6. General Information on Clay Applications for Health and Well-Being

This chapter reports on the ordinary clay applications in the field of health: first, the function of the nature of the pathologies to be treated, second, the function of the clay potentialities to treat certain pathologies, and third, the function of the principal reactivity domains pertaining to clay and living organisms.

Adsorption and absorption are the clay properties that most justify both the ingestion of clay (in powders or water dispersion) to treat internal health disorders of the gastrointestinal tract promoting the neutralization of stomach acidity or the fixation and posterior elimination of toxins or other toxic compounds or even the supplementation of deficient bioessential chemical elements (e.g., Fe, Zn, Ca, Mg) and the cutaneous applications of clay for skin care purposes. Heat capacity is another property related to clay pastes when, for example, mud packs are used topically to treat some skeletal–muscular rheumatic pathologies and skin inflammatory disorders (e.g., psoriasis). Clay reactivity and the specificities of the distinctive modes of application and action that can occur in clay–human body interaction, emphasizing various effects, such as the barrier effect, the fixation and transfer of essential or toxic chemical elements, as well as heat transfer are dealt with as well.