COULD A SPOONFUL OF SILVER
make you as fit as debbie — or is it just dangerous hokum?
banned by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ( FDA), in the Nineties the FDA ruled that ‘drug products containing colloidal silver ingredients or silver salts for internal or external use are not generally recognised as safe and effective’.
Anthony Hilton is professor of applied microbiology at Aston University and says scientific evidence doesn’t support the use of colloidal silver as an oral supplement. ‘I’m not aware that any credible study has ever been done on colloidal silver when taken orally as an antimicrobial medicine,’ he says.
‘It’s quite an old therapy and probably stems from times when doctors would prescribe mercury, silver and other heavy metals to treat diseases like syphilis at a time when there weren’t antibiotics. There are obvious side- effects to ingesting metals, including historical data which shows that exposure to mercury caused madness because it can be toxic to the brain and central nervous system.
‘My view is taking colloidal silver orally is best avoided until evidence exists to suggest otherwise.’
One possible side-effect of longterm or overuse of colloidal silver is the rare condition argyria, where the skin becomes a bluish-grey colour. It is caused by silver building up in the body’s tissue and, terrifyingly, is usually permanent.
The most extreme and famous example was an American called Paul Karason who was dubbed ‘Papa Smurf’ when his skin turned permanently blue, after self-medicating by drinking large amounts of colloidal silver for over a decade to treat dermatitis on his face.
Another American, Rosemary Jacobs, 71, also developed argyria four years after she began taking nasal drops containing colloidal silver at the age of 11.
Four years later a skin biopsy revealed a multitude of silver particles embedded deep beneath the epidermis all over her body, most noticeably on her face and neck, turning her skin a disturbing — and permanent — blue grey.
CAN STOP SPOTS
ACCORDING to Lucy Roberts, colloidal silver can keep pimples away when it is mixed with the likes of aloe vera gel and used as a topical treatment or moisturiser.
Debbie Mcgee is also a fan of Active Silver’s glow facial moisturising gel, as is Emmajane Hughes (see box above), who says: ‘It has helped to calm the redness on my face caused by rosacea and leaves my complexion with a subtle, natural sheen.’
Prof Edwards- Jones explains that although silver is proven as an antimicrobial within the medical profession, she isn’t aware of any proven cosmetic benefits when applied as a spray or cream.
‘Wound dressings contain silver suspended in hydrogel and are applied to the likes of ulcers and bed sores,’ she says.
‘ The positive ions in the silver have the effect of drawing the microbes — bacteria — up from the wound into the gel within the dressing where they are then killed.
‘When commercial colloidal silver is added to a cream for topical use, it’s possible that there may be an aesthetic benefit because lots of the organisms we find on the skin are susceptible to silver at low concentrations.
‘This means that applying colloid silver in a cream or gel, for example, may help to get rid of bad bugs and allow good bugs to flourish.
‘But, yet again, we simply don’t have the trials or evidence to know this for certain.’