Colloidal Silver Secrets: thyroxine

Showing posts with label thyroxine. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

FDA Admits: No Proof Colloidal Silver Interferes With Drug Absorption

The bureaucrats at the FDA, bless their pointed little heads, claimed in a Consumer Advisory Bulletin back in 2009 that colloidal silver “may” interfere with the absorption of prescription drugs like penicillamine, quinolone, tetracycline as well as thyroxine medications.

This claim has stuck, being repeated incessantly across the internet by well-known websites such as WebMD.com, MayoClinic.com, RxList.com, the National Institutes of Health website and numerous others.

But is the claim true? And can the FDA document it? Turns out, they can’t. Here’s the story…

Hi, Steve Barwick here, for www.TheSilverEdge.com...

Back in October I wrote to you about my adventures in trying to get the FDA to document their claim that colloidal silver “may” interfere with the absorption of certain prescription drugs.

You might remember that I pointed out the claim has been repeated ad nauseum all over the internet, and is being used by certain well-known colloidal silver detractors to frighten people away from trying colloidal silver.

I also explained that I’d hired a researcher from the pharmaceutical industry to comb through the online PubMed database records to see if he could find any clinical studies that backed up the FDA claim. He found none.

I then conducted my own research, and could find no corroborating evidence for the idea that colloidal silver can interfere with the absorption of prescription drugs and medications.

Finally, I emailed the FDA, and politely asked them to document their claim, stating:

“I’ve read with interest your Consumer Advisory at this link and found the following comment I'd like clarification on:

‘In addition, the use of silver-containing dietary supplements may interfere with the body's absorption of some drugs, such as quinolone antibiotics [ciprofloxacin (Cipro), norfloxacin (Noroxin), ofloxacin], tetracycline antibiotics, thyroxine, and penacillamine (Cuprimine).’

Could you please respond with the documentation for this statement?

I've searched the PubMed database and cannot at this point find any clinical studies documenting the details in this statement. I’d very much appreciate it if you could send me the documentation.

Thank you,

Steve Barwick

But the FDA responded with a terse, one-line sentence that read as follows:

“You can file a freedom of information request for any information we have related to this issue by following guidance located on our web site at http://www.fda.gov/RegulatoryInformation/FOI/default.htm”

In other words, they told me to go pound sand.

My FOI Request

Obviously, if I wanted the information, I was going to have to work for it. I assume the bureaucrats figured I wouldn’t go through the trouble of filing an official Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

Boy, were they wrong. I filed a Freedom of Information Act request on 10/10/2012. And four days later I received the following email from them:

Steve Barwick

Re: Confirmation # FDA1201727
Requester Ctrl #:001A
In Reply refer to: 2012-7397

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has received your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for records regarding:

SILVER CONTAINING DIETARY SUPPLEMENTS - RECS RE ABSORBING CERTAIN DRUGS

We will respond as soon as possible and may charge you a fee for processing your request. If your informational needs change, and you no longer need the requested records, please contact us to cancel your request, as charges may be incurred once processing of your request has begun.

For more information on processing fees, please see http://www.fda.gov/RegulatoryInformation/FOI/FOIAFees/default.htm.

If you have any questions about your request, please call Thelma B. Ghahhari, Information Technician at (301) 796-8980 or write to us at:

Division of Freedom of Information, U.S. Food and Drug Administration
12420 Parklawn Drive, Room 1050,
Rockville, MD 20857
Fax:(301)827-9267

Ah…now we’re getting somewhere, I thought. At least they’re acknowledging my FOIA request. And they even appeared to understand my question. Progress!

But then October ended and November rolled around. And December. And finally, I figured I wasn’t going to hear from them at all.

No Proof, No Credibility

Until December 6^th, when I received a plain white envelope in the mail from the Department of Health & Human Services, the FDA’s parent organization.

Opening the envelope, I found a one-page letter, which, boiled down to the essentials, stated:

“Dear Mr. Barwick:

In response to your request of October 15, 2012 for information pertaining to dietary supplements containing silver.

We have searched our files and find no responsive information.”

There you have it.

The FDA admits they have no documentation for their claim that colloidal silver “may interfere with the body's absorption of some drugs, such as quinolone antibiotics [ciprofloxacin (Cipro), norfloxacin (Noroxin), ofloxacin], tetracycline antibiotics, thyroxine, and penacillamine (Cuprimine).”

