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 A “research group” from Mount Sinai in New York used personal data from a patient database (without the patients’ knowledge) in an AI algorithm system to see not only who might have a proclivity toward disease, but what kind: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/604087/the-dark-secret-at-the-heart-of-ai/.
They named it Deep Patient: "Without any expert instruction, Deep Patient had discovered patterns hidden in the hospital data that seemed to indicate when people were on the way to a wide range of ailments, including cancer of the liver. There are a lot of methods that are “pretty good” at predicting disease from a patient’s records, says Joel Dudley, who leads the Mount Sinai team. But, he adds, “this was just way better.” " In other studies, AI has also ‘predicted’ other diseases, like heart disease, alzheimers, and even premature death. The medical insurance industry already been utilizes “health care” panels of people to decide who gets to receive medical treatment (and to what extent) and who does not. And that is bad enough. Now imagine a computer algorithm—that even the minds that invent them and set them in motion admit they do not fully understand—gets to decide whether someone is deemed ‘worthy’ for treatment or not. Imagine a computer reading your x-ray, or analyzing your bloodwork--this disastrous idea is one of the latest to emerge from the ‘healthcare’ industry.
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The use of plants and minerals as remedies for the healing of the human body is well known to most people with a cursory knowledge of ancient (and alternative) medicine, but some may be surprised to learn that one of the oldest medicines is not derived from a plant, but from a metal. Silver, the third most commonly utilized metal in the ancient world after gold and copper, possesses a wide range of medicinal uses. There is evidence that as early as 3,000 B.C., man had learned to isolate silver from other metals, and it was identified by the Chaldeans as early as 2,000 B.C. Silver was one of the most valued healing and preserving agents during ages past, due largely to the fact that it is extraordinarily antimicrobial. Indeed, it is extremely effective against most all organisms against which it has been tested in modern times.  Some of its most popular applications for the past 5,000 to 6,000 years have been: · Wound healing (Vulnerary)/Wound dressing · Antimicrobial · Antibiotic/antibacterial · Antifungal · Food preservative · Water preservative · Sunburn and burn remedy · Stomach ulcers · Antiviral · Water purification · Food preservative There are many methods to making silver products, as it can be bound with different substances which result in various compounds, such as silver nitrate, silver chloride, ionic silver, colloidal silver, silver oxide, etc. Each form possesses its own unique range of uses. Some can be used internally and most all forms can be used topically, the application largely dependent on the area of the body that needs treatment. It is generally understood that ionic silver and true colloidal silver are the safest forms for ingesting, although recommended dosages vary wildly. Since the medical establishment and government agencies responsible for health are mostly silent on the subject of oral consumption (except for the occasional fear-mongering), the prescriptions and dosing are left to the manufacturing companies and/or individuals taking silver. Silver in the Past In the Bible, there are many accounts of the use of silver as currency as well as its valued function for drinking vessels. Silver vessels were also heavily utilized by the Greeks, Romans, and Phoenicians to preserve both water and food by preventing bacterial growth. Herodotus wrote that no king of Persia would dare drink water that had not been transported in silver cisterns. The cisterns made of silver could keep the water they held fresh for many, many years. Alexander the Great stored and transported his water provisions using silver vessels, which must have been a great advantage to his operations to have had fresh, non-algae ridden water on hand for his soldiers. Many other cultures and people throughout history have either stored their water in silver containers, or placed silver coinage in their water vessels. As late as the mid 19th century in America, gold prospectors and other west-bound explorers would plunk silver coins into their water barrels to retard the growth of bacteria and algae. Silver was also used extensively for wound care in the ancient world, not only to discourage microbial growth but also to promote faster healing, a use that is still widely practiced today. In ancient Macedonia, there are accounts of healers using silver plates over wounds, and as recently as the 1900s silver foil was still used for the same purpose. In one bizarre report from 1886, a doctor named Georgia Arbuckle Fix bonded a fractured skull back together using a silver coin that had been hammered into a fine, thin plate using a chunk of rail iron. Her poor patient had been the victim of a gruesome farming accident and she was the only attending physician within a 75 mile radius of the man. According to the report, she successfully closed the skull injury and the patient eventually healed without complications!  