We Eat Clay
We Eat Clay
We Eat Clay
By
Neal E. Bosshardt
Disclaimer: This booklet is to provide information in regard to users’
experiences with Redmond Clay. This booklet describes the opinions
and experiences of the author. The author is not liable for the
misconception or misuse of the information provided. It is not provided
in order to diagnose, prescribe, or treat any injury or disease. The author
shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with
respect to any loss, damage, or injury caused directly or indirectly by the
information contained herein. This information is in no way intended as
a substitute for medical counseling. Anyone suffering from any disease,
illness, or injury should consult a health care professional.
Introduction:
My goal in writing this booklet is not to produce a highly
technical document explaining all the intricate details of the geological
aspects of clay; there are books that do that and some are listed in the
appendix. Nor is it to explain in detail everything about all the healing
qualities that I have seen come from clay; I do not believe that such
explanations are even possible.
The goal of this book is simply to give the readers enough
information to enable them to benefit from the wonders of this natural
product. I have kept this booklet small on purpose so that no one would
delay receiving the benefits of clay while waiting to finish a lengthy
book. For the person who wants to read volumes on clay, those volumes
are available. My desire is to give an overview so brief that people will
read it, so simple that anyone can understand it, and so down to earth
that everyone can relate to it.
I don’t fault anyone for questioning how this natural clay can
produce such miraculous results; there was no one more skeptical than I
was in 1975 when I was introduced to the concept of eating our clay.
But now after experiencing the healing effects of clay, I would like to
apologize to Raymond Dextreit, the French homeopath who wrote OUR
EARTH, OUR CURE, for my skeptical attitude. He was years ahead of
his time.
Nothing in this book should be taken as medical advice. Redmond
Clay is NOT approved by the American Medical Association (AMA) for
any medical use and does not replace competent medical attention.
Chapter 1: How Did we Start “Eating Clay”?
The white, mineral deposit that came to be known as Redmond
Clay was here as a white outcropping on the farm property my
grandfather purchased in the early 1930' s. A few people had been using
it medicinally even before we owned it. One local fellow, Joe Blix, had
so much success treating animals that it was called “Blix’s Mud” and he
was called Dr. Blix even though he had had no medical training.
Our family used it externally for medicinal applications for bee
stings and infections. My father says when he was a small boy, he had
an infection in his hand with a red streak going up his arm to the armpit.
My grandparents packed the wound in a poultice made of the clay and
overnight the red streak was drawn out. However in those days, no one
ever considered using the clay internally.
In 1974 a book entitled OUR EARTH, OUR CURE was translated
from French into English. Written by Raymond Dextreit, a French
homeopath, it told of the wonderful healing properties of certain types of
clay. He said that the right type of clay would bring the body into
balance. He said the right kind of clay was a ‘living’ substance because
of how it would respond to the organism. He made such miraculous
claims for natural clay that we laughed and laughed. It was too much
like ‘snake oil’ to believe.
The health food stores carrying the French clay that Mr. Dextreit
was recommending wanted to know if our clay would do what the
French clay was said to do. We told them we didn’t know. They
wanted to try it, so we selected a white vein in our deposit and
pulverized it to the consistency of a fine powder.
We had it analyzed to make sure it was not going to harm anyone
and we checked with the FDA for their opinion. We found it contained
nothing harmful and that by FDA standards, since it was basically a
bentonite clay, it was considered G.R.A.S. (generally recognized as
safe). We were told we could sell it as long as we made no medical
claims. So we began to sell it under the name Orsa Clay; later we
changed the name to Redmond Clay.
Over the next few months, as we encountered medical conditions
which traditional medicine couldn’t fix, in desperation we tried our
Redmond Clay. In every case it worked just like Mr. Dextreit had said it
would. Our first experience of seeing Redmond Clay help was with a
lady with constipation so bad se was having one bowel movement a
week. Next was with a guy who had diarrhea so bad he was having up
to twenty uncontrollable bowel movements a day. Over the past 30
years, we have seen it used for heartburn, stomachache, acid indigestion,
hiatal hernias, Celiac’s Disease, acid reflux, diverticulitis, colitis, roto-
virus, and h-pylori bacteria. We have used it externally for cuts, bruises,
insect bites, bee stings, boils, infections, rashes, eczema, arthritis, acne,
Brown Recluse spider bites, and burns just to name a few of the things it
has helped.
Because it has worked so well, now we use first for relief rather
than after traditional medicine has failed. Consequently we keep it
mixed up ready to use; we keep it in the kitchen cupboard, the bathroom
cupboard, the trunk of the car, under the seat in the truck, and in the first
aid kit.
