Warning: This reading is rather loooong.
Colloidal silver appears to be a powerful all-round antibiotic capable of fighting a multitude of infections caused by single-celled disease organisms effectively. It reportedly can also be a preventative against such infectious diseases. Acting as a catalyst, colloidal silver disables enzymes one-celled bacteria viruses and fungi need for their metabolism. They are killed on contact with colloidal silver while friendly single-celled organisms in the human body remain unharmed and the body's immune system unchanged.
Colloidal silver was in common use until 1938 as the most effective antibiotic then available to medicine, only to be outdated by modern antibiotics in the wake of the discovery of penicillin.
Mankind's knowledge of silver's antibacterial, antiseptic antiviral and anti fungal properties seems to be as old as its history though. The properties of silver were known to the Egyptian Pharaohs and think of the European aristocracy's use of opulent silver tableware: cups, plates and cutlery. Food was often stored in trunks made from silver.
Read any biography of Kings or Queens. Or a good history book and look up their death causes: You will hardly ever find one of them died at an unduly age from a disease spread by bacteria, viruses or fungi. Henry VIII, e.g. was reportedly very worried about his extended family's health during the plague in London, that killed almost half its population, but none of them ever succumbed to it. Is it a far fetched conclusion that small traces of silver ingested with the daily use of silver ware might have made the difference? Read on and make up your own mind.
Early Research
Only recently have researchers started to rediscover what silver can do for all of us. At the turn of the century scientists had discovered that the body's most important fluids are colloidal in nature: "permanently suspended ultra-fine particles of substances". Blood, for example, carries nutrition and oxygen to the body cells and collects their waste products. This insight led to studies with colloidal metals and minerals and their interaction with the body and the basic antibiotic property of colloidal silver was discovered. Colloidal silver was then used by physicians as a mainstream antibiotic treatment, and it was considered quite "high-tech." Production methods however were costly. The pharmaceutical industry moved in, causing colloidal research to be set aside in favor of development of fast working more toxic and potentially dangerous drugs:
Modern antibiotics
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today classifies colloidal silver as a pre-1938 drug. In a letter from the FDA dated 9/13/91 it is stated: "These products may continue to be marketed ... as long as they are advertised and labeled for the same use as in 1938 and as long as they are manufactured in the original manner."
Some of the manufacturing methods used before 1938 are still used today, including the Electro-colloidal process, which has proven to be the best method.
Contemporary Studies
While studying the regeneration of limbs spinal cords and organs in the late 1970's Robert O. Becker. MD. and author of "The Body Electric'', discovered that electrically charged silver ions promote growth and kill surrounding bacteria.
The March 1978 issue of Science Digest reported in an article "Our Mightiest Germ Fighter":
"Thanks to eye-opening research, silver is emerging as a wonder of modern medicine. An antibiotic kills perhaps half-dozen different disease organisms, but silver kills some 650. Resistant strains fail to develop. Moreover, silver is virtually non-toxic."
The article ended with a quote by Dr. Harry Margraf, a biochemist and pioneering silver researcher who worked with the late Carl Moyer, MD. and chairman of Washington University's Department of surgery in the 1970s: " Silver is the best all-round germ fighter we have."
How It Works
In the electro-colloidal manufacturing process extremely small (sub micron size) clusters of approximately 15 silver atoms form, each atom charged with a tiny electrically positive charge, which keeps the silver clusters suspended in the colloidal medium, distilled water. This suspension is possible because of one of waters physical anomalies called "Brownian Movement", which potentially keeps the silver infinitely suspended in this medium.
The presence of colloidal silver in the body near a single-celled pathogen, be it bacterium, virus or fungus, disables its metabolism to work and it dies off: Unlike pharmaceutical antibiotics which also destroy beneficial bacteria, colloidal silver leaves the body's beneficial bacteria intact. It is thought to be the electric charge on the silver, that allows this to take place. Thus colloidal silver is absolutely safe for humans and animals, in fact for all multi-celled living matter. It is non-toxic, has no side effects and can be used simultaneously with any other medication, as it does not interfere with it.
Taken orally, the colloidal silver is absorbed in the mouth, where it is quickly enters the bloodstream. Swishing the colloidal silver under the tongue for about 30 seconds before swallowing ensures fast absorption. After a few days of intake the silver will have accumulated in the body's tissues sufficiently for benefits to begin. Since colloidal silver is eliminated from the body by the kidneys, liver and lymph system after a few weeks, many people take colloidal silver on a daily basis to maintain a certain silver level in their body. Claims made by maintenance users are often that this prevents new infections successfully and that it is in fact a powerful preventative health measure in general.
Topical Uses
Colloidal silver is painless on cuts, abrasions, in open wounds, in the nostrils for a stuffy nose and even in a baby's eyes because, unlike antiseptics, it does not destroy tissue cells. Use it on burns and boils and actually any skin disorder from spots, pimples and acne to athlete's foot, eczema and warts.
Colloidal silver eases itchiness and pain from bug or mosquito bites. For treating skin problems it is best applied onto a thin band-aid or another thin sterile material, that is cut to size, wet with colloidal silver and let this air-dry.
Colloidal silver can also be used to make a cream or balm, which would preferably be used on skin conditions, that shouldn't be moistened further.
It seems to be most important to place the colloidal silver as near to the infection as possible. So with an ear infection it is advisable to put it into the ear, as it would take considerably longer to accumulate enough silver near the infection if it were taken orally. On the other hand it usually is of additional value to treat an external infection topically and by ingestion at the same time, as this in most cases will speed up the healing process.
Maintenance Dosage
Most adults for a start, take half a tablespoon - 4 times a day for 4 to 7 days to build up the silver level in their body. Then cut down to about half a tablespoon twice a day (half tablespoon doses have the advantage of avoiding unnecessary spillage).
Used this way a 500ml bottle of true colloidal silver will provide you with a daily maintenance dose for approximately 7 weeks.
Colloidal silver works in different amounts and different time-spans for each individual. Some people report instant beneficial effects from taking it just once. Others don't get results until they've taken it for weeks.
One way to determine a dosage is kinesiology or muscle testing, and optimum dose may require more or less colloidal silver. But you can be patient and experiment with dosage yourself. e.g. if the maintenance dose doesn't do much for you after a week, double the dosage for a week to see whether it makes a difference. On the other hand you could lower the dosage when the maintenance dose proves very effective. This way you should be able to determine your personal requirements.
