful!
Diatomaceous Earth Should NEVER Be Ingested!
Now I know diatomaceous earth is kind of a trendy ingredient these days.
More and more people are ingesting diatomaceous earth and I’m not sure that is such a good idea.
After reading Anthony William’s book 
, he goes into great detail on why it isn’t a good idea to ingest diatomaceous earth. Here are a few of his thoughts on ingesting diatomaceous earth:
If you’re using diatomaceous earth products, beware. They’re really, really, really a problem with the immune system. They’re touted as being good for the immune system. They’re touted as being good for the intestinal tract. People are consuming this. Uh-uh, not a good idea at all whatsoever. I don’t care if you haven’t felt a negative impact yet, you have to be cautious.
What this does, it’s like diatomite. It’s a soft rock. It becomes like a white powder. It tenaciously binds to the inside lining of your intestinal tract and it suffocates the intestinal tract. That sounds kind of spooky, right?
What that does is it stop absorption is micronutrient trace minerals. If you continue to use these diatomaceous earth products and you internalize them, you’re taking them internally, you will become deficient in so many vitamins and minerals, everything that it says it does and do.
Not to mention, if you’re a sensitive person with colitis, Crohn’s, IBS, spastic colon, peristaltic action issues, everything, anything in the digestive arena, you don’t want to be ingesting diatomaceous earth. I’m just going to say it right here. You can read more of Anthony’s damaging health fads report here.
I personally do not feel that enough research has been done to ingest this ingredient, so for that reason, I’d recommend not ingesting it. If you are dead set on taking diatomaceous earth internally, please talk to a qualified physician about the possible side effects.
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Anthony WIlliam… Hahaha. Who can take that guy serious?
??? ?
Zero legitimate sources or studies for your claims.
I suffered from fatigue and SO MUCH debilitating brain fog for 20 years until I took diatomaceous earth. No doctor had been able to help me with my problem. I read about it in a blog, took the tiniest bit in water (around 1/4 tsp) because I wasn’t sure what I thought about it. My reaction was huge with just that tiny bit (heart palpitations, awake all night) but I kept up with that daily (in 16oz of water and increasing to 1 tsp). Despite my extreme reaction, and partly because of it, I had a feeling it was doing something I needed done. And it was. My brain fog cleared and my energy increased. I still have health problems, including a bit more fatigue than I’d like, but I haven’t suffered in the helpless overwhelming way I did before I tried diatomaceous earth. And it’s been 6 years now since I did that. Diatomaceous earth isn’t necessarily for everyone but if it can significantly and permanently change someone’s life for the better- I wouldn’t advise against it. It’s also a bit unfair to expect a medical medium, or even a doctor, to advise everyone in the world what to take or not take. We all have different health situations. And the reason given is that DE can prevent nutrient and mineral absorbtion. Even if that’s the case, the benefits could totally outweigh that possible temporary drawback. I theorize now that my body was dealing with thickened developed colonies of fungus protected with heavy metals. Nothing I tried before DE (and I tried antifungals) had the strength to do anything. That’s just my theory. All I know is DE gave me a piece of my life back and I only took it once a day, for a few weeks, around 6 years ago. It’s pretty amazing.
What did your brain fog feel like? Can you describe the brain fog?
It’s where you can’t think clearly or quickly, as if you were trying to see clearly through a dense fog, hence Brain Fog.
Drink a glass of water with cilantro and lime or lemon daily. It will detox your heavy metals.
This is false but delicious
Food grade DE is absolutely beneficial to ingest. This is a perfect example of doing your own research and trials with things. many persons will have a negative response to ingesting simply because it doesn’t sound normal. Many millions of Americans are manipulated daily by reading or listening to others opinions instead of researching themselves. Politically, a person may hear (1) thing they like about a candidate and they are ready to vote but had they researched they may find (dozens) of things they dont agree with. DE is beneficial and a wonderful inexpensive product that can rid body of parasites, colon polyps, strengthen bones, remove metals & many more…Another excellent inexpensive product is sodium Bicarbonate (Baking soda) doctors would rather prescribe harmful drugs damaging a persons stomache & liver than just using baking soda. It promotes alkalinity warding off heartburn that leads to problems. I recommend buying brands that a refined and mined better than arm & hammer. Dont let a misguided article like this put you on a wrong path. Always research because there will always be persons like this one whom write to manipulate.
My Dad always used to take Bicarbonate soda. He lived until 95 (passed in 2007), was on very little meds . I take DE – only just started (3 days) So far so good. Loose stools that is the only thing, but that feels so good, I was so bound up from taking calcium supplements as I am nearly 70. But it is true, doctors don’t look at causes they just mask problems with more and more drugs which in turn have harmful side effects on long term usage.
Hello! I recently started taking a tbs of DE food grade for 4 days and I had the worst reaction. My kidneys shut down and I keep getting nauseous whenever I eat so I stopped it completely to figure out what I did wrong. Im 34 and have both candida and parasite issues which is why I started taking it. My stomach was also making extremely loud noises and diarrhea. I know it’s gross but I just wanted to share hoping someone could shed some light on why I had such an extreme reaction. The only thing I can come up with is I started out taking too much not realizing how powerful DE is when consumed. Any advice would be appreciated. To the woman who posted this article, I want to say thank you. This article, although clearly controversial and triggering for some has allowed an open discussion on the topic given people a chance to share their experiences (both good and bad). After reading all the comments, I’m glad I’m not the only one.
