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?
I love your site and this is my first time commenting 🙂
I took colloidal silver daily for 2 years prior to having my tonsils removed at 23. Like clockwork, I would get strep throat every 6 to 8 weeks. I was constantly on antibiotics for months! Once I found CS, I never got strep for two years. Since having my tonsils out i no longer need to take CS and have been strep free for 6 years. Only occasionally do I take it orally while fighting a cold or virus.
We have used CS occasionally, but usually just topically. Because I also read that it collects in the body, it made me wary of ingesting it. We also use other natural antibotic remedies before reaching for the CS. However, I am curious what your perspective is on the essential oil buzz that has been going around lately. Have you already done a post about that?
What about Sovereign Silver? Is it safe?
As I said in the post, colloidal silver in small amounts occasionally is probably just fine, but why use it ever when there are natural antibiotics like garlic, cayenne, turmeric, etc that pose no risk at all because they are food based? This post is about why I don’t use it internally, others may disagree and that is their prerogative. I just don’t feel that taking it ever is necessary. Perhaps in extraordinary circumstances as some here have posted about, but most people are not using colloidal silver for these types of situations. They are using it for everyday colds and such and giving it to growing children to ingest and I find this problematic.
This is just a quick note regarding garlic as an antibiotic. Garlic is more of an antiseptic than an antibiotic. It can be used to disinfect or protect surfaces (ex.: a cutting board) from certain germs but will have no effect on any germ or virus when taken orally. One can find thousands of sites touting garlic but none of them ever reference any of the studies done. They all just seem to copy each other.
HI Sarah, do you have an opinion on using CS as eye drops? I get frequent eye infections and have found that using 2-3 drops per day, for a day or two, usually clears them up. I don’t know of any way to get garlic in my eyes, for instance! 😉 But then maybe Iodine would be a solution instead?
Of the alternatives, I can’t take cayenne or turmeric (allergic to both) and have found garlic to be completely useless for fighting infections (in my experience, not saying for everyone’s). I would love to know any other alternatives if you can think of them.
Thanks so much for your perspective!
My opinion is that as eye drops, colloidal silver would be fine as there is no ingestion of the product by mouth.
I don’t use silver internally or in eyes either. I have eye problems so using everything imaginable has been done. Best luck I’ve had is using Divya Drishti (short term, this is not something to use daily). It is an herbal blend.
I don’t know if silver collects in the body or not, but I’ve never felt it was a safe product. There is a homeopathic product which has gold in it but I’m not sure there is one with silver. Might check with Joette Calabrese at WAPF about the homeopathic eye recommendations. I’ve been loving the Drishti, however.
For eye infections, try a high-quality organic castor oil. I found out that one can put castor oil directly into one’s eyes when my elderly mother was prescribed to do just that to treat her dry eyes problems. Not only did it help her dry eyes feel better, it helped her eyelashes grow in thicker, surprise! She had a stye on one eyelid which also cleared up. Castor oil helps the skin cleanse itself of foreign matter.
So yes, you can safely use colloidal silver as eyedrops to clear up an infection, and also consider using castor oil to help the body clear out any silver which may accumulate.
Castor oil did not work in my eyes, nor did honey (which a lot of people recommend). It burned, it stung, it made my eyes all red and teary, and then it took me two days to clear up the mess I’d made.
I’m glad to hear those things work for some people, but nothing has worked for me other than saline rinses made with filtered water and sea salt, or the Drishti eye drops. I tried Dr. Christopher’s eyebright stuff but that made my eyes burn and get all red, as well, because it contains cayenne. I diluted it down to almost nothing and it still seemed to make things worse. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.
Sarah — you need to know what true colloidal silver is. Sovereign silver is not a true colloidal. Mesosilver and NutraSilver are. I think you should learn more before you start preaching…. there are three main types of silver: ionic silver, silver proteins and colloidal silver.
Silver proteins will cause angyria (turning blue/grey). Colloidal silver doesn’t.
The vast majority of silver is eliminated from the body within 24-48 hours and almost every bit of it is gone in less than a week. In fact, with NutraSilver you have to take it every 6-8 hours because it is out of your body before then.
Maybe you should do some unbiased research at http://silver-colloids.com/ which doesn’t sell any type of silver, and only puts forth true information about the different kinds, etc.
