Author Topic: About Argyria  (Read 9763 times)

Offline kephra

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About Argyria
« on: January 01, 2014, 06:42:41 PM »
Argyria
Copyright (c) 2014 W. G. Peters (aka kephra)

Argyria is the gray/blue discoloration of the skin caused by the ingestion of certain types of silver preparations. According to studies done with electron microscopes, the blue/gray color is the result of silver compounds within the cells. The silver compounds inside the cell have been determined to be silver sulfide (sulfur) and silver selenide (selenium).

The major types of silver are metallic or ionic.

Ionic silver means the silver exists as a soluble compound with other substances, like oxides, chlorides, nitrates, citrates, acetates, etc. In its ionic state, the silver has a positive electric charge because it has donated an electron to the other part of the compound. Not all silver compounds are soluble, and therefore are not ionic. Insoluble compounds are not ionic. Silver sulfide for example is a silver compound that is not water soluble and therefore not ionic in water.

Metallic silver is a cluster of individual silver atoms about 15 billionths of a meter in diameter, and carries no net electric charge because it has not given any electrons away. However, it has an effective negative charge because its electrons are on the surface of the atoms. Opposite electric charges attract to each other, while like electric charges repel.

This difference in electric charge (Zeta potential) is very important in understanding how argyria occurs. Human cells require certain ions for life, like sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium etc. Human cells carry a negative electric charge on their surface which attracts positively charged ions like sodium and potassium to their surface where they are ingested through special pores on the cell wall. Metallic silver particles are not attracted to cell walls, so it is not possible for metallic silver to enter a cell and be trapped inside. Also, metallic silver particles are at least 50 times larger than an ion, and 10 times larger than an amino acid.  As such, they are far too large to enter through the cells’s pores. 

Many purveyors of colloidal silver say that ionic silver cannot cause argyria because ions are the smallest size and cannot get ‘stuck’ within cells. The fallacy of this argument is that it assumes that the silver ion remains an ion, but this is untrue. Once inside the cell, the silver ions combine with sulfur in the cell and become insoluble silver sulfide, or combine with selenium and become insoluble silver selenide. These silver compounds are very stable and there is no way for them to leave the cell, they are permanently bound to the intracellular structures.

So, ionic silver is attracted to cell walls, and will enter them the same way that the essential metal ions like sodium and potassium. Once inside, they chemically react with any sulfur or selenium in the cell and become insoluble. At that point they are stuck with no way out. As more silver becomes trapped, it begins to color the cell the characteristic blue/gray hue that Paul Karason is famous for.

Granted, it takes a long time and a lot of silver to make your skin turn blue. This is because most of the ionic silver is absorbed by the cells of a person’s internal organs long before it gets to the skin. However, it is cumulative, and builds up slowly. The first place it becomes visible is the whites of the eyes and the fingernails. Also, most of the silver which escapes being quickly absorbed by the cells of the digestive tract and liver will soon be converted to metallic silver by the glucose and other antioxidant chemicals in the blood. However, some remains as free ions circulating with the blood, and ends up in skin cells. It is the ionic silver which has been converted in the body to metallic which becomes effective against pathogens. This has been proved by electron microscope studies of metallic silver attacking bacteria.

Bacteria carry a different electric charge than human cells, which causes them to attract to and enter and infect cells. This charge difference also makes them attracted to metallic silver particles. When they come into contact, the difference in electric field between the two burns a hole in the cell membrane of the bacteria, effectively killing it and at the same time creates a silver ion which is delivered directly to the bacteria; a one two punch.  Therefore, it would be wise to avoid ionic silver and use only metallic silver which effectively targets the pathogens.

To tell whether your silver is metallic or ionic is very simple. Ionic silver is clear like plain water, and has a metallic taste. Metallic silver is yellow colored and is tasteless.

« Last Edit: January 03, 2024, 03:03:26 PM by kephra »
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Online cfnisbet

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Re: About Argyria
« Reply #1 on: September 19, 2019, 01:55:01 PM »
Note from Kephra concerning Argyria, copied here from another topic, as a memorandum.

Cancer cells may have different zeta potentials than healthy cells, which is why gold nanoparticles seem to target cancer cells.  It has always been my contention that zeta potential is very important as to whether an AgNP is attracted to and subsequently enters into healthy cells.  Ordinary healthy cells must present a negative potential, otherwise they would repel sodium, potassium, and other ions they need to survive.  Silver is the most electrically conductive, with the most mobile electrons, which make it appear very negative (even though its electrically neutral overall).  This in fact is what keeps the AgNP suspended in water.

So healthy cells should repel AgNP.  If bacteria were negative, they would not be able to approach healthy cells, so that criteria suggests that bacteria should have a positive potential.  Therefore, AgNP should be attracted to bacteria, and not healthy cells.  To my knowledge, for the past 11 years since I started this forum, I never found any reports of AgNp causing Argyria, which bears out my theories.  Lots of reports of colloidal silver were implicated, but most colloidal silver users actually used ionic silver, not knowing the difference, so most of those reports were unreliable.

My alternative medicine doctor's wife took 1 cup of 20 ppm colloidal silver per day for 5 years and showed no signs of Argyria, which is more proof to me that AgNp does not enter normal cells while there is plenty of proof that ionic silver does.  It has always been my philosophy to steer people away from anything which might harm them, and that included ionic silver.