This Rare Disease Causes Your Skin To Become Blue
An 84-year-old man left clinicians at a Hong Kong hospital utterly perplexed after arriving at the hospital to be treated for complications from a urinary flow obstruction. His skin, eyes, and nails were an unusual bluish-gray color that had nothing to do with his condition.
Blood tests revealed that high concentrations of silver were causing the man to develop this strange hue. The man’s body contained 40 times more silver than is found in most individuals.
As a result, tiny oxidized silver granules were building up beneath his skin in the membranes of his blood vessels, sweat glands, and dermal fibers.
The buildup of silver in the body is known as argyria. Nowadays, the condition is rare but not unheard of. In extreme cases, people are left with skin that appears to be blue.
Argyria was more common in the 19th century due to heavy exposure to silver among miners and artisans who worked closely with the metal. Silver was also used in medications to treat diseases back then.
Today, colloidal silver is taken as a dietary supplement, even though there is no scientific evidence of its health benefits.
In fact, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has warned against consuming the element, as it is not considered to be a safe or effective way to treat any disease or condition. It can also interfere with drugs like antibiotics.
The main symptoms of argyria are the skin and nails developing a bluish-gray tint. Darker patches appear on skin that is exposed to the sun.
The color is achieved by silver ions reacting to the UV radiation from the sun and forming compounds that reflect a dull gray or blue hue.
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Argyria can also cause other symptoms, such as fatigue, headache, abdominal pain, and kidney damage that is not life-threatening.
According to a case study, the 84-year-old man was being treated for a benign prostate tumor. His only medication was finasteride, a common anti-androgen that does not contain any silver.
The patient worked as a waiter for years but did not provide an obvious source of silver contamination in his workplace. None of his neighbors presented with similar skin color, so exposure in his home environment was ruled out.
It is unlikely that the patient’s long-term health will be significantly affected. However, he will have a hard time getting rid of his skin’s new shade, as these color changes are typically permanent.
Currently, there is no cure for argyria. Previously, laser therapy has been tested as a method of improving the appearance of discolored skin in patients with argyria, but the experiments proved to be unsuccessful.
For now, the source of the 84-year-old man’s gray skin is a mystery. His physicians will continue monitoring him.
This case study was published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
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