Pay to Play

To add insult to injury, the letter ended by stating “The following charges for this request to date may be included in a monthly invoice: $23.00”

Yep. The FDA is going to charge me $23 to tell me they have no documentation for their own claims.

What a great country, huh? I can only wonder what the charge would have been had they actually found evidence for their own claims!

You’d think they’d be too embarrassed to charge money for having to admit they’ve just been making stuff up out of thin air. But no. Bureaucrats have no shame.

Colloidal Silver Myths

Of course, this kind of thing should come as no surprise, especially in regards to colloidal silver.

After all, there are numerous myths being perpetrated about colloidal silver, as I’ve described in my previous article, 8 Prevalent Myths and Misconceptions About Colloidal Silver.

I guess I can add one more myth to the pile, which is to say, the myth that when the government makes a claim about colloidal silver, they actually have documentation to back up their claim.

In All Fairness

Of course, I’m not a doctor. I’m a natural health journalist. So if you’re concerned about this topic, do be sure to run this article by your doctor and get his advice.

After all, I’d be remiss if I failed to point out that just because the FDA has no documentation for their claim, doesn’t mean the claim isn’t true.

In spite of the profound lack of evidence, there nevertheless might well be people who have trouble processing certain prescription medications. And maybe colloidal silver usage could make it worse, in some rare cases.

As we’ve seen, at present there’s apparently ZERO clinical evidence for this. But that doesn’t mean it can never happen.

After all, it wasn’t too long back that doctors figured out that eating grapefruit before taking certain medications could in some rare instances prevent the body from properly excreting those medications, and therefore cause those medications to build up to unhealthy levels in a small subset of people.

So if you choose to use colloidal silver, and you take prescription medications of any kind, you’re still responsible for working with your doctor to make sure your medication is working correctly, and your supplementation with colloidal silver (or any other nutritional supplement, for that matter) is not interfering with it.

This of course can easily be done through simple blood tests that would determine if blood levels of the drug are too high or too low, or if the desired effect of the drug is taking place, i.e., for example, tests to determine whether or not your thyroid medication is keeping your thyroid hormone at the proper levels.

Obviously, if your doctor is concerned about your colloidal silver usage due to certain medications you’re taking, you can talk to your doctor about mitigating the possibility of interaction between your colloidal silver supplement and the absorption of your medications by taking the colloidal silver at least several hours after taking the medications, or even at opposite ends of the day.

That way, as I mentioned in my previous article on this topic, your medications are already fully absorbed by the body before colloidal silver is introduced into the body.

Or, you may want to err on the side of caution by foregoing the use of colloidal silver altogether. Hash it out with your doctor, and insist he provide evidence for his concerns, if he has any.

Meanwhile, if you’re interested in learning more about the powerful, infection-fighting qualities of colloidal silver, just click the link for additional in-depth information you won’t find anywhere else.

Yours for the safe, sane and responsible use of colloidal silver,

Steve Barwick, author
The Ultimate Colloidal Silver Manual

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Meet Steve Barwick

Important Note and Disclaimer: The contents of this Ezine have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Information conveyed herein is from sources deemed to be accurate and reliable, but no guarantee can be made in regards to the accuracy and reliability thereof. The author, Steve Barwick, is a natural health journalist with over 30 years of experience writing professionally about natural health topics. He is not a doctor. Therefore, nothing stated in this Ezine should be construed as prescriptive in nature, nor is any part of this Ezine meant to be considered a substitute for professional medical advice. Nothing reported herein is intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. The author is simply reporting in journalistic fashion what he has learned during the past 17 years of journalistic research into colloidal silver and its usage. Therefore, the information and data presented should be considered for informational purposes only, and approached with caution. Readers should verify for themselves, and to their own satisfaction, from other knowledgeable sources such as their doctor, the accuracy and reliability of all reports, ideas, conclusions, comments and opinions stated herein. All important health care decisions should be made under the guidance and direction of a legitimate, knowledgeable and experienced health care professional. Readers are solely responsible for their choices. The author and publisher disclaim responsibility and/or liability for any loss or hardship that may be incurred as a result of the use or application of any information included in this Ezine.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Does Colloidal Silver Really Interfere With the Absorption of Certain Medications?

