"There are periods in the life of humanity, which generally coincide with the beginning of the fall of cultures and civilizations, when the masses irretrievably lose their reason and begin to destroy everything that has been created by centuries and millenniums of culture."

- Gurdjieff, quoted by P.D. Ouspensky
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NOTE: This article represents my own opinions and/or experiences, and should not be construed as authoritative. I am not a practitioner in the medical industry, and have no medical training whatsoever. Use your own discretion, and investigate the safety, practicality, and applicability of anything you read here before attempting to use it yourself.

Table of Contents
1. About Colloidal Silver
  What IS Colloidal Silver?
  What Is Colloidal Silver NOT?
  Background
  Arguments Against
  Effects
  Personal Experiences
2. Making Colloidal Silver
  Make or Buy?
  Supplies
  Setup
  Procedure
  Storage
  Use and Dosage
1. About Colloidal Silver

What IS Colloidal Silver?

In brief, colloidal silver is a solution with antibacterial (and possibly antiviral) properties -- an alternative to treatment of disease with antibiotics.

What Is Colloidal Silver NOT?

Colloidal Silver is NOT a "silver bullet". Many false claims (primarily by those marketing it) have been made about colloidal silver, and most focus on the fundamentally flawed (but highly prevalent) mentality of "there should just be a pill to fix everything".

It is also NOT a substitute for courses of treatment recommended by your doctor. It IS a possible alternative to those treatments, but only if you've done your homework and understand what you are doing.

Colloidal Silver is merely one method of treating disease. Not all diseases will respond to it. Not all people will respond to it, and it may have different effects in different people. In any case, you'd be smart to look at all available avenues of treatment -- not just hope that colloidal silver will somehow make your problems go away.

Background

Colloidal Silver is a "colloidal" suspension of silver in water. A "colloidal" solution is one where the particles are of such small size (submicroscopic) that they cannot be separated by filtration, but are not ionic in nature (which is the case with disolved salts).

While debate has raged for years (and still exists) on the validity or merits of "Colloidal Silver", I have personally found it to be beneficial. I'll try to stick to the known facts here, and let you decide.

Silver itself has long been known to have certain antibacterial properties. For a few examples, cases of "pink-eye" in the past were often treated with a solution of silver nitrate, and many hospital instruments (like, for example, catheter tubes) are still made with silver plating or of silver alloys.

In addition, silver is one of the trace minerals required by the body.

The intent of colloidal silver is to provide an ingestible form of trace amounts of pure silver.

Arguments Against

I'll try to address here all of the arguments against colloidal silver that I know of (if you know of any additional ones, please feel free to contact me).

Colloidal Silver causes Argyria (silver poisoning that causes graying of the skin)

Indeed, silver overdoses or silver taken improperly can cause silver poisoning (argyria). However, to my knowledge, the only known cases of argria have resulted from ingestion of silver salts. A silver salt solution is by definition not colloidal silver, and properly preparing colloidal silver does not result in a silver salt solution.

It is worth noting here that the only known effect of argyria (silver poisoning) is the graying of the skin -- which, while certainly unpleasant, is far from the many known effects and risks of many antibiotics and other drugs.

Colloidal Silver has no proven health benefits

This is largely an argument by negation, but is partially true. There has, to the best of my understanding, been no particular investigation into this treatment method, and so there is little or no "official" data available. However, there are many folks like myself who have tried it and reported some benefits.

This is the reason you need to research and decide for yourself.

Effects

Colloidal Silver, as discussed above, has antibacterial (and possibly antiviral properties). What this means, in short, is that it functions to destroy "bad" (pathogenic) bacteria within the body.

While most of the cells in your body perform "aerobic respiration" (that is, utilize oxygen in the process of producing energy), bacteria do not have this luxury. They perform "anaerobic respiration" (that is, without the presence of oxygen), and a key enzyme necessary for this process is inhibited by the silver particles that make up colloidal silver.

It is important to note that not all bacteria responds to colloidal silver! For an example, it appears that the ("good") bacteria in your gut is not affected by colloidal silver. In this particular case, this is a good thing, but there are other bacteria that may not be affected by the silver.

