CTpost, Danbury Times, Linda Napier, Colloidal Silver

On July 10, 2010 I read this article on the Google news site

http://www.ctpost.com/health/article/Candidiasis-No-kidding-540387.php

which had been published in the CTPost which bills itself as “Southwestern Connecticut's largest daily newspaper”. Unable to post a comment on the site at the time, I thought it was because I was’t well versed in computer technology so I sent the following email to the paper and also phoned them leaving a voice message alerting them to the error the article contained. As of today, July 31, 2011, no one has gotten back to me.

From: Rosemary Jacobs

Subject: Serious factual error

Date: July 10, 2010 9:28:27 AM EDT

To: edit@ctpost.com

There is a serious error in the article by Linda Napier:

Candidiasis: No kidding

Published: 07:02 p.m., Monday, June 28, 2010

http://www.ctpost.com/health/article/Candidiasis-No-kidding-540387.php

Ms. Napier states that colloidal silver is "a natural antibiotic that kills more than 650 different microorganisms". That is incorrect. CS is dangerous snake oil that, if taken internally, can permanently discolor the skin. The well known, well documented medical condition is called "argyria".

I have had argyria for over 50 years and have had a webpage posted for over ten warning people of the uselessness and danger of ingesting silver. Unfortunately, as I predicted when I first heard that silver was being sold as a "dietary supplement", there are now many cases of argyria caused by silver supplements, often called "colloidal silver" or "CS".

Don't take my word. Check the following links.

http://nccam.nih.gov/health/alerts/silver/index.htm (Search here using the term "silver".)

http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/id/QAA363388 (One of the major US promoters of "dietary supplements" and "natural remedies".)

http://www.waikato.ac.nz/news/index.shtml?article=178

http://dermnetnz.org/reactions/argyria.html

http://www.fda.gov/OHRMS/DOCKETS/98fr/081799a.pdf

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/colloidal-silver/an01682

Using the search term "argyria", you will find cases here:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=pubmed

This is the site of a lawyer who is getting out-of-court settlements on behalf of people who have gotten argyria from silver supplements.

http://www.goldenberglaw.com/CM/PracticeAreaDescriptions/Colloidal_Silver-Argyria.asp

The following is one of many of the videos you'll find on the Internet of Paul Karason, the most publicized argyria case caused recently by a silver supplement. His was homemade.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa2OpNTX9Ck

Silver is sold as a "dietary supplement". This is a great article on "dietary supplements".

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/10/FDCQ1788VE.DTL

Rosemary

http://rosemaryjacobs.com

PS: I was unable to successfully register at your site to post the above in the comments under the article. Please do that for me and let me know when you have. I'd hate to see someone believe the nonsense, take silver internally and get argyria. I'd also hate to see someone wanting to use it topically throw away good money on it when to date all the reports I've gotten from scientists who have tested various brands of CS in vitro, in test tubes, has shown that none even kill common bacteria on contact like a disinfectant would.

On July 12, 2010 I saw the same article in the Danbury Times which I assumed was part of the same newspaper chain as the CTPost since the Times listed “John J. De Augustine, Connecticut Media Group Publisher” under the heading “administration”, the CTPost listed “John De Augustine” as “the Group Publisher, Hearst Newspapers” and both papers gave the same phone number for Mr. De Augustine.

I forwarded the email above to the Danbury Times. Here is the heading on the email:

From: Rosemary Jacobs

Subject: Fwd: Serious factual error

Date: July 12, 2010 10:55:05 AM EDT

To: letters@newstimes.com

I added a note saying, “Please see (the email) below. The same article was just published in the Danbury Times and again I have been unable to post a comment.”

On July 18, 2010 I emailed the following letter to the editor and also CCed it to the author, Linda Napier.

From: Rosemary Jacobs

Subject: Letters to the Editor

Date: July 18, 2010 11:28:24 AM EDT

To: edit@ctpost.com

Cc: lindanapier@netzero.com

To the Editor:

There is a serious error in the article by Linda Napier:

Candidiasis: No kidding

Published: 07:02 p.m., Monday, June 28, 2010

http://www.ctpost.com/health/article/Candidiasis-No-kidding-540387.php

Ms. Napier states that colloidal silver is "a natural antibiotic that kills more than 650 different microorganisms" and "can be applied to cutaneous (skin) candidiasis directly or as a soak for affected hands and feet."

Contrary to salesmen's claims, there is no objective evidence that CS kills any microorganisms, In fact all the in vitro (test tube) tests reported to me by scientists state that none of the brands tested has killed any of the common bacteria they tested them against. Worse still, if taken internally, silver can permanently discolor the skin. The well known, well documented medical condition is called "argyria". http://nccam.nih.gov/health/silver/

I have had argyria for over 50 years and have had a webpage posted for over ten warning people of the uselessness and danger of ingesting silver. Unfortunately, as I predicted when I first heard that silver was being sold as a "dietary supplement", there are now many cases of argyria caused by silver supplements, often called "colloidal silver" or “CS” the best known of which is Paul Karason of Oprah fame.

