The "TRUE" Blue Bloater on Oprah

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Just turned on Oprah and saw the only single man of the Blue Man group. Just kidding, but this man had been drinking collodial silver for several years which in the long run, turned his skin blue! Very fascinating story if you never hear about it! Just curious how many others watched this, or even have seen this story before.

Specializes in Med/Surg/Oncology.

Yes! I saw it yesterday, I just stared in awe. It just goes to show you that you shouldn't self-diagnose and self-medicate, you never know what could happen!:nono:

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Specializes in Emergency, Nursing Management, Auditing.

i actually have seen this before... in a psych patient during clinicals. i thought she was more blue-grey than blue, but she looked like a walking corpse! :lol2:

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I saw this same episode of Oprah and was floored...not only that he was blue, but that once he turned blue he just kept drinking the stuff...does anyone know what the side effects are besides looking like a smurf? ;)

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I think it must depend on the person - I've taken it in the past for different infections, and not turned blue.

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If you look up argyria on pubmed or another reliable source, you'll find that the people who turn grey/blue *always* have either (a) taken colloidal Ag every day for a long time; and/or (b) have taken it in high doses; or © have taken silver NITRATE; or (d) make their own colloidal silver (very dangerous, IMO). Colloidal silver, in concentrations of 10 to 20 ppm, taken OD or BID for 7 days and then stopped, will not, to my knowledge and research, cause argyria. I have on occasion, taken it with my doctor's knowledge when I had a stubborn UTI that would not respond to the antibiotics that it (the UTI) supposedly was sensitive to. NDs will also sometimes prescribe short-term colloidal silver therapy.

Argyria is permanent, and all the tissues of the body can be affected. The body does not have a way to excrete the excess silver. Other than making you look weird, I am not aware of any dangerous side effects of argyria.

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I thought it was "plastic spoon"....

It was for my family!

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If you look up argyria on pubmed or another reliable source, you'll find that the people who turn grey/blue *always* have either (a) taken colloidal Ag every day for a long time; and/or (b) have taken it in high doses; or © have taken silver NITRATE; or (d) make their own colloidal silver (very dangerous, IMO). Colloidal silver, in concentrations of 10 to 20 ppm, taken OD or BID for 7 days and then stopped, will not, to my knowledge and research, cause argyria. I have on occasion, taken it with my doctor's knowledge when I had a stubborn UTI that would not respond to the antibiotics that it (the UTI) supposedly was sensitive to. NDs will also sometimes prescribe short-term colloidal silver therapy.

Argyria is permanent, and all the tissues of the body can be affected. The body does not have a way to excrete the excess silver. Other than making you look weird, I am not aware of any dangerous side effects of argyria.

Lori - I believe you are correct in that. When I took it, I took it by the dropful - I didn't drink large amounts. I also only took it when I felt bad, not as a preventative.

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Specializes in LTC, Urgent Care.

This guy was on the Today Show a few weeks ago. Their doc (can't remember her name) also said that his organs are probably blue as well

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Lori - I believe you are correct in that. When I took it, I took it by the dropful - I didn't drink large amounts. I also only took it when I felt bad, not as a preventative.

Yes, the usual Tx is 5 cc in water OD or BID x 7 days. The people who use it as a preventative are nuts, IMO! I think because it gets sold as a "supplement", people think it is safe to take every day, like Vitamin C or something. :uhoh3:

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Specializes in OB, HH, ADMIN, IC, ED, QI.
If you look up argyria on pubmed or another reliable source, you'll find that the people who turn grey/blue *always* have either (a) taken colloidal Ag every day for a long time; and/or (b) have taken it in high doses; or © have taken silver NITRATE; or (d) make their own colloidal silver (very dangerous, IMO). Colloidal silver, in concentrations of 10 to 20 ppm, taken OD or BID for 7 days and then stopped, will not, to my knowledge and research, cause argyria. I have on occasion, taken it with my doctor's knowledge when I had a stubborn UTI that would not respond to the antibiotics that it (the UTI) supposedly was sensitive to. NDs will also sometimes prescribe short-term colloidal silver therapy.

Argyria is permanent, and all the tissues of the body can be affected. The body does not have a way to excrete the excess silver. Other than making you look weird, I am not aware of any dangerous side effects of argyria.

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As far as I know, OD means right eye, which is an odd place to administer silver for a urinary tract infection. Does ND mean nutritional doctor? I know I'm ancient, but this time, the current use of alphabet soup has me stymied

Thanks for letting us know the correct term for blue/grey discoloration. Since silver is sort of heavy, I wonder if those who take too much of it, gain weight from which they can't rid themselves......:yeah:

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As far as I know, OD means right eye, which is an odd place to administer silver for a urinary tract infection. Does ND mean nutritional doctor? I know I'm ancient, but this time, the current use of alphabet soup has me stymied

Thanks for letting us know the correct term for blue/grey discoloration. Since silver is sort of heavy, I wonder if those who take too much of it, gain weight from which they can't rid themselves......:yeah:

OD is an older term for "once daily", in addition to meaning "right eye". The doctor I work with still uses it, so that's why I used it. Plus, 30+ years ago, I was a pharmacy tech when lots of doctors used that abbreviation. Other doctors might say QD. Actually, OD is on the list of abbreviations that some organizations are trying to get rid of, for just the confusion you brought up.

http://www.ismp.org/ (click on "Error-Prone Abbreviation List" and a .pdf will pop up)

SO! I will stop using OD. And QD while I'm at it, since that's on the list, too. :) Thanks for bringing that up!

ND stands for Naturopathic Doctor. It means the person has graduated from one of the (very few) Naturopathic medical schools (like Bastyr U.). Not every state licenses NDs, but the grads of the schools are entitled to use ND regardless of their licensing status, just like a graduate of medical school can use MD.

Wow, you would have to ingest a *lot* of silver to gain weight from it! :lol2:

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I have a question. Chelation is often used with other metals to draw them out of the body. Does chelation not work with silver?

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