Treating Children
Children or babies would use a proportionally smaller dose. Do not put children on a maintenance dose though. Children need to get ill in order to build up their immune system. Use colloidal silver to assist recovery, when signs of illness do show up.
Children apparently react much quicker and more profoundly to the effects of colloidal silver. Should your child tell you, that it now feels fine and doesn't need to take it anymore, you should rely on mutual trust and stop treatment.
Children usually are not interested in taking medicine. You can learn to empower them by offering colloidal silver instead of administering it. This is a similar way to how you've come across this remedy and you should try to use it in a sharing and loving way of equality. Doing this you will find them coming to ask you if they can use it for whatever they find necessary treating. You will this way not only give them a chance to learn about human ailments, but also learn a lot more about them yourself.
Use in case of an Impaired Immune System
People suffering from an impaired immune system can improve their condition considerably by using colloidal silver on a daily maintenance dose and by increasing intake should infections occur. More and more people develop allergies to conventional antibiotics or suffer from severe side-effects, when taking them, which outweigh their benefits. Colloidal silver can be a real, valuable alternative route to fighting infections for them when conventional, modern antibiotics fail altogether, as is increasingly the case. Reports on efficiency of colloidal silver where people that are already given up by their medical doctors have benefited from this alternative antibiotic are not rare. Especially cases of viral infections and fungal or yeast infections being mistakenly or unknowingly treated with conventional antibiotics (that only kill specific bacteria) are commonplace.
The rediscovery of colloidal silver as an all-round germ fighter comes at a time when mankind and nature in general are prone to an ever faster mutating spectrum of pathogens. The hepatitis virus e.g. has mutated from hepatitis A and B to C,D,E,F,G and H in less than a decade. Some researchers fear, that the backlash of nature on man's conceited victory over disease will have disastrous consequences for all of us.
The misguided use of conventional / modern antibiotics for useless treatments of common ailments like sore throats (that are most usually caused by viruses) and in animal husbandry are repeatedly being addressed as a cause to this effect in the public newspapers. Colloidal silver might help to bring about change and should be promoted by everyone who has benefited from its use.
Dosage For Chronic or Serious Conditions
Reportedly the daily intake has to be doubled or tripled for a period of at least 40 days to tackle chronic infections. Make sure to have enough colloidal silver to maintain such a dosage for the required time, because stopping intake before the infection has completely disappeared will almost always result in a new infection. Whereas conventional antibiotics are acting quickly, colloidal silver may take a longer course of treatment. This was one of the reasons, why it was abandoned in the 1940's.
It is widely recommended to drop to the daily maintenance dose after the infection is gone.
Same dosage appears to be sufficient for serious illnesses. Do not overdose for a start, because if pathogens are killed too quickly the body's eliminator channels may become temporarily overloaded with their debris, resulting in flu-like conditions, headache, fatigue, dizziness, nausea or aching muscles. This is known as the Herxheimer- Effect. Some people also refer to this as a healing crisis.
Ease off on the colloidal silver to the maintenance dose and increase water intake.
Regular bowel movements are a must to relieve the discomforts of detoxification. Resolve to reduce sugar and saturated fats from the diet and exercise more. Given the opportunity, the body's natural ability to heal itself will amaze you.
Though it is virtually impossible to overdose with true colloidal silver (see Product Quality), as to receive an amount of elemental silver considered toxic from a 10ppm true colloidal silver product would require you to ingest approximately 250 liters in a couple of weeks, do not overuse it unnecessarily. One tablespoon full of 10ppm true colloidal silver will contain approximately 100 meg elemental silver in 10 mil of liquid. This must be considered a sufficient maintenance dose for the average adult.
A multiple daily dose on top of this is certainly a therapeutic dose and should only be taken to treat serious or chronic infections for as long as it is necessary to overcome them.
Silver - The Missing Nutrient?
In 1940, R.A.Kehoe reported that under normal circumstances, the average daily intake of fruit and vegetables would provide between 50-100 meg of silver as trace element. Since that time, the commercial farm soils of western industrialized countries have become extremely deficient in trace minerals. It can be speculated that since the levels of soil based minerals in North America have dropped over 85% since year 1900 (according to the Earth Summit report issued in 1992), our ancestor's diet used to contain trace silver but undoubtedly our diet today has greatly reduced levels of silver due to decreasing trace elements within the soil.
That said, it should not be assumed that electro-colloidal silver is equivalent to or has the same metabolic effect as receiving silver from our diet. Research in this field is missing completely. Take any of the books on nutrition and look for silver in the index, you will not find it listed there. Small scale research on colloidal silver used on plants and animals, "healthy" and "diseased", however is showing astonishing results and it can be suggested that silver is of major importance to the growth and maturing of plants and animals.
Bio-dynamic farming takes the importance of "bio-metals" into account to some extent but sadly is the only agricultural practice in western civilization that is doing so. The importance of the quality of all of life's building stones is recognized and resulting in a practice of rebuilding Nature's cycles. Many more activities in this wide opening field of research and practice are urgently necessary and will certainly be addressed with the re-awakening and growing interest in the workings of Nature.
When man started to burn the primeval forests for room, the bio-mass contents stayed on the land as ashes and thus became available to man's crops, but then he started to remove the forests' timber for building, construction of ships, mining and power generation. This was when the cycle was broken for the first time. The bio-mass contents were removed from the land and went missing. Then with modern civilization we accustomed ourselves furthermore with stopping to bring back our feaces to the soil as our ancestors used to do. This second time the loss was irretrievable: Flushing one of the earth's noblest content, along with all those trace elements, down the drain. Modern agriculture only brings back to the fields, what agro-industry and modem science supporting it recognize as necessary for plant growth, but of course not those intrinsic building stones of health, all of the biosphere's trace elements, that are being lost continually through our mindless actions.
Since there are very few plant sources of trace silver available today and resourcing them might actually destroy the very basis of their existence, colloidal silver is most probably the best elemental substitute for dietary silver we have left.
