What Is Colloidal Silver, Anyway? And How Was It Discovered?For readers who may be unfamiliar with colloidal silver and its powerful infection-fighting qualities, a little background is in order. First of all, it is important to understand that the antibacterial qualities of pure silver have been widely known for literally thousands of years. And in spite of protestations to the contrary by the FDA, those antibacterial qualities are still widely recognized worldwide today. For example, in the days of the Roman legions, silver coins were placed into water containers to prevent bacterial contamination of the drinking water during their long marches into war. And today, silver-based water filtration systems are used in NASA space flights to help prevent bacterial contamination of the astronaut’s drinking water during their long journeys into space!
Before modern refrigeration was invented, farmers and pioneers often placed silver coins in their milk buckets to help prevent rapid spoilage of the milk after milking their cows. Today, the famous Kiplinger Letter for businessmen states, in an article titled Big Business to Move Into Silver in a BIG Way, “Silver’s germ-fighting ability will soon get a workout in new uses. The metal kills disease-carrying microbes without the harmful side effects of chlorine, or other sanitizing chemicals. Silver will one day be laced into socks, dish towels, and toothbrushes. Even home appliances, heating, and air systems will use it. Industrial uses too…treating water and cleaning food processing gear (see May 4, 2001 issue). Of course, silver is already used as a sanitizing agent in spas and hot tubs (and even some swimming pools) across America, by people who prefer not to use harsh chemicals such as chlorine and bromine. Silver is incredibly effective at preventing the growth of infectious microorganisms in water!
Even the ancient Chinese used silver to heal infectious illnesses, by rubbing it into the skin, sucking on it, or even grinding it up and ingesting it with water or other liquids. And during the Black Plague of the 17th century, British royalty (who had long been in contact with the Chinese) discovered that they could protect themselves by cooking their foods in silver containers, dining from pure silver plates and using only the purest of silver eating utensil – all of which allowed them to ingest microscopic quantities of pure silver with every meal. This tactic has been widely credited with keeping the British royals virtually immune to the Black Plague, while literally hundreds of thousands of English commoners, who had no access to silver, died!
The Advent of Modern Colloidal Silver!
Fortunately, about 90 years ago, a simple method was discovered by which virtually invisible microscopic particles of silver – called “silver ions” – could be driven off the pure silver wire by low voltage electricity, and suspended in distilled water by the resulting electrical charge! This safe liquid solution came to be known as colloidal silver, and it soon took the medical community by storm. We’ll tell you more about how colloidal silver is made in just a moment. But first, it is important to understand how quickly this discovery impacted the medical community. In fact, by 1919 Alfred Searle, founder of the international pharmaceutical conglomerate, Searle Pharmaceuticals, wrote a medical volume called, “The Use of Colloids in Health and Disease,” in which he enthusiastically stated, “Applying colloidal silver to human subjects has been done in a large number of cases with astonishingly successful results. For internal administration…it has the advantage of being rapidly fatal to pathogens without toxic action on its host. It is quite stable. It protects rabbits from ten times the lethal dose of tetanus or diphtheria toxin.
During that same time period, Dr. Henry Crooks, M.D., a pioneering researcher on colloidal silver and its medical uses wrote, “I know of no microbe that is not killed by silver in laboratory experiments in six minutes.” And by 1923 the British Medical Journal had discovered the antibiotic properties of colloidal silver, stating in their February issue, “…it has been shown repeatedly that the rapidly exerted disinfectant action is of considerable therapeutic value.”
But during the 1940’s, after the introduction of modern prescription antibiotic drugs such as penicillin, colloidal silver usage by the medical community slowly fell to the wayside. The major pharmaceutical firms quickly discovered that the patents they held on newly emerging antibiotic drugs could earn them tens, and even hundreds, of millions of dollars in profits annually, whereas safe natural substances such as colloidal silver, which cannot be patented, held nowhere near the same profit potential. Hence, the major pharmaceutical conglomerates launched a worldwide PR campaign claiming that infectious illness would soon be wiped from the face of the earth thanks to their new antibiotic drugs. Americans, as well as the people of virtually all other nations, bought the story hook, line, and sinker. And the medical use of colloidal silver lapsed completely from the view as the antibiotic drug craze began in earnest.
Of course, the promise of wiping out infectious disease from the face of the earth with antibiotic drugs was never quite fulfilled. And by the early 1970’s the first antibiotic-resistant “super-pathogens” began to appear on the scene. Doctors were astounded to discover that many infection-causing pathogens were no longer killed by antibiotic drugs. The major pharmaceutical firms reacted quickly by beginning a crash program to develop newer and even more powerful antibiotic drugs. But even back then, the antibiotic-resistant bacteria continued to evolve until they were no longer affected by the newest antibiotic drugs on the market. A small handful of savvy researchers realized that the pharmaceutical firms had merely entered into a race against time, in which they would constantly have to develop more and more powerful antibiotic drugs just to keep up with the rapidly evolving super pathogens. Because of this, these prescient researchers decided to look back in history for a remedy, rather than forward. They asked themselves, “How did our ancestors survive serious infectious illness?” And the answer they came up with surprised them all: silver!
The Medical Community Re-Discovers Colloidal Silver!
In March 1978 the prestigious Science Digest put the medical spotlight back on silver’s powerful infection-fighting qualities, stating, “Silver is our mightiest germ fighter…It is re-emerging as a wonder of modern medicine. An antibiotic kills perhaps a half-dozen different disease organisms, but silver kills some 650. Resistant strains fail to develop…Even tiny amounts of silver wipe out huge quantities of disease organism…moreover, silver is virtually non-toxic.”
By the early 1980’s the famous Dr. Robert O. Becker, of Syracuse University Medical Center, was studying the antibiotic properties of electrically generated silver ions in earnest. He later wrote in his best-selling book, The Body Electric, “What we have done was rediscover the fact that silver killed bacteria, a fact which had actually been known for centuries…All of the organisms we tested were sensitive to the electrically generated silver ion, including some that were resistant to all known antibiotics…In no case were any undesirable side effects of the silver treatment apparent.”
Then, in 1988 Dr. Larry C. Ford, M.D. of the UCLA School of Medicine, discovered through laboratory testing that 650 different bacteria, viruses or fungi were unable to live in the presence of colloidal silver. In most cases, he found that they were killed within six minutes of direct contact – a discovery that had originally been made by Dr. Henry Crooks, M.D. back in the 1920’s!
As Dr. Joseph Weissman, M.D., board-certified immunologist and Assistant Clinical Professor at the University of California Medical School, would later write, “Today, many antibiotics are losing the battle with germs. Fortunately, the best germ killer, which was discovered over 2,000 years ago, is finally getting the proper attention from medical science – natural silver. I sincerely recommend that everyone have electrically generated colloidal silver in their home as an antiseptic, antibacterial and antifungal agent.”
Colloidal Silver Can Even Kill Germ Warfare Agents!
It is also important to note that colloidal silver was one of the few substances on earth that was successfully used against anthrax and other plague-like pathogens in the early 1900’s, prior to the advent of modern-day antibiotics, as verified by the book, Colloids in Biology and Medicine, by H. Beck hold, pages 367-368. Considering that anthrax is said to be the all-time favorite biological warfare agent, it would seem to be a prudent measure indeed to have plenty of therapeutic-quality colloidal silver on hand at home in order to help protect yourself and your family in the event of a biological attack.