When colourless silver nitrate builds up in human tissue, it can be broken down into metallic silver or to silver sulphate, a colourless substance which darkens when exposed to light. Many silver compounds are photoreactive – they can be broken down by sunlight. This remarkable phenomenon is known as argyria.
Reimarus of Hamburgh, who informed me, that in his town two patients had exhibited a blue tinged skin, after the use of the nitrate of silver. As there was not the least appearance of any disease in the heart, and as neither the circulation nor respiration were in the least affected, I was unable to trace the cause of this phaenomenon and I probably might have laboured in vain to discover it, had not my attention been drawn to it by a letter from the late Dr. The skin of a woman, the history of whose distemper I shall communicate in the sequel, had contracted a blue colour all over the body. A Dr Albers of Bremen reported the following: It provides a good example of the fact that new medicines often carry dramatically unexpected side-effects.
#Silver blue man skin
Rosemary Jacobs, a schoolteacher in Brooklyn, New York, also became known for developing a permanent gray-blue hue to her skin from colloidal silver nasal drops a doctor gave her as a child.Īnd for his part, Karason never denied that his home remedy changed the color of his skin, even demonstrating for the TV entertainment news show “Inside Edition” how he concocted it using filtered water, solid silver and an electrical charge.Enter your email address to receive blog updates by email.Įxplore categories Explore categories ArchivesĪn alarming case was revealed to a meeting of the Medical and Chirurgical Society of London in November 1815, and reported in the Transactions of the society early the following year. Argyria is a known medical condition, and Karason isn’t the only one who has had it. “Was the case of Paul Karason turning blue from consuming Colloidal Silver a disinformation campaign by Big Pharma to dissuade people from using it?” the post asks. In mid-January 2022, a Reddit user wondered whether the story of Karason was “disinformation” intended to discourage people from using the substance: But it has no proven health benefits, and, as Karason’s case demonstrates, one risks permanent skin discoloration. His death was believed to be unrelated to argyria, as the condition isn’t known to be life threatening.Ĭolloidal silver was and remains a trendy “natural cure” among those who hawk such things, as Wired points out, from conspiracy troll Alex Jones to actress and pseudoscience aficionado Gwyneth Paltrow. But even after he reduced his intake, his skin remained blue - because the discoloration caused by the condition is permanent. Karason took the compound because he believed it helped him get relief from acid reflux and arthritis. When that compound is exposed to light, it turns blue.” As the Los Angeles Times explained in an obituary about him, “Argyria is caused by the build-up of a silver compound in the skin and other body tissues. Karason’s skin was so blue that some dubbed him “Papa Smurf,” after the blue cartoon character. Karason had become well known in 2008 because his skin turned a fairly deep shade of blue from a medical condition called argyria. One such highly-publicized case was that of Paul Karason, who died in 2013 at the age of 62, while being treated for pneumonia after suffering a heart attack. Because these conditions are unusual, the cases tend to become something of a public curiosity, and often receive a disproportionate amount of media coverage relative to how prevalent they are. In years past, there have been news reports about people with various health conditions that cause their skin to appear a shade of blue.
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