Colloidal Silver
An Alternative In Good Health Care
An Alternative In Good Health Care
THE REDISCOVERY OF COLLOIDAL SILVER has been considered one of the outstanding events in modern time. It is one of health’s best kept secrets and the rage among those who know. It is an answer that everyone is looking for, but no one wants to find. Yet, it is so simple, it is hard to believe.
What is Colloidal Silver?
Why is it important?
How is it used?
Should it be considered?
Why is it important?
How is it used?
Should it be considered?
These and other important questions will be answered in this informative article.
COLLOIDAL SILVER
What Does Colloidal Silver Do?
Colloidal Silver has been proven successful in treating such things as: flu virus, abscesses, burns, chronic skin ulcers, syphilis, eczema, cholera, malaria, dysentery, giardiasis, appendicitis, boils, cystitis, colitis, impetigo, diarrhoea, tonsillitis, shingles, warts, tetanus, herpes virus responsible for cold sores and fever blisters, ear and other infections, and much, much more. It has also been successful in preventing such things as needless amputation on many diabetics.
Silver is powerful and natural in its tendency to fight disease and is one of the most effective means of destroying and inhibiting the growth of bacteria. The University of California, Los Angeles, School of Medicine, issued a research finding which states that a Colloidal Silver solution was “antibacterial” for such things as: Streptococcus (causing septic sore throat, scarlet fever, rheumatic fever, etc.), Staphylococcus, Neisseria (gonorrhea), Salmonella (typhoid fever), Enteric pathogens (intestinal disease-producing microorganism), a fungicidal for Candida albicans (yeast), and more.
What Are Some Other Findings?
A news article in The Daily Herald, February 13, 1992, about Daryl Tichy of Brigham Young University, Utah, who studied the effects of Colloidal Silver reads in part: "Suspended in the liquid, which is mostly distilled water, are ultra-fine particles of positively-charged silver....Tichy has determined that the solution will kill the AIDS virus without harming the human body.... Tichy said. 'It’s like saying,’ Here is an answer that everyone is looking for, but no one wants to find.’”
Dr. Robert Becker’s, (author of The Body Electric) experiments conclude that Silver works on the full spectrum of pathogens without any side effects or damage to any cells of the body. He also discovered that all strains of pathogens resistant to other antibiotics are killed by Colloidal Silver.
An article found in Science Digest, March, 1978, entitled “Silver, Our Mightiest Germ Fighter,” states that silver kills over 650 disease-causing organisms/pathogens (bacteria, viruses, fungus and yeast), and resistant strains fail to develop.
It is fairly common knowledge, today, that silver can purify water. The Swiss government has approved silver water filters, NASA selected a silver system to purify water on the space shuttles, and the Japanese have technologies which use silver to purify air.
It has also been reported that having silver in the bloodstream increases the healing process of fractured bones. Small amounts of silver have also been used over time to preserve foods.
In a study done, in part, by the Institute of Microbiology in Rome, Italy, and published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, in December, 1992, various forms of silver were tested for their ability to kill micro-organisms. Pure electro-colloidal silver out performed silver nitrate, silver chloride, and silver sulfadiazine as a broad spectrum germicide. For all classes of bacteria, fungus, and mold samples tested, pure electro-colloidal silver worked better, and at much lower concentrations. They concluded that any additives reduced the effectiveness of the pure silver ion; the silver salts being as much as 100 times less effective.
What IS Colloidal Silver?
Colloidal Silver is the most powerful natural antibiotic known to man.
A colloid consists of molecules of matter which are dispersed in a continuous medium. For example, the liquid occurring in cells and tissues is colloidal. Colloidal Silver is a suspension of ultra-fine electrically charged silver particles in a liquid; in current usage, either distilled, deionized or purified water.
Colloidal Silver is defined as a very small particle of silver, .01 to .005 microns in diameter (four hundred thousandths to twenty millionths of an inch), suspended in a liquid medium. It is most commonly produced today by passing an electrical current over a couple of silver electrodes immersed in distilled water. This process forms an electrical current in the liquid medium causing silver particles to become suspended in the water. The particles are so small that one billion would fit into a cube four one hundredths of an inch in size.
