A Colloidal Silver Primer
Colloidal silver is a completely natural, liquid mineral supplement found in almost every health food store in North America. It’s much like mineral water, except that in this case, the only minerals in the water are tiny, sub-microscopic particles of pure silver.
Pure silver, by itself, has been known for thousands of years to have powerful, broad-spectrum healing and infection-fighting qualities. So when the process for making colloidal silver was discovered in the late 1800’s, shortly after Edison harnessed electricity, it immediately became a popular natural infection-fighting agent, used both topically on cuts, burns and infections, and internally as a remedy for a wide variety of infectious diseases.
Numerous medical studies were conducted on colloidal silver throughout the early 1900’s, and the substance was used in hospitals and laboratories around the world, in a wide variety of forms, to help fight infection and disease. Studies documenting its phenomenal infection-fighting qualities were written up in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the British medical journal Lancet, and many others.
Indeed, as far back as 1919, Alfred Searle, author of The Use of Colloids in Health and Disease, had written: “Applying colloidal silver to human subjects has been done in a large number of cases with astonishingly successful results…it has the advantage of being rapidly fatal to parasites without toxic action on its host. It is quite stable. It protects rabbits from ten times the lethal dose of tetanus or diphtheria toxin.”
How Is It Made?
Colloidal silver is made through a simple electrical process that pulls microscopic particles of silver called silver ions from a larger piece of pure silver immersed in water. These tiny ionic silver particles are held in suspension in the water by the electrical charge on each atom. When ingested, these tiny ionic particles of silver travel throughout your body like any other ionic mineral before being excreted through your normal channels of elimination.
Over 100 Year Medical History
The simple process for producing colloidal silver was developed shortly after Edison harnessed electricity in 1892. It was then used for decades by doctors, in a variety of forms and under a variety of brand names, as a natural infection-fighting agent. But it fell out of widespread usage after the advent of prescription antibiotics in the 1940’s.
Then, in the mid-1970’s colloidal silver experienced a dramatic resurgence in popularity after doctors discovered that many pathogens were developing immunity to prescription antibiotic drugs, but not to electrically-charged ionic silver. According to science writer Jim Powell in the March 1978 issue of Science Digest, “Thanks to eye-opening research, silver is re-emerging as a wonder of modern medicine. An antibiotic kills perhaps a half-dozen different disease organisms, but silver kills some 650. Resistant strains fail to develop. Moreover, silver is virtually non-toxic.”
In the 1980’s Dr. Robert O. Becker, MD, the noted bio-medical researcher from Syracuse Medical University, and author of the best-selling books The Body Electric and Cross Currents, discovered a distinct correlation between low silver levels in the body, and sickness. He wrote that silver deficiency is often responsible for the improper functioning of the immune system. Indeed, he stated:
“While analyzing hair samples and questioning the parties involved, I noticed the correlation between low silver levels and sickness. People who showed low silver levels in their hair analysis were frequently sick. They seemed to have innumerable colds, flu, fevers, and various other sickness. I believe that a silver deficiency may be the key to the improper function of the immune system.”
Regarding the profound ability of silver to control infection, Dr. Becker wrote, “All of the organisms that we tested were sensitive to the electrically generated silver ion, including some that were resistant to all known antibiotics.” Regarding the safety of silver, he wrote, “In no case were any undesirable side effects of the silver treatment apparent.”
In short, Dr. Becker had simply re-discovered what had already been known for thousands of years, i.e., that silver is one of the most powerful natural infection-fighting agents on the face of the earth.
How Does Colloidal Silver Work?
Researchers have found that colloidal silver works against pathogens in three powerful ways:
- First, much like the mineral iron, silver is a powerful carrier of oxygen. But unlike iron, when silver comes into contact with an infectious microbe it releases an oxygen “burst” which damages the cell wall of the pathogen in much the same manner as hydrogen peroxide would.
- Second, silver acts as a catalyst, disabling the enzyme that single-celled bacteria, fungi and viruses use for respiration and metabolism. And it does so without harming surrounding human cells or tissues.