Tolerance to Disease Organisms
It is impossible for single-celled germs to mutate into silver-resistant forms, as happens with conventional antibiotics. Therefore no tolerance to colloidal silver ever develops. Also, colloidal silver cannot interact or interfere with other medicine being taken. Inside the body, colloidal silver does not form any toxic compounds nor reacts with anything other than pathogens. It is a truly safe natural remedy and a great alternative to conventional treatments.
Colloidal Silver in Advance of Illness
When taken orally each day and applied topically when there is a skin problem, it is like having a second immune system. Older folks feel younger because their body's energies are used for other than fighting disease and digestion is better.
Medical research has shown that silver promotes rapid healing, with less scar tissue. even in case of severe bums or deep cuts. Fantastic successes have been reported in many cases previously given up by established doctors. Colloidal Silver is almost tasteless, does not sting sensitive tissues and won't upset your stomach. It is absolutely non-toxic except to pathogens and it is not addictive.
Other Uses of Colloidal Silver
Colloidal Silver works just as well for pets of all kinds. Used in proportion to body weight it brings the same sure results safely. On plants just add some to the water or soil and they will do the rest. You can also use colloidal silver to preserve food. Spray it on fruit and vegetables and it will keep them from browning, or add it to milk and other diary products to prolong their shelf-life.
More than 650 Diseases
The following is a partial list of the more than 650 diseases that colloidal silver has been successfully used against: acne, AIDS, allergies, appendicitis, arthritis, athlete's foot, bladder inflammation, blood parasites, blood poisoning, boils, burns, cancer, candida, choicral colitis, colds, cold sores, conjunctivitis, cystitis, dermatitis, diabetes, dysentery, eczema, fibrositis, the common flu, gastritis gingivitis, gonorrhea, hay fever, hepatitis, herpes, impetigo, indigestion, keratitis, leprosy, leukemia, lupus, lymphangitis, Lyme disease, malaria, meningitis, neurasthenia, parasitic infections viral, fungal and bacterial pneumonia, pleurisy, prostate pruritus ani, psoriasis, purulent opthalmia rhinitis, rheumatism, ringworm, salmonella infection, scarlet fever, septic conditions of the eyes, ears, mouth and throat, seborrhea, septicemia, shingles, sinusitis, sore throat, skin ulcers, staphylococcus and streptococcus infections, stomach flu, syphilis, thyroid, tuberculosis, tonsillitis, toxemia, trachoma, all forms of viruses, warts, whooping cough, yeast infections, stomach ulcer, canine parovirus and other veterinary uses and all fungal bacterial or viral attacks on plants.
Colloidal silver is emerging as one of the wonders of science that the medical establishment is just beginning to rediscover. It's being used in bone surgery in the United States and in 70% of US burns units. Swiss biochemists are studying silver's ability to interrupt the cellular replication of HIV at various stages, and in Canada, Switzerland and the US, doctors use various forms of silver to treat a multitude of infections.
Article by John T. Wilson
In one of the Monty Python books there is a comic advertisement for the spoof Welsh self-defense art Llap Goch in which it was pointed out that it was so powerful that you would be able to attack and disable your enemy before he had even thought of attacking you! It is a thought that those who have been mugged in the street relish, for even if the police are informed and the attackers caught (unlikely) you have still suffered the attack, with all the pain, loss and trauma involved. Our attempts to defend ourselves against illness are a bit like that - the enemy (illness) strikes, we call in the doctor, who gives us a prescription for antibiotics and we mop up the remaining symptoms with it, wishing we had been able to avoid catching the illness in the first place. Why can't we take the antibiotic first?
Interestingly, genetic engineers have recently been working on research to deal with the hundreds of bacteria which threaten our health by altering one of the bacterial enzymes (called RnaseP) so that their resistance to antibiotics is lowered. In the fight against disease, medicine is increasingly coming up against bacteria which have developed resistance to modern antibiotics, and these "super bugs" represent a great threat to health as they multiply and spread.
The result is a worrying increase in the incidence and virulence of traditional viral and bacteria-caused diseases which we thought we had all but conquered:
tuberculosis, bronchitis, candida, diphtheria, dysentery, meningitis, salmonella infection, etc. Modern antibiotics have, of course, other disadvantages. You cannot buy them over the counter, so, for those ailments such as colds, flu and other minor infections, you have to make a doctor's appointment, sometimes waiting for two or three days before you can get a prescription - by which time the infection has virtually run its course. Also, many people are allergic to various modem antibiotics and suffer side effects that can be as bad (if not worse!) than the original complaint. In fact evidence is now emerging that in some instances antibiotics are implicate in the increase in some forms of serious illness. A team of specialists in Gloucester found that in towns with meningitis clusters there were 50% more prescriptions for antibiotics and nine times more cases of B group bacterial meningitis than in comparative towns with a lower incidence of the disease. While the team has been unable to conclude that the greater frequency of antibiotic prescriptions is actually responsible for the increased incidence of meningitis, it did conclude that there are strong reasons for further investigation.
However similar inquiries in the United States and France suggest that antibiotics may kill pH neutral bacteria in the respiratory tract which are natural protectors against meningitis. More disturbing, perhaps, is a report in Newsweek Magazine which stated that in the USA 13000 hospital patients died of infections that resisted every drug that the doctors tried. More and more people are becoming disillusioned by the "take this prescription" syndrome which is the hallmark of modern medicine, which waits until a disease develops and then simply prescribes a dose of powerful antibiotics. This is a short sighted policy, particularly when we know that continually taking antibiotics weakens our resistance to illnesses in the long term and plays havoc with our immune system - the body's natural defense.
The immune system is a highly complicated group of mechanisms (antibodies, antitoxins and white blood cells) that go into action to protect the body from invasion or attack by foreign or harmful organisms. There is increasing evidence that over-prescribing of antibiotics can lead to damage to the immune system and its ability to respond effectively to infections and other threats. Added to this is the ever-increasing threat from "free radicals"; free floating molecules within the body that seek to attach themselves to healthy cells causing the damage known as oxidization which leads to cell and tissue degeneration and disease. Many scientists and researchers believe that it is this process which is the root cause of many of the degenerative diseases such as arthritis, rheumatism, heart disease - perhaps even cancer and AIDS.
