Tony Isaacs

Colloidal Silver Has Mainstream Medicine Singing the Blues



Posted: Wednesday, January 16, 2008

by
The Best Years in Life

The recent widespread mainstream media coverage of the "blue man" Paul Karason and his rare skin condition known as Argyria is the latest in a series of largely misleading and sensationalized scare stories about the dangers of colloidal silver turning a person's skin blue. Although this latest story did not appear to originate from mainstream medicine or the FDA, there is little doubt that they have welcomed it with open arms and have been quick to trot out "medical experts" and past FDA warnings to help "sing the blues" about colloidal silver.  The truth is that mainstream medicine has a very good reason to cry long and loud about colloidal silver, because it does represent a very real danger – a danger to the huge profits of the pharmaceutical industry's patented antibiotics. The truth is that silver has been used effectively by mankind to fight germs and ailments for thousands of years, and the instances of modern use of colloidal silver turning people's skin blue are so rare as to be almost non-existent - and, unlike thousands of prescribed and approved over the counter mainstream medications including the common aspirin, silver has never killed anyone.  As a matter of fact, almost all of the relative handful of reported instances have involved one or more of the following: older silver products that contained as much as 10% or more silver (compared to mere parts per million in modern colloidal silver), silver nitrate, home made colloidal silver that was contaminated with salt, and silver that has been consumed continuously in very large quantities over a very long period of time.

In the case of Karason, he made his own ionic silver at home for almost two decades and for many years consumed a quart or more per day.  I daresay that any prescribed or over the counter medication whose recommended dosage was a couple of teaspoons a day would do far worse than turn a person blue if they drank a quart or more of it a year!  For the sake of comparison, drinking a quart or more per day of colloidal silver would be like a person taking several bottles of aspirin a day, a practice that would be lethal in short order.  Karason actually appears to enjoy his notoriety as the Papa Smurff blue man, and even though he sings the praises of how colloidal silver saved his life and the many ailments he believes it cured, the focus of attention is on his blue skin - a condition that is actually reversible with proper diet and herbal cleanses despite mainstream claims to the contrary.
What is also true about colloidal silver is that it is far safer, more effective and less expensive than the marginally effective and side effect laden mainstream antibiotics - and has mainstream and university studies proving it which date back to the early 1900's.  The best and strongest of the FDA approved antibiotics are effective for a handful of bacteria at best, whereas colloidal silver is supremely effective against just about every kind of single celled pathogen, including bacteria, fungal growths and viruses (which antibiotics are often wrongly prescribed for, despite the fact that antibiotics have no effect on viruses). If the public were told the truth, a rarity when it comes to mainstream drugs versus natural competition, colloidal silver would represent a huge threat to literally billions of dollars of profits and so it is no wonder that mainstream medicine and their allies in the mainstream media are once again loudly singing the blues – just as they have repeatedly done in the past with misleading stories and studies about a great many popular natural plants, supplements, vitamins and minerals that represent threats to mainstream drug profits because they are safer, more effective and less expensive alternatives to the unnatural, side effect laden, hugely expensive and marginally effective synthetics created in the labs of the powerful world pharmaceutical empire. While there are a great many natural threats to mainstream profits, whose use and track recordsof safety and effectiveness date back hundreds and even thousands of years, perhaps no natural alternative to mainstream drugs represents as big of a threat to industry profits as colloidal silver, and it is no coincidence that colloidal silver has been placed at the very top of the FDA/mainstream medicine hit list. However, when it comes to warning and scaring people away from silver, both the mainstream medical industry and the FDA have serious credibility problems. First of all, silver has a history of safe and effective use dating back thousands of years. In addition, it continues to be widely used today, including being used by NASA, the US military and Potters for Peace for water purification, being used as a germicidal agent by hospitals and medical suppliers and recently was incorporated into a new line of hospital pajamas to prevent the spread of infection, to name just a few of it's present day uses.

