What Argyria Looks Like

It has always been very difficult to capture argyria, the skin discoloration caused by silver, on film. I have had the condition for over 50 years developing it when I was a teenager.

http://rosemaryjacobs.com/rose2.html

http://rosemaryjacobs.com/rose3.html

When I was young, human beings developed photographs, and I suspect that when they saw an argyric person in one they thought, “No. This can’t be right. She can’t be this color,” and they adjusted the color mix to make us look the way they thought we should. If the photo showed us with other people, the adjustments made everyone look a little “off”, but viewers weren’t surprised because they were accustomed to photographs that often produced colors that were "a little off".

Like most argyric people, I’ve always hated to have my picture taken, but unlike most of the others, I did let some people take a few over the years, mostly my dad who was an amateur photographer, and they were mostly slides. I posted some on my webpage to show you what I looked like before I turned gray and before and after I was dermabraded.

http://rosemaryjacobs.com/argyria_photos_intro.html

At the bottom, you will see a lady who had her entire body discolored by silver.

In this digital age it is easier to show our discoloration, but often even digital photos make us look “just like you” and color appears different on different computer screens and mobile devices. It isn’t just us amateurs who have this problem. I’ve worked with lots of professionals who did too. That includes AP photographers and network TV video cameramen.

To compound matters, our discoloration changes in different light and probably when surrounded by different colors. I had been told that for years but never comprehended it till I met Arline, a lady who got argyria recently from a silver “dietary supplement” labeled “colloidal silver” or “CS”.

Arline and I met when Good Morning America flew me out to Las Vegas to meet her in person and be interviewed for one of their TV programs although we had spoken often on the phone before then. We met originally when a person who saw me on Ripley’s Believe It Or Not told Arline that she thought she had the same condition that I have and, with her permission, contacted me by email to ask that I phone Arline who doesn’t have a computer.

When I walked into the hotel room for the interview, Arline and her sister were seated with the TV producer and crew, but they looked fine to me. Neither looked discolored, until that is, we walked out into the sunlight. There Arline's discoloration was startling. It was also startling under the fluorescent light in her dermatologist's office. Yet in spite of this, the cameraman was never able to show the startling effect on video, but the following photos do. They show exactly how Arline looks at her worst, how I think I looked before I was dermabraded and how most people with generalized argyria look.

Here are photos which I think show what I look like now, post-dermabrasion, at the age of 69. As a result of the experimental procedure my face has gone from a solid gray to a splotchy gray, pink and white.

You will find more photos of argyric people if you google “argyria” or “Paul Karason”. Paul is the only person besides Arline and me that I know of with argyria who has spoken out publicly and the only one I know of who appears to be thrilled with the attention looking weird gets him. Oh how I’d love to meet him in person!

You will find case reports about argyric people on PubMed, some of which include photos, if you search using the term “argyria” or “colloidal silver”. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=pubmed

If you live in the US and find articles indexed on PubMed that you'd like to read, go to the library at your local hospital. The librarian may have them or be able to get you copies at little or no cost.

What VT NDs Apparently Didn't Know About Silver

What Vermont Naturopaths Apparently Didn’t Know Until I Told Them -
Silver Can Make You Look Like Me Or Paul Karason, The Blue Man Of Oprah Fame. We have argyria. I’m gray. Paul is blue.

What the naturopaths did not know is that silver, the natural element they think is a drug, is a heavy metal toxin which should never be taken internally or put in your eye. It can disfigure you by permanently discoloring your skin (argyria) and eyes (argyrosis). Silver has no known function in the body and does not prevent or cure any illness. It is snake oil! Doctors who learn scientific medicine in school rather than an archaic, pre-scientific, belief-based system like naturopathy have known this for over fifty years. If naturopaths had any knowledge of pharmacology or toxicology, they would have known it too.