Colloidal silver is also an electrical colloid meaning the silver particles, have a positive electrical charge. Because of the small particle size and electrical charge, the particles repel each other and thus theoretically stay suspended in the water indefinitely and do not settle out.
Is There More Than One Type of Colloidal Silver?
Today, there are four different products on the market being called colloidal silver. The first type of product is the classic, original kind, usually called "electro-colloidal silver." This product is made either by the "electro-arc" method in deionized water, or by the "low voltage electrolysis" method in distilled water. This product is usually found in concentrations between 3-5 ppm (parts per million), but sometimes as high as 100 ppm. Properly made, this product consists of microscopic particles of pure, elemental silver suspended in water, with no other elements present. Each particle of silver carries a POSITIVE electrical charge. Colloidal silver made this way appears either transparent-clear or transparent-light yellow.
The second products on the market being called colloidal silver is known as "mild silver protein," the third is "silver salts," and the fourth is sometimes referred to as "powdered silver."
Consumers seeking true colloidal silver are often at a disadvantage because each of these products represents themselves as colloidal silver. All of these products work, to one degree or another, as a broad spectrum germicide because they all contain microscopic particles of silver. It is important to understand, however, that all of these products are not "colloidal suspensions" of silver. Also, these products DO NOT all behave the same in the body or in laboratory tests; effectiveness and dosage varies from product to product; quality varies from product to product and from batch to batch with the same product; and they are NOT all uniformly safe and non-toxic.
How Does Colloidal Silver Work?
In order to understand how colloidal silver works, one must first understand the disease-state of the body. The body encounters pathogens and other foreign entities many times a day. When the body is healthy, it maintains a proper pH and oxygen-rich environment. The pH (parts Hydrogen) inside the cells of the body are usually near an alkaline pH 7.2-7.4.
Outside the cell, the fluid surrounding the cells will usually realize an acidic pH. However, when an individual does not maintain a healthy environment in the body, the pH begins to rise in the outer fluid and fall inside the cell. This reduces the electrical potential of the cell. The oxygen levels in the body respond by decreasing. Pathogens that grow in the body will usually attack these weakened cells and "set up shop."
Organisms that cause illness and attack these weak cells cannot survive in healthy cells that have outer fluid pH below ~4.0 and inner cellular fluid above pH ~6.9. Silver maintains a positive charge which when introduced to areas of infection, disrupt the organisms causing the illness.
Interestingly, colloidal silver is believed to kill the pathogens by inhibiting the enzyme(s) that these pathogens utilize to survive in their anaerobic environment. This enzyme(s) is the pathogen's "chemical lung." Without the necessary enzyme(s) for metabolism, growth, regeneration and survival, the pathogens "suffocate" and die.
It is believed that viruses are destroyed because the electric valence charge of silver particles cause their protective protein coat, also referred to as the "head," to collapse and are rendered unable to replicate. The cells infected by virus may also be susceptible to enzymatic inhibition. They are then removed from the body by the immune, lymphatic, and intestinal elimination systems. This process is supposedly so effective that no pathogen has been recorded to mutate against colloidal silver or live in its presence for more than 6 minutes. While antibiotics are losing their effectiveness, as several strains of germs are becoming resistant to conventional antibiotics, they are not able to develop any resistant strains or immunity to silver.
Colloidal Silver or Ionic Silver?
Another big controversy surrounds the question of whether this method produces "colloidal" silver or "ionic" silver. Most people have been told that colloidal silver is "good" and ionic silver is "bad." Once again, the truth might be unpopular. The word "colloidal" refers to a condition where, in this case, a solid particle is SUSPENDED in a liquid (silver in water). The solid particles are too large to be considered DISSOLVED, but are too small to be filtered out. This colloidal condition is most easily detected by what is called the "Tyndall effect", where a narrow beam of light is shined through the liquid to produce a cone shaped dispersion of the light. The particles so illuminated also exhibit a random, zig-zag activity called "Brownian motion" when observed under a microscope. When something is completely dissolved, both the Brownian and Tyndall effects disappear.