The Fear of BlueNo one can investigate the subject of medicinal silver without running into the topic of argyria. Argyria is a medical condition that causes the skin and tissues to take on a grayish blue tint, due to the large silver particulates settling in the extremities, i.e. skin. It occurs when someone consumes either the wrong type of silver (such as silver nitrate or silver chloride, orally) and generally the person needs to consume large quantities of it on a daily basis for many years in order to attain this side effect. After millennia of using silver for medicine, argyria is the ONLY known side effect of this medicine and is cosmetic only in nature. Although modern medicine has claimed it can cause kidney complications, it has never been documented or demonstrated. In 1999, the FDA made a final ‘ruling’: “That all over-the-counter (OTC) drug products containing colloidal silver ingredients or silver salts for internal or external use are not generally recognized as safe and effective and are misbranded. FDA is issuing this final rule because many OTC drug products containing colloidal silver ingredients or silver salts are being marketed for numerous serious disease conditions and FDA is not aware of any substantial scientific evidence that supports the use of OTC colloidal silver ingredients or silver salts for these disease conditions.” This ruling essentially categorizes silver as an “unclassified drug.” Since that ruling, companies producing medicinal silver products cannot declare anything that would allude to silver’s medicinal qualities and any silver sold commercially on the market today must be branded as a “mineral supplement.” Such legal pontification from the FDA is established in spite of the past 5,000+ years of history. Straight Facts: What Does the Science on Silver Say? According to the National Institutes for Health: 1. “There are no high quality studies on the health effects of taking colloidal silver, but we do have good evidence of its dangers.” 2. “Claims made about the health benefits of taking colloidal silver aren’t backed up by studies.” 3. “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has said that colloidal silver isn’t safe or effective for treating any disease or condition.” 4. “It can be dangerous to your health.” 5. “Scientific evidence doesn’t support the use of colloidal silver dietary supplements for any disease or condition.” Point 1: I’d like to ask the NIH what the difference is between a “high quality” study and a “low quality” study, because those terms aren’t scientifically objective. How did they arrive at such a conclusion? Also, in the interest of increasing human health, and especially with all the fabulous claims about silver, why would an institution that asserts to be advancing human health NOT issue a whole host of scientific studies on such a topic? And finally, if no “high quality” studies on the health effect of silver have been done, how does the NIH have such good evidence of its “dangers,” other than argyria? Why not state the known dangers on the NIH website for the taxpayers or other interested parties? Point 2: Claims aren’t backed up by studies? That’s because evidently the NIH/FDA/[insert your favorite alphabet agency here] didn’t bother to do any studies. Point 3: Again, why rule any supplemental material like silver unsafe before doing studies? If even some of the health benefits attributed to silver are true, wouldn’t most people desire to know the true science behind how it may actually work? Point 4: Other than the unfortunate possibility of turning blue, and possible drug interactions with antibiotics or thyroid medications (which the FOIA request couldn’t even produce proof of), how is silver dangerous to health? To make such a condemnation without providing access to the studies demonstrating the veracity of such claims forces one to take the statement on good faith. It is not backed up by science. Point 5: Yes, yes, we know. As of 1999, there somehow weren’t any studies. However, this website was updated in 2017—long after many wonderful “high quality” studies on silver have been conducted which display the broad range of antibacterial action of silver, amongst other qualities. The following is a Freedom of Information Act Request from 1999, asking for information regarding the dangers of silver, reported cases of allergic reactions or deaths associated with silver, and the number of cases of argyria: October 14th, 1999 Food and Drug Administration U.S. Department Of Health and Human Services Public Health Service 5600 Fishers Lane Rockville, MD 20857 Dear Sirs/Madam, Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act and in regard your August 17th, 1999 ruling regarding colloidal silver, could you please supply the following documentation on which you based your decision? 1. The number of deaths related to the consumption of colloidal silver. 2. The number of allergic reactions to the consumption of colloidal silver. 3. The number of harmful drug interactions from both OTC and prescription drugs when combined with colloidal silver. 4. The number of reported cases of Argyria from colloidal silver made with the AC or DC electrical process. 5. The number of cases of Argyria from colloidal silver that did not contain protein stabilizers. Thank you for your time and consideration of this request. Sincerely, ----------------------------------------------------- The FDA response: Public Health Service Center for Drug Evaluation and Research Office of Training and Communication Freedom of Information Staff HFD-205 5600 Fishers Lane 12 B 05 Rockville, Maryland 20857 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- November 3, 1999 In Response Refer to File: F99-22589 [ Name Removed ], WA 98408 Dear [ name removed ]: This is in response to your request of 10/14/99, in which you requested adverse events associated with the use of Colloidal Silver. Your request was received in the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research on 10/25/99. We have searched the records from FDA's Adverse Event Reporting System (AERS) and have been unable to locate any cases that would be responsive to your request. Charges of $3.50 (Search $3.50, Review $0, Reproduction $0, Computer time $0) will be included in a monthly invoice. DO NOT SEND ANY PAYMENT UNTIL YOU RECEIVE AN INVOICE. If there are any problems with this response, please notify us in writing of your specific problem(s). Please reference the above file number. Sincerely, Hal Stepper Freedom of Information Technician Office of Training and Communications Freedom of Information Staff, HFD-205 This situation begs the question: why would the FDA not only declare silver to be unrecognized as unsafe, but also ban it when there are NO documented allergic reactions, NO