Why a supplement that tints skin blue is all the rage among alternative health circles

The HBO documentary series “Love Won: Worship of the Mother God'' begins with disturbing footage. The body of cult leader Amy Carlson lies in bed, wrapped in blankets and string lights. She is noticeably emaciated and her face is pale. When Carlson died in 2021 at the age of 45, a coroner's report deemed her cause of death to be “alcohol abuse, anorexia, and chronic colloidal silver ingestion.”

Facial discoloration is a natural part of the death process, but Carlson's face had long begun to turn blue.That's because she was taking too much colloidal silver, are small particles of metallic silver in solution. The particles are small enough that they do not sink and can be delivered in a tincture-like form.

The documentary series reveals that not only was colloidal silver a big part of Carlson's health regimen (partly guided by the so-called Galactics, including the late Robin Williams), but also the cult's widely promoted alternative health methods. It is clear that there was. followers. They sell bottles of their colloidal silver online, calling it a “cure-all” substance and one of the “most healing” medicines on the planet that can boost the body's immune system. It was advertised.

Thanks to the documentary series, colloidal silver has once again become a reality in popular culture, but not for the first time.Alex Jones promoted colloidal silver during the COVID-19 pandemic As a treatment for coronavirus. Gwyneth Paltrow once told Dr. Oz that colloidal silver “really keeps viruses away.” Before Paltrow, the libertarian was drawn to colloidal silver in his early '80s, and he owed that in part to a guy named Stan Jones. turned blue Caused by excessive intake of colloidal silver. Jones firmly grasped this idea at the turn of the millennium after attending a so-called “preparatory expo” for the impending Y2K crisis, but fortunately it never materialized. there will be a shortage of antibiotics.

Most medical professionals advise against taking silver, especially in large amounts. This is because excessive accumulation in the body can lead to the following symptoms: argiliaThis is a symptom of both Karlsson and Stan Jones going blue. Argyria alone is not a serious health condition, but it will not go away even if you stop taking silver. Additionally, too much silver can be deadly.

“If you take it in very large doses or inject it into an IV, it can cause organ failure and make you very sick,” said Rob Hendrickson, medical director of the Oregon Poison Center at Oregon Health & Science University. Ta. he told Salon. Hendrickson said people experience silver allergies as a result of silver buildup on their skin. This is why it appears bluer when exposed to sunlight. “As it turns out, the silver penetrates the layers of the skin and is eventually activated by sunlight, turning it blue.”

Historically, silver has been known to aid in the healing process of venous leg ulcers and heal wounds. Hendrickson said some catheters currently in use are coated with silver to reduce the risk of infection. Note that these are for local use and not for internal use. “While applying silver to certain bacteria or wounds may reduce infections, there is no evidence that taking colloidal silver has any health benefits,” Hendrickson said. “Certainly the infection rate has not decreased.”

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Still, tinctures are still sold (sometimes for more than $100 per vial) and promoted on social media platforms like TikTok. Why does ingesting silver continue to fascinate people on both sides of the spectrum seeking alternative medicine? Hendrickson says there's a certain allure to the metal, or that an element like silver could become a panacea. He said he thinks he has an idea.

Co-host Derek Velez conspiracy theory podcast, told Salon that he had an interest in precious metals and agreed it was a little deeper than that. Specifically, the leap from silver as a topical treatment to an internal treatment speaks to the idea that there is a one-to-one correspondence between the inner world and the outer world. . This is the same logic behind “manifesting” or “becoming your thoughts.”

“If I put silver on a wound and it healed, the same thing should happen to my organs,” Velez explained. “Of course, this is a lack of scientific literacy. But I think this is why this is so popular.”

It may come as a surprise to some that colloidal silver is embraced by both the far left and the far right. The Love Has Won cult has attracted more New Age types, but the so-called “preppers” and “survivalists” of the far right are stocking their survival kits with colloidal silver. Velez said that's not surprising, since there are many supplements common to these two groups.

“That crossover has been around for a long time,” he said. “And I think there's an anti-establishment sentiment that exists among those groups.”

Dr Stephanie Alice Baker of City, University of London, who wrote this book wellness cultureagreed that anti-establishment sentiment is what unites the two groups in the health industry.

“Both the counterculture left and the far right center on distrust of corporate and institutional expertise,” she says. “Qualified professionals are often seen as commercially and politically compromised, but these groups are rebels, figures like Andrew Wakefield, and people who are intuitive and experienced through the body. privileges 'native expertise'.

Velez said there is also a sentiment of decline common to both groups: the belief that societies and institutions are in decline. It evokes a kind of romantic nostalgia that the old days were better, especially in terms of healing.

“The idea is that we need to take cues from the past and return to those places,” he says. “Never mind that the supplements are all made in a lab and, in some cases, use pharmaceutical-grade ingredients.”

While it's true that many life-saving treatments and vaccines are available, and that people don't face as many life-threatening illnesses and illnesses as they used to, the structure of the American health care system is ripe for such pseudoscience. It makes survival possible. As my salon colleague Mary Elizabeth Williams once wrote, “It's hard to understand why opening the chakras sounds more appealing than the once-a-day pills that are always sold on Hulu. Because of this, Velez said he empathizes with people seeking treatments like colloidal silver.

“It's very frustrating to live in a system where profit takes precedence over actual medical care unless you're up to a certain level financially, which most of us aren't,” he says. Told. “People are just dissatisfied with health care and politics in general, so they try to take care of themselves and rely on other sources of information.”