All That Glitters…

Today we’ll be examining colloidal gold supplementation.

This issue of 10almonds brought to you by the writer suddenly getting lots of advertisements for this supplement. It’s not a new thing though, and has been around in one form or another since pretty much forever.

Colloidal gold is…

• Gold, as in the yellow metal
• Colloidal, as in “very tiny insoluble particles dispersed though another substance (such as water)”

What are the claims made for it?

Honestly, just about everything is claimed for it. But to go with some popular claims:

• Reduces inflammation
• Supports skin health
• Boosts immune function
• Combats aging
• Improves cognitive function

So, what does the science say?

Does it do those things?

The short and oversimplified answer is: no

However, there is a little bit of tangential merit, so we’re going to talk about the science of it, and how the leap gets made between what the science says and what the advertisements say.

First… What makes gold so special, in general? Historically, three things:

1. It’s quite rare
2. It’s quite shiny
3. It’s quite unreactive

• The first is about supply and demand, so that’s not very important to us in this article.
• The second is an aesthetic quality, which actually will have a little bit of relevance, but not much.
• The third has been important historically (because it meant that shiny gold stayed shiny, because it didn’t tarnish), and now also important industrially too, as gold can be used in many processes where we basically need for nothing to happen (i.e., a very inert component is needed)

That third quality—its unreactivity—has become important in medicine.

When scientists need a way to deliver something (without the delivering object getting eaten by the body’s “eat everything” tendencies), or otherwise not interact chemically with anything around, gold is an excellent choice.

Hence gold teeth, and gold fillings, by the way. They’re not just for the bling factor; they were developed because of their unreactivity and thus safety.

So, what about those health claims we mentioned above?

Here be science (creative interpretations not included)

The most-backed-by-science claim from that list is “reduces inflammation”.

Websites selling colloidal gold cite studies such as:

Gold nanoparticles reduce inflammation in cerebral microvessels of mice with sepsis

A promising title!The results of the study showed:

❝20 nm cit-AuNP treatment reduced leukocyte and platelet adhesion to cerebral blood vessels, prevented BBB failure, reduced TNF- concentration in brain, and ICAM-1 expression both in circulating polymorphonuclear (PMN) leukocytes and cerebral blood vessels of mice with sepsis. Furthermore, 20 nm cit-AuNP did not interfere with the antibiotic effect on the survival rate of mice with sepsis.❞

That “20 nm cit-AuNP” means “20 nm citrate-covered gold nanoparticles”

So it is not so much the antioxidant powers of gold being tested here, as the antioxidant powers of citrate, a known antioxidant. The gold was the carrying agent, whose mass and unreactivity allowed it to get where it needed to be.

The paper does say the words “Gold nanoparticles have been demonstrated to own important anti-inflammatory properties“ in the abstract, but does not elaborate on that, reference it, or indicate how.

Websites selling colloidal gold also cite papers such as:

Anti-inflammatory effect of gold nanoparticles supported on metal oxides

Another promising title! However the abstract mentions:

❝The effect was dependent on the MOx NPs chemical nature

[…]

The effect of Au/TiO2 NPs was not related to Au NPs size❞

MOx NPs = mineral oxide nanoparticles. In this case, the gold was a little more than a carrying agent, though, because the gold is described and explained as being a catalytic agent (i.e., its presence helps the attached mineral oxides react more quickly).

We said that was the most-backed claim, and as you can see, it has some basis but is rather tenuous since the gold by itself won’t do anything; it just helps the mineral oxides.

Next best-backed claim builds from that, which is “supports skin health”.

Sometimes colloidal gold is sold as a facial tonic. By itself it’ll distribute (inert) gold nanoparticles across your skin, and may “give you a healthy glow”, because that’s what happens when you put shiny wet stuff on your face.

Healthwise, if the facial tonic also contains some of the minerals we mentioned above, then it may have an antioxidant effect. But again, no minerals, no effect.

The claim that it “combats aging” is really a tag-on to the “antioxidant” claim.