The only valid points you make in your post are
1) It kills MRSA (I doubt ionic silver would, and definitely not silver proteins, but true colloidal silver) and other drug-resistant bactera AND it kills viruses. It can help with lyme disease and morgellons disease.
2) It does kill bacteria, even some good ones. But it sure helps amazingly for UTIs and chronic yeast infections. BETTER THAN ANYTHING ELSE OUT THERE.
The rest of your claims are untrue, of pure silver colloids. They may be true of ionic silver (the kind you make in your own home mostly) and silver proteins, but this article is about colloidal silver, not ionic silver or silver proteins.
So maybe you should change your title as it is incorrect?
p.s. Just eat a bite of sauerkraut every day to get more than enough probiotics back in your system. You need to eat probiotics every day anyway, right? Logic will present itself sometimes 🙂 You don’t think that eating sauerkraut once is all it takes (or drinking milk kefir, or eating yogurt, etc). You continue to do it, over and over, and the probiotics don’t accummulate in your system…. or we would be seeing a lot of reverse gut dysbiosis happening… where the good bacteria are overwhelmingly more than the bad bacteria, which also isn’t a good thing…. but knowing that I drink a big glass of milk kefir daily, and water kefir, and sauerkraut, that would definitely be the case, right? Think of the trillions of good bacteria I am exposing myself to every day.
You can choose not to use ionic silver or silver proteins, or even colloidal silver, but there are tons of people out there where silver saves their lives, or gives them back their life. 🙂
Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as this. While what you suggest is hepful, killing off beneficial microbes in the gut with antibiotics … both drug based or not is a serious problem that can take years to rectify according to the latest research.
Colloidal silver HAS saved my life. I have ulcerative collitis. I do take probiotics and ferments on a regular basis but am also unfortunately very susceptible to catching stomach bugs, and now that I have kids it can happen more often then I’d like. There was one time in particular that I was breastfeeding and had a horrible stomach bug. I was vomitting so much that I started dry heaving and had runs every 10 min or so. I went to the hospital but the wait was too long. I was just getting weaker and weaker. My spouse reminded me of colloidal silver. I do use ionic and also Nutrasilver. At the time I only had homemade ionic silver. I drake a quart and finally stopped dry heaving. It was the only thing I could hold down. I am so grateful for it because I lost all my breast milk supply and I was getting so weak from the deyhdration. I am in Canada where you can easily wait 12 hours in the hospital before getting seen. So I would have been even more severely dehydrated if we had continued waiting in the hospital.
Oh and to add to my last comment, yes prior to going to the knowledgable in herbs and have quite a few in stock (I even make my own herbal tinctures) but was not able to hold ANYTHING down but the ionic silver.
Very interesting argument for both sides and I think I am sitting on both sides of the fence!!! I hear the point of it being not good for our gut bugs but I have to say that in 1998 coloidal silver taken internally saved my unborn baby’s life. I live in the tropics and I had Giardia which is a parasite you can get from contaminated water. Being pregnant, I couldn’t take the antibiotics that kill it and by 7 months pregnant I was really ill and only weighed 49 kg (my pre,preg weight was 50kg) Then I found colloidal silver!! 4 drops in water 3 times a day!! 4 days later I was cured!!! I put on 8 kgs in the last 3 months and delivered a healthy 3.2kg baby. There may be other things that can cure Giardia but at that time I had spent over $300 on natural stuff from natropaths to no avail then one told me about the silver and it only cost $15.
Sarah, thanks for the information. I’ve never intentionally swallowed colloidal silver, but Ray Behm D.D.S. uses it in his “Secret” protocol to heal gum disease. I mix it with baking soda and salt and brush it into to my gums, then rinse. Do you think this is ok to continue since I rinse my mouth with water afterwards?
I would consider that an external use if it is not swallowed. If you feel more comfortable, you can use H2O2 instead of colloidal silver for The Secret.
By that same rationale, couldn’t we say that fluoride based toothpastes are external also and are okay to use for that reason? I enjoy your blog.
Yes, that is true. The thing is fluoride to reduce tooth decay doesn’t work so why use it at all.
Colloidal silver in its larger molecular form, not the nanized micro particle form, is what turns one’s skin blue. Even in such cases, one has to consume great quantities in order to become like the “blue man” one can find online.