Given the above, it is not surprising that in the UK we now spend £1.4 billion in over-the-counter medicines, from vitamins and herbal preparations to non-prescription drugs and potions, as Mintel has reported recently. Another survey by MORI also showed that 47% of 1000 adults interviewed said they were more likely to buy over-the-counter drugs for self-treatment than they were two years ago. Significantly, more than half the adult population were shown to suffer from colds, flu, headaches, coughs, sore throats, stuffy noses, indigestion, chapped lips and diarrhea - and these are the areas where both prescription medication and alternative medicines are most used. The interest in natural and holistic approaches to health is growing in pace, with an increasing recognition of the importance of a positive approach to health through a better diet, regular exercise and a return to some of the traditional ways of keeping illness at bay. One of these, you will be pleased to know, works on the Monty Python principle of attacking a wide range of illnesses before they even think of attacking you! In other words, there is something you can do to give yourself prior protection against a whole range of bacteria and viral-caused infections and illnesses before they strike you down. Interestingly, this is based on a substance used by the ancient Greeks and Romans, and later by the Wild West settlers, to keep liquids pure: silver.
While it is thought that silver was used as a remedy in ancient Egypt, the first written mention of its use in a medical context is found in a pharmacopoeia published in Rome in 69B, while the first clear record of its use as a medical agent is in the writings of the Mohammedan School founded by Geber (702-765AD). Much later, in 1834, the German obstetrician E. Crede used a 1% solution of silver (silver nitrate) on the eyes of new-born children, virtually eliminating the incidence of blindness from disease in new-born babies. Among many other results reported by medical researchers and practitioners was that of Mark Howell, who wrote in the British Medical journal in 1917 of his successful use of colloidal silver for septic renditions of the mouth (including pyorrhea nlveoiari.z - Rigg's Disease), throat (including Meniere's symptoms and closure of Valsalva's inflation and in generalized septicemia, leucorrhoea, cystitis, whooping cough and shingles.
Dr Robert Becker noticed a correlation between low levels of silver in the body (the human body naturally contains about .001% silver derived from the soil through the food we eat) and their vulnerability to ailments, concluding, since those with low silver levels were frequently sick, had innumerable colds, flu, fevers and other sicknesses - that a silver deficiency in the body was the reason for the improper functioning of the immune system. "What we have actually done", says Becker, "is rediscover the fact that silver kills bacteria, which has been known for centuries. When antibiotics were discovered, clinical uses for silver were discarded."
Further extensive research carried in the early years of this century and in the 1970s and 1980s established colloidal silver (small particles of silver suspended electronically in a pure water solution) as a highly effective agent against over 650 pathogens, with none of the side effects found with the powerful modern antibiotics.
For example, in 1910, Dr. Henry Crooks, a pioneer in colloidal chemistry wrote: Certain metals, when in a colloidal state, have a highly genocidal action but are quite harmless to human beings... it may be applied in a much more concentrated form and with better results...Staphylococcus pyogenes, various Streptococci and other pathogenic organisms are all killed in three to four minutes: in fact, no microbe is known that is not killed by this colloid in laboratory experiment in six minutes, (and) the concentration of the (silver) does not exceed twenty-five parts per million..."
There is, in fact, a small number of silver resistant bacteria which have so far been documented, including: Cifrobacter Freundii Enterobacter Cloacae; enterobacteriacea (some strains); Escherichia Cell (some strains); Klebsiclla pneumonize P. Stunteri (some strains); Proteus Mirabilis; and Vegetative B. Cereus Spores.)
That assessment has been borne out by all later research - indeed NASA, in common with over half the world's airlines uses silver to provide its space crews with safe drinking water. It would seem that the researches of the genetic engineers referred to earlier in this article could be largely wasted effort, given that, for most practical purposes, the problem has already been solved (but subsequently forgotten about) over eighty years ago. Silver began its more recent comeback in the 1970s when the late Dr. Carl Moyer, Chairman of the University of Washington's Department of Surgery was given a grant to develop improved treatment for burn victims. Dr. Harry Margraf of St Louis, the chief biochemist working in the program under Dr. Moyer, tested 22 antiseptic compounds, finding drawbacks to all of them until he focused on colloidal silver, which proved to be the most effective and is now used in all major burn centers throughout the world.
In 1971 Dr. E. Henderson, Professor of Microbiology at Temple University's School of Medicine reported his experiments which tested colloidal silver's ability to block production of HIV in human T-cell Lymphocytes (white blood cells). At very low doses the colloidal silver dramatically blocked viral production with little, if any, toxicity.
With the widespread loss of confidence in the medical establishment, at least as far as everyday ailments and medications are concerned, people are increasingly taking more responsibility for their own health, returning to folk and herbal medicines and realizing the importance of preventative health care. The growing interest in the benefits of colloidal silver is part of this general move towards taking responsibility for ones own health rather than waiting to be cured once illness has been allowed to take hold. The experts, who have revived interest in this effective, traditional cure-all recommends taking approximately a teaspoonful of colloidal silver a day. This has the effect of strengthening the immune system and giving protection against a wide range of disease-causing organisms. Silver can save lives and, on a less dramatic but nonetheless important scale, it can keep us free of many of the irritating and debilitating illnesses that modern antibiotics are becoming increasingly powerless to ward off. Silver has always been a synonym for wealth; now, it appears it has equal importance as a determinant of health.
References:
·Colloidal Silver, the Antibiotic Alternative, Canty 8 Baronowski, Association for Advanced Colloidal Research, Oregon.
·The Body Electric and Cross Currents, R. Becker MD.
·Colloidal Silver, Where Hove You Been! Iris A. Moore, The New Timer, Seattle WA. May, 1994.
·Remembering the Wonder Cure Time Forgot; Colloidal Silver, Onita d'Raye, Ten Minute Read Company, Oregon 1996.
·More News on Silver, Leonard Herrchbeg, John Hopkins Hospital.
·Colloidal Silver, the Hidden Truths, Keith F. Courtenay.
·Antibacterial Efficiency of Colloidal Silver Complex, L. Bretano 8 H. Margraf. Surgicol Forvm.Vol. 17. 1966.bp 7678.
·The Molecular Mechanics of Copper and Silver Ion Dizinfktion of Bocterio ond Vinrser, 4 B.Thurmm & C. Fl Cerba, (paper presented at the Firn International Conference on Gold and Silver in Medicine; The Silver Institute, Wath.Yol. 18,4,4 295-302, 1989.)
