Is the Colloidal Silver “Blue Man” a Fraud?

No doubt by now you have heard of the “Blue Man”. Toward the end of last year Paul Karason’s smurf-like face surfaced in all of the major news publications. His claim? – Colloidal silver caused it. (WHAT?!!) The Blue Man claims to have turned blue after drinking colloidal silver and rubbing it on his skin in an effort to treat dermatitis. That was his simple explanation. Period.

The moral of the story appears to be — stay away from big bad natural remedies. The media’s conclusion — it if use colloidal silver, this will happen to you!

Call me skeptical.
Why?

1. I LIKE natural remedies. I am willing to try almost ANY natural means of treating an ailment before turning to Big Pharma. Therefore I am always willing to give the natural remedies, especially those causing media hype, the benefit of the doubt (and some investigation of my own) before joining the lynch mob against them.
2. The Fox News article about the story stated: “The FDA does not consider colloidal silver safe or effective to treat any disease or condition. In fact, taking it could have serious side effects…” Any time the FDA is mentioned, it throws up big red flags for me! The FDA is notorious for “approving” all sorts of dangerous drugs and food additives that should NEVER be consumed or used by humans! What credibility do THEY have?! Fact: The FDA WILL make the above statements about any “alternative” or natural treatments simply because they have not been able to get their grubby hands on any of the money that these treatments generate. (FDA — ranks right up there with Satan and Hitler on my naughty list).
3. Colloidal Silver has been used for CENTURIES (dating back to the Ancient Greeks for use as a preservative, and to the 9th century for use as a medicine). Both a natural antibiotic and purifier, colloidal silver has been used successfully treat, or alleviate the symptoms of more than 650 different diseases, including, but certainly not limited to:
   • Acne, AIDS, allergies, appendicitis, arthritis, athlete’s foot
   • Bladder inflammation, blood parasites, blood poisoning, boils, burns
   • Cancer, candida, cholera, colitis, conjunctivitis, cystitis
   • Dermatitis, diabetes, dysentery
   • Eczema
   • Fibrositis
   • Gastritis, gonorrhea
   • Hay fever, herpes
   • Impetigo, indigestion
   • Keratitis
   • Leprosy, leukemia, lupus, lymphangitis, Lyme disease
   • Malaria, meningitis
   • Neurasthenia
   • Opthalmia
   • Parasitic infections: viral, fungal and bacterial
     pneumonia, pleurisy, prostate, pruritus ani, psoriasis, purulent
   • Rhinitis, rheumatism, ringworm
   • Scarlet fever, septic conditions of the eyes, ears, mouth, and throat
     seborrhea, septicemia, shingles, skin cancer, staphylococcus and streptococcus infections, stomach flu, syphilis
   • Thyroid, tuberculosis, tonsillitis, toxemia, trachoma
   • Ulcers of the stomach
   • All forms of Virus, veterinary uses (such as canine parovirus)
   • Warts, whooping cough
   • Yeast infection
   • and even….get this….fungal and viral attacks on PLANTS.

   A friend of mine back in Alabama SWORE by the stuff. She used it on herself and her family for an array of ailments. I don’t recall Debbie ever looking like a smurf. Hmmmm…come to think of it…if this silver has been (and continues to be) used for so many years by so many people…how come there aren’t more blue people in the world if colloidal silver is truly to blame?

Enter…the FACTS

It’s no big secret that news outlets like to leave out important facts to make their stories more interesting. It’s their job to put a “slant” on their reports. I mean, how much fun would a “hype” article be if they admitted that THE PRODUCT WAS USED IMPROPERLY!

Fact #1 – Blue Man did not buy colloidal silver. He “made his own”.

PureColloids.com tells the WHOLE story…

He got this condition by taking his homemade silver compound that was mostly a highly concentrated ionic silver solution. When he prepared the solution he believed he was making colloidal silver. He was not making Colloidal Silver. To make the solution even more dangerous, he added salt to the brew and then used electrolysis to make a high concentration of silver chloride with large particles which is well known to cause argyria. He further applied the compound to his skin causing him to become an internal and external photographic plate. To finish himself off, he used a tanning bed to “fix” the silver in his body.

(You can read the rest of the article here).

Come on, folks. Let’s think about this a minute. Let’s say you have a headache. Would you grab some ingredients from your kitchen cabinets or your garage and start mixing them together…then consume them and say “I made some Tylenol”. Let’s say then that this consumption caused some undesirable effects. Would you then go grab a lawn chair and head to the beach to sun away your problem. Nope, problem would still be there, so I guess it’s time to head off to the news station to report what horrible things this “Tylenol” did to your body. (And of course let’s not assume the the news organizations would even try to investigate the facts, or even wonder why these unique effects happened to YOU, but not the other millions of people worldwide who take Tylenol for their headaches.

[for what it's worth, I know there are many people who do make their own colloidal silver with colloidal silver "generators". I am not saying there is anything WRONG with that, as long as you KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING. Not all generators are created equal, and obviously, not everyone takes the time to acquire the knowledge required to successfully generate colloidal silver. It would be the difference between someone throwing together myriad ingredients to make the above referenced "Tylenol", vs. following a recipe. "Blue Man is obviously not a recipe-follower. Which brings me to my next point....]

Fact #2 – Moderation is Key!

No one I have ever known has turned blue…but I have had a couple of children turn orange on me. Why? They LOVE carrots and sweet potatoes. Carrots and sweet potatoes are good for them. They love them + they are healthy = Mama feeding them too much. (See the key words here…”too much”. Too many sweet potatoes or carrots = orange child…especially orange noses! Ack!

Parallel. Blue Man likes the effects colloidal silver has on his skin condition. So he uses TOO MUCH (see those key words again?) This equals Argyria (blue man). Ever hear of TOO MUCH of a good thing?

The Blue Man admits to taking “upwards of 20 ounces a day” and “adding baking soda and/or salt to increase the concentration.” Yes, apparently for years on end. This is WAY too much colloidal silver to be taking daily, for such long periods of time. Standard safe dose?

1 teaspoon of 5 ppm. colloidal silver equals about 25 micrograms (mcg.) of silver. 1 – 4 teaspoons per day (25 – 100 mcg.) is generally considered to be a “nutritional amount” and is reported to be safe to use for extended periods of time. Amounts higher than this are generally considered “therapeutic amounts” and should only be used periodically.

In cases of illness, natural health practitioners have often recommended taking double or triple the “nutritional amount” for 30 to 45 days, then dropping down to a smaller maintenance dose. *

Not trying to pick on Tylenol here, (I am continually using it as an example because it is considered by most to be relatively mild and safe, as far as drugs go), but what do you think would happen if one were to take several TIMES the recommended dose of Tylenol on a daily basis for many years (kind of a moot question, as the person would succumb to liver failure well before the “many years” point…but you see where I’m going). It wouldn’t be pretty. And the FDA (because it receives monetary gain from Tylenol) certainly wouldn’t blame THE DRUG! And do you think the news outlets would? Nope. It would never reach the headlines! They would just think “what an idiot!” — and rightfully so.

“Blue Man” — just another example of “the news” telling us what they want us to hear.