That’s not true, this lady had her skin turn just from nasal spray that included colloidal silver : http://www.rosemaryjacobs.com/rose2.html
Hi Shmo,
You may want to take a look again. Rosemary Jacobs did not use colloidal silver. She began referring to what she did use (silver-based nose drops) after she was wooed by Stephen Barrett, MD of Quackbusters infamy. She uses the term CSP which means nothing in the silver world. When she experienced this (over 450 years ago) it was unheard of to prescribe/use “colloidal silver”. Instead, for the purpose she was using it, what was normally prescribed was silver nitrate nose drops. This contains large particles of silver. Virtually all scientists, including those who support the use of colloidal silver, will agree that this nasal solution can certainly cause argyria.
Barrett is rabidly anti-alternative med (he makes his money from the pharmaceutical and chemical industries). He hooked up with Jacobs, coached her, and used her like a prize calf at a 4-H show. Her wording on everything she had written changed at that time and she began using “CSP” and “colloidal silver” in her written material and interviews.
True colloidal silver cannot be produced at home. Only one company has the technology to produce true colloidal silver. Most sold today (and made at home ) is ionic silver.
This website offers quality information on colloidal silver. It explains the difference between colloidal silver and ionic silver, too . The silver being sold here is from the proprietary colloidal silver generator owned by scientist Frank Keyes.
http://www.purestcolloids.com/learning.php
Lab site: http://www.colloidalsciencelab.com/
Dear Sarah,
I was quite shocked to see your article, and I would beg you to retract if it had not already generated so much discussion. There is an enormous community with a wide body of experience that contradicts most of your points in your post. Myself included. I would like to engage you and your community to help explain the issues better.
1. I love all your nutritional guidance, and I think that the WAPF dietary guidance is the holy grail of nutrition and health. Following such makes us almost indestructible. But there are pathogens that can kill the healthiest of us, and no combination of natural antibiotics can come close to matching the effectiveness of CS. In some cases yes, there are countless effective remedies, but nothing matches wide spectrum and potency of CS. CS saves lives. And that is why I must address this post.
2. Most of what you report is the result of other silver products, such as silver nitrate, and not a result of colloidal silver. In addition, most people ‘in the know’ will make their own CS instead of buying it. It is safer and cheaper. I have never purchased it, but I have been making it for nearly ten years. Researching for twenty. Others have been consuming high volumes for over twenty years. And they are not blue.
3. You cannot turn blue from a quality CS product. If so, my entire family would be smurfs by now. Silver from a quality CS product will pass through the body. It takes very special circumstances to trap silver in the body at any significant level. Hint: do not use it as a suntan lotion 😉
4. The exact mechanisms of action for CS are not fully understood yet. It is misleading to state facts about how CS works. Science has observed many different mechanisms, including stem cell generation, but again, it is not fully understood. It has been observed to attack all known pathogens in the body, whether they are bacterial, viral, or fungal in nature, and has also been shown effective against cancer cells in two different ways – killing the cells, or causing them to revert back to normal. In addition, CS is being used to heal third degree burns without scarring – something that has always been impossible. So again, CS demonstrates a broad range of mechanisms that we are still trying to understand.
5. If CS killed everything indiscrimiently, we would be able to degrade our health with it, or even kill ourselves, as the ratio of bacteria to human cells is ten to one in our body. But CS cannot kill us. You can drink gallons of it and sit in a tub of CS, and you will not turn blue, and you will not have any ill effects. You would die of water poisoning first. There is no research that shows CS having any ill side effects, including gut issues. My daughter has never missed a day of school. She is healthy, active, and not blue.
6. There is not a widely agreed to definition of heavy metals, and Dr. Kaayla Daniel makes no mention of silver in that quote. In addition, our body makes use of some ‘heavy metals’ which are even provided in supplements. The topic of heavy metals is used only as a scare tactic, and I was very surprised to see your comment. Shame on you for that one. Show me these blue people, or anyone suffering any toxic effect from CS. I only see the same blue man again and again. And he drank silver nitrate and/or other silver compounds, not CS.