Colloidal silver appears to be a powerful all-round antibiotic capable of fighting a multitude of infections caused by single-celled disease organisms effectively. It reportedly can also be a preventative against such infectious diseases. Acting as a catalyst, colloidal silver disables enzymes one-celled bacteria viruses and fungi need for their metabolism. They are killed on contact with colloidal silver while friendly single-celled organisms in the human body remain unharmed and the body's immune system unchanged.
Colloidal silver was in common use until 1938 as the most effective antibiotic then available to medicine, only to be outdated by modern antibiotics in the wake of the discovery of penicillin.
Mankind's knowledge of silver's antibacterial, antiseptic antiviral and anti fungal properties seems to be as old as its history though. The properties of silver were known to the Egyptian Pharaohs and think of the European aristocracy's use of opulent silver tableware: cups, plates and cutlery. Food was often stored in trunks made from silver.
Read any biography of Kings or Queens. Or a good history book and look up their death causes: You will hardly ever find one of them died at an unduly age from a disease spread by bacteria, viruses or fungi. Henry VIII, e.g. was reportedly very worried about his extended family's health during the plague in London, that killed almost half its population, but none of them ever succumbed to it. Is it a far fetched conclusion that small traces of silver ingested with the daily use of silver ware might have made the difference? Read on and make up your own mind.
Early Research
Only recently have researchers started to rediscover what silver can do for all of us. At the turn of the century scientists had discovered that the body's most important fluids are colloidal in nature: "permanently suspended ultra-fine particles of substances". Blood, for example, carries nutrition and oxygen to the body cells and collects their waste products. This insight led to studies with colloidal metals and minerals and their interaction with the body and the basic antibiotic property of colloidal silver was discovered. Colloidal silver was then used by physicians as a mainstream antibiotic treatment, and it was considered quite "high-tech." Production methods however were costly. The pharmaceutical industry moved in, causing colloidal research to be set aside in favor of development of fast working more toxic and potentially dangerous drugs:
Modern antibiotics
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today classifies colloidal silver as a pre-1938 drug. In a letter from the FDA dated 9/13/91 it is stated: "These products may continue to be marketed ... as long as they are advertised and labeled for the same use as in 1938 and as long as they are manufactured in the original manner."
Some of the manufacturing methods used before 1938 are still used today, including the Electro-colloidal process, which has proven to be the best method.
Contemporary Studies
While studying the regeneration of limbs spinal cords and organs in the late 1970's Robert O. Becker. MD. and author of "The Body Electric'', discovered that electrically charged silver ions promote growth and kill surrounding bacteria.
The March 1978 issue of Science Digest reported in an article "Our Mightiest Germ Fighter":
"Thanks to eye-opening research, silver is emerging as a wonder of modern medicine. An antibiotic kills perhaps half-dozen different disease organisms, but silver kills some 650. Resistant strains fail to develop. Moreover, silver is virtually non-toxic."
The article ended with a quote by Dr. Harry Margraf, a biochemist and pioneering silver researcher who worked with the late Carl Moyer, MD. and chairman of Washington University's Department of surgery in the 1970s: " Silver is the best all-round germ fighter we have."
How It Works
In the electro-colloidal manufacturing process extremely small (sub micron size) clusters of approximately 15 silver atoms form, each atom charged with a tiny electrically positive charge, which keeps the silver clusters suspended in the colloidal medium, distilled water. This suspension is possible because of one of waters physical anomalies called "Brownian Movement", which potentially keeps the silver infinitely suspended in this medium.
The presence of colloidal silver in the body near a single-celled pathogen, be it bacterium, virus or fungus, disables its metabolism to work and it dies off: Unlike pharmaceutical antibiotics which also destroy beneficial bacteria, colloidal silver leaves the body's beneficial bacteria intact. It is thought to be the electric charge on the silver, that allows this to take place. Thus colloidal silver is absolutely safe for humans and animals, in fact for all multi-celled living matter. It is non-toxic, has no side effects and can be used simultaneously with any other medication, as it does not interfere with it.
Taken orally, the colloidal silver is absorbed in the mouth, where it is quickly enters the bloodstream. Swishing the colloidal silver under the tongue for about 30 seconds before swallowing ensures fast absorption. After a few days of intake the silver will have accumulated in the body's tissues sufficiently for benefits to begin. Since colloidal silver is eliminated from the body by the kidneys, liver and lymph system after a few weeks, many people take colloidal silver on a daily basis to maintain a certain silver level in their body. Claims made by maintenance users are often that this prevents new infections successfully and that it is in fact a powerful preventative health measure in general.
Topical Uses
Colloidal silver is painless on cuts, abrasions, in open wounds, in the nostrils for a stuffy nose and even in a baby's eyes because, unlike antiseptics, it does not destroy tissue cells. Use it on burns and boils and actually any skin disorder from spots, pimples and acne to athlete's foot, eczema and warts.
Colloidal silver eases itchiness and pain from bug or mosquito bites. For treating skin problems it is best applied onto a thin band-aid or another thin sterile material, that is cut to size, wet with colloidal silver and let this air-dry.
Colloidal silver can also be used to make a cream or balm, which would preferably be used on skin conditions, that shouldn't be moistened further.
It seems to be most important to place the colloidal silver as near to the infection as possible. So with an ear infection it is advisable to put it into the ear, as it would take considerably longer to accumulate enough silver near the infection if it were taken orally. On the other hand it usually is of additional value to treat an external infection topically and by ingestion at the same time, as this in most cases will speed up the healing process.
Maintenance Dosage
Most adults for a start, take half a tablespoon - 4 times a day for 4 to 7 days to build up the silver level in their body. Then cut down to about half a tablespoon twice a day (half tablespoon doses have the advantage of avoiding unnecessary spillage).
Used this way a 500ml bottle of true colloidal silver will provide you with a daily maintenance dose for approximately 7 weeks.
Colloidal silver works in different amounts and different time-spans for each individual. Some people report instant beneficial effects from taking it just once. Others don't get results until they've taken it for weeks.
One way to determine a dosage is kinesiology or muscle testing, and optimum dose may require more or less colloidal silver. But you can be patient and experiment with dosage yourself. e.g. if the maintenance dose doesn't do much for you after a week, double the dosage for a week to see whether it makes a difference. On the other hand you could lower the dosage when the maintenance dose proves very effective. This way you should be able to determine your personal requirements.
