Singing the Blues, Feeling Blue, but Turning Blue?
by Caroline
What would you do if one day you woke up and every single skin cell on your body appeared to be tattooed blue? That’s what happened to fifty-seven year old Paul Karason.
The condition that Paul has been diagnosed with is known as argyria. Argyria is caused by prolonged exposure to silver salts. In Paul’s case he contacted argyria by ingesting too much silver salts. Fourteen years ago Paul suffered from acid reflux, sinus issues, and arthritis. One day he was reading in a medical magazine that talked of this medical practice. He decided to try it. All Paul had to do was buy a generator and have water and silver wire on hand to produce the silver salts. Every night he would drink a small glass of the silver salt mixture he made. People magazine quotes him saying,
I suffered from a chronic case of acid reflux and within three days it just disappeared. I’d had terrible sinus trouble forever, and that drained completely within three weeks. After three months, the arthritis in my shoulder was completely gone. (Clark)
Little did Paul know that the side effects would change his life. He became so addicted to silver salt that he would even apply it to his skin thinking it would help with any inflammations or skin cracks. In 1998 Paul’s skin began to turn blue. When he noticed this he immediately stopped the silver salt application to his skin, but would still occasionally drink it. Today this unique man lives in California and he will probably never be the same.
On January 7, 2008 Paul sat down with the Today Show and did an interview on his condition. Check out the interview here.
Paul’s condition isn’t as common in the U.S. as it used to be. The simple definition of argyria is a grey to blue discoloration of the skin and deep tissues after a long exposure to soluble silver salts. This article states that a while ago people got it from mining silver to making silverware. Any type of prolonged exposure could give you a chance of getting argyria The article also compared amounts of silver in a normal person’s body and the amount in someone’s body with argyria. A normal person had 1 mg in their body while people with the argyria ranged from 4-40 grams of silver. Another person known to have this is the Blue Man in the Barnum and Bailey Circus. So even though silver salt helped Paul Karason out of his troubles, the side effects might not have been worth it. As it said in the video, the color you see on the outside is probably the color you will see on the inside!
Non-Internet Sources:
Clark, Champ. “Forever Blue.” People 28 Jan. 2008: 149-150.
Have you ever heard of this medical condition?
What other information can you find on this condition?
What would you do if tomorrow you woke up blue?
February 18th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
I just want to clarify the use of People magazine as a source of information. Caroline asked me if it was appropriate to use People as a source and my first thought was to say no. But, then I decided that as long as she got her science background information from a credible source, it would be fine for her to use the direct quotations from the blue man that were in People. Please note the difference and ask me if you have any questions.
Also, I rushed to publish this post because the blue man will be a guest on tomorrow’s Oprah show. For those of you who are waiting for your post to be published I apologize that your post was leapfrogged. It just seemed like a timely post. Your post will be published soon.
February 19th, 2008 at 8:19 am
That is so amazing! I never would have thought of a person changing another color except for red or something more normal.
On another article it also mentions that argyria can also turn your gums and nails blue along with other serious side affects including:Seizures and other neurological problems, Kidney damage, Indigestion, Headaches and fatigue, Skin irritation.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/1/19/meet-the-man-with-blue-skin.aspx
Many websites say this man is in serious need for medical attention soon or he might die especially from the massive amounts of silver salt that he is still drinking even today.
I hope when people reed this article or watch the today show they look at it as something that is interesting but not something that is in any way looked up upon. Since it is a serious medical condition that this man does not even know about.
February 19th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
Wow, Caroline, that’s really interesting. It must be awful to have your skin change color like that. If you go to http://rosemaryjacobs.com/ you can read the story of a woman who had the same problem. She took the silver in the fifties because a doctor prescribed it to her. Now, she’s slate grey.
This website (http://dermatology.cdlib.org/111/case_reports/argyria/wadhera.html) has some good information on argyria. It has been documented all the way back in the eighth century! The effects of the silver can be even worse, though, like Charlotte said. The website also says,
“Consumption of large doses of colloidal silver can result in coma, pleural edema, and hemolysis. Colloidal silver is also toxic to the bone marrow and may be associated with agranulocytosis. The toxic effects of inorganic silver ingested orally in large doses are very similar to any corrosive solution. Such ingestion can result in burning of the throat and epigastrium, leading to abdominal pain, vomiting, and diarrhea. The patient often suffers convulsions and goes into shock. The single lethal dose of silver nitrate has been estimated to be 10 gm. Silver salts are more toxic than silver proteins or colloidal silver.”
Cool post, Caroline.