The biggest credibility problem of all for mainstream medicine and the FDA regarding silver is likely how they both approved and embraced silver for medicinal use at one time. yet now would have us believe that silver is both ineffective and dangerous. At one time silver products were very much in favor with both mainstream medicine and the FDA.  No fewer than 34 different prescribed and over-the-counter medications containing silver were not only widely sold by industry, they were also approved by the very same FDA which now seeks to warn us of its dangers and have us believe it is ineffective.


What changed their minds?  Perhaps the obvious answer can be found in the fact that silver fell out of favor at the very same time that patented sulfa drugs and patented antibiotics created in drug company labs came on the market.  Once that happened, the non-patentable silver was no longer a tool for healing, but a threat to profits.

Zealous protection of mainstream approved drugs and suppression of natural competition is nothing new - look at the estimated 100,000 or more deaths caused by Vioxx before the FDA finally removed it from the market.  Look at the ridiculous actions of the FDA when it threatened Washington cherry growers for telling the truth about the health benefits of eating cherries, or at the storm trooper actions against the makers of Charantia (bitter melon) tea in Florida who dared put references to some of the 650 plus PubMed studies and citations about bitter melon on their website.

The FDA persecutions and prosecutions of cherry farmers, bitter melon, and a long line of other natural alternatives points out just how extreme the protection of the big drug companies products and profits really is.  Consider this: other than issues of national security, only in natural health is it a crime to tell the truth due to the way the FDA has construed their rules and definitions to protect industry.  For example, if a company were to advertise that vitamin C was a cure for scurvy, as everyone knows is true,  that company could be prosecuted for selling unapproved drugs.  The same would be true if a company printed a testimonial from someone who reported health benefits due to vitamin C, or any other vitamin, mineral, supplement or non FDA approved drug.

For example, only the makers of FDA approved drugs can use the word cure, or even imply and health benefits without the FDA considering the product a drug.  The catch is that in order to be FDA approved, no matter how many PubMed cited studies or other studies have been performed, and no matter how much of a history of hundreds or thousands of years and users, the FDA only approves drugs that go through its specific approval process – one that costs hundreds of billions of dollars. When it comes to natural alternatives, spending such money on a natural  product is prohibitive, since it could not be patented and could be freely and cheaply sold by any number of competitors and it would be virtually impossible to ever recover all the costs of getting the natural product approved.  Though the process is purported to be one which protects the public from unsafe medicines (and we see how well that worked for hall of shame list of drugs like Vioxx, Avandia, etc.), the net effect of the FDA's drug definitions and approval process is to exclude natural competition and insure that only the patentable and profitable synthetics created in drug company labs can be approved and marketed as having health benefits. The most recent example of such one-sided treatment favoring industry came in the following news story earlier this past week about a lawsuit filed against the FDA by Public Citizen after the FDA ignored years of complaints about the dangers of ruptured tendons caused by one of the drug industry's most powerful and profitable antibiotics: WASHINGTON, D.C. – Despite long-standing evidence that fluoroquinolone antibiotics can cause tendon ruptures, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has failed to increase its warnings to patients and physicians about the dangers of the medicines, Public Citizen told a federal court Thursday. Public Citizen sued in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia , asking the court to force the FDA to act upon a petition the consumer group filed with the agency 16 months ago. The FDA has failed to respond to the petition, which asked the agency to put a "black box" warning on fluoroquinolone antibiotics (such as Cipro, Levaquin and others) to make doctors and patients more aware of the risk of serious tendon injury before tendons actually rupture. The petition also urged the FDA to send a warning letter to physicians, as well as require an FDA-approved medication guide to be dispensed when prescriptions are filled. Public Citizen contends that the FDA is violating the Administrative Procedure Act by not acting upon the petition. Stronger warnings could lead to earlier intervention and prevent needless injuries by allowing doctors to switch patients to other antibiotics, said Dr. Sidney Wolfe, director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group. "While the FDA sits idly by and ignores the problem, more people will suffer serious tendon ruptures that could have been prevented," Wolfe said. "The current warning is buried in a long list of possible adverse reactions and is far too easy to miss." From November 1997 through December 2005, the FDA received 262 reports of tendon ruptures, mainly of the Achilles tendon, 258 cases of tendonitis and 274 cases of other tendon disorders in patients using fluoroquinolone antibiotics. An additional 74 tendon ruptures have subsequently been reported to the FDA for a total of 336. Because only a small fraction of cases are typically reported to the FDA, the actual number of ruptures and other tendon injuries attributable to the antibiotic is much higher Source: Healthy News
One can only imagine the FDA's reaction if 336 tendon ruptures had been reported for those who take the best antibiotic and pathogen destroyer on the planet - colloidal silver.  No doubt, they would have raided the manufacturer with storm troopers and shut it down years ago, just as they have done many times with the manufacturers and sellers of other natural competitors to drug company products.