The word "ionic" refers to a condition where a particle has an electric charge. In the case of "electro-colloidal" silver, this electric charge is ALWAYS positive. Silver will not form a negatively charged ion. So, the truth is that electro-colloidal silver is BOTH colloidal and ionic. It is considered colloidal because of the particle SIZE and it is considered ionic because of the particle CHARGE. In fact, most of the biological studies suggest it is colloidal silver's ionic characteristics that make it such a good germicide. It is also interesting to note that the old chemistry books make no distinction between the colloidal and ionic states of the electro-colloidal metals.
Ionic silver is not without merit. Ionic silver is a strong anti microbial and serves well in situations where chloride is not present. When chloride is present (inside the human body), the silver particle content will survive to produce benefit. Ionic silver products, when taken according to the manufacturers recommended dosage, will not cause argyria, a condition that causes the skin to turn blue-gray.
Due to the very low concentration of ionic silver and small particle size, true silver colloids DO NOT cause argyria.
What Is the History of Colloidal Silver?
Colloidal Silver has been used for more than a century. Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, noted that silver had beneficial healing and anti-disease properties. Colloidal silver was used widely among health practitioners as an antibiotic until around 1938 when the FDA came into being and the movement toward synthetic antibiotics began to emerge. But due to the high cost of production, and the upcoming popularity of modern “miracle” drugs, the production of Colloidal Silver almost came to a standstill during the late 1930's.
Although used by NASA on shuttle missions and international airline carriers, silver has all but disappeared except for hospital intensive burn units. A group of scientists in Pharm World Sci. v.19, pp. 197-201, Aug., 1997, refer to colloidal silver as "an antiseptic agent added because of its known antifungal potency."
Recently, The Food and Drug Administration issued a letter stating that “colloidal silver is considered to be a pre-1938 drug. Colloidal Silver may continue to be marketed....as long as they are advertised and labeled for the same use as in 1938.”
How Is Colloidal Silver Used?
The following is a list of some established applications of Colloidal Silver as gleaned from various users of the product:
1. Many take an oral dose of Colloidal Silver of about ½ teaspoon to one tablespoon per day (children ½ the adult dosage). Some even use up to two tablespoons per day.
2. Some apply it topically, directly to cuts and open sores by putting a few drops on a bandage or cotton ball taped into place.
3. Water can often be purified by adding ½ teaspoon of Colloidal Silver per gallon and waiting at least six minutes before drinking.
4. Colloidal Silver works as well on pets and animals of all kinds. It produces the same fine results such as on cows with mastitis; conventional antibiotics taint the milk, whereas, Colloidal Silver does not contaminate it.
5. Simply spray Colloidal Silver on garden and other plants to protect them from bacterial, fungal and viral attacks.
What Are the Side Effects?
Colloidal Silver is tasteless with no harmful side effects to health. It is nontoxic, nonaddictive, with no known reactions or interaction between drugs, herbs or other medications, and no known cases exist demonstrating the ability to overdose using colloidal silver.
The Merck Index, 1976, #8244, states that silver “does not cause serious toxic manifestations.” Why is there no toxicity? Because the silver is in a colloidal form, any excess that is not needed by the body is easily eliminated thereby preventing the accumulation in body tissues for long periods of time.
How Do You Determine Quality?
Some silver colloids are a coarse mixture of silver and water and cannot be as beneficial as a colloid of ultra-fine silver particles created by an electrolysis process. The best Colloidal Silver must possess silver particles that are super-fine so the body cells can more readily absorb them.
Because these particles are ultra-fine, they stay in suspension and do not clump together in the water and settle out; although, some of the best Colloidal Silver on the market could have a very slight settling. The silver particle size in Colloidal Silver determines the color and effectiveness of the product. A light yellow solution is an ultra-fine colloid suspension, which is usually preferred.
How Is Colloidal Silver Stored?