February 20th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
First i’d like to say that the title of this post was really catchy. I had also read this article in People magazine and found the condition very interesting. I found a quote that Paul Karason said, “The change was so gradual that I didn’t perceive it and other people around me likewise,” said Karason. “It wasn’t until a friend I hadn’t seen in several months came by my parent’s place to see me and he asked me ‘what did you do?.’” If I had this condition it would seem as if I would notice an immediate change in my appearance. I didn’t understand what the silver salt solution was so I did some research and found that it is called colloidal silver which is a suspension of the element silver in a solution usually water. This is what Paul Karason used and which ultimately turned him blue.
http://www.revolutionhealth.com/blogs/newsbarista/man-claims-silver-sup-10391?s_kwcid=blue%20man|930780774
Also, if I woke up tomorrow morning and turned blue I would completely freak out and not want to be seen in public fearing people would stare at me. Maybe there could be a cure for this.. any hypotheses?
February 21st, 2008 at 8:02 pm
If I woke up tomorrow and I was blue, I would probably think that I was dying of being like 2 degrees in body temperature, but I would never have suspected this disease. I remember Caroline telling me a while ago about this man, but I’ve never heard of this disease before. Looking at Charlotte’s website, I also find it really weird that this man is not more worried about what is happening to him, and he is still drinking the silver salts! Does he realize things could become way more serious? It is very interesting that he didn’t even realize it because it was so gradual; HOW CAN YOU MISS SOMETHING LIKE THAT??? On that website that Katie found, what really jumped out at me was that colloidal salts aren’t approved by the FDA (surprise, surprise) but is sold as a dietary supplement, and the salespeople won’t include any of the stories of Rosemary and others who have suffered the consequences from this. The websites say that argyria is irreversible, so I’m not really sure a cure could be found. I think the best advice is to listen to these people who suffer from it now and medical articles, and don’t start taking colloidal salts in the first place, and there is no problem. I also find it sad that Rosemary said she was unable to find a job because she was grey. I can’t believe she was being judged by the color of her skin which occurred because of a medical condition!!! What is wrong with some people?
Here is a great website I found on argyria; it’s a GOLDMINE of information, including a possibility that 5% hydroquinone may reduce the number of silver granules in the upper dermis and around sweat glands and diminish the number of melanocytes and a long list of side effects of being exposed to too much silver.
http://www.emedicine.com/DERM/topic595.htm
According to the story of another woman who had argyria, if you are really desperate to not be blue, you can have your top layer of skin sanded off. I think I would rather be blue!! Here is the link.
http://rosemaryjacobs.com/argyria_photos_intro.html
Loved the post Caroline!! In the cases of these people, you really do look how you feel!
February 23rd, 2008 at 6:24 pm
If I woke up the next day and I was blue, I’d probably yell really loud and try to wash it off. I was watching tv and saw a story about a woman who had this disease, but was silver instead of blue. In her case though her skin actually had silver in it. She had become addicted to her medicine (like what Paul had) and had turned silver because of it. I don’t even see how this would even work. I would think that it would just temporarily help your symptoms. Before I read Charlotte’s article she posted, I thought that Argyria only affected your skin. I Guess I was wrong!
February 23rd, 2008 at 10:47 pm
I’m deffinitely never exposing my self to silver salts. That is one of the weirdest things i’ve ever seen. It might be funny for a day for a joke or something but it would be awful to live with such an embaressing medical problem not only external physical appearance but horrible medical consequences internally as well. In evelyn’s comment she said you could have your top layer of skin sanded off if you really didn’t want to be blue.. how awful. That sounds incredibly painful and I would rather just avoid the situation all together. Unfortunately for Paul Karason i’m sure he would not have willingly given himself such unfortunate lasting problems. In Katie’s link to the story of Rosemary Jacob’s that on the other hand is also very upsetting since it was doctor prescribed. Even though it is a different issue in it she claimed that if the doctor had done medical research versus what the media was saying she would’ve been fine. Great Post Caroline!
February 24th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
That is absolutley incredible!!! It’s like a real life, never ending Blue Man Group concert!!! I thought Evelyn’s comment about the silver salts being sold without FDA approval was odd. Is it even legal to sell something like that? And who would buy it if it was not FDA approved? That right there says somehting I would think. The post asked what I would think if I woke up and I was blue. I would totally freak out. I would probably spend hours trying to wash it off thinking it was some stain from markers or something. I also might scream at my sister and think it was some prank she played on me or something. The disease would be the last thing i would have thought of. Actually, it would probably take a doctor to diagnose that disease before I would think about it. That would be so awful to be literally blue all the time. Imagine all the jokes people would make about you. It would be very hard to make friends and it probably would be hard to get a job too. I felt shivers go down my spine when I read about being able to have your top layer of skin sanded off to not be blue. That sounds excruciatingly painful. Not to mention all the raw skin that would be underneath that layer of skin. It hurts bad enough to have just a little patch of raw skin exposed when you get a cut or something, just imagine what it would feel like to have that raw, painful skin all over your entire body!! ugh.
