Question: Copper holy grail for embarrassing skin infections (and wrinkles, too)?

cybercoitus interruptus — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 15:36:31 -0800

Seeking info on the effectiveness of Cupron textiles, which are supposed to have wrinkle- and microbe- fighting properties due to being plated or impregnated with copper. Anybody have personal experiences with the pillowcases, bed sheets, towels, socks, etc, or can offer informed critiques of the company's studies?

I saw the pillowcases at Bed Bath & Beyond yesterday and thought, "Sounds too good to be true, so I'll read up online before buying." I'm primarily interested in whether they really work against microbes because I'm having trouble getting rid of a chronic non-MRSA staph infection (yes, I'm doing everything my MD tells me, and have been for months, and tried alternative health approaches for good measure, all of which help but the lesions keep recurring).

I've read a couple of the articles by the company's personnel (scroll down to authors Borkow and Gabbay). "Biocidal textiles can help fight nosocomial infections" in Medical Hypotheses, and "Copper Oxide Impregnated Textiles with Potent Biocidal Activities" (proof only), from my lay perspective, seem sound (small pilot studies only, but still). I'd like to hear what people, who are used to evaluating science articles professionally, think of them.

(And if it really works on wrinkles, it'll make a great gift.)

Google turned up this hypothesis about the anti-wrinkle mechanism, this interview with Gabbay, and this article
that mentions a contrary opinion. Nothing about it on Quackwatch.

I will ask my dermatologist what he thinks, but since he flatly dismissed the idea that staph can be airborne or that it can be carried and transmitted by pets - well, ok, he didn't say it was impossible that I could have been colonized in these ways, but only highly unlikely. So unlikely as to be not worth considering in the arsenal I'm building of how to maximize my chances of getting rid of this, and minimize my chances of getting re-colonized from the same source (complicated backstory involving in-laws). Compared to what I've heard from my MD friends and read online, either his information's not up to date or he subscribes to a narrow view of how staph can be communicated. So I'm not going to rely on his opinion alone.

By: rhizome

rhizome — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 17:02:14 -0800

Not directly addressing your question, but my general philosophy is that if elemental metals had these skin-changing properties, there would be more information about them.

Comments on: Copper holy grail for embarrassing skin infections (and wrinkles, too)?

Question: Copper holy grail for embarrassing skin infections (and wrinkles, too)?

By: rhizome