In conclusion, as far as I can tell, not one single instance of Argyria has been attributed to properly made colloidal that was not consumed in amounts that were up to hundreds of times the recommended dosage, that has not stopped the FDA from continuing to "sing the blues" about silver or from going after those who make and sell colloidal silver products, not because silver represents a whit of threat to human health but rather because it represents a threat to the inflated bottom line profits of the mainstream drug manufacturers.

Finding out who the FDA really serves is a simple task - all you have to do is follow the money.  But don't simply take my word, let a noted past FDA commissioner tell you very clearly what the FDA is really about:

"The FDA 'protects' the big drug companies and are subsequently rewarded, and using the government's police powers they attack those who threaten the big drug companies. People think that the FDA is protecting them.

It isn't.

What the FDA is doing and what the public thinks it is doing are as different as night and day."

Dr. Herbert Ley
Former U.S. FDA Commissioner
 
Tony Isaacs, is a natural health researcher and author of books and articles about natural health, as well as song lyrics and humorous anecdotal stories. Mr. Isaacs also has The Best Years in Life http://tbyil.com website for baby boomer's and others wishing to live longer, healthier, and happier.
 

Tony Isaacs, is a natural health advocate and researcher and the author of books and articles about natural health including "Cancer's Natural Enemy" and "Collected Remedies"as well as song lyrics and humorous anecdotal stories. Mr. Isaacs also has The Best Years in Life website for baby boomers and others wishing to avoid prescription drugs and mainstream managed illness and live longer, healthier and happier lives naturally. He is currently residing in the scenic Texas hill country near Utopia, Texas where he serves as a consultant to the Utopia Silver colloidal silver and supplement company and where he is working on a major book project due for publication later this year. Mr. Isaacs also hosts the CureZone "Ask Tony Isaacs" forum as well as the Yahoo Health Group "Oleander Soup"

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Top-level comments on this article: (9 total)
» left by Anonymous
4 years 5 days ago.
I agree that the FDA isn't looking out for our best interests but if colloidal silver was "all that" why aren't integrative and alternative doctors like Andrew Weil recommending it? And, considering the BILLIONS that are spent on alternative remedies every year in industrialized countries, why hasn't some company--any company--done their own testing to PROVE that this stuff really works they way they say it does? Other alternative remedies get tested and their results are published.
» left by Tony Isaacs from Utopia, TX 4 years 5 days ago.
Do you mean get tested like Bitter Melon, which has a mere 650 studies referenced at Pubmed and has been proven in studies and centuries of use to help combat diabetes and blood sugar problems? The did not stop the FDA from raiding the offices of a seller of Charantia (Bitter Melon) tea and confiscating all of their computers and supplies simply because the company referenced some of those very same studies and that, by the FDA's twisted rules, made the Bitter Melon a drug. Silver has been tested and proven time and again. As noted in the story, it was once FDA approved (in much cruder forms) for no less than 34 prescribed and over the counter products until it was replaced with the more highly controllable, patented and highly profitable sulfa drugs and then antibiotics. There have actually been a tremendous amount of studies conducted on colloidal silver, the consensus of which is that it is a superior pathogen destroyer, and PUbMed contains no less than 628 studies related to colloidal silver. It HAS been proven time and time again and that is why there has also been a corresponding tremendous amount of efforts to suppress the information in the studies and attack colloidal silver for the threat it represents, not to our health, but to the bottom line health of pharmaceutical company profits from their patented drugs. One of the earliest studies is the one conducted by Albert Searle in 1919, demonstrating colloidal silver's effectiveness on 650 different pathogens. Perhaps the best known is the now suppressed study conducted at Brigham Young in 1999, which determined that colloidal silver was a safe and effective alternative to antibiotics. You can still find a summary of this study with a Google search. If you want to see more studies on silver, you can also go to the Utopia Silver website and click on the Silver Bulletin e-magazine and then click on the scientific studies at the bottom of the page. Or you can go to PubMed and do a search for colloidal silver and look at any number of studies. Those studies are pretty eye-opening - because silver is all that is mentioned in the above article and much, much more. As for alternative figures such as Dr Weil, I have no idea why they choose one particular product or another to endorse, but when it comes to such figures as Weil, Barron, Mercola, Sahelian, etc., they are seldom unanimous. The bottom line: silver has been proven to work in both studies and actual use, over and over. To be proven to work according to the FDA's industry serving rules and interpretations would require several hundred million dollars - and no single company could afford to do that because there are now hundreds of colloidal silver (actually ionic silver in most instances) companies and each competitor would be able to market and sell the silver, often at cut rate prices, without having to incur any of the costs of whoever funded the studies. That is why NO natural product is FDA approved such is the game they play and the way they have set up the rules. Note: I am the author of the above article. Thanks for your comments - I hope I have helped with your questions.
» left by Anonymous 4 years 3 days ago.
Several things about this news story that strike me as odd right off the bat:

