Brief History of Colloidal Silver

The ancient Romans and Greeks found that liquids would stay fresh longer
if put in silver containers. Our own American pioneers found that a silver dollar
put in a jug of milk would delay spoilage. They also found that if they would keep
their silverware "hidden" in their water barrel, slime wouldn't grow on the surface.

By the turn of the 20th century, scientists understood that the body's most
important fluids are colloidal in nature; suspended ultra-fine particles. For
example, blood, as a colloid, carries nutrition and oxygen to the body cells.

It wasn't until the late 1800's that Western scientists accepted silver
as a proven germ fighter. After learning that the body's chief fluids were colloidal
in nature, many of the endless possibilities which could occur from the use of
colloids in medicine were explored. As a result, a silver solution known as
Colloidal Silver became widely used in medicine as one of the main-stays of
antimicrobial treatment.

Throughout the early 1900's Colloidal Silver rapidly gained recognition

as one of the best infection-preventative agents, but unfortunately its use was
short lived. Prior to 1938, Colloidal Silver was used by physicians as a
mainstream antibiotic treatment and was considered quite "high-tech."

The high cost of silver combined with the fact that silver solutions could not be
patented, motivated the development of more profitable and more potent
infection fighting drugs. Silver was put on the back burner while the powerful new
antibiotic drugs became the choice of medical treatment.

But serious problems developed. Thirty years after the discovery of antibiotics,
many types of bacteria once susceptible to these drugs had built immunities to
them. Silver's comeback in medicine began in the 1970's. Now, the technology
exists to properly manufacture Colloidal Silver, and at a much more economical
price.

Today, silver is used by the Soviets to sterilize recycled water aboard their space
stations. NASA researched 23 different methods of water purification and
selected a silver system for the space shuttles. Many of the world's airlines use
silver water filters to protect passengers from diseases such as dysentery.

The Food and Drug Administration today classifies Colloidal Silver as a

pre-1938 drug. A letter from the FDA dated 9/13/91 states: "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. An electro-colloidal process, which is known to be the best method, is also
used. The FDA has no jurisdiction regarding a pure, mineral element.
What Is Colloidal Silver?
The World Book Dictionary defines a "colloid" as: "A substance composed
of particles that are extremely small but larger than most molecules (usually
ranging from about .01 to about .001 micron in diameter). The particles in a
colloid do not actually dissolve, but remain suspended in a suitable gas, liquid or
solid. Colloids play an important part in organic functions, such as
digestion and excretion." The term colloid comes from the Greek “kolla", which
means glue.

Properly manufactured Colloidal Silver is a liquid solution consisting of

submicroscopic particles of silver, held in suspension in pure water by the tiny
electrical charge placed on each particle. These electrically charged particles of
silver can become active and remain suspended in water without any artificial
additives or stabilizers. This is called a "true" Colloid of Silver.

One critical indicator of the quality of Colloidal Silver is its color. As the size of the
silver particles gets larger, the color of the suspension ranges from yellow to
brown to red to gray to black. The ideal form of Colloidal Silver is a light golden
yellow color.

How Colloidal Silver Works...

Silver is a very powerful natural antibiotic. It has been used for thousands of
years in its less effective solid form but in more recent decades it has been used
in its' colloidal form, with no side effects from normal use. Laboratory tests in
1988 by Larry C. Ford, M.D., UCLA School of Medicine, and other researchers
showed that destructive bacteria, virus and fungal organisms are killed within
minutes of contact with simple metallic silver. As a colloid, it is a catalyst,
disabling the particular enzyme that all one-celled bacteria, fungi and virus use
for their oxygen metabolism, which means they suffocate or starve. Within a few
minutes, the suffocated pathogen is cleared out of the body by the immune,
lymphatic and elimination systems.

Many other pathogens are destroyed because the electric charge on the
silver particles cause their internal protoplast to collapse, and still others are
rendered unable to reproduce. Parasites are also killed while in their egg stage.

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 seems not to interact or interfere with other
medicine being taken. Except for severe over usage, inside the body silver forms
no toxic compounds nor reacts with anything other than a germ's oxygen-
metabolizing enzyme. Unlike pharmaceutical antibiotics which destroy beneficial
enzymes, Colloidal Silver leaves these tissue-cell enzymes intact, as they are
radically different from the enzymes of primitive single-celled life.
Safety and Toxicity
Silver can act as a heavy metal poison in the body. It can also act as a trace
mineral nutrient. The difference is in the particle size, NOT the concentration.
Colloidal silver with a particle size of .001 microns has particles 100 times
smaller than a preparation of silver with a particle size of .1 microns. The smaller
the particle, the less likely it will behave as a toxin. Typically, the worst
toxic reaction from metallic silver, cited in the medical literature, is a condition
called Argyria, primarily a cosmetic condition characterized by a permanent,
bluish discoloration of the skin. Argyria causes no physical discomfort, and does
not have any other known side effects.
Your skin just looks bluish-gray. In fact, the term "blue bloods," in reference to
the royal families of Europe, probably refers to a mild, argyrial condition caused
by the constant eating of food from silver place settings. It is interesting to note,
however, that there has never been a case of Argyria reported from the use of
electro-colloidal silver, free of salts or other impurities.
Argyria, while not being a deadly condition, certainly is undesirable.