Colloidal silver must be stored in glass amber bottles in order to hold the all important positive charge and protect the solution from sunlight. If colloidal silver is received in plastic bottles, it is best to transfer it into dark amber glass bottles for storage. Plastic bottles will not hold the positive electrical charge over a period of time thereby causing the particles to fall (settle) out of solution. Additionally, toxic chemicals from the plastic may leach into the suspension.
IMPORTANT NOTICE:
It is not the intention of this article to diagnose, prescribe or make any medical claims for the use of Colloidal Silver. The information presented herein is strictly for informational and educational purposes only. One should not avoid seeking medical attention when there is good reason for such professional care. If any reader uses this information without his or her physician’s consent they are prescribing for themselves, which is their right, but the writer or publisher of this information accepts no personal responsibility for their decisions or results.
What Are Some Other Findings?
A news article in The Daily Herald, February 13, 1992, about Daryl Tichy of Brigham Young University, Utah, who studied the effects of Colloidal Silver reads in part: "Suspended in the liquid, which is mostly distilled water, are ultra-fine particles of positively-charged silver....Tichy has determined that the solution will kill the AIDS virus without harming the human body.... Tichy said. 'It’s like saying,’ Here is an answer that everyone is looking for, but no one wants to find.’”
Dr. Robert Becker’s, (author of The Body Electric) experiments conclude that Silver works on the full spectrum of pathogens without any side effects or damage to any cells of the body. He also discovered that all strains of pathogens resistant to other antibiotics are killed by Colloidal Silver.
An article found in Science Digest, March, 1978, entitled “Silver, Our Mightiest Germ Fighter,” states that silver kills over 650 disease-causing organisms/pathogens (bacteria, viruses, fungus and yeast), and resistant strains fail to develop.
It is fairly common knowledge, today, that silver can purify water. The Swiss government has approved silver water filters, NASA selected a silver system to purify water on the space shuttles, and the Japanese have technologies which use silver to purify air.
It has also been reported that having silver in the bloodstream increases the healing process of fractured bones. Small amounts of silver have also been used over time to preserve foods.
In a study done, in part, by the Institute of Microbiology in Rome, Italy, and published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, in December, 1992, various forms of silver were tested for their ability to kill micro-organisms. Pure electro-colloidal silver out performed silver nitrate, silver chloride, and silver sulfadiazine as a broad spectrum germicide. For all classes of bacteria, fungus, and mold samples tested, pure electro-colloidal silver worked better, and at much lower concentrations. They concluded that any additives reduced the effectiveness of the pure silver ion; the silver salts being as much as 100 times less effective.
What IS Colloidal Silver?
Colloidal Silver is the most powerful natural antibiotic known to man.
A colloid consists of molecules of matter which are dispersed in a continuous medium. For example, the liquid occurring in cells and tissues is colloidal. Colloidal Silver is a suspension of ultra-fine electrically charged silver particles in a liquid; in current usage, either distilled, deionized or purified water.
Colloidal Silver is defined as a very small particle of silver, .01 to .005 microns in diameter (four hundred thousandths to twenty millionths of an inch), suspended in a liquid medium. It is most commonly produced today by passing an electrical current over a couple of silver electrodes immersed in distilled water. This process forms an electrical current in the liquid medium causing silver particles to become suspended in the water. The particles are so small that one billion would fit into a cube four one hundredths of an inch in size.
Colloidal silver is also an electrical colloid meaning the silver particles, have a positive electrical charge. Because of the small particle size and electrical charge, the particles repel each other and thus theoretically stay suspended in the water indefinitely and do not settle out.
Is There More Than One Type of Colloidal Silver?
Today, there are four different products on the market being called colloidal silver. The first type of product is the classic, original kind, usually called "electro-colloidal silver." This product is made either by the "electro-arc" method in deionized water, or by the "low voltage electrolysis" method in distilled water. This product is usually found in concentrations between 3-5 ppm (parts per million), but sometimes as high as 100 ppm. Properly made, this product consists of microscopic particles of pure, elemental silver suspended in water, with no other elements present. Each particle of silver carries a POSITIVE electrical charge. Colloidal silver made this way appears either transparent-clear or transparent-light yellow.
