It’s very difficult to control or analyze how much of the silver is ionized, so a patient has no way of knowing how much active silver they’re ingesting or applying-rendering it either useless or, on the other extreme, so potent it results in argyria. “In fact,” wrote Henry Crooks, one of the early pioneers, in 1910, “no microbe is known that is not killed by colloidal silver in laboratory experiments in six minutes.”īut the colloidal silver solutions were problematic too. The idea was to make a formula that was much less irritating than silver nitrate but equally effective at killing bugs. Protein molecules in the solution surrounded the silver ions, so that only some-but not all-of the ions were released. That's why, starting in the early 20th century, scientists started suspending silver in water.
Colloidal silver man who turned blue skin#
It’s occasionally still used for that purpose, but silver nitrate had a bad side effect: It burns skin and can cause severe eye damage. Through the 1960s, most American newborns received silver nitrate eyedrops at birth to prevent eye infections.
Silver is most toxic to microbes in its ionized form-AG+, same as in those silver nitrate salts-which seems to deactivate important microbial enzymes and potentially screw with DNA replication. The exact mechanism by which it attacks bacterial cells still isn’t clear, but scientists have some guesses. Relative to other premodern health tips, these were actually pretty good ideas, because-as scientists discovered once they finally figured out germ theory-silver does have germ-fighting abilities. (According to Herodotus, mule-drawn carts laden with silver urns followed King Cyrus “whithersoever” he went.) During the Middle Ages, monks popularized the use of silver nitrate, a salt formed by reacting silver with nitric acid, to treat ulcers and burns. Pliny the Elder reported in AD 78 that silver slag, the gunk left over from smelting silver, “has healing properties as an ingredient in plasters,” and Cyrus the Great, king of Persia from 550 to 529 BC, stayed healthy by drinking only boiled water stored in silver flagons. Silver has been a favored defense against infection since ancient times. After a few years of this regimen, he had developed a case of what doctors call argyria, a blue-gray discoloration of the skin and mucus membranes. Karason bought a device to make his own colloidal silver at home-a colloid is one substance dispersed through a second-and soon he was drinking a 10-ounce tumbler of the stuff daily, hoping to improve his general health, and dabbing it on his face for his dermatitis. But then he saw an ad in a magazine showing a desiccated old daisy brought back to life by the power of the solution it had been placed in: silver ions in water. For most of his life, Karason was a fair-skinned redhead. “I’ve gotten kind of used to it,” he told Matt Lauer. His graying auburn hair heightened the effect the whites of his eyes had a leaden tint. This was closer to navy-like Beast from the X-Men or some elder Smurf. From head to toe, Paul Karason was the color blue. And appear is the best word for it, since he was there because of the way he looked.
In 2008, Paul Karason, a 57-year-old man from the Pacific Northwest, agreed to appear on the Today show.
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