- Third, brand new research demonstrates that when tiny silver particles are absorbed through the damaged cell wall of the pathogen, these silver particles attach themselves to the DNA of the pathogen and thus prevent it from replicating. No replication means the infection can no longer spread.
Ultimately, and in very short course, the silver kills the pathogens completely. And additional brand new research out of Hebrew University in Jerusalem demonstrates that the pathogens that are killed by the tiny silver particles begin to leach those particles into the rest of the colony, killing other nearby bacteria in an ongoing chain reaction that continues until the bacterial colony is wiped out. The researchers even nicknamed this process the “zombie effect.”
How Is Colloidal Silver Used?
Regular colloidal silver users most often ingest colloidal silver orally. But it can also be sprayed externally onto cuts, scrapes or burns.
As a daily mineral supplement, millions of Americans orally ingest anywhere from a tablespoon to an ounce a day (depending upon age and body weight) of a standard 10 ppm concentration of colloidal silver.
Others use it only when they are sick or feeling particularly run down. People have been known to take as many as one to five ounces a day (or sometimes even more) of a standard 10 ppm concentration, for very short periods of time such as a week or two. Based on tens of thousands of anecdotal accounts, users claim that doing so will generally clear up a mild to moderate infection in only a few days, while more serious infections may take longer.
Many people put several drops of colloidal silver directly into their eyes to help eradicate eye infections such as Pink Eye or sties, often in the course of a single afternoon. And many more use it in a spray bottle to help eliminate sore throats. Some simply swish it around in their mouth to help prevent or eliminate teeth and gum infections. Others have been known to put a drop or two into their ears to help eliminate ear infections virtually overnight.
In accord with FDA guidelines, it’s very important to note that there is no evidence for colloidal silver’s safety or efficacy when used in such a manner, as it has never been put through the FDA’s rigorous testing procedures for sale as an over-the-counter drug. Nevertheless, based on thousands upon thousands of anecdotal accounts, it does appear to work, and quite extraordinarily at that!
Experts warn that it’s very important not to continue taking colloidal silver at high dosage levels for long periods of time, because it’s possible that long-term use of excessively high dosages can eventually overwhelm the ability of the liver and kidneys to excrete excess silver, which can in turn lead to silver deposition in the tissues, organs and skin.
This, in turn, can result in an extremely rare cosmetic skin condition known as argyria, in which the skin turns grey or even bluish in color due to silver deposits. (Always consult with a licensed and skilled health care practitioner for serious health conditions.)
To learn more about colloidal silver dosage, be sure to get a copy of the Colloidal Silver Safe Dosage Report, which is FREE by email, and which helps you calculate the maximum safe dosage level you can take daily for a lifetime, based on your body weight and the ppm (i.e., concentration) of the colloidal silver product you’re using.
On Vacation? Colloidal silver users say you should always take colloidal silver with you while on vacation. After all, pure silver has been used for thousands of years, by a variety of cultures, for preventing water from becoming bacterially contaminated. The Roman Legions, for example, were said to have placed silver coins in their water containers during long treks into battle, in order to help prevent the spread of bacteria in the water supply.
Numerous studies have shown that very small amounts of electrically charged silver ions injected mechanically into city water supplies are effective at keeping levels of fecal coliform and other bacterial contaminants under control. And silver is used throughout Mexico and other Latin American countries to disinfect and/or decontaminate the local drinking water supply. It’s even been used to disinfect water by NASA on the Space Shuttle, and by the Russian space program on their manned space flights.
Because of this, many travelers use colloidal silver to help keep drinking water free of harmful bacterial contamination while on vacation. Others use it in their emergency water storage programs for the same purpose. Users frequently claim that adding one or two ounces of colloidal silver per gallon is all that’s needed to keep drinking water from becoming bacterially contaminated, or to kill existing bacterial contamination.
Additionally, many colloidal silver users swear by colloidal silver for use as fast and effective an antidote for food poisoning, both at home and while traveling out of the country. Some users suggest that during instances of food poisoning, taking one ounce of colloidal silver every 10 minutes for several hours until symptoms subside is an effective nutritional remedy. Cruise ship lovers say colloidal silver could be your most important “must bring” product!
