Candace Owens (L) and a patient with argyria (R)
(Picture: Getty Images/Hendrik A. van Dijk)Candace Owens has told fans that she takes a daily supplement of silver - an evidence-free quack treatment can turn users’ skin permanently blue.
The right-wing media personality posted a video to Instagram last week in which she said she uses colloidal silver as a daily supplement.
“I take colloidal silver every single day, I love colloidal silver,” she said. “That is a great one. That is another one that people probably know nothing about.”
Colloidal silver is made up of tiny silver particles suspended in liquid.
The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) says that not only is evidence for its benefits lacking, it can in fact be dangerous to your health.
“Silver has no known function or benefits in the body when taken by mouth. Colloidal silver and other complementary products or practices that have not been proven safe and effective should never be used to replace conventional medical care.”
Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter
The biggest side-effect is a condition called argyria, which is a bluish-gray skin discoloration that can be permanent.
It is an often-pushed ‘treatment’ in some corners of the internet, and Stan Jones - a Libertarian politician in Montana - turned his skin blue by consuming too much of the stuff.
He started taking colloidal silver in 1999 for fear Y2K disruptions would cause a shortage of antibiotics. He said people now ask him if it’s permanent and if he’s dead. “I tell them I’m practicing for Halloween.”
While the teaspoon dose recommended by Candace may sound like a small amount, there is evidence that a man who took a similar amount for allergies saw his fingernails turn blue.
People on Twitter were, naturally, horrified:
No, no, no, no, please don’t ingest silver pic.twitter.com/I1mnU9r5pu
— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) December 27, 2021
Others joked that it was taking the right-wing’s ‘Blue Lives Matter’ slogan to extremes:
Blue Lives Matter pic.twitter.com/TAN9o5jsgx
— A Feast for Dermestids (@colindickey) December 27, 2021
Owens is in interesting company, too, with the pushing of silver.
InfoWars’ Alex Jones was ordered by the FDA to stop pushing silver toothpaste in 2020, which he said could prevent or treat covid.
It’s been a tough week for Owens, who had a disastrous interview with Donald Trump in which he shot down her criticism of the coronavirus vaccines by praising them as “very good”.
She later went into damage-control mode and claimed Trump is “too old” to read anti-vaccine information online.