Though we have seen it do many amazing things, we do not feel
we have used it to its maximum capacity. Just as the computer on my
desk is capable of doing more than I actually use it for, according to Mr.
Dextreit, the clay could do much more for us. It doesn’t benefit us more
because we have not chosen to use it for more, but for what we have
used it for, we have been totally impressed and grateful. It is not a cure-
all, and there have been a few times when people have said it hasn’t
helped. But of this we can assure you: in 30 years of using it, we have
never seen anyone have an allergic reaction, we have never seen a
negative side effect, and we have never seen anyone who was worse off
from using the clay.
Chapter 2: What is Clay?
There are dozens of volumes that describe the details of the
hundreds of different types of clay in terms of geological formation,
mineral composition, and physical characteristics. If the reader wants
those facts, they are available in other works. My goal is simply to give
you an overview sufficient to enable you to benefit from the product. Be
aware that not all scientists agree on many of the details regarding clays,
especially in terms of medical benefits. You will find many differing
opinions, so any attempt to completely understand the how and why of
clay’s healing properties will not be resolved easily.
In the most simple of terms, clay is a natural earthy material, which
becomes gooey when wet. I would suggest that you think of clay as a
large family of minerals, and within that family, there are sub families,
one of which is montmorillonite. In the montmorillonite family, there
are sub families, one of which is bentonite. In the bentonite family,
there is sodium bentonite and calcium bentonite, each having different
properties. According to geologists sodium bentonite is volcanic ash
that fell in seawater; calcium bentonite is volcanic ash which fell in fresh
water. Even in the sodium bentonites, there are differences in properties
and qualities.
Our product, Redmond Clay, can be classified as a
montmorillonite and/or bentonite. It is actually a combination of sodium
and calcium type bentonite. There are lots of different kinds of bentonite
so we don’t like to call it bentonite because of the number of people who
have used other ‘bentonites’ with minimal results. Why is Redmond
Clay so much more effective than other ‘bentonite’? We don’t know.
There are lots of theories and we will discuss some of those later. Is the
Redmond Clay the best clay available? We don’t know, but according
to many people who have used other clays, it is. We can assure you that
based on our experiences and the experiences of our customers over the
past 30 years, Redmond Clay has healing properties that are amazing.
Chapter 3: Historical Uses of Medicinal Clay
Volumes have been written detailing how clay has been used for
medicinal purposes over centuries of time without anyone ever being
able to explain fully what makes it such a great healer. Some say clay’s
healing qualities are due to its ability to bind toxins. This is due to the
negative electrical charge of the clay particles. Most of the toxic
poisons, free radicals, heavy metals, etc. are positively charged, so these
toxins are drawn to the clay and flushed from the body. Some say the
benefits from clay are due to its high ph level which enables those who
drink it to be more alkaline. Some say the benefits come from the broad
spectrum of natural minerals in clay. All of these theories are helpful,
but none are sufficient to explain all the good we have seen come from
clay. Those people who have benefited from this natural product are
those who were willing to leave scientific explanations aside and
gratefully receive the benefits of the product.
I am not advocating that people not examine the clay or try to learn
how it works. We welcome any efforts to further expand the world’s
knowledge of, and use of, clay as a healer. However, discovering the
keys to clay’s healing secrets will not be easy. The analysis of its
composition is not sufficient to explain its ability to achieve such
amazing results. Knowledge of its physical properties does little as far
as explaining the results people receive from it.
Dr. Meyer-Camberg, a European doctor, stated in his work that
clay takes care of any bad poisoning such as arsenic. Many doctors of
antiquity, such as the Greek Dioscorides, the Arab Avicena, the Roman
Pliny the Elder, and the Greek Galen all told of the wonders of clay.
Several German naturopaths, including Kneipp, Kuhn, Just, and Felke
used clay in their treatments. In the First World War, both Russian and
French soldiers were issued clay as part of their rations. Even Mahatma
Gandhi advised the use of clay.
Raymond Dextreit, author of Our Earth, Our Cure, details
countless cases of clay accomplishing amazing healing results. He
states:
“that clay acts symbiotically in the body; since it is impossible to
see and control what happens with living organisms, we are
limited to hypotheses. Nevertheless, clay’s action and the results
obtained permit a rather precise idea of its properties. In this way,
it is remarkable for its organo-therapeutic value”.