As for the “supports immune health” claim… Websites selling colloid gold cite studies such as:

Efficacy and Immune Response Elicited by Gold Nanoparticle- Based Nanovaccines against Infectious Diseases

To keep things brief: gold can fight infectious diseases in much the same way that forks can fight hunger. It’s an inert carrying agent.

As for “improves cognitive function”? The only paper we could find cited was that mouse sepsis study again, this time with the website saying “researchers found that rats treated with colloidal gold showed improved spatial memory and learning ability“ whereas the paper cited absolutely did not claim that, not remotely, not even anything close to that. It wasn’t even rats, it was mice, and they did not test their memory or learning.

Is it safe?

Colloidal gold supplementation is considered very safe, precisely because gold is one of the least chemically reactive substances you could possibly consume. It is special precisely because it so rarely does anything.

However, impurities could be introduced in the production process, and the production process often involves incredibly harsh reagents to get the gold ions, and if any of those reagents are left in the solution, well, gold is safe but sodium borohydride and chloroauric acid aren’t!

Where can I get some?

In the unlikely event that our research review has given you an urge to try it, here’s an example product on Amazon

Take care!

Do You Feel The SAMe?

S-Adeonsyl-L-Methionone (SAMe) is a chemical found naturally in the body, and/but enjoyed widely as a supplement. The main reasons people take it are:

• Improve mood (antidepressant effect)
• Improve joints (reduce osteoarthritis symptoms)
• Improve liver (detoxifying effect)

Let’s see what the science says for each of those claims…

Does it improve mood?

It seems to perform comparably to St. John’s Wort (which is good; it performs comparably to Prozac).

Best of all, it does this with fewer contraindications (St. John’s Wort has so many contraindications).

Here’s how they stack up:

St. John’s wort and S-Adenosyl Methionine as “natural” alternatives to conventional antidepressants in the era of the suicidality boxed warning: what is the evidence for clinically relevant benefit?

This looks very promising, though it’d be nice to see a larger body of research, to be sure.

Does it reduce osteoarthritis symptoms?

The good news: it performs comparably to ibuprofen, with fewer side effects!

The bad news: it also performs comparably to placebo!

Read into that what you will about ibuprofen’s usefulness vs OA symptoms.

Read all about it:

S-Adenosylmethionine for osteoarthritis of the knee or hip

If you were hoping for something for OA or similar symptoms, you might like our previous main features:

• Avoiding/Managing Osteoarthritis
• Managing Chronic Pain (Realistically!)
• The 7 Approaches To Pain Management
• (Science-Based) Alternative Pain Relief

Does it help against liver disease?

According to adverts for SAMe: absolutely!

According to science: we don’t know

The science for this is so weak that it’d be unworthy of mention if it weren’t for the fact that SAMe is so widely sold as good against hepatotoxicity.

To be clear: maybe it really is great! Science hasn’t yet disproved its usefulness either.

It is popularly assumed to be beneficial due to there being an association between lower levels of SAMe in the body (remember, it is also produced inside our bodies) and development of liver disease, especially cholestasis.

Here’s an example of what pretty much every study we found was like (inconclusive research based mostly on mice):

S-adenosylmethionine in liver health, injury, and cancer

For other options for liver health, consider:

How To Unfatty A Fatty Liver

Is it safe?

Safety trials have been done ranging from 3 months to 2 years, with no serious side effects coming to light. So, it appears quite safe.

That said, as with anything, there are contraindications, such as:

• if you have bipolar disorder, skip this unless directed by your health care provider, because it may worsen the symptoms of mania
• if you are on SSRIs or other serotonergic drugs, it may interact with those
• if you are immunocompromised, you might want to skip it can increase the risk of P. carinii growth in such cases

As always, do speak with your doctor/pharmacist for personalized advice.

Summary

SAMe’s evidence-based qualities seem to stack up as follows:

• Against depression: good
• Against osteoarthritis: weak
• Against liver disease: unknown

As for safety, it has been found quite safe for most people.

Where can I get it?

We don’t sell it, but here is an example product on Amazon, for your convenience

Enjoy!