How Does Activated Charcoal Actually Work?

You may have seen this ingredient in supplements, smoothies, or medicine—but what does it means for charcoal to be "activated" and is it really as powerful as it sounds? Michael Aranda unpacks the science of what it does for our bodies and how it works in this new episode of SciShow! ---------- Support SciShow by becoming a patron on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scishow ---------- Dooblydoo thanks go to the following Patreon supporters: Kelly Landrum Jones, Sam Lutfi, Kevin Knupp, Nicholas Smith, Inerri, D.A. Noe, alexander wadsworth, سلطان الخليفي, Piya Shedden, KatieMarie Magnone, Scott Satovsky Jr, Bella Nash, Charles Southerland, Bader AlGhamdi, James Harshaw, Patrick Merrithew, Patrick D. Ashmore, Candy, Tim Curwick, charles george, Saul, Mark Terrio-Cameron, Viraansh Bhanushali, Kevin Bealer, Philippe von Bergen, Chris Peters, Justin Lentz ---------- Looking for SciShow elsewhere on the internet? Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/scishow Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/scishow Tumblr: http://scishow.tumblr.com Instagram: http://instagram.com/thescishow ---------- Sources: https://www.watertechonline.com/the-basics-of-activated-carbon-adsorption/ https://www.britannica.com/technology/water-supply-system/Chlorination#ref1084834 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3521259 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3710499 http://www.tigg.com/what-is-activated-carbon.html https://www.drugs.com/monograph/charcoal-activated.html https://www.poison.org/articles/2015-mar/activated-charcoal https://www.britannica.com/science/van-der-Waals-forces http://www.nature.com/ajg/journal/v94/n1/full/ajg199931a.html