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Diatomaceous Earth

 
                    
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Hello everybody! Paul asked me if I'd talk about D.E. here, so after a little looking around and not seeing it being actively discussed anywhere, I've introduced this topic.  First of all, let me introduce myself: I'm Richard and founder of the Hemp skin care co., Aeon Botanica. My wife did some research looking for the best source of food grade Diatomaceous Earth and found what's considered the purest source. The crystalline silica test is .1% in this source which is mined between Winnamucca and Reno NV from a ancient fresh water lake bed. We began ingesting it by the teaspoon daily and worked our way up to a tablespoon daily in our routine. We also occasionally add a 1/8 teaspoon of bentonite clay and our glass also contains ten drops of standard concentrate Grapefruit Seed Extract (GSE) (a natural antibiotic). If we've been out in town, we'll add 1/8 teaspoon of ascorbic acid to the mix for the following day or two.

For a bit of background, I'm in my early 40's and ten years ago I lost a short battle with gravity and badly broke my ankle as a result. It took a team of three surgeons five hours to go in and set the ankle back in place and screw it all back together again during which the lead surgeon told me the ankle became dislocated twice. I don't know what that even means, but he seemed to think it was a bad thing. A year later, I insisted the screws be removed, and they were. Funny how I was told this would be no trouble right after the surgery, but later when I wanted them to unscrew me they wanted to argue about it. So for nine years as of last July I've been walking around with severe arthritis and holes in my ankles that, according to the last x-ray taken in September, never filled back in. Within a week of starting with the D.E. regimen, I noticed the arthritis pain was significantly diminished and now, about two months later I can happily report it's gone altogether. It's actually been gone for at least a month.

I had been selling it on Ebay but I pulled all the listings because I was tired of their fees. I put up a page on our website, http://aeonbotanica.com, where you can order three different sizes, all of them smaller quantity.  It's intended to be for humans and their companion animals, so a 32 ounce bag will last quite a while. I put it in our cat's food which we store in a five gallon bucket until we need to transfer it to something smaller. It keeps him dewormed and happy. We also sprinkle a small amount on his cheap fur coat to keep any parasites off his skin.

D.E. has been used for many many years in Europe for improving the health of people's skin, amongst other things. D.E. cleans out the G.I. tract over time and continues to maintain it as long as you keep ingesting it. It also performs ionic exchange when it's passing through by exchanging one negative mineral ion with a positively charged toxin ion. It's a powerful detoxifying agent in that respect and it's recommended that a person lose the bad eating habits they may have become accustom to over time if they're going to begin taking this silica source internally. You don't allow a heroin addict to continue to take heroin while you're trying to detoxify his body. For the same reason, you don't want to eat fast food while you're trying to detox yours. Silica (D.E. is around 85% silica) is one of the most common elements in our biosphere and is used by the mammalian animal as a basic building material and is shunted from the G.I. tract to be used to repair and maintain whatever body organ or tissue needs it most. It's known to repair components of the nervous, skeletal, digestive, endocrine, and pulmonary systems causing a reversal of osteoarthritis, (if women begin adding it to their diet at an early age, they'll counter the effects of age and/or child bearing and retain the strong healthy bones and teeth/hair/nails they had as children.) and a strengthening of the teeth which have a respectable silica component in them. Yes, there are studies that have been done that draw a correlation to healthy teeth and the use of silica in toothpaste and the diet. Of course, hydrated silica has been a component of tooth paste for many many years for its abrasive effects on the surface of the tooth. But did you know it's also a wonderful gentle exfoliate for the skin? My wife adds it to the lotion I make and uses that paste on her face and neck and you wouldn't believe the difference. It takes the old skin off very effectively and leaves the smooth shiny, naturally blushed rosy cheeks like she was twenty years younger. I'm currently in the process of formulating a product that incorporates D.E. Your nails and hair have a very high amount of silica in them and taking it in as a supplement in your diet can lead to stronger healthier hair and nails. The body actually is able to convert this bio-available material to calcium when needed to repair teeth and bone, cartilage, etc.

We haven't had a chance to use it in our garden, but I have put it on the soil of a couple pepper plants we rescued from the winter and keep in pots in the kitchen window. I haven't seen any effect on the plants themselves, but I imagine it killed any little microbes or other critters that were making themselves at home in the dirt. From what I've read, D.E. does not harm earthworms but does kill most of the pests in the garden. It also adds to the soils ability to absorb and retain moisture so one would not need to water as often if they added a sufficient quantity to their garden soil. I know this might seem a little odd, but we throw out the stale cat food left over from the previous day and it goes into a small container that eventually makes its way out to the garden where I've got a couple food bowls sitting on top of the compost for the greyjays and blue jays. They really seem to dig that cat food and now that it's coated with D.E., I feel even better knowing they're getting a little in their diets too. Birds are prone to parasites such as bird mites and ticks. The wild turkeys like to roll in the ash pile I made from our wood burning fireplace because the ashes gave them some relief from the mites. It is the same with D.E. Ranchers that spread it on their livestock swear by it as it rids the animals of the flies that constantly feed on them and it helps them to be healthier thus lowering their vet costs. If you have chickens, you should have D.E. on the floor for them to walk through and peck at as well as having it in their food. This will eliminate any chance of them getting chicken mites and will provide a boost to the mineral content of your omelets. The trace minerals in D.E. include Iron, Magnesium, Calcium, Selenium and others that have virtually vanished from the food supply, from the soil today. We can change that for ourselves by adding it to our garden soil and simply adding it to a glass of water each day. Thanks for reading, happy Christmas, solstice, Hanukkah, or just happy holidays one and all.
 
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Aeon,
Thanks for posting that, I am gonna have to try that for my aches and pains.
 
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Location: New York
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Very interesting.  Thanks for the post.

Going to give this a try on our dogs this spring, in place of the other nasty stuff I refuse to use any longer.  Ticks are a major concern in these parts.
 
                    
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It's a daily routine for us to apply it to our cat and don't worry about inhaling it. Apparently the workers at the mine inhale it frequently with no ill effect, so a little bit isn't going to hurt. Makes me sneeze though. I hate that. Irritating, but not harmful.
 
                    
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A good article on Silica is found at Mike Adams' website here: http://www.naturalnews.com/030830_silica_bentonite_clay.html

Keep in mind the clay discussed in the article contains 40-50% silica while D.E. is around 85%.
 
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D.E.: Fossilized Algae Deposits from the ocean. Ive used it and and it works! This is better for me for my family and im sure for my plants, as well. Instead of using chemicals (never did) i prefer the D.E. to use its sharp edges to cut bugs mechanically and dehydrate them. No harmful residues, a peice of mind that you know there arent going to be any strange reactions by you or your plants or your house pets to this stuff!! Look for foodgrade quality and even use it to deworm your pet cat and dogs. All i know is, I couldnt have found this truely valuable item sooner!!
 
                    
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Works wonders on our furry little friends. One thing, though: While DE can be got from salt water sources the best DE is found from fresh water source and that's the one I sell. It's mined from northern NV ancient lake bed.
 
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Location: LAKE HURON SOUTHERN SHORE
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hugelkultur forest garden chicken
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just a thought... if this stuff (which by the way I also use for all kinds of stuff) is petrified algae, then it (like oil) is a finite resource... no? maybe we should be prudent in it's use.
 
I agree. Here's the link: https://woodheat.net
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