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FDA weighs merits of colloidal silver
Some claim it's a miracle cure, for others it merely colors the skin
December 31, 1996
Web posted at: 5:50 p.m. ESTFrom Correspondent Linda Ciampa
ATLANTA (CNN) -- Rosemary Jacobs has a skin condition called argyria. It hasn't made her sick -- but it has turned her skin a bluish-gray.
"I've had trouble getting jobs," Jacobs says. "And it's because people are afraid that my face is bad for business. And they don't know what it is."
Jacobs has seen numerous doctors over the years and believes her argyria was caused by nose drops she used as a child. The nose drops contained a substance called colloidal silver.
Collodial silver was widely used for treating colds and syphilis before World War II. Its popularity dropped as other drugs were developed, but in the early 1990s, collodial silver re-emerged as a food supplement and over-the-counter drug.
Now, the Food and Drug Administration has stepped in to force manufacturers of collodial silver to prove claims that it can cure everything from AIDS to cancer to multiple sclerosis.
Doctors disagree
Dr. Jeff Anderson of northern California doesn't make any outlandish claims about collodial silver, but he does use low doses to treat some patients with infectious diseases. And he thinks today's collodial products are safer because they're made with much less silver than those of years ago.
Anderson acknowledges that doses as high as those used past years "would accumulate (over a period of time) and cause argyria."
But Dr. Man Fung, a toxicologist at the University of Pennsylvania, says even today's low-dose silver products can build up in the body if taken long term. He questions its value.
"Why (would) you want to pay $50 to buy a bottle, and then expose yourself to some potential toxicity which has no use and will not do anything to you or for you?" he says.
Collodial silver manufacturers which sell the product as a drug have until the middle of January to prove their claims to the FDA. Until the FDA makes a recommendation, consumers must decide whether collodial silver is helpful or not.
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