deaths, and surprisingly NO documented cases of argyria? How could the FDA claim to have known about the “dangers” of silver while it moved to ban it as a medicine, while under a FOIA request the agency could not produce any evidence? What would the real underlying motive for such an action be? According to silvermedicine.org: “…it is clear that the MOTIVE behind the FDA's ruling is driven by forces unrelated to the safety, the condition of argyria, or the potential effectiveness of true colloidal silver. One STATED motivating factor was that many products of unknown substance and quality were being marketed under the label of colloidal silver. Some of these products undoubtedly were, and are, of questionable quality. There certainly are no established standards for the production of colloidal silver. However, the FDA's underlying motives reveal themselves when examining their public relations strategies:
Enter Papa Smurf Any honest layperson who seeks to learn about the use of colloidal silver or ionic silver as medicine will also undoubtedly eventually come across the fear-inducing picture circulating on the internet of the iconic, suspender-wearin’, beard-sportin’ “blue man.” The Internet knows him as “Papa Smurf”, but his real name is Paul Karason. He became somewhat of a celebrity after years of silver consumption (and other possible things, as we shall see) that caused his skin to turn blue.  Paul Karason, aka "Papa Smurf" According to Paul Karason, silver cured his acid reflux and shoulder arthritis after he began making his own silver solution at home and consuming 10+ ounces daily. Eventually however, things got a little weird for Karason. According to some reports, it was determined that the silver Karason was creating was not ionic nor colloidal, but was actually silver chloride, due to the fact that he was adding sea salt to his solution. He also decided it would be a good idea to rub the silver solution on his face, which he supposed might ease his dermatitis. Left out of most accounts of the Karason horror story is the suggestion by some that he also engaged in extreme tanning, in order to ‘fix’ the silver particulates in his skin and face. Further accusationsagainst Mr. Karason suggest that he was a paid shill for a pharmaceutical company holding a vested interest in suppressing the truth about medicinal silver. Indeed, he did make some very public appearances to warn of the dangers of silver on the Today show and the Oprah Winfrey show among other venues, which would seem to make such accusations reasonable.
Whatever the case, the mainstream media claimed that Karason had poisoned himself. But on the day Paul Karason died, it was very quietly admitted that he had died of complications with stroke, heart attack, and pneumonia, which had nothing to do with being blue or having taken his homemade silver for years. One news story tried to spin the story to make it seem as though his death was caused by the silver, with the headline: “Man who turned blue after taking silver for skin condition dies.” According to J. Wesley Alexander: "American Silver Producers Association recruited W.R. Hill and D.M. Pillsbury to examine the incidence and consequences of argyria [1]. They searched the world literature and were able to find 357 cases that had occurred by 1939. The earliest cases were recorded in the 1700s. It became apparent that silver compounds administered by any route except the unbroken skin could produce argyria when used for a sufficiently long period of time. However, chronic argyria appeared to cause no pathologic alterations of the affected organs and to have no important physiologic consequences. In clinical practice, the gastrointestinal tract probably was the most important site to absorb silver. Once in the body, silver can be deposited in the majority of tissues, nerve tissue and skeletal muscle excepted. Two hundred thirty-nine of the 357 cases of argyria occurred as the result of silver given for medical indications. The remainder was related primarily to industrial uses such as mining and refining. In only 16 of the 239 cases where silver was given for medical indications had it been used for less than one year, and most of the patients with argyria had taken silver for a much longer time, as long as 20 years. Silver nitrate was responsible for 49% of these cases. The total dose of silver needed to cause argyria with silver arsphenamine was approximately 6 g, or 0.9 g of metallic silver." {emphasis authors} That is a heck of a lot of silver. It seems that in order to turn blue, one must orally administer ounces upon ounces of high parts per million silver solution on a daily basis for a bare minimum of at least one year, probably much longer (up to 20 years?!). And apparently hopping in a tanning bed off and on while taking it can’t hurt if one is really going for that blue skin hue. What other medicines in alternative or modern medicine are taken in copious volumes for years on end? Not. Very. Many. It is interesting to note that there have been many recent studies conducted on silver in the past several years that show a wide range of antimicrobial qualities. One paper states that silver is quite effective against both aerobic and anaerobic bacteria, as well as fungi. Another paper published in 2010 acknowledges silver as “a traditional broad-spectrum antiseptic” as “a solution against antibiotic resistant bacteria.” References: https://www.naturalnews.com/035219_colloidal_silver_blue_man_skin.html#ixzz4S6HFIP7g https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19566416 (see also: http://www.silveredgehealth.com/pdf/history.pdf) http://www.naturodoc.com/library/medsmats/silver/silver.htm https://archive.org/stream/useofcolloidsinh00searuoft/useofcolloidsinh00searuoft_djvu.txt https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23017226 Hill WR, Pillsbury DM. Argyria–The Pharmacology of Silver. Baltimore. Williams & Wilkins, 1939. https://nccih.nih.gov/health/silver http://www.silvermedicine.org/fda.html |
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