Candace Owens touts colloidal silver, which can make skin blue

Conservative media expert Candace Owens has come under fire for selling colloidal silver – which can make users’ skin permanently blue – as a viable supplement.

Colloidal silver, made up of tiny particles of silver suspended in a liquid, is the same metal used in jewelry, dental fillings, and silverware. The makers of the supplement have claimed that it can boost the immune system and even cure cancer.

However, as Noted by the Mayo Clinic, “No solid scientific study evaluating these health claims has been published in reputable medical journals.”

But none of that has stopped Owens from claiming that she uses colloidal silver as a daily supplement and fooling her audience into believing that there are benefits.

“I take colloidal silver everyday, love colloidal silver. It’s a big one. It’s another topic that people probably don’t know anything about.

Owens is wrong.

In fact, scientists and health professionals know a lot about colloidal silver, including it can make people’s skin blue.

The condition, called argyria, is a blue-gray discoloration of the skin, eyes, internal organs, nails, and gums due to a build-up of silver in the body. In rare cases, large doses of colloidal silver can cause seizures and organ damage.

Owens is also not the first right-wing media personality to promote colloidal silver.

In March 2020, New York Attorney General Letitia James order Alex Jones, the conspiracy spitting Trump’s best-known ally for InfoWars—stop selling and promoting fake COVID-19 treatments, including colloidal silver. He has claimed that a number of the supplements he sells act as a “stopper” against the virus.

Many criticized Owens for making these baseless claims and urged others not to take his advice and ingest hazardous materials..

Owens has come under heavy criticism for undermining public health experts, including, but not limited to, her suggestion that COVID-19 vaccines don’t work.

Owens made headlines last week for his claim “more people died from COVID this year” even though “more people took the vaccine this year”, which is misleading.

While the United States has certainly lost more lives to COVID-19 this year than last year, the highest death toll has been attributed vaccination rates lower than needed in addition to relaxation of daily precautions to curb the spread of the virus. The increase in the highly contagious Delta variant has also contributed to higher death rates, largely among the unvaccinated population.

Owens’ statements were significantly rebuffed by former President Donald Trump, whom she was interviewing at the time. While Trump has consistently downplayed the severity of the pandemic, he shut it down by correcting her on claims about the vaccine’s effectiveness, stunned Owens and viewers in the process.