6. Your comment about CS damaging beneficial flora, and thus creating the same vulnerability that antibiotics do is false (and the people you quote are not stating any facts or evidence). There is indeed a common problem with antibiotics, and a specific example that plagues hospitals and nursing homes is when antibiotics are used to treat UTIs (urinary tract infection), and then the patient contracts C diff (Clostridium difficile , which can be deadly. If CS is used instead, you will eradicate the UTI and avoid C diff. CS can also be used to eradicate C diff. And CS is sometimes used mixed with aloe juice to help treat deeper intestinal issues. Vast evidence shows that CS helps the gut. I know of no evidence to the contrary.
7. To further emphasize the complex nature of CS actions, my family drinks kefir. In particular, my wife notices a big difference with kefir in her daily life. And she drinks CS too. (Although we do not drink them at the same exact time and would recommend avoiding such). The CS does not reduce the effectiveness of the kefir at all in our experience. Constipation is a very easy barometer to read.
There is a lot of anti-CS rhetoric on the web, put out there by pharmaceutical companies, and even CS profiteers. I strongly recommend CS, but I am against buying the products. You have to make it yourself, as that is much cheaper, and the only way to ensure quality and safety.
I can say a lot more, but I would like to get a dialogue going. Please do challenge me on every comment I made here. This is one of my favorite blogs, and I respect all that you have done here Sarah. But this article would prevent me from sending anyone here in the future. I hope we can fix it.
Victor
Hi Victor, Dr. Daniel didn’t mention aluminum or cadmium in that excerpt either, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t included in the discussion. I’m glad you are finding colloidal silver helpful to your family … I’ve heard all these arguments for colloidal silver before over the years, and I am quite frankly still very much unconvinced that consuming a heavy metal intentionally is ever a good idea.
I’ve had success with safer natural antibiotics for over 15 years, and that is the route I will continue to pursue with colloidal silver only used externally. If you come to a different conclusion and wish to consume colloidal silver regularly, then I wish you well. I think it is very important that natural remedies be presented accurately with their caveats included such as the very real potential for gut imbalance from colloidal silver use. With so many people struggling to rectify gut problems, it is best in my mind to use other natural antibiotics as a first line of defense instead of reaching for colloidal silver all the time .. especially for children who have decades to live and would suffer with heavy metal issues that develop the most.
Victor,
Thanks for your reply to the article. Could you share your method for making your own CS that is safer than what can be found in stores?
I notice that Sarah ignored your comment about CS not accumulating in the body in any significant amounts, but rather passing through. Do you have a response to that, Sarah? Also, what is the research showing that CS harms gut bacteria? Can you share a link or two, please?
Thanks, both.
Linore
Hi Linore,
My 3rd try to post this…
I have used a few good devices, and I find the silverpuppy to be the best in my opinion. I use it with a thermal stirrer, and CS production is effortless, cheap, and of the highest quality. Use only distilled water. I strongly recommend a thermal stirrer, as it helps keep everything clean. You will find a thermal stirrer on the same site, or you can make one yourself.
I use the silverpuppy only in ‘square wave’ mode, with auto shutoff. This simply alternates the current to keep the silver rods clean and evenly worn. The auto shutoff is very convenient, and gives us the most commonly recommended strength of CS (around 10ppm). The device has options so that people can manually make stronger CS if they wish. I have never found the need or desire to make anything stronger.
If you notice that your rods or glass jar get dirty, your distilled water is probably not very good. I sometimes get a bad bottle of distilled water, irregardless of brand. Not a big problem, but something to be aware of.
I would also like to give credit to Dr. Robert Beck (not be confused with Becker) for publishing schematics of devices twenty years ago, so that people could build devices for practically nothing. This works well too, but the silverpuppy and similar devices are much easier to use and produce superior CS.
About the ongoing gut flora debate, the logic makes no sense to me, as the CS cannot selectively target only good flora, and so it cannot unbalance the gut in favor of the bad flora. The science and experience support this. CS will stop food poisoning, stomach viruses, etc., with rapid and obvious effectiveness, and no side effects that I have ever observed or read about.
Thank you.
Victor
The post is clear that colloidal silver is a broad spectrum antibiotic and kills all bacteria good and bad, aerobic and anaerobic, just like conventional antibiotics. I would suggest contacting a GAPS Diet Practitioner who recommends a no ingestion policy for colloidal silver for patients with gut dysbiosis issues to go into further detail for you. Perhaps a phone consult or discussion would work better than the comment section of a blog which definitely has its limitations.
Sarah, do you realize that David Getoff, the Vice President of the Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation disagrees with you? He has two public blog posts that specifically recommend CS, and specifically state his opinion that CS does not harm gut flora. You can find them on the PPNF website.