Some online sources have claimed that colloidal silver “may” interfere with the absorption of certain medications such as penicillamine, quinolone, tetracycline as well as thyroxine medications. But is this true? Are the claims reliably documented? And is there any way to know for sure? Here’s what I’ve found out so far…

Hi, Steve Barwick here, for www.TheSilverEdge.com...

From time to time I get emails from readers asking me if colloidal silver is “compatible” with certain prescription medications they’re taking.

Other readers ask me if there’s any “contraindications” (i.e., known potential problems) between colloidal silver and the medications they’re taking.

Of course, I’m not a doctor. I’m a natural health journalist. So these are questions that need to be taken up with a knowledgeable and experienced physician. But here’s what I do know, from a journalistic standpoint:

A Dearth of Clinical Studies…

The problem with knowing whether or not colloidal silver is "compatible" with certain medications or “contraindicated” for certain medications is that very few clinical studies have been conducted on this subject.

The main study I know of -- the famous BYU study in which colloidal silver was tested in conjunction with a number of antibiotics -- showed that in a significant number of cases colloidal silver has a positive additive effect when used with certain popular antibiotics.

In other words, colloidal silver increased the effectiveness of the antibiotics, particularly against antibiotic-resistant pathogens, including MRSA.

In fact, the study showed that when colloidal silver was added to certain antibiotic drugs that had previously lost their effectiveness against drug-resistant pathogens, the colloidal silver completely restored the effectiveness of the antibiotics against the deadly pathogens.

You can see the BYU study here. And there have been several other clinical studies that have backed up the results from the BYU study (see over five dozen clinical studies on the safety and effectiveness of antimicrobial silver, here).

“May” Interfere With Absorption…

On the other hand, websites like WebMD.com and MayoClinic.com claim that colloidal silver "may" interfere with the absorption of certain antibiotic medications like quinolones and tetracycline, as well as thyroxine medications (synthetic thyroid drugs) and penicillamine, a rheumatoid arthritis drug that’s also used as a treatment for several other more-or-less obscure diseases.

Unfortunately, neither WebMD.com nor MayoClinic.com cite reference sources or provide any documentation whatsoever for their claims that colloidal silver “may” interfere with the absorption of this small handful of drugs.

Way back in 2009, the FDA published a consumer advisory bulletin on “Dietary Supplements Containing Silver” which also very briefly mentioned the claim that colloidal silver can interfere with the absorption of certain prescription medications.

This FDA consumer advisory bulletin might be where WebMD.com and MayoClinic.com are getting their information, since the claims are similar.

But even the FDA bulletin cited no sources, documentation or clinical studies to back up the claims. And once again, the bulletin merely says colloidal silver “may” interfere with penicillamine, quinolone, tetracycline and thyroxine drugs.

So in terms of reliable documentation, there’s nothing definitive I know of at this point in time.

Personal Research

Still, this issue has concerned me enough to pique my curiosity beyond normal levels.

So I hired an experienced pharmaceutical industry researcher to comb through the online PubMed database records to see if there were any clinical studies demonstrating an interaction between colloidal silver and medications like penicillamine, quinolone, tetracycline and thyroxine.

He spent several days on the project and could find nothing in the published medical literature to back up these claims.

I personally spent several days searching through additional online orthodox medical resources, and could find no back-up documentation for these claims.

So at present it's still unclear to me whether or not there's any solid clinical evidence for such claims.

However, because this is potentially such an important issue, several weeks ago I emailed the FDA and asked them to document their claims.

They emailed back and said I'd have to file a Freedom of Information Act request if I wanted to know their sources.

Unbelievable, right? Typical bureaucratic stonewalling.

But I filed the Freedom of Information Act request, and this past week I got an email message from the FDA saying, basically, they had received my request and “would get to it as soon as possible.”

They also noted they might have to charge me a fee for “processing” my request.

Heck, I thought I paid my fees back in April when the IRS collected my taxes. But folks, it’s all about the Benjamins. And the information is important enough that I’m willing to pay for it, if it exists.

