Reply #79: Silver Health Scams Spread Online (Wired Magazine)

[Ian David]

Rosemary Jacobs' skin turned gray when she was a teenager and has stayed that way for five decades.

She suffers from a rare skin condition called argyria, which she contracted after taking nose drops containing silver salts to treat nasal congestion in the 1950s.

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Despite modern medicine and a ruling by the Food and Drug Administration that such remedies are ineffective, companies selling silver remedies have resurfaced online in recent years, hawking their products as a cure-all for everything from cancer to herpes.

"Silver solutions are one of the most widely marketed health scams on the Internet," said Rich Cleland, the assistant director for the Federal Trade Commission's Division of Advertising Practices, which monitors false health claims.
<snip>
Outraged at the phenomenon, Jacobs launched her own website to advise consumers of the side effects of silver remedies.

They pulled silver out of the garbage pail of discarded medical practices and are making money off it on the Internet," said Jacobs, now a 60-year-old retired teacher who lives in Vermont.

More:
http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,57119,00.html



See also:
http://together.net/~rjstan


The photos above were taken in 1978 a few months before I was dermabraded. I am not wearing lipstick as one of the current silver salesmen believes. My lips appear reddish in many old photos. I would guess that it is becaise of the contrast with the gray.

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These photos were taken the day after the dermabrasion. My face is swollen but it didn't hurt.

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This is how I look today. As a result of the dermabrasion I have pink splotches on my face.



This is a photo of a lady who had argyria. It was taken a few years before she died, around 30 years ago. Her whole body was affected.