The history of colloidal silver

Colloidal silver has been around a long time.  It was used extensively in the 20th century until antibiotics became popular and relegated the use of silver in general to relative obscurity.  Colloidal silver wasn’t patentable; drugs were.  Profits were made in selling a patented product.  And some silver compounds had side effects if used improperly.  They could cause argyria, a cosmetic skin condition which could cause the skin to turn a blue/gray color. 

With the present day problems of bacteria becoming resistant to antibiotics, colloidal silver is making a resurgence in popularity and use.   One of the reasons for the renewed interest is the fact that bacteria and viruses are not resistant to contact with silver.   Colloidal silver may be the magic bullet for mankind if antibiotics are no longer useful.   Colloidal silver was used to cure and/or treat many diseases before being replaced with antibiotics.

What was thought to be the end of infectious diseases was accomplished in the 1940’s. With the advent of penicillin, they were thought to be a problem of the past. How wrong they were!

It turned out that many bacteria were able to breed new and more powerful strains that were resistant to the „new“ antibiotics over time. By the 1990’s it was obvious that antibiotics were not going to take care of our infectious diseases. Some diseases which were becoming resistant were various strains of Pneumococcus, Tuberculosis and Gonorrhea to mention a few.

40,000 to 50,000 Americans will die from Streptococcus pneumoniae each year. And it’s not the drug resistant strain that’s doing the killing. It’s the regular strain. What’s going to happen when the drug resistant strain hits us? It will be worse than you can imagine. This disease can manifest in many ways. It can cause middle ear infection in children besides causing death in older persons. It’s responsible for half the visits to pediatricians each year. It is the major cause of middle ear infections in children. It’s also a major cause of death in older persons.

Staphylococcus aureus is another disease that is taking over the hospitals in America. There are many strains and some are drug resistant to almost all antibiotics. There is apparently only one antibiotic left that works, Vancomycin. When that one quits working, what will be left to the doctors arsenal? Not much. Another strong antibiotic is Methycillin.  Staph is now becoming resistant to it and is called MRSA (Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureas).

One of the real problems has been that patients ask for and sometimes get antibiotics when they aren’t called for, such as for the common cold and other viral infections. This has led to the proliferation of these drug resistant strains of bacteria. Viruses don’t respond to antibiotics, so prescribing them is futile and should not be done, but it is used by too many doctors. Sometimes to pacify patients, sometimes to second guess the problem. It’s called the „shotgun“ approach. Throw whatever you’ve got at the problem and maybe you’ll hit the target. Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn’t. We can blame the problem on too much use of antibiotics when they are not called for.

Drug resistant strains of these, and other bacteria are becoming more commonplace. It is only a matter of time until we have diseases we cannot control.

Colloidal silver is the drug that may be our best bet for surviving these terrible diseases. It is so powerful that bacteria, viruses and even some fungi can not live in contact with colloidal silver over 6 minutes.

Silver has been used for healing for centuries. The Greeks and Romans kept liquids in silver jars. During the plagues in Europe, many royal families escaped disease because they ate off silver plates and used silver utensils. It was used by the American pioneers to keep water and milk from spoiling or becoming contaminated. It is used by NASA to purify water in the space shuttle. Russia also uses it in their space shuttle. It is used by some airlines to purify water on flights. Thin silver foil is still used in India and China to wrap portions of food in. The food and silver wrap are eaten together. Silver is used in most of the burn centers in the U.S. and has been used to prevent blindness in newborn infants eyes for many years.