I do follow GAPS knowledge, but that represents only a tiny fraction of the population, and even then is only a two year diet. And we can see many people crediting colloidal silver for curing their Crohn’s disease much faster. Protocols are augmented and modified all the time, and you have your own blog posts with a modified GAPS diet, which I applaud.
Concerning GAPS and everyone else, I have a more general (rhetorical) question: why is it ok to eat dozens of other antibacterial foods, but not take colloidal silver? Coconut oil, ginger, various herbs, etc. are all encouraged. And as some have noted on this blog, yogurt, kefir, and other probiotics feed and replenish the good bacteria, so I still don’t see the logic in singling out colloidal silver as unbalancing the gut.
I think that when we look at all these broad spectrum antibacterial agents we must consider that there are so many factors that we do not yet understand, and this is highlighted by the volumes of experiential evidence that does not match in vitro experiments.
That’s fine if some disagree … I choose to not ingest colloidal silver and that is my position for the reasons I’ve stated. If others choose to ingest it, that is their decision!
Thanks much, Victor.
Would that then be Ionic silver as opposed to colloidal silver?
Hi, Victor. How do you make CS yourself?
I agree with your points Victor, and I would also like to postulate a question: what if silver is not a “heavy metal” but rather an essential mineral? I tend to think gold is also an essential mineral. I don’t believe these minerals pose a danger to us
Victor, how do you make your own so you know it’s the Real Deal?
good points, victor. I take CS sometimes. this article seems a bit fear-based and under-researched. or maybe it’s just that there are a lot of unknowns with CS.
Great summary, Victor. I, too, have been making my own for 15 years, and my skin tone has not changed. Those folks likely have something ELSE in their mixture (could be in their water), not the silver, that is turning them blue. There are reputable vendors, and in a serious case, I would buy the higher ppm from my favorite vendor, but for general maintenance we are economically choosing to make our own.
I also disagree that Silver builds-up in your system, like lead or other heavy metals. I bought Dr. Chi’s fingernail and tongue analysis book, and I do not have the symptoms of silver remaining in my body. CS is our household’s “go to” for a natural anti-biotic. Also use Olive Leaf extract for anti-viral, and Grapefruit Seed Extract for anti-fungal. While I enjoy and respect the Healthy Home Economist, I disagree with this article.
Carrie or Victor,
Could either of you please share your recipe for homemade CS? And/or a link to a vendor that you consider reputable? Thanks much.
Linore
Magnesium Man who created the Root Cause Protocol spent years reading about research on the copper/iron metabolism and has concluded it’s the root cause of every chronic disease. He recommends stopping using silver as antibiotic bc silver is a copper antagonist. Unbound iron can oxidize the arteries and unbound copper can accumulate in the liver, kidney, etc. His protocol focuses on eliminating everything that interferes with the copper/iron connection.
Thank you Sarah for that great article. It really clarifies the controversy surrounding colloidal silver. I like to use silver gel for minor skin cuts and burn, although I used it once for a major cut (I had cut the tip of my left thumb while cutting vegetable, a big slice I must say) with great success. Even the nerve damage came back to normal after a few months. But my absolute favorite go to remedy is iodine Lugol’s solution. Iodine is antiviral, antiparasitic, antibacterial, antifungal and absolutely promote a healthy gut flora. If you want to know more about iodine: https://www.facebook.com/notes/iodine-workshop/list-of-heavy-metal-excretion-resulting-from-iodine-supplementation/455012084633693
I can’t imagine what reason one would have to take colloidal silver internally on a regular basis, or for health maintenance.. However, if I had something like a serious pneumonia, I would definitely consider using it in an inhaler to combat an infection that could be life threatening. It also works wonders for pets. I have used it very successfully to heal–literally overnight– serious abscess ( from a bite/fight wound) in my cat. I used a syringe to flush out the abscess with the silver. Fantastic!
You wouldn’t believe how many people do! Inhaling it or swishing with it would much less problematic than swallowing it.
Yes, if you put it on your body, some will get in as the skin is permeable but not as much as if you swallow it! And, it won’t harm your gut balance putting it on the skin. I see people taking colloidal silver or giving it to their children even a small dose everyday as a preventative and I think that is very misguided.