(We remind readers that under FDA guidelines there is no evidence for silver’s safety or efficacy when used in such a manner, as it has never been put through the FDA’s rigorous testing procedures for sale as an over-the-counter drug. You should always consult immediately with a licensed and skilled health care practitioner for serious health conditions.)
Is Colloidal Silver Safe to Use?
It’s important to understand that when the Dartmouth University researchers studied silver in order to determine whether or not it was safe or toxic in humans, this is what they concluded:
“Trace amounts of silver are in the bodies of all humans and animals. We normally take in between 70 and 88 micrograms of silver a day, half of that amount from our diet. Humans have evolved with efficient methods of dealing with that intake, however. Over 99 percent is readily excreted from the body. Is silver harmful to humans? Unlike other metals such as lead and mercury, silver is not toxic to humans and is not known to cause cancer, reproductive or neurological damage, or other chronic adverse effects.”
— Dartmouth University Toxic Metals Research Program
Or as Dr. Herbert Slavin, M.D., Director of the Institute of Advanced Medicine in Lauderhill Florida has put it, “Few things in life are as cut-and-dried as the fact that silver is completely safe when used within normal limits…Ionic silver is entirely non-toxic to the body.”
And as Dr. Jeffrey Blumer, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Center for Drug Research and former director of the Greater Cleveland Poison Control Center has stated, “Common substances like table salt and aspirin are harmless with normal use, but excessive intake can become toxic and even life-threatening. With normal responsible usage, silver supplements are entirely harmless to humans.”
As Byron Richards, CCN (Board Certified Clinical Nutritionist, charter member of the International Association of Clinical Nutritionists has stated, “…the antibiotic properties of silver are quite potent – and the risk to human health in terms of toxicity is negligible. [Silver has] a far better risk/benefit profile than commonly used antibiotics.”
And as Dr. Ron Leavitt, Ph.D., Professor of Microbiology at Brigham Young University has stated, regarding his own clinical studies of colloidal silver, “The data suggests that with the low toxicity associated with colloidal silver, in general, and the broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity of this colloidal silver preparation, this preparation may be effectively used as an alternative to antibiotics.”
Of course, no substance on the face of the earth is completely safe if used abusively. Even common nutritional supplements can be harmful when used outside of the bounds of common sense. For example:
- Abusive use of iron supplements can, over long periods of time, result in cirrhosis of the liver and heart failure.
- Abusive use of calcium over long periods of time can result in kidney malfunction, calcification of soft tissue within the body, cellular toxicity and impaired immune function.
- Abusive use of vitamin A over long periods of time can result in muscle pain, fatigue, irritability, depression, schizophrenia, fever, liver damage and anemia.
- Abusive use of selenium over long periods of time can result in nervous system damage.
None of those side effects justify being afraid to use the substances mentioned. Why? Because the key phrase involved in each one is “abusive use.” When used responsibly and in moderation, these substances are not only benign, but extremely beneficial to one’s health and well-being. But when used to dramatic excess, they can cause potentially serious health consequences if the abusive use continues over long periods of time.
It’s exactly the same with colloidal silver. If you use it in moderation and with common sense, it’s generally considered to be completely harmless. Thousands of experiential accounts (and tens of millions of bottles of colloidal silver sold annually, worldwide) suggest you can use it on a regular daily basis if you choose to, in small daily amounts.
Or you can use it from time-to-time on a strictly “as needed” basis in somewhat larger amounts. But what you cannot do is use colloidal silver in extremely high amounts every single day, for months and years on end. Why? Because like any other vitamin, mineral, herb or natural substance, such abusive use can result in problems rather than benefits.
Again, if you have not done so already, be sure to get a copy of the Colloidal Silver Safe Dosage Report, which is FREE by email, and which helps you calculate the maximum safe dosage level you can take daily for a lifetime, based on your body weight and the ppm (i.e., concentration) of the colloidal silver product you’re using.
This information is brought to you from our friends at:
The Silver Edge
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Phoenix, AZ 85071
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