Colloidal silver is a very effective home remedy, but it’s best used externally and never swallowed as it harms gut flora. More recent research has found that colloidal silver harms the brain.
What is Colloidal Silver?
Colloidal silver is one of the most effective natural antibiotics widely available to the public.
What’s more, colloidal silver is cheap and easily obtained at many health food stores. Some people make it at home. It consists of tiny silver particles suspended in liquid for use either externally or internally.
The remarkable antibiotic nature of silver has been known for centuries. In the early 1900′s, the founder of Searle Pharmaceuticals, Alfred Searle, wrote in his book The Use of Colloids in Health and Disease:
Applying colloidal silver to human subjects has been done in a large number of cases with astonishingly successful results…having the advantage of being rapidly fatal to microbes without toxic action on its host. It is quite stable. It protects rabbits from ten times the lethal dose of tetanus or diphtheria toxin.
In the 1970s, Dr. Robert O. Becker at Syracuse Medical University began to intensively research colloidal silver. He discovered that silver not only kills bacteria, but it actually killed bacteria that were resistant to all known antibiotics with no undesirable side effects.
Moreover, unlike prescription antibiotics, pathogens do not become resistant or immune to silver over time. It even has the ability to eradicate antibiotic-resistant microbes like MRSA.
This is because colloidal silver doesn’t poison the microbes like antibiotics do, but rather smothers them by adhering to their cell walls and inhibiting their enzyme production.
Internal Use of Colloidal Silver
Despite its stellar reputation as a natural antibiotic, I never swallow colloidal silver and don’t allow my children to ingest it either. I only use colloidal silver for externally based infections such as swimmers ear. Others I know use it to gargle with as a strep throat home remedy.
My reasons are fairly simple.
First of all, silver is a heavy metal that accumulates in the body over time, the same as lead, cadmium, and aluminum. Why would anyone knowingly consume heavy metals?
It never made any sense to me which is why I have always avoided consuming any silver solution including silver nitrates, ionic silvers, colloidal silvers, silver chlorides, and silver proteins.
The claim that colloidal silver is the only safe silver solution has never been at all convincing to me.
Dr. Kaayla Daniel PhD writes in her marvelous piece Mad as a Hatter: How to Avoid Toxic Metals and Clear Them from the Body:
Although the mental and physical problems from metal toxicity have escalated in recent years, our very language tacitly acknowledges the historic toxicity of certain metals: “Mad as a hatter” from the Civil- War-era’s crazed use of mercury sizing in hat manufacture, “gold fever” from the murderous greed of early prospectors, “lead poisoning” as black humor for “getting shot,” and, more recently, “get-the-lead-out” exhortations from trainers who would have us exercise long and hard in order to sweat out toxins and melt excess fat.
Certainly, occasional use of colloidal silver internally probably does no harm. This would including gargling with it to resolve strep throat without antibiotics.
Why risk it when there are plenty of natural antibiotics such as garlic, turmeric, cayenne, manuka honey, and oregano oil (oreganol) that are highly effective and present no metal toxicity issues?
Risks to Beneficial Bacteria
While the fact that silver is a heavy metal with accumulation in the body that is difficult to undo (and yes, it can permanently turn your skin blue if you get too much which happens with some forms of silver solution) is reason enough in my book to keep the colloidal silver for external use only, the biggest reason of all is to protect the gut microbiome.
You see, colloidal silver works not by poisoning microbes like antibiotics do, but by smothering them by adhering to their cell walls and inhibiting their enzyme production.
While colloidal silver’s unique method of killing bacteria is highly effective and does not lessen over time as microbes do not become resistant to it, it is not selective in the bacteria it kills.
In other words, colloidal silver can decimate beneficial bacteria in the gut just the same as pathogenic strains. Isn’t this exactly why conventional antibiotics are so problematic?
Reducing the population in the gut of beneficial bacteria is serious business no matter what the cause …natural or drug-based.
Dr. Martin Blaser MD of New York University’s Langone Medical Center who writes in the August 2011 edition of Nature, warns against harming the beneficial microbes in the gut:
Early evidence from my lab and others hints that, sometimes, our friendly flora never fully recover. These long-term changes to the beneficial bacteria within people’s bodies may even increase our susceptibility to infections and disease.