The second products on the market being called colloidal silver is known as "mild silver protein," the third is "silver salts," and the fourth is sometimes referred to as "powdered silver."
Consumers seeking true colloidal silver are often at a disadvantage because each of these products represents themselves as colloidal silver. All of these products work, to one degree or another, as a broad spectrum germicide because they all contain microscopic particles of silver. It is important to understand, however, that all of these products are not "colloidal suspensions" of silver. Also, these products DO NOT all behave the same in the body or in laboratory tests; effectiveness and dosage varies from product to product; quality varies from product to product and from batch to batch with the same product; and they are NOT all uniformly safe and non-toxic.
How Does Colloidal Silver Work?
In order to understand how colloidal silver works, one must first understand the disease-state of the body. The body encounters pathogens and other foreign entities many times a day. When the body is healthy, it maintains a proper pH and oxygen-rich environment. The pH (parts Hydrogen) inside the cells of the body are usually near an alkaline pH 7.2-7.4.
Outside the cell, the fluid surrounding the cells will usually realize an acidic pH. However, when an individual does not maintain a healthy environment in the body, the pH begins to rise in the outer fluid and fall inside the cell. This reduces the electrical potential of the cell. The oxygen levels in the body respond by decreasing. Pathogens that grow in the body will usually attack these weakened cells and "set up shop."
Organisms that cause illness and attack these weak cells cannot survive in healthy cells that have outer fluid pH below ~4.0 and inner cellular fluid above pH ~6.9. Silver maintains a positive charge which when introduced to areas of infection, disrupt the organisms causing the illness.
Interestingly, colloidal silver is believed to kill the pathogens by inhibiting the enzyme(s) that these pathogens utilize to survive in their anaerobic environment. This enzyme(s) is the pathogen's "chemical lung." Without the necessary enzyme(s) for metabolism, growth, regeneration and survival, the pathogens "suffocate" and die.
It is believed that viruses are destroyed because the electric valence charge of silver particles cause their protective protein coat, also referred to as the "head," to collapse and are rendered unable to replicate. The cells infected by virus may also be susceptible to enzymatic inhibition. They are then removed from the body by the immune, lymphatic, and intestinal elimination systems. This process is supposedly so effective that no pathogen has been recorded to mutate against colloidal silver or live in its presence for more than 6 minutes. While antibiotics are losing their effectiveness, as several strains of germs are becoming resistant to conventional antibiotics, they are not able to develop any resistant strains or immunity to silver.
Colloidal Silver or Ionic Silver?
Another big controversy surrounds the question of whether this method produces "colloidal" silver or "ionic" silver. Most people have been told that colloidal silver is "good" and ionic silver is "bad." Once again, the truth might be unpopular. The word "colloidal" refers to a condition where, in this case, a solid particle is SUSPENDED in a liquid (silver in water). The solid particles are too large to be considered DISSOLVED, but are too small to be filtered out. This colloidal condition is most easily detected by what is called the "Tyndall effect", where a narrow beam of light is shined through the liquid to produce a cone shaped dispersion of the light. The particles so illuminated also exhibit a random, zig-zag activity called "Brownian motion" when observed under a microscope. When something is completely dissolved, both the Brownian and Tyndall effects disappear.
The word "ionic" refers to a condition where a particle has an electric charge. In the case of "electro-colloidal" silver, this electric charge is ALWAYS positive. Silver will not form a negatively charged ion. So, the truth is that electro-colloidal silver is BOTH colloidal and ionic. It is considered colloidal because of the particle SIZE and it is considered ionic because of the particle CHARGE. In fact, most of the biological studies suggest it is colloidal silver's ionic characteristics that make it such a good germicide. It is also interesting to note that the old chemistry books make no distinction between the colloidal and ionic states of the electro-colloidal metals.