EXTERNAL INTERNAL
Arthritis Acid Indigestion
Acne Acid Reflux/Heartburn
Athletes Foot Allergies/Hay fever
Bruises/Black eyes Celiac’s Disease
Boils Colitis
Constipation
Burns/Sunburns Diarrhea/Dysentery
Cellulitis Diverticulitis
Cold Sores/Fever blisters De-Toxifier
Cuts Food Poisoning
Diaper Rash H-Pylori
Ear Aches Hiatel Hernia
Eczema Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
Insect bites(spider,bee,chigger, Crohn’s Disease
scorpions, mosquito) Menstrual Cramps
Infections/including those Parasites
with red streak to lymph node) Roto Virus
Ingrown Toe Nails Stomach ache
Nail Fungus Toothache
Poison Ivy/Poison Oak Ulcers
Scrapes/Road Rash
Shingles
Sprains
Sores that won' t heal
Sties
The actual experiences are not told here as guarantees that everyone will
have the same results. They are told merely to relate what other people
have experienced with Redmond Clay. We have many more
testimonials and some are more impressive than those listed here. We
have chosen these because they can be told quickly. Some applications
that are so common and routine, we have left out the details. To help the
reader, we have listed the applications in alphabetical order with internal
uses listed first and external uses second.
INTERNAL APPLICATIONS:
COLITIS:
A woman from Canada called begging me to tell her that our Redmond
Clay would help her colitis. It was so bad she had confined herself to
her house rather than risk embarrassment in public. After a week of
drinking the Redmond Clay water, she called us again in tears, but now
they were tears of joy. She said she was having normal, controlled
bowel movements and was free to travel again.
A man with ulcerative colitis so bad that he was considering having part
of his colon removed drank one to two quarts of Redmond Clay water
every day for a month. He felt so much better than he had been when he
was taking up to 30 pills a day (including some steroids which had some
nasty side effects) that he quit taking all medications and just continued
to drink the Redmond Clay water. After 6 months of being symptom
free, he had a colonoscopy and they found his colon looked better than it
had for ten years. The doctor said, “It is as if you had never had the
disease”.
CONSTIPATION:
A woman taking prenatal vitamins with iron was so constipated she was
having one bowel movement every week or ten days. After drinking the
water off the Redmond Clay for three days, she began having natural,
easy, regular bowel movements on a daily basis and continued to do so
during the rest of the pregnancy as long as she drank the clay water.
A couple whose month old baby was constipated due to the formula that
was supplementing their breast feeding, began mixing the formula with
Redmond Clay water. All constipation went away and the baby had
normal bowel movements.
DIARRHEA:
A woman was having up to 17 bowel movements each day, so
uncontrolled that she had become homebound. After a week of drinking
a glass of Redmond Clay water every day, her bowels were totally
controlled and normal. She came to our office to thank us for giving her
the ability to go out in public again without fear of embarrassment
ELECTROLYTE REPLACEMENT:
A cross country ski instructor uses Redmond Clay routinely whenever
he has students experiencing any signs of dehydration, nausea, or
altitude sickness.
HIATEL HERNIA:
A woman who suffered from Hiatel hernia found that drinking a glass of
the Redmond Clay water was the best thing she could do for relief.
ROTO-VIRUS:
A nurse whose 18th month old daughter experienced vomiting and
diarrhea for a week figured the problem was viral. She took appropriate
measures to keep her from becoming dehydrated, but after a week, she
took her to the doctor since the little girl was no better. The doctor
confirmed it was ‘roto-virus’ and said to keep doing what she was doing
and that it should be over in another week. Upon the advice of the
grandmother, the mother gave her daughter Redmond Clay water in her
bottle. The girl fell asleep drinking it, slept for an hour, which was the
longest she had slept all week, and woke up with the appetite of a horse.
She ate 2 bowls of cereal and two slices of bread. She never threw up
again and within a couple of days her diapers were normal.
STOMACHACHE:
Whenever our children complained of stomachache as they were
growing up, we simply gave them a glass of Redmond Clay water. It
always relieved the discomfort immediately and it was never necessary
to give a second dose.
ULCERS:
A man who had taken ulcer medicine for three years drank one glass of
the Redmond Clay water a day for three weeks. Then he quit because he
couldn’t tell he had an ulcer anymore. He told everyone “The Redmond
Clay did more in three weeks than the other medicine had done in three
years”. Six months later when asked if he still took the Redmond Clay,
he said “Only as a precaution when I am going to eat something I
haven’t been able to eat in years!”