First of all, the man is really blue. I mean really blue. When people contract argyria (i.e., skin graying) from ingesting excessive amounts of colloidal silver over long periods of time, they usually turn grey, not blue. That’s because the excessive silver buildup in their body has worked its way to the skin (the human body’s largest organ of elimination), and when the sun strikes the skin it tarnishes the large number of silver particles lodged there, turning the skin slate grey.

It is quite possible this man actually has a heart disease resulting in cyanosis (skin bluing from oxygen deficiency in the blood). Nevertheless, he says his condition is the result of taking colloidal silver for the past 14 years, so we have to take his word for it.

As I have been warning for the past 12 years, drinking excessive amounts of colloidal silver on a daily basis for long periods of time will indeed result in argyria for many people, particularly those with poor kidney and liver function. That’s because the excessive daily intake of silver particles is more than their kidneys and liver can expel at any one time. This can result in a residual buildup of the silver particles in the body’s tissues each time a person drinks more silver than their excretory organs can expel. Eventually, over time, the body tries to push this residual buildup of silver from the tissues out toward the skin, at which point the skin turns grey upon exposure to sunlight.

Also, the news story doesn’t tell us how much colloidal silver this man was taking daily. This is a typical ploy of the corporate news media. They want you to believe that any amount of colloidal silver is potentially dangerous, when that is in reality the farthest thing from the truth. But to create the illusion, they don’t bother to tell you how much colloidal silver was taken each day for those 14 years, even though that is the most critical factor in the story! As one experienced colloidal silver user stated in a blog regarding this news video, “This idiot would had to have drank Colloidal Silver by the gallon to have that happen to him!” While we disavow the name-calling, the point is well taken. You have to try real hard to discolor your skin by drinking colloidal silver. It is actually easier to turn your skin orange from drinking too much carrot juice than it is to turn your skin gray (or blue) from drinking colloidal silver.

We also noticed that in the original news video of this story from CNN, the man is shown using a conventional colloidal silver generator distributed by a company in Canada. We are familiar with the company that makes the exact generator displayed in the news video, and personally like the people behind the company. We have spoken with them several times in the past, and they are clearly very sincere about helping, educating and empowering people to be responsible for their own health. But as we have warned you for many years now, most conventional colloidal silver generators produce overly-high levels of silver (i.e., ppm, or silver by weight) in every batch, and the particle size of the silver is also often overly-large. So you have to be very careful if you are using a conventional colloidal silver generator.