Ionic silver is not without merit. Ionic silver is a strong anti microbial and serves well in situations where chloride is not present. When chloride is present (inside the human body), the silver particle content will survive to produce benefit. Ionic silver products, when taken according to the manufacturers recommended dosage, will not cause argyria, a condition that causes the skin to turn blue-gray.
Due to the very low concentration of ionic silver and small particle size, true silver colloids DO NOT cause argyria.
What Is the History of Colloidal Silver?
Colloidal Silver has been used for more than a century. Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, noted that silver had beneficial healing and anti-disease properties. Colloidal silver was used widely among health practitioners as an antibiotic until around 1938 when the FDA came into being and the movement toward synthetic antibiotics began to emerge. But due to the high cost of production, and the upcoming popularity of modern “miracle” drugs, the production of Colloidal Silver almost came to a standstill during the late 1930's.
Although used by NASA on shuttle missions and international airline carriers, silver has all but disappeared except for hospital intensive burn units. A group of scientists in Pharm World Sci. v.19, pp. 197-201, Aug., 1997, refer to colloidal silver as "an antiseptic agent added because of its known antifungal potency."
Recently, The Food and Drug Administration issued a letter stating that “colloidal silver is considered to be a pre-1938 drug. Colloidal Silver may continue to be marketed....as long as they are advertised and labeled for the same use as in 1938.”
How Is Colloidal Silver Used?
The following is a list of some established applications of Colloidal Silver as gleaned from various users of the product:
1. Many take an oral dose of Colloidal Silver of about ½ teaspoon to one tablespoon per day (children ½ the adult dosage). Some even use up to two tablespoons per day.
2. Some apply it topically, directly to cuts and open sores by putting a few drops on a bandage or cotton ball taped into place.
3. Water can often be purified by adding ½ teaspoon of Colloidal Silver per gallon and waiting at least six minutes before drinking.
4. Colloidal Silver works as well on pets and animals of all kinds. It produces the same fine results such as on cows with mastitis; conventional antibiotics taint the milk, whereas, Colloidal Silver does not contaminate it.
5. Simply spray Colloidal Silver on garden and other plants to protect them from bacterial, fungal and viral attacks.
What Are the Side Effects?
Colloidal Silver is tasteless with no harmful side effects to health. It is nontoxic, nonaddictive, with no known reactions or interaction between drugs, herbs or other medications, and no known cases exist demonstrating the ability to overdose using colloidal silver.
The Merck Index, 1976, #8244, states that silver “does not cause serious toxic manifestations.” Why is there no toxicity? Because the silver is in a colloidal form, any excess that is not needed by the body is easily eliminated thereby preventing the accumulation in body tissues for long periods of time.
How Do You Determine Quality?
Some silver colloids are a coarse mixture of silver and water and cannot be as beneficial as a colloid of ultra-fine silver particles created by an electrolysis process. The best Colloidal Silver must possess silver particles that are super-fine so the body cells can more readily absorb them.
Because these particles are ultra-fine, they stay in suspension and do not clump together in the water and settle out; although, some of the best Colloidal Silver on the market could have a very slight settling. The silver particle size in Colloidal Silver determines the color and effectiveness of the product. A light yellow solution is an ultra-fine colloid suspension, which is usually preferred.
How Is Colloidal Silver Stored?
Colloidal silver must be stored in glass amber bottles in order to hold the all important positive charge and protect the solution from sunlight. If colloidal silver is received in plastic bottles, it is best to transfer it into dark amber glass bottles for storage. Plastic bottles will not hold the positive electrical charge over a period of time thereby causing the particles to fall (settle) out of solution. Additionally, toxic chemicals from the plastic may leach into the suspension.
IMPORTANT NOTICE:
It is not the intention of this article to diagnose, prescribe or make any medical claims for the use of Colloidal Silver. The information presented herein is strictly for informational and educational purposes only. One should not avoid seeking medical attention when there is good reason for such professional care. If any reader uses this information without his or her physician’s consent they are prescribing for themselves, which is their right, but the writer or publisher of this information accepts no personal responsibility for their decisions or results.