February 25th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
I did a little research on silver salts. Silver is toxic! But for more than 40 years we have known that silver is a hard, proven carcinogen - a cancer-causing agent. Metallic silver is listed in the 1979 Registry of Toxic Effects as causing cancer in animals. Claims that it is safe have come primarily from the companies that make silver products - hardly a trustworthy source of unbiased information. Silver in any form is a bio-accumulative toxic heavy metal, like mercury, lead, and arsenic. Its action as an antibiotic comes from the fact that it is a non-selective toxic “biocide.” Silver causes immune dysfunction. When the human immune and detoxification system encounters a heavy metal such as silver, it goes into overdrive in its attempt to detoxify and remove it, as described above. Glutathione, the primary detoxifying antioxidant, is utilized in this process. If the person has a chronic illness such as hepatitis C, the glutathione that had been utilized in detoxifying viral free radical toxins and killing viruses is now siphoned off into silver detoxification. The result could be a sudden progression of the disease, the exact opposite of what the silver proponents claim. Silver has no purpose in the human body. Silver is not used in any known physiological process in the human body. It is treated by the body as a toxic heavy metal, chelated and removed extremely slowly by proteins called metallothioneins. This removal process can easily be overwhelmed, leading to argyria. Silver has an affinity to cell membranes, including those of nerve cells, where it deposits permanently as silver sulfide. This is a typical pattern of heavy metal toxicity.
http://www.cqs.com/silver.htm
February 25th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
My mom has severe acid reflux, and when I read this I freaked, but lucky for me she doesn’t take silver salts (in fact my dad had never even heard of that before). I had never heard of this medical condition before and it sounds really scary. If I turned blue one day, I would probably scream really loud. It would be terrifying to see normal skin one day, adn then wake up as a blueberry. It would be like Charlie and the Chocolate factory happening all over again. Silver Salts are also known as Colloidal Silver. It can also turn you silver or grey as well. This doctor, Dr. Barrett, thinks that it is a “Risk Without Benifit.”
http://www.quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/PhonyAds/silverad.html
March 2nd, 2008 at 5:42 pm
To answer Steph’s questions I think that people sell the stuff no matter what any medical establishment says. There are drugs out there that people use that definitely have never been approved by the FDA. In Paul’s case he was pretty much willing to do anything to rid him of some of the problems he had. It is not to this extreme, but picture yourself very sick and none of the medical treatments are helping you. One day you read up on a drug that was used centuries ago and it helped heal the people with your condition. Would you be willing to try it if it was the last thing left that could cure your disease (Remember you don’t know the side effects at this point-all you think is that it will help you with the disease)? In the video that was attached to the post Nancy, a doctor, said that the silvers used to be used before antibiotics were invented. Roman soldiers used them when they were at war. When Paul read about this he probably thought that this could be an end to his miseries. Also when I saw what Evelyn said about Rosemary and sanding the top layer of your skin off…not only would that hurt, but it would not exactly fix the problem. In the video it said that the color you see on the outside is what you probably see on the inside, so thinking about that the only thing that the sanding is helping with is your outside appearance. I have a feeling that Rosemary still has all the symptoms of the disease because it still exists in her body.
Also I found the article on Oprah’s site after she interviewed him on his show. Surprisingly enough today silver salts are given to newborns to keep them from getting a certain disease at childbirth and are sometimes used to treat burns, so the silver is still out there for people to get their hands on. Here is the article on her site…
http://www.oprah.com/health/oz/slide/20080219/oz_20080219_350_101.jhtml
March 7th, 2008 at 12:07 am
Intrestingly enough, he said that he just knew it was stored in the skin (excess), and so with the other symptoms getting better, I think I’d probally keep taking it also. In this video I found, he was really happy. It’s the same interview of the interview on the Today show.
What amazed me was that he actually had a girlfriend, and when she was asked, “If you didn’t know who this person was before you met him in person, who you still be together today?” And she replied no. That’s a strong woman, and just knowing today’s society, outward appearance is everything.
Also, good post, but I found the picture to be a bit misleading. At first I thought Paul played the guitar, so I went around, looking for a video of him playing. Other than that, it’s good. But, if you saw the interview, just listen to the guy’s responses to the questions. They’re good, and well thought out, without the time to think about it.