Rosemary Jacobs

http://rosemaryjacobs.com

Derby, VT

END LETTER

Please publish my letter wherever you published Ms. Napier's article. Here are other relative links:

http://nccam.nih.gov/health/alerts/silver/index.htm (Search here using the term "silver".)

http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/id/QAA363388 (One of the major US promoters of "dietary supplements" and "natural remedies".)

http://www.waikato.ac.nz/news/index.shtml?article=178

http://dermnetnz.org/reactions/argyria.html

http://www.fda.gov/OHRMS/DOCKETS/98fr/081799a.pdf

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/colloidal-silver/an01682

Using the search term "argyria", you will find cases here:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=pubmed

This is the site of a lawyer who is getting out-of-court settlements on behalf of people who have gotten argyria from silver supplements.

http://www.goldenberglaw.com/CM/PracticeAreaDescriptions/Colloidal_Silver-Argyria.asp

The following is one of many of the videos you'll find on the Internet of Paul Karason, the most publicized argyria case caused recently by a silver supplement. His was homemade.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa2OpNTX9Ck

Silver is sold as a "dietary supplement". This is a great article on "dietary supplements".

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/10/FDCQ1788VE.DTL

Rosemary

http://rosemaryjacobs.com

http://www.webanstrich.de/rosemary/

I never heard anything from the paper or from Ms. Napier.

Before blogging on the topic, I returned to the site on July 23, 2011 noting that no comments had been posted, neither mine nor anyone else’s. I tried posting my comment on the site again. This time I successfully registered but was still unable to post. The message that kept appearing was, “Couldn’t log you in as ‘rosemary@rosemaryjacobs.com’”

Naturopaths Advising Cancer Patients

On June 28, 2011 the website OregonLive.com published an article called Q & A with Dr. Shauna Birdsall, director of naturopathic medicine at Cancer Treatment Centers of America http://www.oregonlive.com/health/index.ssf/2011/06/q_a_with_dr_shauna_birdsall_di.html by Tatiana Sanchez, The Oregonian.

I posted the following comment, but it doesn’t appear on the site. Wonder why.

“Since naturopaths think that silver offers benefits and include it in their Vermont state formulary for IV use when in fact it is a heavy metal toxin, I would not trust them to know which supplements interfere with chemotherapy.
http://rosemaryjacobs.com/naturopaths.html
I would expect an oncologist to know this, an MD who specialized in treating people with cancer, since he would follow the scientific studies in the drug data bases, the ones that show that ingesting silver in any amount or form is all risk and no benefit. If promoters and practitioners of alternative medicine didn't spend so much time disparaging evidence-based medicine, MDs and scientists, the general public might not be so hesitant about speaking with their MDs about supplements and other alt treatments.”

The Niagara Gazette and Catherine Stack

When I read this article http://niagara-gazette.com/features/x1440313542/Natural-Health-Feeling-well-with-Candida-involves-diet-change

in the Niagara Gazette, there wasn’t a place for comments, so I sent the following email to the paper but never got a response.

From: Rosemary Jacobs

Subject: Catherine Stack

Date: May 4, 2011 4:59:19 PM EDT

To: rick.forgione@niagara-gazette.com

Cc: winterhalterm@gnnewspaper.com

In an article by Catherine Stack, "Natural Health: Feeling well with Candida..." published on May 4, 2011 Ms. Stack states, “Nutritional supplements such as probiotic’s, colloidal silver, Vitamin C, herbal or homeopathic combination formulas are extremely helpful when it comes to killing yeast.”

Is Ms. Stack paid by your publication to write articles? Does she write them for free or does she pay you to publish them? Whatever the case may be, I urge you to have a medical doctor well trained in pharmacology and toxicology review her material for accuracy. Since her statement about colloidal silver (CS) is incorrect and she also sells the product, http://stores.homestead.com/Gifts4Healing/Categories.bok, I would be quite skeptical about the rest of her claims.

CS is snake oil, at best useless and at worst harmful. It can cause argyria, discolored skin. Perhaps you have heard of Paul Karason, The Blue Man, who was all over the news even on Oprah.