This isn’t about one or two ignorant naturopaths, one or two bad apples. It is about a whole barrel full. How do I know that? Because naturopaths included silver in their Vermont Naturopathic Formulary, the list of drugs that they are permitted to use!
http://rosemary-jacobs.blogspot.com/2010/08/naturopaths-silver_6314.html

When I pointed out their mistake, they brushed me off! What does that tell you about their concern for patients?

Rosemary Jacobs
rosemary@rosemaryjacobs.com
http://rosemaryjacobs.com
http://rosemary-jacobs.blogspot.com

Naturopaths Using Heavy Duty Pharmaceuticals

I know little about pharmacy and am not about to investigate it trying to re-invent the wheel when there are so many people already expert in the field, although I’d be amazed if any of them are NDs (naturopaths). Hopefully, real scientists will notice what naturopaths are up to and report what they discover to the public be it good, bad or neutral.

With my limited knowledge it looks bad, very, very bad. Looking at the NH Naturopathic Formulary http://www.nh.gov/pharmacy/documents/naturo-form.pdf which lists things like: insulin - synthetic and human; erythromycins; dosycycline; tetracycline; vancomycin; ephedrine; epinephrine, including auto-inject forms; yohimbine; nicotine; heparin; lovastatin; benzodiazepines; lithium; hydrocortisone; tamoxifen; estrogen; progesterone; testosterone; growth hormone; oxygen; a long list of vaccinations; under botanicals - cocaine, codeine, morphine and opiates are excluded while needles, syringes and IV tubing are included under periphenalia, I get the impression that NDs have, for quite some time, been using heavy duty pharmaceuticals, prescription medications, derived from both natural animal and vegetable sources, drugs like insulin and penicillin, drugs made from isolated active ingredients which scientists have identified, extracted or synthesized and standardized into pill and liquid forms - well studied drugs which have been dispensed by pharmacists and prescribed by MDs for decades. I suspect that NDs have been using these real drugs everywhere where they have formularies that permit them to use drugs “derived from natural products” even when those formularies don’t spell out the drugs as NH’s does. I also suspect that NDs who claim that they use “science-based natural treatments” do so because they believe that using real drugs derived from natural sources, the FDA approved kind, makes their practices "science-based" even when they don't understand what science is. If they did they wouldn't study and practice Classical Homeopathy or include silver in their formulary.

I also get the feeling that today at least some NDs are learning what our ancestors learned a few generations ago, which is that many synthetic drugs are far superior to the natural kind. This would explain why naturopaths who identify themselves as practitioners of "natural medicine", have been slipping synthetic drugs into their formularies. Apparently experience has been leading some of them to conclude that many if not most synthetic, or man made drugs, work better and are safer and cheaper than the natural stuff NDs have used traditionally. http://www.oregonlive.com/health/index.ssf/2009/06/what_the_latest_legislation_on.html.

Sounds like they are re-inventing the wheel to me. Those who practice scientific or evidence-based medicine and those of us who have studied history learned long ago why herbal concoctions or “remedies” were replaced by standardized pharmaceuticals, often synthetic, starting around 100 years ago. Where have the NDs been all that time? Ironing their white coats? Out picking weeds?

From looking at promotional material produced by NDs that is posted on the Internet, including their personal websites, I get the feeling that there is a split taking place in their ranks with some favoring keeping to their original path as natural healers and others trying to become MDs by slipping in the back door undetected without ever earning their place in the clinic or hospital.

I respect those who practice their belief-based system of medicine even though I don’t believe it offers health benefits and know it can harm people, like those who use silver internally and in their eyes, but I consider the others very dangerous. The others being those who believe or try to make others believe that they practice scientific medicine and who use pharmaceutical drugs when they lack the knowledge and understanding of science and evidence-based medicine to do so. I believe that NDs who really believe that their education has trained them to work as MDs or that they practice scientific medicine are naturally deluded.

Lacking the time and resources to investigate the old-fashioned way by interviewing NDs, I will do it the new-fashioned way by posting my views and asking those I’ve linked to to review them, correct factual errors and make comments if they care to.