Treating Children
Children or babies would use a proportionally smaller dose. Do not put children on a maintenance dose though. Children need to get ill in order to build up their immune system. Use colloidal silver to assist recovery, when signs of illness do show up.
Children apparently react much quicker and more profoundly to the effects of colloidal silver. Should your child tell you, that it now feels fine and doesn't need to take it anymore, you should rely on mutual trust and stop treatment.
Children usually are not interested in taking medicine. You can learn to empower them by offering colloidal silver instead of administering it. This is a similar way to how you've come across this remedy and you should try to use it in a sharing and loving way of equality. Doing this you will find them coming to ask you if they can use it for whatever they find necessary treating. You will this way not only give them a chance to learn about human ailments, but also learn a lot more about them yourself.
Use in case of an Impaired Immune System
People suffering from an impaired immune system can improve their condition considerably by using colloidal silver on a daily maintenance dose and by increasing intake should infections occur. More and more people develop allergies to conventional antibiotics or suffer from severe side-effects, when taking them, which outweigh their benefits. Colloidal silver can be a real, valuable alternative route to fighting infections for them when conventional, modern antibiotics fail altogether, as is increasingly the case. Reports on efficiency of colloidal silver where people that are already given up by their medical doctors have benefited from this alternative antibiotic are not rare. Especially cases of viral infections and fungal or yeast infections being mistakenly or unknowingly treated with conventional antibiotics (that only kill specific bacteria) are commonplace.
The rediscovery of colloidal silver as an all-round germ fighter comes at a time when mankind and nature in general are prone to an ever faster mutating spectrum of pathogens. The hepatitis virus e.g. has mutated from hepatitis A and B to C,D,E,F,G and H in less than a decade. Some researchers fear, that the backlash of nature on man's conceited victory over disease will have disastrous consequences for all of us.
The misguided use of conventional / modern antibiotics for useless treatments of common ailments like sore throats (that are most usually caused by viruses) and in animal husbandry are repeatedly being addressed as a cause to this effect in the public newspapers. Colloidal silver might help to bring about change and should be promoted by everyone who has benefited from its use.
Dosage For Chronic or Serious Conditions
Reportedly the daily intake has to be doubled or tripled for a period of at least 40 days to tackle chronic infections. Make sure to have enough colloidal silver to maintain such a dosage for the required time, because stopping intake before the infection has completely disappeared will almost always result in a new infection. Whereas conventional antibiotics are acting quickly, colloidal silver may take a longer course of treatment. This was one of the reasons, why it was abandoned in the 1940's.
It is widely recommended to drop to the daily maintenance dose after the infection is gone.
Same dosage appears to be sufficient for serious illnesses. Do not overdose for a start, because if pathogens are killed too quickly the body's eliminator channels may become temporarily overloaded with their debris, resulting in flu-like conditions, headache, fatigue, dizziness, nausea or aching muscles. This is known as the Herxheimer- Effect. Some people also refer to this as a healing crisis.
Ease off on the colloidal silver to the maintenance dose and increase water intake.
Regular bowel movements are a must to relieve the discomforts of detoxification. Resolve to reduce sugar and saturated fats from the diet and exercise more. Given the opportunity, the body's natural ability to heal itself will amaze you.
Though it is virtually impossible to overdose with true colloidal silver (see Product Quality), as to receive an amount of elemental silver considered toxic from a 10ppm true colloidal silver product would require you to ingest approximately 250 liters in a couple of weeks, do not overuse it unnecessarily. One tablespoon full of 10ppm true colloidal silver will contain approximately 100 meg elemental silver in 10 mil of liquid. This must be considered a sufficient maintenance dose for the average adult.
A multiple daily dose on top of this is certainly a therapeutic dose and should only be taken to treat serious or chronic infections for as long as it is necessary to overcome them.
Silver - The Missing Nutrient?
In 1940, R.A.Kehoe reported that under normal circumstances, the average daily intake of fruit and vegetables would provide between 50-100 meg of silver as trace element. Since that time, the commercial farm soils of western industrialized countries have become extremely deficient in trace minerals. It can be speculated that since the levels of soil based minerals in North America have dropped over 85% since year 1900 (according to the Earth Summit report issued in 1992), our ancestor's diet used to contain trace silver but undoubtedly our diet today has greatly reduced levels of silver due to decreasing trace elements within the soil.
That said, it should not be assumed that electro-colloidal silver is equivalent to or has the same metabolic effect as receiving silver from our diet. Research in this field is missing completely. Take any of the books on nutrition and look for silver in the index, you will not find it listed there. Small scale research on colloidal silver used on plants and animals, "healthy" and "diseased", however is showing astonishing results and it can be suggested that silver is of major importance to the growth and maturing of plants and animals.
Bio-dynamic farming takes the importance of "bio-metals" into account to some extent but sadly is the only agricultural practice in western civilization that is doing so. The importance of the quality of all of life's building stones is recognized and resulting in a practice of rebuilding Nature's cycles. Many more activities in this wide opening field of research and practice are urgently necessary and will certainly be addressed with the re-awakening and growing interest in the workings of Nature.
When man started to burn the primeval forests for room, the bio-mass contents stayed on the land as ashes and thus became available to man's crops, but then he started to remove the forests' timber for building, construction of ships, mining and power generation. This was when the cycle was broken for the first time. The bio-mass contents were removed from the land and went missing. Then with modern civilization we accustomed ourselves furthermore with stopping to bring back our feaces to the soil as our ancestors used to do. This second time the loss was irretrievable: Flushing one of the earth's noblest content, along with all those trace elements, down the drain. Modern agriculture only brings back to the fields, what agro-industry and modem science supporting it recognize as necessary for plant growth, but of course not those intrinsic building stones of health, all of the biosphere's trace elements, that are being lost continually through our mindless actions.
Since there are very few plant sources of trace silver available today and resourcing them might actually destroy the very basis of their existence, colloidal silver is most probably the best elemental substitute for dietary silver we have left.