But it remains to be seen whether or not the FDA comes up with anything reliable to help resolve this issue. I have a sneaking suspicion they won’t. But I’m willing to wait and see before forming a judgment on this issue.

Still Don’t Know…

So there you have it. We still don’t know if there’s any reliable clinical evidence whatsoever for these claims that colloidal silver “may” interfere with the absorption of certain medications.

What I do know is that in 17 years of researching colloidal silver, writing about colloidal silver, and interviewing hundreds of other avid colloidal silver users, I’ve only heard one complaint from a colloidal silver user claiming the infection-fighting substance appeared to interfere with the absorption of her medication.

And since that person would not allow me to speak with her doctor to verify the complaint, and also refused to answer any of my subsequent emails, I had to write off the claim as potentially spurious.

That doesn’t mean colloidal silver can’t interfere with the absorption of certain medications. I just haven’t seen any reliable evidence of it, yet, whether clinical or anecdotal.

What Some People Do…

The few people I know of who are concerned about the possibility of colloidal silver interfering with the absorption of their medications tend to take their colloidal silver a few hours after taking their medications, so that the meds are already fully absorbed into their bloodstream before the colloidal silver is introduced.

Others go to even greater lengths, taking their medications at one end of the day, and their colloidal silver at the other end of the day to help minimize any such potential interference.

(Naturally, take your medications as prescribed. Don’t adjust dosage times without conferring with your doctor first.)

A very close friend of mine had a dual kidney/pancreas transplant about 10 or 12 years ago, and as a result has to take a handful of prescription medications each day to keep his body from rejecting the transplanted organs.

These anti-rejection drugs are literally crucial to keeping him alive. But they work by dramatically suppressing his immune system so that it can’t identify the transplanted organs as “foreign objects” and reject them.

This means his immune system is kept artificially low, and he’s extremely susceptible to every little cold of flu bug that comes around. Or any kind of infection whatsoever. A serious infection could literally kill him – even a nasty case of the flu.

So each day for the last 10 or 12 years he’s washed down his anti-rejection medications with several ounces of his homemade colloidal silver, in order to help prevent infection.

Unlike some of his fellow transplant recipients, he’s never experienced a serious “rejection episode,” meaning the colloidal silver can’t possibly be interfering with his anti-rejection drugs. They’re working wonderfully.

And he hardly ever gets any colds or flu, either, meaning the colloidal silver is working as well.

So for me, the question of whether or not colloidal silver “may” interfere with certain medications is still up in the air. Maybe colloidal silver can interfere with the absorption of certain medications. Maybe not. We’re still awaiting the evidence.

Hopefully, we’ll know more when, and if, the FDA responds to my Freedom of Information request.

Talk To Your Doctor…

Meantime, if you’re taking medications and you’re concerned about the possibility that colloidal silver might interfere with the absorption of your particular medications, you’ll obviously want to confer with your doctor.

Your doctor should know about ALL of your nutritional supplements, not just colloidal silver.

You don’t have to justify your use of supplements to your doctor. Just let your doctor know that you’re using certain supplements, so he (or she) can check for any potential interaction between the supplement and the medications he’s prescribing for you.

Believe it or not, even something as simple as eating a grapefruit can interfere with certain medications, particularly if they’re ingested at the same time of the day.

If your doctor is concerned about colloidal silver usage due to certain medications you’re taking, you may want to err on the side of caution by foregoing the use of colloidal silver altogether.

Or, you can talk to your doctor about mitigating the possibility of interaction between your colloidal silver supplement and the absorption of your medications by taking the colloidal silver at least several hours after taking the medications.

That way, the medications are already fully absorbed by the body before colloidal silver is introduced into the body.

Again, check with your doctor, who can advise you.

If you're super-concerned, you can even request your doctor perform blood tests to make sure your medications are functioning effectively when you’ve been using colloidal silver.

For example, if you're taking thyroxine (thyroid medication) while using colloidal silver, your doctor can have a thyroid test performed to make sure your thyroid medication is keeping your thyroid levels exactly where they need to be.

As soon as I learn more on this topic, I’ll be sure to post another Colloidal Silver Secrets Ezine with the pertinent information.

Meanwhile, you can learn tons more valuable information about safe, natural colloidal silver and its many infection-fighting and immune-boosting uses by clicking the link in this sentence.