Horrific skin care advice: colloidal silver| Dr Dray
well hey guys so in today’s video i’m going to talk about colloidal silver especially with unfortunately the global pandemic i feel as though it’s getting a lot of attention for immune boosting and whatnot and then of course relevant to this channel is going to be the topical use of colloidal silver and skin care what the flip is up with silver and why the heck would we ever care about either ingesting it or putting it on our skin silver is antimicrobial it can reduce bacteria and fungi and also it is anti-inflammatory we use silver topically in medicine to treat wounds we use a variety of silver impregnated dressings to treat burns for example silver sulfadiazine aka silvadine or silver nitrate but no self-respecting physician out there is prescribing or suggesting patients in just silver it’s actually very dangerous i think in these skin care interwebs among skin care enthusiasts there is interest in using silver for acne that’s where i get the most questions about colloidal silver i mean it makes some sense to pursue it like i’m not knocking people for wondering about it because it is antibacterial and it’s anti-inflammatory and actually some dermatologists will use silvadine in the treatment of acne in a limited fashion one of the major issues though with either ingesting silver or putting it on your skin is a condition called argeria [Music] what the heck is this well silver deposits in many organ systems and tissues throughout the body when you ingest it it’s absorbed in the small intestines it can be deposited in various organs and have major major systemic adverse side effects that are super dangerous when ingested it deposits in the skin structures you can actually see it when you do a biopsy hanging out there in your sweat glands skin turns slate blue gray especially in areas that are exposed to the sun silver leads to increased production of melanin the pigment that our skin makes so that leads to hyperpigmentation but then the silver itself actually reacts with uv to lead to this disfiguring permanent slate blue discoloration now really where this is most dramatic are is in cases where people ingest colloidal silver and like these homeopathic remedies unfortunately but you definitely can have this happen if you’re applying it topically to the skin it is a known adverse effect of using silvadine to treat a wound you can get localized algeria to where you’re using it this is a case of a guy who was using silvadine and went out in the sun and this happened i mean it’s a rare complication but it’s also been reported in burn victims who were given silver impregnated dressings to apply to their wounds led to this disfiguring slate slate blue gray just dis pigmentation on the skin not not a good thing so that is a known adverse effect of using silvadine in the medical setting where you’re supervised by a physician so like why would you want to put yourself at risk for this yeah so i don’t recommend applying colloidal silver to the skin for this reason is i mean especially with acne right like pimples themselves the skin there is is susceptible to irritation and if you think about it the skin of a pimple the barrier is compromised so you’re going to get potentially even more of that silver taken up into the lesions of acne that can deposit in the pore and and whatnot and cause this horrible permanent disfiguring hyperpigmentation dispigmentation the slate blue discoloration of the skin and in the case of acne on the face you’re putting it somewhere that’s sun exposed so it’s even riskier for those people on the internet who are promoting ingesting colloidal silver this has got to stop you guys it’s super dangerous um beyond just the cosmetic issue of turning blue uh silver it doesn’t just deposit in your skin it deposits in your organs it can lead to coma hemolysis which is basically rupture of your blood cells and it also can deposit uh in your nails turn your nails blue uh and in your mouth in your conjunctiva turn your eyeballs blue it also can cause bone marrow suppression wipe out your white blood cells completely which you know when i hear this being touted as immune boosting it’s like no it’s actually the opposite it can destroy your bone marrow so yeah no this is not immune boosting it’s potentially immune destructive i’m telling you i in my residency as a matter of fact uh the first year of residency if you’re not aware uh for dermatology we’re actually in the hospital we don’t do any dermatology in our first year we take care of patients in the hospital who have various diseases and whatnot and i remember very clearly having a patient who was admitted and frank renal failure had to go on dialysis from ingesting colloidal silver so i you know i have a personal connection based on caring for patients who have unfortunately had negative effects from ingesting this so it’s something i want to warn you guys against so yeah that’s what i have to say about colloidal silver it is hokey and dangerous stay away um oh one other thing one other potential risk of colloidal silver too that i forgot to mention is good old-fashioned contact dermatitis like it’s not as though in these colloidal silver suspensions you’re getting like pure pure pure silver you’re going to get a silver alloy that is inevitable what is an alloy it’s it’s kind of you know other metals are added to kind of soften the the metal so you in gold for example other metals will be present to make it malleable and that’s the case with silver as well so it can have nickel in it and there have been many many many reports of contact dermatitis to topically applied silver and even even in the medical setting with using silvadine or silver nitrate sticks patients can have allergic contact dermatitis to it and so it’s it’s something that you’re also going to put yourself at risk for if you use silver in your skin care products um and again there’s no reason to there’s no reason to yeah potentially disfiguring side effects no data for benefit in in in the case of acne the thing i find ironic is that a lot of the same people who get enthusiastic over using colloidal silver are the same people who will be freaked out by the fact that sunscreen chemicals will be detected in the blood even though we’ve been using sunscreen for decades with zero evidence of harm to human health and just because things are detected in the blood doesn’t mean that they’re dangerous people get freaked out over that but at the same time be ingesting or applying colloidal silver which yes is absorbed significantly in the body deposited in all organs can cause coma bone marrow toxicity turn you into a smurf and yet this is all natural etc i mean yeah i don’t get it there’s a disconnect there in my mind but we are all exposed to silver in our day-to-day life so while i discourage you from using colloidal silver i don’t want you to like be afraid of touching a silver ring or something like that it’s not it’s not that that intense but when it comes to these colloidal silver products it’s definitely it’s definitely a risk because here you are putting like straight up silver on the skin to essentially a wound in the case of acne so it’s more of a risk but like you know for example in pillows you’ll find silver it helps keep dust mites away um you know that’s not gonna be absorbed into you into your skin like that because it’s dispersed and whatnot it’s not like you’re straight up putting it in the skin so i hope that clarifies my thoughts on colloidal silver stay away from the colloidal silver products you guys you know unless it’s been prescribed to you for the treatment of some kind of wound or injury through your physician like in the case of silvadine um yeah otherwise stay away from it and if you do have a prescription of silvadine laying around don’t just use it willy-nilly on stuff because the internet tells you to do so that can potentially obviously be dangerous another thing keep remembering thing i keep coming up with stuff another thing about silver too is like it’s going to get washed down the drain and that actually can have potentially adverse effects on the ecosystem and what not in the environment have that high burden of silver silver going on into the out into the environment like that yes it is natural but you know bolusing it into into the ecosystem through skin care you know potentially can disrupt things so i hope this video was helpful to you guys and if you liked it give it a thumbs up share with your friends and as always don’t forget sunscreen and subscribe i’ll talk to you guys tomorrow bye [Music] you
