WHO’S SCAMMING WHOM WITH COLLOIDAL SILVER?
On January 10, 2003 Wired News published an article on “silver health scams,”
www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,57119,00.html. It treated us to horror stories about the dangers of using colloidal silver -- your skin will turn grey or blue from silver “poisoning” (argyria, ar JEE ree uh ) and you’ll become a walking freak show.
The main complainant, Rosemary Jacobs, contracted argyria nearly 50 years ago from using silver nose drops. All things considered, she must have been taking massive doses, since argyria is a relatively rare condition and requires enormous exposure. Also pictured with the article is Montana libertarian Stan Jones, self-described “Blue Man” who developed argyria after consuming a “homemade silver concoction” daily for 4-1/2 years. How much he consumed isn’t mentioned. If you go to the article above, you’ll see pictures and find more information.
Since I interviewed Bill McFarland, manufacturer of Mild Silver Protein, a colloidal silver preparation (see 9/01 Moneychanger), I felt obliged to ask some knowledgeable people about these charges to try to come to accurate opinion. “Knowledgeable people” includes both McFarland and two physicians who have used some form of colloidal silver.
HUMAN STUPIDITY
Obviously, there’s no cure for this. A very large overdose of silver colloid is necessary to turn anyone blue. How much nose drops did Rosemary Jacobs use, and for how long? With all due respect to Stan Jones, what in the world was he thinking about? No medicine ought to be taken in massive doses daily forever. There are thousands of these homemade colloidal silver generators on the market, and the people who sell them promote them as cure-alls. The problem is, most of them offer no quality or dosage control at all. Some use silver wire imported from China contaminated with heavy metals. The sellers often tell people to take the product from these generators daily to ward off disease.
Interestingly, the only side effect Stan Jones suffers is cosmetic, although in especially severe cases argyria can involve organ damage. But still, can you imagine what he would look like if he had taken daily massive doses of antibiotics for 4-1/2 years?
WHAT ARE THEY TAKING?
There’s not much telling what people are actually getting from these home-made colloidal silver generators. In addition, from the 1930s into the 1950s lots of silver products were available, some notoriously unstable. Often doctors prepared these themselves, with all the variability of composition that implies. Many used elemental silver, rather than colloidal silver, which is a tiny amount in colloidal suspension. Whoever turned blue in the 1950s probably wasn't using silver colloids, which contain a very small amount, but instead a high-silver-dose medicinal then available. If one uses colloidal silver of 10-40 parts per million (PPM) for a few days at 1 teaspoon every 3-4 hours to fight an infection, and then stops, the odds of turning blue are exceptionally small.
DOES IT WORK?
The Wired News article tries to imply that colloidal silver is not effective as an antibiotic, but that’s just not true. Silver’s effectiveness as a bacteria killer is widely known, and widely used in preparations such as Silvadene® (silver sulfadiazine) burn ointment and in water purification systems. Because silver seems to kill mechanically or electrically, bacteria don’t develop a resistance to it as they do to modern antibiotics.
ANECDOTES, NOT TESTIMONIALS
I personally have used the Mild Silver Protein (400 ppm) that Bill McFarland manufactures. I have not turned blue yet (although once in a while I do get a little sad.) I have never taken massive daily doses over long periods, but only 4-5 tablespoons per day for serious infections for a few days. The average dose is 3-4 teaspoons per day. I have ingested it for colds and other illnesses. Mixed with a 10-20 drops of DMSO as a spray, I have used it externally for fungus, yeast infections, mastitis (in a dairy cow), and even warts, and still do. I have also used it on other farm animals. Something killed the warts while I was using the MSP spray. Something kills athlete’s foot and yeast infections when I use the MSP spray.
Now I am not offering this a “scientific proof” that MSP is effective and without side effects, I am only recounting my own experience. Yours may be different. If I had some antibiotic resistant bacterial or a viral infection, I would not hesitate to take MSP internally or even intravenously, but that’s just my opinion, and I’m not a physician. One thing for sure: I would never take any medication continuously, just as a protective measure. Note particularly that although in the past I have used homemade colloidal silver generators, I would no longer use them and do not recommend them.
Whenever I interview anyone about alternative medicine, readers must know and assume that I am offering that interview as information only. Neither the person interviewed nor The Moneychanger recommends any medical therapy for any reader. You have to make that decision for yourself, consulting with your local health care professional.
/homepages.together.net/~rjstan/rose1.html