Another fellow who was supposed to be scheduled for surgery for his
bleeding ulcers decided to try the Redmond Clay first. To begin with he
drank one glass of the Redmond Clay water twice a day, and also kept
taking his regular ulcer medicine. After three days he felt so much
better that he quit taking the prescription medicine. After a month he
went in for an examination; all the bleeding ulcers had quit bleeding and
all the small ulcers had disappeared. Six months later they couldn’t find
any trace of any ulcer.
EXTERNAL APPLICATIONS:
All of these applications use Redmond Clay gel in a consistency like
mustard or mayonnaise.
ACNE:
To use for acne, cover the entire face with a layer of the gel about the
thickness of icing on a cake. Leave on for about 30 to 45 minutes; wash
it off before it is totally dry.
Many local teenagers have called it ‘zit killer’. One 15 year old boy had
been using the Redmond Clay gel on a regular basis for his complexion
and had no blemishes at all. Then he went on vacation and camping
trips for three weeks in a row. After three weeks without using it, his
face was full of blemishes especially along the hairline of the forehead.
He used the Redmond Clay gel every night for two weeks and was
completely blemish free.
A 16 year old boy who had a very bad complexion used the Redmond
Clay gel every night for 6 weeks. His complexion cleared up so well
that people thought he was using the acne medicine acutane.
ARTHRITIS:
A man who was spending up to $70 per month for arthritis medication
for his injured knee that had required several surgeries packed his knee
in a thick layer of Redmond Clay gel. He wrapped it in plastic wrap and
applied an ace bandage above and below the knee to hold it in place. He
kept it packed like that for one day. His knee was pain free for the first
time in several years and remained pain free until cold weather set in.
ATHLETE’S FOOT:
Several people have said how much it reduces or eliminates the burning
and itching and redness of athlete’s foot.
BEE STINGS:
A man pushed his hand into a wasp’s nest. He was stung so many times
his hand just throbbed. He put on a thick layer of Redmond Clay gel
and covered the hand with a towel to hold it in place. Within 20 minutes
the intense pain was gone; within two hours it was as if he hadn’t even
been stung.
BRUISES:
A young man broke his nose in a wrestling accident. He was told at the
hospital that he would have two black eyes for a week and he was given
a prescription for pain pills. He packed his entire face in Redmond Clay
gel about one half inch thick covering the nose, sinus area, cheeks, and
forehead. As long as his face was packed in the clay, he could breathe
without difficulty and his pain was so minimal he never had to take a
pain pill. He had no swelling and his eyes never discolored at all.
A mother, whose 4 year old daughter put her hand on a hot plate right
after it had been turned off, covered the hand with Redmond Clay gel
then sat down in a rocking chair with the crying infant. The child fell
asleep within 10 to 15 minutes. The mother covered the clay with a
plastic bag to keep it from drying out and put the child to bed where she
slept through the night. The next day they left the bag on all day and the
child was completely pain free. That night, 24 hours after the accident,
they removed the bag and washed the hand. It looked so good they
never did another thing to it. Two days later the only visible sign on the
hand was a pink ‘smiley face’ line where the skin had actually peeled off
and stuck to the stove.
A man who had burned himself with an acetylene torch put a ¾ inch
layer of Redmond Clay gel on it and covered it with plastic wrap. He
said the pain was gone within ten minutes. Three days later it looked
like a sunburn that had peeled.
CUTS:
A lady was sewing clothes and got her finger under the needle. The
needle broke when it hit the bone and it tore a hole in the side of her
finger. She put a tablespoon of the Redmond Clay gel in the corner of a
sandwich bag and put her finger into it. Within twenty minutes she had
no sensation of pain. She left the clay in place for twenty-four hours and
the finger was basically healed.
A man working on a sewer pipe tore a large piece of skin from his finger
on a jagged piece of broken plastic pipe. He put his finger in wet clay in
a sandwich bag and within 15 minutes the pain was gone. During the
next twelve hours with the clay in place, he experienced no sensation of
pain. He removed the clay. Within two hours the finger was throbbing
so much he replaced the clay and kept it in place for the next twenty-
four hours. As long as the clay was on the wound, he was pain free.
DETOXING:
A lady who was experiencing a lot of pain from nerve damage left by a
case of shingles earlier in her life soaked her feet every night in foot
baths using the Redmond Clay. Within three days she was so pain free
she was sleeping through the night and felt better than she had for
twenty years. She told her friends of the result and several of them
soaked their feet and had similar results. (Note: she was also the one
who killed her house plants with the water from the foot baths.)