This is precisely the reason why we chose to distribute the new Micro-Particle Colloidal Silver Generator, which allows you to produce silver particles so small it takes a Transmission Electron Microscope operating at a whopping 175,000x magnification to see them. In comparison, silver particles produced by conventional colloidal silver generators can generally be seen under a standard microscope operating at only 20,000x magnification. This means the silver particles produced by the new Micro-Particle Colloidal Silver Generator are an astonishing 875% smaller than those produced by conventional colloidal silver units. In other words, they are far smaller than any blood cell, blood vessel, virus, bacteria, or fungus. You can see a Transmission Electron Microscope photograph of these tiny sub-microscopic silver particles by going to our home page at TheSilverEdge (dot com) and scrolling down until you get near the bottom of the page, where you will see it on the right-hand side. As you will see, the new Micro-Particle Colloidal Silver Generator produces silver particles as small as .0008 microns, which is eight ten-thousandths of a single micron. As far as we know, these are the smallest silver particles produced by any low-voltage colloidal silver generator on the face of the earth. This is probably why the new Micro-Particle Colloidal Silver Generator is now the world’s most popular colloidal silver generator.

Finally, this gentleman’s contention that his skin turned blue from rubbing colloidal silver on it, rather than from drinking it, is…well…rubbish. If the colloidal silver actually did cause his condition, then it was from drinking it in excessive quantities over long periods of time. If he rubbed anything on his skin and turned it blue, I can assure you it was not colloidal silver. This man is apparently blue nearly from head to toe. It is highly unlikely he was rubbing colloidal silver all over his body. And even if he was, it would not have turned him into a Smurf.

Also I would be extremely remiss if I did not point out one more vital fact in regards to this news video: Out of the estimated seven to 10 million regular colloidal silver users in the United States alone, this is only the second or third person the news media have been able to find in the last 20 years (to my knowledge, anyway) who has “turned blue.” (For the inside scoop on the last news media “blue man,” see our web site at TheSilverEdge(dot com)and scroll down to the link titled “Did Colloidal Silver Turn This Man Blue?” As you will see, the news media claimed a man turned blue from taking colloidal silver back in 2002, but that story turned out to be highly exaggerated.)

At any rate, I still find it absolutely amazing that the news media will find two or three people who get this benign but unsightly skin condition out of the literally millions of regular colloidal silver users in the U.S. and Canada, and then broadcast it from the rooftops as if it were the norm. But they won't mention the astonishing 2.2 million people who suffer serious and quite often life-threatening adverse reactions from prescription drug use every single year, or the 100,000 Americans KILLED each year from prescription drug use, which is 30 times more than all of the U.S. troops killed in the Iraq war! Let’s see now: two or three people turning blue in 20 years from excessive colloidal silver usage, versus 100,000 people a year being flat-out put into their graves by common drugs their doctors prescribed them. Which is more newsworthy? I’ll leave that up to you to decide.

This man’s case is obviously an extremely rare one. But it is a good example of what we have been saying for years: In much the same way you wouldn’t eat a half a bottle of vitamins a day unless you want to endure some potentially nasty side effects over time, you also can’t take excessive amounts of colloidal silver daily without eventually provoking a nasty side effect called argyria. Most people are intelligent enough not to take the kind of huge daily dosages that would be necessary to stain your skin like this man has apparently done over the course of the past 14 years. But there are still many web sites out there that claim colloidal silver has “no side effects whatsoever” and that you can “drink all you want with no risk.” Those are blatantly untrue statements. And we have been sounding the alarm against such statements for years.

Again, just as you can’t take all of the vitamins you want every day without risk, so you can’t drink all of the colloidal silver you want each day without risk. If you take excessive quantities of colloidal silver daily for long periods of time, you do indeed risk contracting argyria (i.e., skin graying). It is not a guarantee you will become argyric. But it is a very real risk. The key to avoiding side effects from colloidal silver, or from any other natural supplement for that matter, is the same one your mother taught you when you were a little child: “Don’t overdo it; use MODERATION in all things.” If an ounce of colloidal silver a day works good for you, then for goodness sakes don’t start thinking that maybe 16 ounces a day will be even better. It is that “more must be even better” mentality that ultimately produces these rare cases of side effects which the news media in turns capitalizes on in order to scare people away from using this otherwise safe and powerfully effective all-natural infection-fighting agent and immune system booster, which has been used by tens of millions of people worldwide since it was first invented in the late 1800’s shortly after Edison harnessed electricity.

