A man nicknamed ‘Papa Smurf’ became an overnight internet sensation because of his ‘completely’ blue skin.
Paul Karason self-medicates his skin condition dermatitis for over a decade by swallowing a silver compound combination.
In an attempt to heal his sinuses, dermatitis, and acid reflux, the Washington man took homemade silver chloride colloid while massaging a colloidal silver solution on his face. He said that as a result, he was cured of both acid reflux and arthritis.
Silver, it turns out, contains antibacterial properties that have been used to fight infection for thousands of years.
There was no need for it, however, when considerably more effective penicillin was created in the 1930s.
Nevertheless, Paul’s life started changing once he went on TODAY in 2008. He soon nicknamed Papa Smurf, something that his wife said ‘he didn’t appreciate’. “That was a nickname he didn’t appreciate, depending on who said it,” she said.
“If it was a kid who ran up to him saying ‘Papa Smurf’, it would put a smile on his face. But if it was an adult, well…”
“And he looks at me and he says, ‘What have you got on your face?’ ‘I don’t have anything on my face!'” Paul added. “He says, ‘Well, it looks like you’ve got camouflage makeup on or something. And by golly, he came in and he was very fair-skinned, as I used to be. And that’s when it hit me.”
Regrettably, Paul claimed that his personal life was going bad just a year after his appearance on the NBC show.
“I’m in a place right now where it’s very difficult for me to make my own, and my resources are limited and it’s very expensive,” he explained. Paul developed heart problems and prostate cancer only a few years later.
He lost his house in 2012 and was forced to live in a homeless shelter in Bellingham. Paul died in 2013 at the age of 62, following a heart attack that resulted in pneumonia and a severe stroke. He continued to utilize colloidal silver until the day he died. As long as regulations and testing are followed, colloidal silver can be sold as a cosmetic product in the U.K. The drug, however, is not authorized to be sold as a dietary supplement or medicine.