Hi Kira,
When you say your kidneys shut down, how did you measure this? Did you have any bloodwork done that showed this?
The other presentations you’ve listed are all common if people take too much straight out of the gate. If your system is loaded with toxins, parasites, candida, etc., too much DE will most certainly cause toxins from parasites, candida, etc. to be released all at once; that floods your system and makes you feel absolutely rotten. Headaches, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea are all common presentations of the Herxheimer reaction – it’s essentially a detoxing problem caused by trying to fix everything at once.
It is always safer to start any new supplement “Low and Slow”, and take 3-4 weeks to increase your intake to the recommended dose.
A lot of people report starting DE at 1/2 teaspoon for a week or two, then 1 teaspoon for a week or two, then 2 teaspoons, then finally 1 tablespoon. Dose increase intervals can be adjusted according to your response – lots of nasty reactions, stop for 3 days (it takes the liver 3 days to detoxify anything that has caused a problem big enough to cause an adverse reaction), then re-start at half the dose you were on when you reacted badly. If the converse is true, and you have no adverse reactions, it’s presumed safe to increase the dose you’re on at a faster rate than the week-long stabilising period shown.
One of the most important things to do when you take DE is to DRINK ADEQUATE AMOUNTS OF WATER. Almost nobody drinks the amount of water they need to in order to keep the body healthy, and you need more than the recommended daily amount (in the UK, I think it’s 2L for women and a bit more for men, something like that). Tea and coffee don’t hydrate the body as well as water, and actually push water out – this is why tea and coffee make us pee. Pure, non-tap water is the best option (I drink bottled spring water). If you take DE, you will need to increase your water intake. DE is drying. You MUST counteract that by drinking more water.
I hope you feel better soon, and I hope this has helped you see that DE was clearly working for you. It’s easy to dismiss something when you haven’t taken it correctly or prudently and it’s produced an unpleasant response because of that.
Sounds like you started by taking too much too soon rather than gradually increasing your intake. Also, sounds like you were not consuming enough water. If you had diarrhea that’s almost definitely the case and you needed to replenish with electrolytes.. I have read of other people who swear by DE who first had a similar experience as you but that was either because they went overboard in the beginning OR the die off of the parasites was causing an intense experience.
You should start with a teaspoon and work your way up with larger doses. You should also drink plenty of water.
I tried to reach you Sarah to learn more about reversing cancer but the email address you gave did not go through.
I read all the comments and not one person linked any article or study after declaring how much evidence was available. Where are the links? If you have the science in your corner, why has no one posted anything? You have no business criticizing the author of this article if you have nothing better to offer than your opinion. Waiting on the links.
Actually the lack of sources from the author by nature requires criticism. It is the authors job to successfully defend a claim not the commenters to debunk it.
Also unlikely to be well studied as it will not form a patentable marketable drug which is what companies will spend money to research.
So yeah, nice try but no.
What should have been explained is that there is Food Grade (Safe for humans and animals) and commercial grade (Used to kill bugs and used in pool filters). I have been using diatomaceous-earth for over a year. iI has cured my cholesterol and triglycerides problem, and dropped my blood pressure to the point that I use only 1/4 of a blood pressure pill. Some countries are using ant parasitic drugs to cure COVID 19. I am using it daily instead of the vaccine. Many of my friends that I see regularly got Covid last year. I have not, so far so good. I haven’t had a cold, the flu or any allergy problems in over a year. It could just be coincidental, but I doubt it.
I really enjoyed reading the information here. I just bought a bag of DE and will be starting my detox. I have no gall bladder and went through menopause. Seems like I am puffy also either loose stools or diarrhea. I sure pray this helps. I have gained 20 pounds since last year, have itchy black underarms, itchy feet.,tired ….
I find it great as a detox. I take this on and off for about 2 weeks. Says on the packet you can have it in water or fruit juice first thing in the morning on an empty stomach and wait at least 30 mins before eating food. This sounds very similar to a drug I was put on for osteoporosis. Alendronic Acid it is called. Several years later I find out out this drug can cause jaw bone death. In fact my dentist refused me a tooth extraction and dental implant, when he found out I was on this drug. So I stopped it and now take DE instead (which can help bones, though they do say more research is needed). So lets see which was better the AA or DE. I am due for a bone density scan shortly. Then I will request another one in 2 years and see whether it has gotten worse or better. Time will tell.
So my take on this (or anything for that matter) is, our bodies tell us when something is good or bad. I do not care what the experts say (or so called experts) I am sorry but I think one size does not fit all. There is truth is the wise old saying “what is good for the goose is not necessarily good for the gander”.
Stay well everyone.
I’d been taking DE for years and bought 100 pounds of it to give out to people after I noticed the benefits. It stopped my hair from falling completely out after menopause, something that unfortunately happens to all females in my family. My hair follicles were dying and I had male patterned baldness, along with weakened hair. I noticed after a few months, my hair was no longer coming out and I had lots of new hairs growing but they never got much length. Almost a year ago I started drinking Kefir and Kombucha for gut problems, and noticed those little hairs were growing in length and my hair had thickened considerably. I was laid off a few months ago, got depressed and for a month stopped taking my DE. I would take about 2 teaspoons in my morning coffee. Well without a job, I stopped drinking coffee and the DE, sort of depressed I guess. About a month later I noticed my finger joints were very sore when I woke up. Arthritis! I didn’t connect it to the stoppage of D.E. at first! After finding a new job last month and restarting the DE with coffee, I found the pain lessening and today noticed I had no pain. I am going to up my dosage!