For those interested in learning more about colloidal silver dosage, <snip, please follow the rules of posting comments>

Regards and good health!
Spencer Jones for TheSilverEdge
» left by Linda Dean
4 years ago.
This was a very good . My sister saw the news and she knows I use Colloidal Silver for sinus infections and called me to let me in on the "blue man" You just can't get people to understand the use of Colloidal Silver because whatever the news tell them, they believe. Oh well, I know it works for me, I have not had a antibotic prescription for sinus infections in years. Colloidal Silver has been wonderful.
» left by Anonymous
3 years 363 days ago.
I covered the Charantea raid as a journalist and what the author of the above article isn't telling you is that FulLife Natural Options had been receiving Warning Letters for YEARS prior to the raid. (Their warning letters are a matter of public record at fda.gov.) FulLife wasn't raided because they were selling an herbal product; they were raided because they refused to play by the rules that hundreds of other herbal manufacturers follow without incident.
» left by Anonymous 3 years 363 days ago.
If your post is an indication of how you covered the article then shame on your for not pointing out how unfair the FDA rules are, and looking at the Full Life side of the story instead of what you were obviously fed by the FDA and their minions. I am a journalist myself, and I was taught to always make sure of your sources from both sides of any issue. When it comes to journalists who cover mainstream medicine and FDA generated scare stories, it appears that such teachings are largely ignored these days. Remember, the FDA is the same agency that insists Aspartame is safe, Stevia is dangerous, and which kept Vioxx on the market for Merck while tens of thousands of deaths piled up. I suggest you purchase a copy of "Fight for Your Health - Exposing the FDA's Betrayal of America" by a highly respected journalist, Byron Richards. And perhaps take a look at "Healthcare for Dummies - How the Rich Got Richer and the Sick Got Sicker" which can be found in the article directory on my own website tbyil dot com. Now, if you had properly reported the Charantia raid, here is the other side of the story you would have reported, as did Mike Adams of NewsTarget: (NewsTarget) The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, continuing its campaign of censorship against truthfully-described herbal supplements, seized $71,000 worth of Charantea herbal supplements last week in a raid involving U.S. Marshals. The company, Fulllife Natural Options, was accused by the FDA of marketing an "unapproved drug" due to the truthful marketing claims that accurately describe the blood sugar lowering effects of the product's main ingredient: Bitter Melon fruits. According to the Food and Drug Administration, there is no such thing as an herb, food or supplement that has any biological activity whatsoever on the human body (other than simply providing calories), and any person who dares to make such a claim is immediately considered to be in violation of the FDA's authority. Any substance that has any therapeutic effect whatsoever on the human body is considered by the FDA to be a "drug" and must be approved as such -- a lengthy process costing about $800 million and requiring the favor of an agency that practically works for Big Pharma. The FDA is well known for its censorship efforts against nutritional supplements. Earlier this year, the agency sent threatening letters to 29 cherry growers, warning them to remove all links to scientific literature describing the anti-inflammatory effects of phytonutrients found in cherries. Merely linking to such studies from a web page, the FDA warned, instantly transformed cherries into drugs requiring FDA approval. The FDA believes that the dissemination of scientific information about the health benefits of fruits, vegetables and plants simply cannot be tolerated." And, instead of just giving the slanted mainstream version, you might have also included a response from those who were actually raided. In case you were not aware of it, here it is: Safe, Reliable Diabetic Supplement Seized by FDA Over Website Wording By Dante Abelarde Dear Sirs, With reference to "Approximately $71,000 of Dietary Supplements Seized at FDA Request" here is our view of the recent FDA seizure of our food supplement product Charantea Ampalaya Bitter Melon Tea and Capsules. We fear such negative impressions created by the FDA's move may harm what is otherwise a safe, reliable and well-known natural remedy used by diabetics around the world. We would like to clarify to the public at large that the FDA's move was a result of their negative interpretation of the wordings on our website found at (website of charanteausa) and has nothing to do at all with Charantea's efficacy or safety. Again, the trouble with the FDA is only rooted with the wordings and is not due to any safety or efficacy issues of the product. And much of the literature the FDA apparently took offense to was referring to the actual Bitter Melon plant's