I swear, you can’t turn around anymore without hearing about how this joint brace with copper improves your arthritis or that back brace made with copper improves posture and reduces back pain or those socks made with copper will stink less, as if a wrist brace or back brace made without copper wouldn’t do the same and I’ve never heard that copper made a difference to sweat stink.
And now they’re advertising “copper-infused reusable face masks”, as if the copper is going to make a difference in how much the mask can protect you (or others) from COVID-19.
ETA: Longer answer. I’d have to see some actual lab data testing the effectiveness of “infused” products. And improved posture and whatnot are pure snake oil claims.
I’m using copper ions to kill stinkhorn fungus in my garden. It also seems to have the off-label effect of repelling hippopotamuses, because I haven’t seen any.
Actually, copper bullets really are a thing. Lead bullets have been having a detrimental environmental impact for years and they initially got rid of it for shooting over water primarily in waterfowl shot and now copper bullets are gaining in popularity as lead is basically banned in California and other states are following suit.
There is some commercial right now (maybe for face masks?) that keeps repeating “with the properties of copper!” It never says what any of these properties are. I figure they mean the masks are malleable, ductile, and conductive.
I have little doubt that a light, soft metal in constant contact with the skin will wear down and be absorbed into the body. I expect that amount will be measurable in parts per trillion. I would bet against that amount being effective even if a larger concentration would be beneficial.
That’s one of those things I leave to people with PhD’s after their name to determine.
As nearwildheaven stated, it’s all a placebo effect.
OTOH, the placebo effect is strong medicine. The danger is when it’s deceptive and the underlying condition is being ignored or masked.
Didn’t the fad fade once? It was huge around 20 years ago, but I have a heavy copper bracelet (bought enrirely as a pretty cool item, not a therapy) that retailed for around $20 or so that cost around $1.00 on closeout after they sold like lead ballons at the trailing end of the fad. (The lead ballon fad having passed long before that.)
Yeah, they’re clearly counting on gullible, woo-loving people knowing the magical “properties” of copper, which they don’t describe so they don’t wind up with a cease-and-desist letter.
We recently bought a new mattress, and the salesman was telling my husband how there was copper in the cover and it would help his back pain. :dubious: Well, that and the 10+ hour spinal surgery he had last week.
We did buy the mattress and it’s actually quite comfy, but it was all we could do to not roll our eyes at the salesguy.
Yeah, and you have copper in your blood, in ceruloplasmin.
Wilson’s Disease is the excessive accumulation of copper in the body and if it can’t be treated by chelation therapy, the patient gets bumped to the top of the liver transplant list.
If any metal does benefit arthritis, it’s gold, and oral and injectable gold preparations have been used to treat rheumatoid arthritis. They are rarely used nowadays because modern drugs (like hydroxychloroquine, for instance) usually work much better.
As a young’n, I had a copper and silver neckchain. Looked vaguely like a bunch of really heavy and thick paper clips. Wearing it is what made me immortal.
Actually, as cool as it looked to me at the time, all it really did was turn my neck green and give me a rash. SIGH
There’ve been a ton of copper-containing products marketed for athletes and others with stress injuries and/or osteoarthritis, with very little in the way of scientific backing. So it’s not surprising that in the new wave of hucksters seeking to monetize the pandemic, we’d be seeing a bunch of “copper-infused” face masks, none of which seem to have undergone rigorous clinical testing.
I found one Pub Med study suggesting a copper-containing respiratory mask (N95-type) was effective in a small trial against influenza viruses (the study was funded by the mask company). A review article suggests that hospitals could cut down on spread of pathogens in general by incorporating copper into doorknobs and other surfaces. So the idea of using copper isn’t crazy, but it’s a stretch to imagine that every product hitting the market will show significant effectiveness.
Silver compounds have been used for years to combat infection, but that’s another arena in which woo predominates these days. Companies are targeting consumers with colloidal silver products, and the FDA has noticed. Expect more warning letters of dubious effectiveness to go out to copper mask sellers. Whoops, here’s someone the FDA has reached out and touched (that warning apparently involves hand sanitizer/soap).