Tolerance to Disease Organisms
It is impossible for single-celled germs to mutate into silver-resistant forms, as happens with conventional antibiotics. Therefore no tolerance to colloidal silver ever develops. Also, colloidal silver cannot interact or interfere with other medicine being taken. Inside the body, colloidal silver does not form any toxic compounds nor reacts with anything other than pathogens. It is a truly safe natural remedy and a great alternative to conventional treatments.
Colloidal Silver in Advance of Illness
When taken orally each day and applied topically when there is a skin problem, it is like having a second immune system. Older folks feel younger because their body's energies are used for other than fighting disease and digestion is better.
Medical research has shown that silver promotes rapid healing, with less scar tissue. even in case of severe bums or deep cuts. Fantastic successes have been reported in many cases previously given up by established doctors. Colloidal Silver is almost tasteless, does not sting sensitive tissues and won't upset your stomach. It is absolutely non-toxic except to pathogens and it is not addictive.
Other Uses of Colloidal Silver
Colloidal Silver works just as well for pets of all kinds. Used in proportion to body weight it brings the same sure results safely. On plants just add some to the water or soil and they will do the rest. You can also use colloidal silver to preserve food. Spray it on fruit and vegetables and it will keep them from browning, or add it to milk and other diary products to prolong their shelf-life.
More than 650 Diseases
The following is a partial list of the more than 650 diseases that colloidal silver has been successfully used against: acne, AIDS, allergies, appendicitis, arthritis, athlete's foot, bladder inflammation, blood parasites, blood poisoning, boils, burns, cancer, candida, choicral colitis, colds, cold sores, conjunctivitis, cystitis, dermatitis, diabetes, dysentery, eczema, fibrositis, the common flu, gastritis gingivitis, gonorrhea, hay fever, hepatitis, herpes, impetigo, indigestion, keratitis, leprosy, leukemia, lupus, lymphangitis, Lyme disease, malaria, meningitis, neurasthenia, parasitic infections viral, fungal and bacterial pneumonia, pleurisy, prostate pruritus ani, psoriasis, purulent opthalmia rhinitis, rheumatism, ringworm, salmonella infection, scarlet fever, septic conditions of the eyes, ears, mouth and throat, seborrhea, septicemia, shingles, sinusitis, sore throat, skin ulcers, staphylococcus and streptococcus infections, stomach flu, syphilis, thyroid, tuberculosis, tonsillitis, toxemia, trachoma, all forms of viruses, warts, whooping cough, yeast infections, stomach ulcer, canine parovirus and other veterinary uses and all fungal bacterial or viral attacks on plants.
Colloidal silver is emerging as one of the wonders of science that the medical establishment is just beginning to rediscover. It's being used in bone surgery in the United States and in 70% of US burns units. Swiss biochemists are studying silver's ability to interrupt the cellular replication of HIV at various stages, and in Canada, Switzerland and the US, doctors use various forms of silver to treat a multitude of infections.
Article by John T. Wilson
In one of the Monty Python books there is a comic advertisement for the spoof Welsh self-defense art Llap Goch in which it was pointed out that it was so powerful that you would be able to attack and disable your enemy before he had even thought of attacking you! It is a thought that those who have been mugged in the street relish, for even if the police are informed and the attackers caught (unlikely) you have still suffered the attack, with all the pain, loss and trauma involved. Our attempts to defend ourselves against illness are a bit like that - the enemy (illness) strikes, we call in the doctor, who gives us a prescription for antibiotics and we mop up the remaining symptoms with it, wishing we had been able to avoid catching the illness in the first place. Why can't we take the antibiotic first?
Interestingly, genetic engineers have recently been working on research to deal with the hundreds of bacteria which threaten our health by altering one of the bacterial enzymes (called RnaseP) so that their resistance to antibiotics is lowered. In the fight against disease, medicine is increasingly coming up against bacteria which have developed resistance to modern antibiotics, and these "super bugs" represent a great threat to health as they multiply and spread.
The result is a worrying increase in the incidence and virulence of traditional viral and bacteria-caused diseases which we thought we had all but conquered:
tuberculosis, bronchitis, candida, diphtheria, dysentery, meningitis, salmonella infection, etc. Modern antibiotics have, of course, other disadvantages. You cannot buy them over the counter, so, for those ailments such as colds, flu and other minor infections, you have to make a doctor's appointment, sometimes waiting for two or three days before you can get a prescription - by which time the infection has virtually run its course. Also, many people are allergic to various modem antibiotics and suffer side effects that can be as bad (if not worse!) than the original complaint. In fact evidence is now emerging that in some instances antibiotics are implicate in the increase in some forms of serious illness. A team of specialists in Gloucester found that in towns with meningitis clusters there were 50% more prescriptions for antibiotics and nine times more cases of B group bacterial meningitis than in comparative towns with a lower incidence of the disease. While the team has been unable to conclude that the greater frequency of antibiotic prescriptions is actually responsible for the increased incidence of meningitis, it did conclude that there are strong reasons for further investigation.
However similar inquiries in the United States and France suggest that antibiotics may kill pH neutral bacteria in the respiratory tract which are natural protectors against meningitis. More disturbing, perhaps, is a report in Newsweek Magazine which stated that in the USA 13000 hospital patients died of infections that resisted every drug that the doctors tried. More and more people are becoming disillusioned by the "take this prescription" syndrome which is the hallmark of modern medicine, which waits until a disease develops and then simply prescribes a dose of powerful antibiotics. This is a short sighted policy, particularly when we know that continually taking antibiotics weakens our resistance to illnesses in the long term and plays havoc with our immune system - the body's natural defense.
The immune system is a highly complicated group of mechanisms (antibodies, antitoxins and white blood cells) that go into action to protect the body from invasion or attack by foreign or harmful organisms. There is increasing evidence that over-prescribing of antibiotics can lead to damage to the immune system and its ability to respond effectively to infections and other threats. Added to this is the ever-increasing threat from "free radicals"; free floating molecules within the body that seek to attach themselves to healthy cells causing the damage known as oxidization which leads to cell and tissue degeneration and disease. Many scientists and researchers believe that it is this process which is the root cause of many of the degenerative diseases such as arthritis, rheumatism, heart disease - perhaps even cancer and AIDS.