Our son had arthroscopic abdominal surgery and the doctor told him that
in two or three days his shoulders would hurt from the CO2 gas that was
used during the operation. Three days after the surgery his shoulders
were really hurting just the doctor had said. We had him do a clay foot
bath using two tablespoons of the Redmond Clay. His feet had not been
in the water 15 minutes when he said “Hey, my shoulders don’t hurt
anymore”.
DIAPER RASH:
Our daughter grew up seeing how the dry Redmond Clay eliminated
diaper rash on her younger siblings. Now as a young mother she uses it
for baby powder on her own children. When her friends comment that
they are having a struggle keeping diaper rash under control, she will
give them some of the dry powder Redmond Clay as a sample and
within a day, all the redness and discomfort are gone.
A mother left her infant son in the care of his grandparents for a few
hours. They forgot the child was lactose intolerant so gave him some
milk. When she returned home a few hours later, the child was crying,
so she changed his diaper and was shocked to see the diaper area
enflamed and covered with large watery blisters. She covered the entire
area with the Redmond Clay gel and applied a new diaper. Two hours
later she changed that diaper and the blisters were gone and it was as if
there had never been a problem.
ECZEMA:
A lady who had been treated with ‘everything in the book’ was finally
told that she would just have to learn to live with her eczema. She drank
the Redmond Clay water and also applied the gel topically to the
affected area every day for about an hour. Within a week the eczema
was gone from her hands and almost gone from her feet. It totally went
away in the next two weeks and never came back.
INFECTIONS:
A man who cut his thigh with a chain saw had the wound stitched back
together, but a couple of days later the wound was enflamed and he had
a bright red streak going up his leg to the groin. He packed the wound in
Redmond Clay gel, covered it with a towel, and left it in place overnight.
The next morning the red streak was gone. He packed it again and the
next day all the inflammation was gone.
My father had a red streak going up his arm from an infection in his
hand. His parents packed it in Redmond Clay gel, covered it with a
towel to hold it in place, and overnight the red streak was gone.
SHINGLES:
When dealing with shingles, we have found that the longer one has had
the shingles before using Redmond Clay, the longer it will take to get rid
of them. The rule seems to be if you have had the shingles three days, it
will take three days of Redmond Clay to rid of them. If you have had
them for a week, then it will take a week. If it has been longer than a
month before using the Redmond Clay, it may take a long, long time
before it gets rid of them. So the guideline is “the sooner the better”.
A man from Phoenix had a case of shingles so painful he said it felt like
a red hot poker was being stuck through the small of his back. He
packed his back in Redmond Clay gel each night for three nights and the
shingles were gone.
A lady had had shingles for a week before packing the affected area in
Redmond Clay gel. She packed them in clay covered with plastic wrap
every day for a couple of hours. The shingles were gone in a week.
SPIDER BITES:
A lady in Arizona kneeled down in her garden and felt a bite from a
spider. She caught the spider and took it to the hospital with her where
it was identified as a Brown Recluse. They treated the bite but told her
there would be an extensive recovery period. After keeping the bite
packed in Redmond Clay gel for two days, she said it was totally healed.
SPRAINS:
A lady fell down stairs and badly twisted her ankle. She thought it was
broken so she went to the hospital where x-rays showed a bad sprain.
By packing her ankle in Redmond Clay gel for the next two days, her
pain was minimal and there was no swelling. A few years later she
twisted the same ankle worse than before. Thinking it was broken, she
went to the hospital where x-rays showed a bad sprain. Again, by
packing it in Redmond Clay, the pain was minimal. A week later the
hospital called saying they had looked at the x-rays again and “You
really did break your ankle right next to where you broke it before”.
STIES:
A friend of mine had spent two weeks and $300 trying to heal her
daughter’s sty and it was not getting any better. She decided to try using
Redmond Clay. They covered it with a poultice of Redmond Clay gel
for a few hours each day and it was healed within a couple of days.
6. Conclusion: __
I hope this has been useful and that those people out there who have
problems that the clay can help will have the courage to try it. I would
love to hear from users detailing their experiences with the Redmond
Clay so that I can add such stories to our files. If you have specific
questions you would like to discuss, please contact me at the address
below.
If you would like to read more details on clay, we would suggest the
following books:
EARTH CURES (formerly published as Our Earth, Our Cure) by
Raymond Dextreit
THE HEALING POWER OF CLAY by Michel Abehsera
This booklet was first published in October 2003. For more details or to have specific questions
answered, the author may be contacted at:
Neal Bosshardt
P.O. Box 188
Redmond, UT 84652
435-529-7402
Email: nealb@redmondnatural.com
042809