In addition, there have been some reports that colloidal silver may have antiviral properties. The brief information I have seen on this indicates that it may function by disrupting charges in the virus. You'll need to do your own research on this one. ;-)

Personal Experiences

I've been using colloidal silver off and on for the past two years or so, generally taking it only periodically, or whenever I feel a cold or some illness coming on. In addition, I tend to take it if I feel my immune system is low.

Quantifying it's effect on disease is difficult, because I can't be sure that I would have become sick or had more symptoms if I had not used the silver. However, in one particular case I can testify to it's efficiency.

I've always had a problem with cold sores (on my lip). During the winter months, my lips tend to dry out and crack, and when they crack, I generally get a cold sore. The progression of symptoms is usually this: a) itching under the lip (2-4 hours) b) swelling of the lip, with continued itching (8-24 hours) c) eruption/cracking of the cold sore (2-4 days) d) healing (3-5 days).

For this particular ailment, I've found that frequent brief (10-30 seconds) soaking in colloidal silver during stages a or b produces an immediate reversal of the swelling, and the cold sore is generally gone in a day or less. I've tried this remedy several times on cold sores, and each time see very similar results.

Interestingly enough, cold sores are actually caused by a virus -- so perhaps there is some truth to the antiviral properties of colloidal silver? In any case, it is certainly effective for me with this particular ailment.

2. Making Colloidal Silver

Make or Buy?

One question that people often ask when looking at colloidal silver is "should I make it or buy it?". This is a good question, because there are many colloidal silver products on the market.

For myself, the biggest "con" to purchasing colloidal silver is that I don't know what's in it. Colloidal Silver is something that generally "decays" fairly quickly. For example, I find that it lasts about 2 weeks if not refrigerated, and no more than about 4-6 weeks if it is refrigerated. For colloidal silver to last longer, generally a "stabilizer" is added to the solution. Unfortunately, this stabilizer can be almost anything -- in the worst cases, this can make the solution into a silver salt, from which you might be in danger of argyria (silver poisoning).

On the other hand, the biggest "pro" is that it is very easy to make! It takes me about 30-45 minutes to make a batch (of which I probably spend 30 minutes simply waiting).

I'll be completing this article on the assumption that you are at least interested in making your own colloidal silver.

Supplies

Here's what you'll need to make your own colloidal silver:
    One-Time Supplies

  • Cobalt Blue or Amber Glass Jars - These are where you'll store the silver. Make sure these are glass, not plastic, and that they are tinted cobalt blue or dark amber. I use this cobalt blue jar.
  • (1) Glass Jar - I recommend an old canning jar. This is what you'll make the silver in.
  • (2) Silver Coins - These must be pure silver -- look for .9999 (99.99% silver) coins, which you can get from pretty much any coin store. The Canadian Silver Maple Leaf meets these criteria. You can also sometimes get silver wire from a jewler, but make sure of the purity! The coins have their purity stamped on them, so they're easily verifiable. Click the picture to the right to see a larger view of what a Canadian Silver Maple Leaf looks like.
  • (1) 30VDC Transformer - I use one from Radio Shack, part number 273-1668
  • (2) Alligator Clips - You'll attach these to the transformer leads, to clip onto the coins.
  • (1) Clip - The kind you use for chip bags. This is used to hang the coins into the jar.
  • Elastics - Various shapes and sizes, used for hanging the clip into the jar, etc.
  • Small Rod - Used to hang the clip into the jar. You can use an old pen or pencil.


    • Ongoing Supplies

  • Distilled Water - Make sure this is pure! Most pharmacies will have good distilled water. Check the label, which should disclose what is in the water. You can usually get these in 1 Litre jugs -- pick up a couple the first time around.