False Marketing Claims
Some colloidal silver manufacturers claim that their product does not harm beneficial microbes. Even some prominent alternative physicians deceptively claim it does not harm flora.
However, this information is usually a ploy to sell product and ignores the chemical realities of the metal’s effect on living organisms.
Silver Kills Microbes Indiscriminately
Steve Barwick, author of The Ultimate Manual on Colloidal Silver sets the record straight about this false advertising regarding colloidal silver:
But the truth is, colloidal silver does indeed act as a broad spectrum natural antibiotic. As such, if enough mineral silver reaches the intestinal tract it most certainly can kill off the friendly (i.e., beneficial) bacteria that thrive there.
Colloidal silver simply has no way of knowing a beneficial microbe from an infectious microbe. If the microbe is sensitive to silver, then silver will kill it whether it is a beneficial microbe or an infectious one.
Proponents of small amounts of colloidal silver taken internally say it won’t harm delicate gut balance. However, I choose not to take any chances given that many food-based natural antibiotics work just as well or even better for resolution of internal infections. This article details the best natural antibiotics to choose from instead of colloidal silver when an internal agent is required.
Why risk it where your delicate gut microbiome is concerned? Colloidal silver is a broad-spectrum antibiotic.
Just because it wasn’t obtained via prescription makes it no less of a risk to your delicate intestinal health.
Contraindicated on GAPS Diet
Due to its ability to upset the delicate gut balance and harm beneficial gut flora, colloidal silver is contraindicated on the GAPS Protocol for gut healing developed by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride MD.
Certified GAPS Diet Practitioners trained by Dr. Campbell-McBride recommend avoiding the ingestion of colloidal silver. This is necessary while attempting to rebuild the gut environment with beneficial microbes and healing/sealing the gut wall to put autoimmune disease in remission. L. D. Moore, a practicing GAPS Diet Practitioner, had this to say:
As a certified GAPS practitioner protecting the gut is the highest priority. I am SO careful at what my clients ingest that may destroy that delicate balance. I put colloidal silver in the no ingest bucket.
Do you take colloidal silver internally? Why or why not?
Wouldn’t it be better to use plant-based medicines such as garlic that have no risk in comparison, don’t build up in the body, act as food for flora, and are equally effective?
I’m interested to hear your reasons for this as my research tells me to just say no.
References
(1) The Use of Colloids in Health and Disease
(2) How to Avoid Toxic Metals and Clear Them from the Body
(3) The Ultimate Colloidal Silver Manual
(4) Stop the Killing of Beneficial Bacteria
(5) Does Colloidal Silver Kill Both Good and Bad Bacteria?
Check out Anthony Williams book The Medical Medium????
Colloidal Silver is not a heavy metal, it’s a “Noble Metal” like gold. Although it can accumulate in the body, there are formulas for safe consumption levels based on weight of the person taking it. It is also recommended that if you are taking more than the daily safe consumption level in order to combat a specific issue, you should take a vacation from the silver after a few weeks or after you have the desired result. The body is able to process the silver out best if it is a very small particle. Also, if you take it daily you can skip it once a week and take a probiotic that day instead. This information was gleaned from Steve Barwick’s website.
Here’s a webpage that explains how silver can kill bad bacteria, but preserve the good. (simple explanation, the good bacteria surrounds itself by a lipid/fat layer, silver is water soluable, not fat soluable, the bad bacteria doesn’t have the same protections).
I have always operated on the less is more principal when it comes to silver usage, but started researching this more when my doctor suggested we use it to decrease the pathogenic load in my body, as i have many underlying infections contributing to my immune disease, inlcuding EBV, Lyme, and more.
Anyhow, i found this somewhat reassuring: hsilverhealthinstitute.com/silver-bacteria/
The author argues that colloidal silver is a heavy metal, which accumulates in the body. No argument there; silver is a heavy metal. But any heavy metal can accumulate in the body when not in a colloidal form.
True colloidal metals have ions (atoms or molecules with positive or negative charges). When all ions are negatively charged, for example, they will repel each other, accounting for why a colloidal metal remains suspended in solution without sinking to the bottom.