Here are some references:

http://nccam.nih.gov/health/alerts/silver/index.htm (Search NCCAM using the term "silver".)

http://www.fda.gov/Food/DietarySupplements/Alerts/ucm184087.htm

http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/id/QAA363388 (One of the major US promoters of "dietary supplements" and "natural remedies".)

http://www.waikato.ac.nz/news/index.shtml?article=178

http://dermnetnz.org/reactions/argyria.html

http://www.fda.gov/OHRMS/DOCKETS/98fr/081799a.pdf

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/colloidal-silver/an01682

Using the search term "argyria", you will find cases here:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=pubmed

This is the site of a lawyer who is getting out-of-court settlements on behalf of people who have gotten argyria from silver supplements.

http://www.goldenberglaw.com/CM/PracticeAreaDescriptions/Colloidal_Silver-Argyria.asp

The following is one of many of the videos you'll find on the Internet of Paul Karason, the most publicized argyria case caused recently by a silver supplement. His was homemade.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa2OpNTX9Ck

Silver is sold as a "dietary supplement". This is a great article on "dietary supplements".

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/10/FDCQ1788VE.DTL

Also check my webpage.

Rosemary

http://rosemaryjacobs.com

http://www.webanstrich.de/rosemary/

http://rosemary-jacobs.blogspot.com

On 7/8/11 the Niagara Gazette published another article by Stack promoting colloidal silver in which she claims that, “Many studies seem to reflect that colloidal silver use has been proven to be useful against many different infections and is toxic against all species of fungi, bacteria, protozoa, parasites and certain viruses.“

She doesn’t offer references, but the medical literature is indexed, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=pubmed. I’ve been reviewing it for decades and have never seen any studies showing that ingesting silver offers any benefits although it has severely discolored many who have taken it internally. And if you check the links I sent the Gazette as I hope Ms. Stack has, you will see that neither the FDA, the National Center for Alternative and Complementary Medicine, Andrew Weil, one of the biggest US promoters of “dietary supplements” and alternative medicine or the Mayo Clinic has either. Yes, silver is a disinfectant like alcohol and peroxide and there are FDA approved topical silver drugs, but like most disinfectants, silver doesn’t kill disease causing germs inside people who ingest it. In other words, it isn’t an antibiotic. Neither is it safe to ingest.

Stack refers you to a silver promotional site that she says will tell you about “safe dosing” but fails to mention that in one of the FDA links I sent the Gazette it states, “Based on the available scientific information, FDA is not able to advise consumers of a dose or use restrictions that would minimize or eliminate the risk of argyria.”

The people that I’ve spoken to who have gotten argyria recently from silver supplements lament the fact that they believed the salesmen and promoters who insisted that the silver products they sold could not possible cause argyria. Many salesmen insisted that their silver remedies were nontoxic and that the customer could take as much as he wanted, but after the person got argyria, the salesmen blamed him, the customer, saying that he took “too much” or took or made “the wrong kind”of colloidal silver, that even though there are no toxicology studies to show how much is too much and many case reports demonstrating that ingesting silver in any form can cause argyria.

And oh yes, Ms. Stack is still selling colloidal silver. Did she mention that in her article?

http://stores.homestead.com/Gifts4Healing/StoreFront.bok

If any of you readers can answer the questions I asked the Gazette, please let me know. Is Stack paid to write her column? Does she do it for free? Does she pay the paper to publish her material? I’m told that it is quite common for papers today to publish articles for a fee without clearly stating that when the piece is published.

The story continues here: http://rosemary-jacobs.blogspot.com/2011/09/catherine-stack-niagara-gazette.html

Is The News Media A Good Source Of Factual Information?

Like most people of my generation I grew up believing the myth journalists perpetrated and often believed about themselves and their profession, the American “news” media. You know the one. We have a free press that keeps us free with journalists and editors constantly and consistently working their butts off at great personal cost and sometimes risk to get us the news that matters, the facts, the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. And when they dig up those facts, they report them in a balanced, unbiased way. If the subject is controversial or there are reputable people making opposing claims, they report both sides of the issue so that the public can draw its own conclusion. And of course, they always correct factual errors. Journalism at its purist, the complete opposite of the promotional press which uses every tool available to convince potential customers that the goods and services it writes about are worth buying, hopefully from them or someone who pays them for their promotional activities.

When I learned back in 1995 that silver was being sold as a “dietary” supplement, I intensely investigated the salesmen’s claims about their products and also about supplements in general. I began following the topics in the “mainstream news media”, the promotional press and eventually the Internet. I quickly concluded that the mainstream media has to be one of the worst places of all to find the facts essential to make informed decisions on vital issues, especially health issues, and that the promotional press often dresses itself up to look objective. Obviously the same is true for the Internet. Yet I can’t tell you how many times people have written to me about silver supplements opening with, “I’ve been researching colloidal silver, CS, and yours is the only negative site I’ve found.” I know immediately that they haven’t been researching at all. They’ve been googling, clicking on promotional sites and believing that the people who posted them were offering unbiased information, a very dangerous assumption indeed.

For that reason I plan on posting a short series of blogs sharing some of the experiences that woke me up, experiences that led me to distrust the media and stop distinguishing between journalism and promotionalism, aka, marketing, whether or not the outlet is print, broadcast or electronic.