Bob: "I'm an oncologist."
Sue: "Really? I've been avoiding dairy to lose weight. Is that a good idea?"
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Jill: "I'm a graphics artist."
Jack: "Oh? I have cousin in agriculture. Do you know him?"
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And when Evo says "I'm an herbalist" to friends, family and others who ask his occupation, he receives equally as ludicrous responses.
My 76 year old Grandfather replied with "You know... back in the Navy, we used hydrogen peroxide to fix dang near everything. We used to gargle it and drink it..."
Some friends replied with "Really? Well we take colloidal silver every day, and it's just the best thing!"
{Sigh} That's OK. Education is part of being an herbalist. And from the looks of things on the radio, TV and the Internet, a great deal of good and bad education in the form of advertising is going on out there about "alternative medicine".
Today I discovered an article written for the Star Tribune in Minnesota. If you've read me before, you'll know I'm no fan of conventional media and how they knee-jerk react to traditional medicine. However, I think this article is about as fair as you can get, even though it is critical of some alternative practices.
Specifically, they have this to say about colloidal silver:
Silver does have antibacterial properties, Kingston (a dietary supplement expert who is vice president and senior toxicologist at the PROSAR International Poison Center in St. Paul) said. That's why it once was used as a disinfectant for the skin and eyes, he said. Mercury, another heavy metal, also can kill disease-causing bugs and was once used similarly.
Chances are most folks are aware that mercury is an environmental toxin. What they may not be aware of is how often mercury was used for hundreds of years by the conventional medical community to treat a host of illnesses. Often times it worked... if you managed to survive the treatment or the round of iatrogenic illnesses that followed for the rest of your life.
Note: I'm not trained in nor have I studied the effects of colloidal silver on or in the human body. Keep in mind that I'm an herbalist... you know, plants? Metals aren't plants.
It's worth a read, but keep it in context. Just like you should keep all those "get well/skinny/larger breasts/sleepy/high/erotic/non-bald" ads that are flooding the airwaves right now. These companies don't put this stuff out to make you look/feel better... they do it to make money. Do they work? Some of their claims aren't outrageous... but many are. My advice: remember it's advertising. Things that sound too good to be true often are just that.