This week in the “Vrai du Faux Junior”, the students wonder about the health risks of eating kaolin regularly.
This is one of the trends of the moment on the social network TikTok, to film yourself eating large pieces of kaolin with your teeth. A consumption, if it is regular, which can be dangerous for health.
Kaolin is a kind of clay, which is generally applied to the face to make a mask, for example. It is also found in certain medications, but with a very precise and monitored dosage. Before being a fad, eating kaolin is a consumption habit among many pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa, the Maghreb and French Guyana. Guyanese researchers conducted a study on the effects of regular consumption of kaolin in pregnant women. One of the researchers in this study, Véronique Lambert, a sonographer who takes special care of the state of health of fetuses when they are in their mother’s womb, answered questions from students at the André Derain college, at Chambourcy in the Yvelines.
The risk of iron deficiency anemia
Siffrandie wonders if it’s true that “kaolin can cause anemia“.
Yes, it’s true, “it is even the main risk of regular consumption of kaolin“, replies Véronique Lambert, in other words “become anemic due to iron deficiency, so lack iron in the body“.
Véronique Lambert explains that “the clay tends to absorb the iron that we ingest, which will then stick to the kaolin, instead of entering the cells of the digestive tract and then into the bloodstream.“Yet iron is very important, because it is essential for the production of hemoglobin and red blood cells. Véronique Lambert explains that we realize this in our state of health afterwards”because when you run out of red blood cells, you run out of cells to carry oxygen and therefore you get tired very quickly, you find yourself abnormally exhausted, with breathing difficulties and fatigue on exertion which is abnormal.“
The risk of severe constipation
Syffrandie has heard that too much kaolin consumption, “could cause blockages in the digestive tract‘ and she wonders if that’s true.
Yes it’s true Syffrandie, eating kaolin regularly is constipating! Doctor Lambert explains to him that “the clay will come to modify the consistency of the stools which will become very hard and very white to the point of being irritating for the digestive tract as well as for all the lower part, the rectum, the anus and this will cause pain in the defecation, possibly chronic constipation which can go into very serious forms up to intestinal obstruction.” In other words, “the digestive tract is completely clogged by this accumulation of clay“says Véronique Lambert and”the entire digestive tract will be stoned, defecation is difficult, there will be the appearance of hemorrhoids and possibly, in rare cases, surgical complications that will go as far as an operation to unclog the digestive tract.”
The risk of exposure to heavy metals
Meline asks if it’s true”that kaolin is poisoned“.
Véronique Lambert replies that “yes we can say, not in a systematic way, but we can poison ourselves by eating kaolin, especially if it is regularly“Doctor Lambert explains that”the kaolin consumed on social networks, we do not know where it comes from, we do not know where it was extracted and how it was processed, the only thing we know is that it is extracted soils often naturally rich in heavy metals, such as lead, aluminum or arsenic.“
And this is very dangerous, warns Véronique Lambert, because “heavy metals are metals which, in general, have no place in the human body and will, when they enter the body, replace other metals and cause malfunctions in a whole host of systems cellular.“Doctor Lambert explains that in Guyana she observed that”pregnant women who consumed kaolin found abnormally high amounts of aluminum in their blood. This molecule has no place in the human body and has been implicated in the appearance of problems such as autism, Alzheimer’s, and amnesic disorders.
Véronique Lambert also explains that these risks are even greater for pregnant women and their babies because “the anemia caused by the consumption of kaolin will cause a dangerous delivery for the mother and her fetus, there will be risks of lowering blood pressure, and especially after delivery there is a significant risk of hemorrhage which can be fatal for the mother.“Finally Doctor Lambert explains that”the fetus is also exposed, with risks of prematurity, hypotrophy, in other words a baby too small for its age which can lead to possible handicaps.“
The risk of becoming addicted to kaolin
Maud wonders if it’s true”that kaolin is addictive” and Sovann heard “that after eating kaolin for the first time you become addicted directly“, he wonders if it’s true.
One does not become addicted to kaolin at the first bite, but yes one of the other problems of kaolin “it is that many people, who consume it, become addicted and this is of great concern to the medical profession”, underlines Véronique Lambert. The doctor explains that there are different forms of addiction, “You can be addicted to products like drugs because they act directly on the neuromediators in the brain and there are other addiction phenomena, which are called addictions without products.“It can be addictions to gambling, for example, or bulimia, in other words an addiction linked to eating.
Dr. Lambert explains that “for Kaolin, it’s hard to say what the type of addiction is, if it’s the product that will act directly on the neurotransmitters or if it’s the fact of eating it, the pleasure of the taste that will ultimately lead to addiction.“But Véronique Lambert, like many of her colleagues, observes this phenomenon with kaolin. She noticed that there were people entering”in a kind of addiction and find themselves completely dependent on this product, it is then necessary to direct them towards structures specialized in addictology.“