well-established benefits and the studies establishing its hypoglycemic properties and not to the finished product. In fact, even the public information website of the National Library of Medicine and National Institute of Health, contains over 365 individual scientific studies conducted worldwide on the Bitter Melon (Momordica charantia Linn.) since the 1970s. We have merely made this and other similar helpful information available to our customers on our website so that they may be better informed and make informed decisions. We have been coordinating with the FDA for several months before this recent incident, trying to comply with their requirement that there be no implied claims to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease (these are only allowed for pharmaceutical drugs). For this, we have adjusted our website claims and testimonials several times in the past few months. We have records of our email correspondence with the FDA agent in charge of our case, informing her of the changes and asking her to see if our changes were satisfactory as it was their interpretation that mattered, not ours. She refused to comment several times, citing that the FDA does not give advice on this and that compliance is solely our responsibility. We agree that compliance is our responsibility. However, because only the FDA's own interpretation of what implies a claim or not is what will bring them to take damaging action, we feel it unjust to have our repeated requests for their comments to be ignored and to suddenly have a crippling blow struck against an otherwise honest business. We are a small business, with no resources for expensive lawyers to guide us through the labyrinthine maze the FDA seems to have set up for dietary supplements. We will probably close down as we have been told to stop selling despite our customer requests for Charantea. If we cannot sell, our business cannot survive. Charantea is currently freely available and well-accepted around the world including Europe, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific. Only in the USA has it been considered an illegal drug. We have not given up. We are still trying to find a way to do business that is acceptable to the FDA's opinion, and are determined to renew our efforts to comply with their requirements. We would like to thank all the people who have expressed their support for our company and in Charantea, and to our customers, whose approval is ultimately what really matters.
» left by Anonymous
3 years 362 days ago.
I am well aware of the "revolving" door of the FDA. You can mock me and question my journalistic ethics all you want but I stand by what I wrote: That company was raided because they ignored years of warning letters and refused to comply with regulations that other herbal supplement comply with EVERY SINGLE DAY. Thank you for letting me present an opposing view point. A lot of authors would've simply hit "delete" and moved on.
» left by Anonymous 3 years 362 days ago.
I think the missing point is how unfair, even illegal, the FDA rules are and the way they selectively enforce them to bar natural competition and leave the dangerous drugs and substances such as Aspartame on the market to the ultimate harm of the public. Rules that enable them to warn and harrass chrry growers, or the makers of a tea which has hundreds of PubMed cited studies vouching for it are absurd. They are a rogue agency, clearly controlled by monied interests, which serves the public poorly and they have overstepped their authority to interfere with the God given unalienable rights of US citizens to decide for themselves how to address their own very private and personal health issues and what they do or do not wish to put in their bodies. There is the story that needs to be written over and over again, and I am one of the ones doing so. As you know, us journalists are not big fans of censorship. Opposing opinion is welcome as long as it is not carried out ad infinitum or presented in an uncivil manner. I would probably have been kinder in my response if you had not begun your post with "what the author isn't telling you".
» left by Jack from Fairfax 1 year 214 days ago.
When Dr. Weil, Dr. Salihelian, and Dr. Huffman all three of whom believe in alternative medicine and are highly respected say don't waste your money only a fool or a person in love perserves and Mr. Karason does look hideous. You can see him on the Internet and see for yourself. Only one person was able to get rid of the blue skin and she underwent intensive skin removal with a dermatologist. She was not as blue however as Mr. Karason. So there are several inaccuracies in this article - diet will not reverse the process. Unless you have the deposits removed arygria is permanent.
 
It's a great placebo - people are able to relax unafraid of terrorism and a 100 other anxieties that beset us today. But be rest assured it does nothing except harm you - take Vitamin C, Green tea, tumeric, and Green Leaf extract, and Oregeno oil - they deliver real results as many cancer patients can atest.
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