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Paul Karason was born a fair-skinned, freckled boy with reddish blond hair. But later, he developed skin with a bluish tinge against his shock of white hair, the result of a rare medical syndrome known as argyria or silver poisoning from dietary supplements.

Karason died at the age of 62 this week after being treated for pneumonia at a Washington hospital after having suffered a heart attack. He'd also previously had a severe stroke, his estranged wife Jo Anna Karason told NBC's Today.

ABCNews.com interviewed Karason in 2008. At the time he lived in Oregon. He said the blue tinge had started more than a decade before that when he saw an ad in a new-age magazine promising health and rejuvenation through colloidal silver. He drank about 10 ounces a day of the home-brew that he dissolved in water.

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excerpts from Feeling Blue Over Skin Color
Aug. 18, 2008, By JOSEPH ANGIER via Primetime:

Silver Poisoning

Karason's blue skin is the result of a rare medical syndrome known as argyria, or silver poisoning. He began using silver as a form of alternative medicine, not realizing what might happen to his skin.

It started a decade ago, when he saw an ad in a new-age magazine promising health and rejuvenation through colloidal silver.

"It was a daisy in a glass of water," he remembered. "The story was that the daisy had been desiccated before it was put back in the water. And [now] it looked like a fresh-picked daisy."

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Does Colloidal Silver Work?

But there is plenty of doubt among mainstream doctors. These claims, they say, have no basis in science.

"The FDA has looked at it a long time ago and decided that there is no medical reason for taking colloidal silver," said Dr. Vincent DeLeo, head of dermatology at St. Luke's-Roosevelt and Beth Israel Hospitals in New York.

DeLeo's advice to those who are thinking about trying it anyway? "How about: Don't use it!"

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"Paul turned blue because he ingested and applied elemental silver. It got into his blood stream and then was deposited in his skin as brown particles. And when you see those particles through the skin, they appear to be gray or blue/gray."

And doctors suspect that it's not just his skin that's changed color -- his internal organs are most likely also blue.

Paul's reaction when he realized he'd turned all blue? "I kind of hoped it would fade off!"

But it didn't fade off. Argyria is permanent.

more at http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MedicalMysteries/story?id=5489997

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