Given the above, it is not surprising that in the UK we now spend £1.4 billion in over-the-counter medicines, from vitamins and herbal preparations to non-prescription drugs and potions, as Mintel has reported recently. Another survey by MORI also showed that 47% of 1000 adults interviewed said they were more likely to buy over-the-counter drugs for self-treatment than they were two years ago. Significantly, more than half the adult population were shown to suffer from colds, flu, headaches, coughs, sore throats, stuffy noses, indigestion, chapped lips and diarrhea - and these are the areas where both prescription medication and alternative medicines are most used. The interest in natural and holistic approaches to health is growing in pace, with an increasing recognition of the importance of a positive approach to health through a better diet, regular exercise and a return to some of the traditional ways of keeping illness at bay. One of these, you will be pleased to know, works on the Monty Python principle of attacking a wide range of illnesses before they even think of attacking you! In other words, there is something you can do to give yourself prior protection against a whole range of bacteria and viral-caused infections and illnesses before they strike you down. Interestingly, this is based on a substance used by the ancient Greeks and Romans, and later by the Wild West settlers, to keep liquids pure: silver.
While it is thought that silver was used as a remedy in ancient Egypt, the first written mention of its use in a medical context is found in a pharmacopoeia published in Rome in 69B, while the first clear record of its use as a medical agent is in the writings of the Mohammedan School founded by Geber (702-765AD). Much later, in 1834, the German obstetrician E. Crede used a 1% solution of silver (silver nitrate) on the eyes of new-born children, virtually eliminating the incidence of blindness from disease in new-born babies. Among many other results reported by medical researchers and practitioners was that of Mark Howell, who wrote in the British Medical journal in 1917 of his successful use of colloidal silver for septic renditions of the mouth (including pyorrhea nlveoiari.z - Rigg's Disease), throat (including Meniere's symptoms and closure of Valsalva's inflation and in generalized septicemia, leucorrhoea, cystitis, whooping cough and shingles.
Dr Robert Becker noticed a correlation between low levels of silver in the body (the human body naturally contains about .001% silver derived from the soil through the food we eat) and their vulnerability to ailments, concluding, since those with low silver levels were frequently sick, had innumerable colds, flu, fevers and other sicknesses - that a silver deficiency in the body was the reason for the improper functioning of the immune system. "What we have actually done", says Becker, "is rediscover the fact that silver kills bacteria, which has been known for centuries. When antibiotics were discovered, clinical uses for silver were discarded."
Further extensive research carried in the early years of this century and in the 1970s and 1980s established colloidal silver (small particles of silver suspended electronically in a pure water solution) as a highly effective agent against over 650 pathogens, with none of the side effects found with the powerful modern antibiotics.
For example, in 1910, Dr. Henry Crooks, a pioneer in colloidal chemistry wrote: Certain metals, when in a colloidal state, have a highly genocidal action but are quite harmless to human beings... it may be applied in a much more concentrated form and with better results...Staphylococcus pyogenes, various Streptococci and other pathogenic organisms are all killed in three to four minutes: in fact, no microbe is known that is not killed by this colloid in laboratory experiment in six minutes, (and) the concentration of the (silver) does not exceed twenty-five parts per million..."
There is, in fact, a small number of silver resistant bacteria which have so far been documented, including: Cifrobacter Freundii Enterobacter Cloacae; enterobacteriacea (some strains); Escherichia Cell (some strains); Klebsiclla pneumonize P. Stunteri (some strains); Proteus Mirabilis; and Vegetative B. Cereus Spores.)
That assessment has been borne out by all later research - indeed NASA, in common with over half the world's airlines uses silver to provide its space crews with safe drinking water. It would seem that the researches of the genetic engineers referred to earlier in this article could be largely wasted effort, given that, for most practical purposes, the problem has already been solved (but subsequently forgotten about) over eighty years ago. Silver began its more recent comeback in the 1970s when the late Dr. Carl Moyer, Chairman of the University of Washington's Department of Surgery was given a grant to develop improved treatment for burn victims. Dr. Harry Margraf of St Louis, the chief biochemist working in the program under Dr. Moyer, tested 22 antiseptic compounds, finding drawbacks to all of them until he focused on colloidal silver, which proved to be the most effective and is now used in all major burn centers throughout the world.
In 1971 Dr. E. Henderson, Professor of Microbiology at Temple University's School of Medicine reported his experiments which tested colloidal silver's ability to block production of HIV in human T-cell Lymphocytes (white blood cells). At very low doses the colloidal silver dramatically blocked viral production with little, if any, toxicity.
With the widespread loss of confidence in the medical establishment, at least as far as everyday ailments and medications are concerned, people are increasingly taking more responsibility for their own health, returning to folk and herbal medicines and realizing the importance of preventative health care. The growing interest in the benefits of colloidal silver is part of this general move towards taking responsibility for ones own health rather than waiting to be cured once illness has been allowed to take hold. The experts, who have revived interest in this effective, traditional cure-all recommends taking approximately a teaspoonful of colloidal silver a day. This has the effect of strengthening the immune system and giving protection against a wide range of disease-causing organisms. Silver can save lives and, on a less dramatic but nonetheless important scale, it can keep us free of many of the irritating and debilitating illnesses that modern antibiotics are becoming increasingly powerless to ward off. Silver has always been a synonym for wealth; now, it appears it has equal importance as a determinant of health.
References:
·Colloidal Silver, the Antibiotic Alternative, Canty 8 Baronowski, Association for Advanced Colloidal Research, Oregon.
·The Body Electric and Cross Currents, R. Becker MD.
·Colloidal Silver, Where Hove You Been! Iris A. Moore, The New Timer, Seattle WA. May, 1994.
·Remembering the Wonder Cure Time Forgot; Colloidal Silver, Onita d'Raye, Ten Minute Read Company, Oregon 1996.
·More News on Silver, Leonard Herrchbeg, John Hopkins Hospital.
·Colloidal Silver, the Hidden Truths, Keith F. Courtenay.
·Antibacterial Efficiency of Colloidal Silver Complex, L. Bretano 8 H. Margraf. Surgicol Forvm.Vol. 17. 1966.bp 7678.
·The Molecular Mechanics of Copper and Silver Ion Dizinfktion of Bocterio ond Vinrser, 4 B.Thurmm & C. Fl Cerba, (paper presented at the Firn International Conference on Gold and Silver in Medicine; The Silver Institute, Wath.Yol. 18,4,4 295-302, 1989.)
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