The specific gravity of silver is 10.49 (10.5 times heavier than water), yet colloidal silver, unlike non-colloidal silver, will not sink to the bottom of a water solution. For the same reason, true colloidal silver will not accumulate in the body, where it is eliminated very rapidly. Unlike antibiotics, which destroy gut bacteria, true colloidal silver, when used as directed, can’t because it never reaches the colon. True colloidal silver has to be consumed repeatedly to maintain therapeutic value.
While there is true colloidal silver, there is also fake colloidal silver. While true colloidal silver is held in suspension by electrical charges, fake colloidal silver is held in suspension by a binder such as protein. In other words, fake colloidal silver is a heavy metal, which will accumulate in the body until you turn blue when enough is consumed. Fake colloidal silver will also reach the colon, where it’ll upend gut bacteria enough to make you a toxic individual.
Fake colloidal silver is cheaper and easier to produce, accounting for why the marketplace is infested with so much fake product that may not only have no medicinal value but may actually cause long-term damage or worsen a medical condition.
Finally, plant life has the ability to transform soil metals into ionic metals (colloids), which are readily absorbed by animals. There are 60 essential minerals that all animals need, plant life serving the vital role of not just vectoring minerals from soil to animal life but also ionizing for easy absorption. Without colloidal minerals, there would be no animal life.
Fake colloidal silver is not the only problem. Virtually every other processed food on grocery shelves is fake. Cereal manufacturers are the most notorious, in my opinion. They remove the germ of grain, which contains colloidal iron, then fortify the final product with non-colloidal iron. Yeah, they do this to increse the shelf life and make more money — the hell with birth defects and hundreds of illnesses so epidemic with humans.
By extension, virtually every mineral supplement on the market is fake if it is not a colloid. Fake supplements discolor urine because the body cannot easily absorb them. The same nutrients in real food do not discolor urine.
There are lots of Internet purveyors claiming you can make your own colloidal silver at home, if only you by their machine. True, you can make colloidal silver at home, but it will be only fake colloidal silver. You can’t make real colloidal silver at home without making a substantial investment in laboratory equipment, first.
Don’t believe the myth perps who are stubbornly attached to misinformation about real colloidal silver. Hospitals are now using real colloidal silver to combat MRSA, for example — because it works. Had Big Pharma not hijacked the narrative when antibiotics came along, real colloidal silver would have prevented the horrible mutations of bacteria that are so common today in the environment.
I know for fact that Dr. Mercola’s colloidal silver is the real deal. If you call him, he will even tell you who manufacturers his colloidal silver. If any vendor won’t tell you who manufactures their colloidal silver, beware! They may even be making it on their kitchen table at home.
Colloidal silver is not a heavy metal
Don’t get caught up in semantics. Call it whatever you like. You don’t want it in your body as it accumulates!
What if you don’t have a sore throat but congestion in your nasal passage and a cough how would I spray colloidal silver or where would I spray it?
Yes I agree no one wants or needs heavy metals accumulating in our bodies, however when I researched this I found the government doesn’t like CS… uses scare tactics to keep folks away from it. I also found a scientists own research on himself that answered the question of accumulation in the body. silver-colloids.com/Papers/AltmanStudy.PDF It reassured me , and I now drink it if needed. As far as decimation of gut flora…any broad spectrum natural antibiotic will cause an imbalance of gut flora… possibly not as bad as pharma antibiotics, but if it kills bacteria…it will kill your “good” bacteria.
My Mom is currently in the hospital with a very severe case of something nicknamed c diff (you can Google it). It’s basically very bad gut bacteria that infects your intestines after you kill off a lot of good bacteria with antibiotics. Well I just realized today that she’s been using silver mouth spray for sore throats etc. Lately. That’s when I found this article. My Mom is someone you would consider a health nut and is very careful about what goes into her body and tries to avoid antibiotics whenever possible. She also is so good about taking probiotics. So it was strange to find out she had this major gut bacteria infection. I think we have a major piece of the puzzle now… She never would have taken this if she knew the risk.
I am having my daughter gargle with colloidal silver for what I think is strep throat. How often should I have her do this each day? Thanks for the recommendation of gargling and not swallowing.
Silver is not a Heavy Metal, it is a Transition Metal
Call it whatever you want. You don’t want it inside your body decimating your good flora.