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NaturalNews.com
Originally published February 27 2008

Colloidal Silver Has Mainstream Medicine Singing the Blues
by Tony Isaacs (see all articles by this author)

(NaturalNews) The recent widespread mainstream media coverage of the
"blue man" Paul Karason and his rare skin condition known as Argyria
is the latest in a series of largely misleading and sensationalized
scare stories about the dangers of colloidal silver turning a person's
skin blue.

Although this latest story did not appear to originate from mainstream
medicine or the FDA, there is little doubt that they have welcomed it
with open arms and have been quick to trot out "medical experts" and
past FDA warnings to help "sing the blues" about colloidal silver. The
truth is that mainstream medicine has a very good reason to cry long
and loud about colloidal silver, because it does represent a very real
danger - a danger to the huge profits of the pharmaceutical industry's
patented antibiotics.

The truth is that silver has been used effectively by mankind to fight
germs and ailments for thousands of years, and the instances of modern
use of colloidal silver turning people's skin blue are so rare as to
be almost non-existent - and unlike thousands of prescribed and
approved over-the-counter mainstream medications including the common
aspirin, silver has never killed anyone. As a matter of fact, almost
all of the relative handful of reported instances have involved one or
more of the following: older silver products that contained as much as
10% or more silver (compared to mere parts per million in modern
colloidal silver), silver nitrate, home made colloidal silver that was
contaminated with salt, and silver that has been consumed continuously
in very large quantities over a very long period of time.

In the case of Karason, he made his own ionic silver at home for
almost two decades and for many years consumed a quart or more per
day. I daresay that any prescribed or over-the-counter medication
whose recommended dosage was a couple of teaspoons a day would do far
worse than turn a person blue if they drank a quart or more of it a
year! For the sake of comparison, drinking a quart or more per day of
colloidal silver would be like a person taking several bottles of
aspirin a day, a practice that would be lethal in short order. Karason
actually appears to enjoy his notoriety as the Papa Smurf blue man,
and even though he sings the praises of how colloidal silver saved his
life and the many ailments he believes it cured, the focus of
attention is on his blue skin - a condition that is actually
reversible with proper diet and herbal cleanses despite mainstream
claims to the contrary.

What is also true about colloidal silver is that it is far safer, more
effective and less expensive than the marginally effective and side
effect laden mainstream antibiotics - and has mainstream and
university studies proving it dating back to the early 1900's. The
best and strongest of the FDA approved antibiotics are effective for a
handful of bacteria at best, whereas colloidal silver is supremely
effective against just about every kind of single celled pathogen,
including bacteria, fungal growths and viruses (which antibiotics are
often wrongly prescribed for, despite the fact that antibiotics have
no effect on viruses).

If the public were told the truth, a rarity when it comes to
mainstream drugs versus natural competition, colloidal silver would
represent a huge threat to literally billions of dollars of profits
and so it is no wonder that mainstream medicine and their allies in
the mainstream media are once again loudly singing the blues - just as
they have repeatedly done in the past with misleading stories and
studies about a great many popular natural plants, supplements,
vitamins and minerals that represent threats to mainstream drug
profits because they are safer, more effective and less expensive
alternatives to the unnatural, side effect laden, hugely expensive and
marginally effective synthetics created in the labs of the powerful
world pharmaceutical empire.

While there are a great many natural threats to mainstream profits,
whose use and track records of safety and effectiveness date back
hundreds and even thousands of years, perhaps no natural alternative
to mainstream drugs represents as big of a threat to industry profits
as colloidal silver, and it is no coincidence that colloidal silver
has been placed at the very top of the FDA/mainstream medicine hit
list.

However, when it comes to warning and scaring people away from silver,
both the mainstream medical industry and the FDA have serious
credibility problems. First of all, silver has a history of safe and
effective use dating back thousands of years. In addition, it
continues to be widely used today, including being used by NASA, the
US military and Potters for Peace for water purification, being used
as a germicidal agent by hospitals and medical suppliers and was
recently incorporated into a new line of hospital pajamas to prevent
the spread of infection, to name just a few of its present day uses.

The biggest credibility problem of all for mainstream medicine and the
FDA regarding silver is likely how they both approved and embraced
silver for medicinal use at one time - yet now would have us believe
that silver is both ineffective and dangerous. At one time silver
products were very much in favor with both mainstream medicine and the
FDA. No fewer than 34 different prescribed over-the-counter
medications containing silver were not only widely sold by industry,
they were also approved by the very same FDA which now seeks to warn
us of its dangers and have us believe it is ineffective.

What changed their minds? Perhaps the obvious answer can be found in
the fact that silver fell out of favor at the very same time that
patented sulfa drugs and patented antibiotics created in drug company
labs came on the market. Once that happened, the non-patentable silver
was no longer a tool for healing, but a threat to profits.

Zealous protection of mainstream approved drugs and suppression of
natural competition is nothing new -look at the estimated 100,000 or
more deaths caused by Vioxx before the FDA finally removed it from the
market. Look at the ridiculous actions of the FDA when it threatened
Washington cherry growers for telling the truth about the health
benefits of eating cherries, or at the storm trooper actions against
the makers of Charantia (bitter melon) tea in Florida who dared put
references to some of the 650 plus PubMed studies and citations about
bitter melon on their website.

