People have long known that silver could be used as a purifying and preserving agent. In ancient Greece and Rome, people used silver containers to keep liquids fresh. Early American pioneers put silver dollars in bottles of milk to prevent spoilage. Laboratory workers placed silver dimes in petri dishes to sterilize them.

Today, more than half of the world's airlines use silver water filters because they protect against waterborne diseases like dysentery. NASA uses a silver water-purification system in its space shuttles. Silver is sometimes used in place of chlorine to purify swimming pool water.

And since the turn of the century, people have been using silver in colloidal form as an antibiotic treatment. In fact, until 1938, colloidal silver was considered a mainstream antibiotic treatment. But production was costly with early technology, and so the use of colloidal silver died out.

Colloidal Silver--A Definition

Colloidal silver is a complicated name for a simple chemistry project. A colloidal system refers to superfine particles suspended in water. We all recognize silver as a precious metal. So with colloidal silver, tiny particles of silver are electrocolloidally suspended in deionized water. The silver particles and the water are dispersed within and bound to each other by an electric current. This means that each of the silver particles is given a positive charge so they repel each other and the water around them, leaving them suspended in the water. The silver particles are not dissolved, nor should they sink. They remain suspended in the solution, held there by the electric charge.

What to Look for in Your Colloidal Silver

The highest-grade colloidal silver is produced by the electrocolloidal method described above. Colloidal silver can be produced using a grind method or a chemical process, but these solutions are not nearly as safe or effective.

99.999% fine silver in particle sizes ranging from .005 to .015 microns should be used in a quantity of 3 to 5 parts per million (ppm). Silver gives a golden hue when reduced to that particle size, so your colloidal silver should ideally be a pale golden yellow.

Darker colors indicate the use of larger particles. The weight of these larger particles will counteract the electric charge, and they will collect at the bottom of the container. Colloidal silver which contains dregs is not a true colloid.

Watch for products that contain a stabilizersilver will remain suspended on its own in a true colloid. Look out for trace elements other than silver or for any added coloring. Your colloidal silver should be nothing but fine silver and deionized water.

If the product needs to be shaken or requires refrigeration, it is not a true colloid. Finally, remember that high concentrations of silver do not kill germs more effectively than the safe range of 3-5 ppm.

What Colloidal Silver Does

How does silver work? It disables the enzyme that one-celled bacteria, viruses, and fungi need for oxygen metabolism. In the presence of silver, these pathogenic microbes suffocate.

In one powerful experiment, 50 gallons of raw sewage were pumped into a pool without any disinfectant. The E. coli count (a standard measure of contamination) was at 7,000 E. coli cells per milliliter of water. The water was exposed to silver electrodes and within three hours, all 50 gallons were free of E. coli.

Colloidal silver is an effective ally in the fight against over 650 disease-causing organisms. These include: bacteria (typhoid, dyptheria, certain types of food poisoning, and pneumonia); viruses (the common cold, influenza, measles, and AIDS); protozoa (malaria, giardiasis, amebic dysentery); fungi (ringworm, thrush, candida albicans, and athlete's foot); rickettsiae (rocky mountain spotted fever and Q fever); and chlamydiae (infections of the eye, the genitals, and the respiratory system). There is no known microbe that colloidal silver does not destroy.

It turns out that silver ions are very important for the immune system. They supplement and support the T-cells in fighting foreign organisms, almost forming a second immune system. In research done with AIDS, it appears that silver both protects and defends T-cells, and does their work for them. There is also a correlation between occurrence of illness and the level of silver in the body; people who are ill generally register lower levels of silver in their body.

Besides suffocating unwanted invaders, colloidal silver also helps injured tissues grow back. It has been useful in cases of severe burns and broken bones. It reduces scar tissue and helps severe cuts and wounds heal faster.

Silver vs. Antibiotics

An antibiotic kills a half-dozen different disease organisms. But because the antibiotic attacks the bacteria directly, and because bacteria adapt very well, they mutate to over-come the anti-biotic. So every time an antibiotic is used, it becomes less effective for the next time it is needed.

But silver kills over 650 disease-causing organisms, and it can do so every time. No resistant strains develop with the use of silver. Researchers speculate that this is because silver does not attack the microbe directly like an antibiotic does. It decomposes the enzyme microorganisms rely on to breathethey can't mutate to counterattack silver's approach.

Another problem with antibiotics is that they kill beneficial enzymes while attacking the bad ones; pharmaceutical antibiotics can't distinguish between good and bad enzymes. This is why the immune system is especially weak after a round of antibiotics, and why yeast infections are much more likely after taking antibiotics.

Silver, however, doesn't destroy beneficial enzymes because they are very different from the enzymes of single-celled life which silver targets. Silver is nontoxic. Also, colloidal silver doesn't interact or interfere with other medicine being taken.

Finally, antibiotics only affect bacteria. Silver disables bacteria, viruses, fungi, and all other disease-causing organisms.

(For more on antibiotics, see the following article.)

A Final Note

In prolonged, very heavy doses, some colloidal silver compounds will leave deposits in the heavier skin folds, like the knuckles. This permanent gray coloring of the skin is called Argyria; it is correctable with laser treatment. Argyria is very rare and most often associated with products that use particles of silver which are too large to be flushed out of the body's system naturally. As long as the silver particle size ranges from .005 to .015 microns in diameter, there should be no problem.

Sources

• "Colloidal Silver" by Joseph Sylvester in Healthy and Natural Journal (Vol. 2 Iss. 3).
• Colloidal Silver Handout by StaYoung.
• Colloidal SilverThe Rediscovery of a Super Antibiotic? http://www.all-natural.com/silver-1.html
• Dr. Wright's Book of Nutritional Therapy by Jonathan V. Wright, M.D. (Emmaus, Pennsylvania: Rodale Press, 1979).
• Good Health Through Age 120 by Dr. Marcus Laux (Potomac, Maryland: 1995).
• "Immunity, Antibiotics, and 'Superbugs'" by Claudia Tiefisher in Country Health (Nov/Dec 1996).
• Medical and Non-medical Uses http://www.colloidal-silver.com/antibiotic3.html
• The Medicine Show by the editors of Consumer Report Books (Mount Vernon, New York: Consumers Union, 1980).
• A Safe and Simple Treatment for AIDS http://www.colloidal-silver.com/aids.html