by Tony Isaacs the author of Cancer's Natural Enemy
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’ 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 it turning people’s skin blue are so rare as to be almost non-existent. 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
What is also true is that colloidal silver is far safer, more effective and less expensive than the marginally effective and side effect laden mainstream antibiotics. 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 miss-prescribed for, but have zero effect on).
If the public were told the truth, a rarity when it comes to mainstream drugs versus natural competition, colloidal silver would represent a threat to literally billions of dollars of profits and so it is no wonder that mainstream medicine and their duped allies in the mainstream media are singing the blues – just as they have repeatedly done with many other natural plants, supplements, vitamins and minerals that represent safer, more effective and less expensive alternatives to the synthetics created in the labs of the powerful world pharmaceutical empire.
Since the early 1900’s the modern pharmaceutical industry has been all about profits and controlling the world drug trade and their only marketplace is our bodies. They have a longstanding and clear track record of doing whatever it takes to suppress any and all competition, including lies, misleading industry funded studies, and the suppression and persecution of competition through the agency much of the public thinks is protecting the general public, but in reality serves foremost to protect the profits of the pharmaceutical empire it serves and depends on. The same can be said of mainstream germ theory medicine, whose American Medical Association, along with the FDA, also has a track record of supporting industry at any and all costs and suppressing and harassing competition.
While there are a great many natural threats to mainstream profits, whose track records of being used safely and effectively by mankind for hundreds and even thousands of years cast very dark shadows of doubts on industry claims of their dangers and ineffective, 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.
When it comes to warning and scaring people away from silver, both the mainstream medical industry and the FDA have some very big credibility problems. As noted earlier, silver has a history of safe and effective use dating back thousands of years. Today it is used by NASA, the US military and Potters for Peace for water purification, is used as a germicidal agent by hospitals, medical suppliers and recently was incorporated into a new line of hospital pajamas to prevent the spread of infection.
Moreover, at one time silver products were very much in favor with both mainstream medicine and the FDA. No fewer than 34 different prescribed and 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? 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. For example, only the makers of FDA approved drugs can use the word cure, or even imply and 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 that cannot be patented is prohibitive and, though the process is purported to be one which protects the public from unsafe medicines (we see how well that worked for hall of shame list of drugs like Vioxx, Avandia, et al), 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.
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 tendonitis 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 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. Don’t take it from me– see what a noted past FDA commissioner has to say:
"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