The FDA persecutions and prosecutions of cherry farmers, bitter melon,
and a long line of other natural alternatives points out just how
extreme the protection of the big drug companies' products and profits
really is. Consider this: other than issues of national security, only
in natural health is it a crime to tell the truth due to the way the
FDA has construed their rules and definitions to protect industry. For
example, if a company were to advertise that vitamin C was a cure for
scurvy, as everyone knows is true, that company could be prosecuted
for selling unapproved drugs. The same would be true if a company
printed a testimonial from someone who reported health benefits due to
vitamin C, or any other vitamin, mineral, supplement or non FDA
approved drug.

For example, only the makers of FDA approved drugs can use the word
cure, or even imply any health benefits without the FDA considering
the product a drug. The catch is that in order to be FDA approved, no
matter how many PubMed cited studies or other studies have been
performed, and no matter how much of a history of hundreds or
thousands of years and users, the FDA only approves drugs that go
through its specific approval process - one that costs hundreds of
billions of dollars.

When it comes to natural alternatives, spending such money on a
natural product is prohibitive, since it could not be patented and
could be freely and cheaply sold by any number of competitors and it
would be virtually impossible to ever recover all the costs of getting
the natural product approved. Though the process is purported to be
one which protects the public from unsafe medicines (and we see how
well that worked for the hall of shame list of drugs like Vioxx,
Avandia, etc.), the net effect of the FDA's drug definitions and
approval process is to exclude natural competition and insure that
only the patentable and profitable synthetics created in drug company
labs can be approved and marketed as having health benefits.

The most recent example of such one-sided treatment favoring industry
came in the following news story earlier this past week about a
lawsuit filed against the FDA by Public Citizen after the FDA ignored
years of complaints about the dangers of ruptured tendons caused by
one of the drug industry's most powerful and profitable antibiotics:

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Despite long-standing evidence that fluoroquinolone
antibiotics can cause tendon ruptures, the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) has failed to increase its warnings to patients
and physicians about the dangers of the medicines, Public Citizen told
a federal court Thursday.

Public Citizen sued in the U.S. District Court for the District of
Columbia, asking the court to force the FDA to act upon a petition the
consumer group filed with the agency 16 months ago. The FDA has failed
to respond to the petition, which asked the agency to put a "black
box" warning on fluoroquinolone antibiotics (such as Cipro, Levaquin
and others) to make doctors and patients more aware of the risk of
serious tendon injury before tendons actually rupture.

The petition also urged the FDA to send a warning letter to
physicians, as well as require an FDA-approved medication guide to be
dispensed when prescriptions are filled. Public Citizen contends that
the FDA is violating the Administrative Procedure Act by not acting
upon the petition.

Stronger warnings could lead to earlier intervention and prevent
needless injuries by allowing doctors to switch patients to other
antibiotics, said Dr. Sidney Wolfe, director of Public Citizen's
Health Research Group.

"While the FDA sits idly by and ignores the problem, more people will
suffer serious tendon ruptures that could have been prevented," Wolfe
said. "The current warning is buried in a long list of possible
adverse reactions and is far too easy to miss."

From November 1997 through December 2005, the FDA received 262 reports
of tendon ruptures, mainly of the Achilles tendon, 258 cases of
tendinitis and 274 cases of other tendon disorders in patients using
fluoroquinolone antibiotics. An additional 74 tendon ruptures have
subsequently been reported to the FDA for a total of 336. Because only
a small fraction of cases are typically reported to the FDA, the
actual number of ruptures and other tendon injuries attributable to
the antibiotic is much higher (Source: Healthy News).

One can only imagine the FDA's reaction if 336 tendon ruptures had
been reported for those who take the best antibiotic and pathogen
destroyer on the planet - colloidal silver. No doubt, they would have
raided the manufacturer with storm troopers and shut it down years
ago, just as they have done many times with the manufacturers and
sellers of other natural competitors to drug company products.

In conclusion, as far as I can tell, not one single instance of
Argyria has been attributed to properly made colloidal that was not
consumed in amounts that were up to hundreds of times the recommended
dosage, that has not stopped the FDA from continuing to "sing the
blues" about silver or from going after those who make and sell
colloidal silver products, not because silver represents a whit of
threat to human health but rather because it represents a threat to
the inflated bottom line profits of the mainstream drug manufacturers.

Finding out who the FDA really serves is a simple task - all you have
to do is follow the money. But don't simply take my word, let a noted
past FDA commissioner tell you very clearly what the FDA is really
about:

"The FDA 'protects' the big drug companies and are subsequently
rewarded, and using the government's police powers they attack those
who threaten the big drug companies. People think that the FDA is
protecting them.

It isn't.

What the FDA is doing and what the public thinks it is doing are as
different as night and day."

Dr. Herbert Ley
Former U.S. FDA Commissioner

About the author
Tony Isaacs, is a natural health advocate and researcher and the
author of books and articles about natural health including "Cancer's
Natural Enemy" as well as song lyrics and humorous anecdotal stories.
Mr. Isaacs also has The Best Years in Life website for baby boomers
and others wishing to avoid prescription drugs and mainstream managed
illness and live longer, healthier and happier lives naturally.  He is
currently residing in the scenic Texas hill country near Utopia, Texas
where he is working on a major book project due for publication next
year.

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