    • Click here to see a montage of the equipment.
Setup (One-Time only)
  1. Wire the Alligator clips onto the exit leads of the transformer. This is where you'll clip the coins -- electrical current will flow through the coins and water, producing the colloidal silver.
  2. Clean the jars. The important thing to remember here is that you want to avoid all residue of any kind in the jars, so don't clean them with soap. I recommend:
    1. If you're using the Transformer I mentioned above, make sure it's switched to 30 volts, not the 13.5 volt setting
    2. Pour a small amount of hydrogen peroxide into the jars, and slosh it around, then pour it out.
    3. Rinse several times with distilled water (you'll go through quite a bit of distilled water in this cleaning phase).
    4. Boil the jars with distilled water to remove any residue. I do this:
      1. Stand the jar (or jars) upright in a pot on the stove.
      2. Fill the pot 1/2 full with distilled water (too full, and it will boil over).
      3. Fill the jar (standing upright) full of distilled water.
      4. Boil the water in the pot. Eventually, there will be sufficient heat transfer to boil the water in the jar also, without getting contaminants from the pot into the jar.
      One cautionary note: Bubbles will want to form in the pot under the jar, and tip the jar over. You'll have to regulate the temperature to ensure that doesn't happen.
      (This is, by and large, an optional step, assuming you've thoroughly rinsed the jar in step #2.)
  3. Hook up the elastics, rod (pen/pencil) and clip. Look at this picture to see how I've done it. All you really need here is just some way of hanging the coins (which will be clipped in the alligator clips) into the water in the jar.
Procedure (Each time you make a batch of silver)
  1. Clip the silver coins into the Alligator clips.
  2. Use the rod and clip arrangement to hang the alligator clips downward, with the coins spaced about the width of the clip apart, facing each other.
  3. Pour some distilled water into the jar -- you may want to rinse the jar first if it's been stored. You'll need to put enough water in the jar that the coins hang about half-way in water, but not so much water that the alligator clips touch the water -- generally about a cup of water is the appropriate amount.
  4. Suspend the coins in the water, hanging from the rod and clip arrangment.
  5. Plug in the transformer. Important! This is electricity you're messing with here! Don't plug the transformer in before doing the other steps!

    6. Click on this to see a diagram of my setup.
    Click on this to see a picture of my setup in operation.
Generally speaking, you'll want to make the solution out of any bright light. Sunlight tends to degenerate colloidal silver.

Now, you'll want to leave the setup for a while. You probably won't see anything happening for at least the first 20 minutes or so, after which you'll likely start to see a small golden thread trail from one of the coins. The general rule is that you should leave the generator turned on until 5 minutes after you first see the golden trail appear. Most often, I simply leave it turned on for 30-35 minutes.

Once you've finished generating the colloidal silver, you'll want to follow these steps:
  1. Make sure your cobalt blue or dark amber jar is ready and clean (rinse it with distilled water if necessary).
  2. Unplug the transformer.
  3. Remove the clip and coins from the jar. Place the coins into a shallow dish with some distilled water.
  4. Pour the solution from the jar into the cobalt blue or dark amber storage jar, and close the storage jar tightly.
  5. Clean the coins. Wash your hands with distilled water (no soap or anything!) and then take the coins and rub them with thumb and finger to remove "loose" silver residue (you can use the water they are sitting in to aid with this).
  6. Rinse the glass jar out with distilled water, and use a small sheet of saran wrap to keep it clean while in storage.
  7. Store the silver coins -- I use a plastic sandwich bag, but get a fresh, clean one every time.
Now you can put all your supplies away for next time ;-)

Storage

It is best to refrigerate the silver when storing it, but is not strictly necessary. I do find, however, that the solutions stays good longer when refrigerated.

The shelf-life of the solution will vary, but I find that, unrefrigerated, it lasts no more than two weeks, and refrigerated, may last four to six weeks.

Eventually, you'll probably be able to taste the difference between a "good" solution, and one that should be disposed of, but at least initially, you should check the color of the solution. The color is always very faint, so check it in a clear glass of some sort against a pure white background. A clear or slightly golden solution is "good", while other colors such as red, gray, black or brown indicate a solution in which the silver particles have begun to "clump" together into larger particles, and which should be disposed of.

Use and Dosage

The "recommended" adult dose of silver is 2 teaspoons per day, or 4 teaspoons per day maximum dose, but not for more than a couple days in a row. It is highly unlikely that there would be any ill effects from larger dosages (none are known), but the "recommended" maximum is given for safety sake.

Colloidal silver has no known interactions with medication. However, it is recommended that if you are taking other medication you do some research of your own, or experiment carefully.

Finally, silver works great with your pets as well! To keep them in best health, you can administer a little silver in their drinking water from time to time.
NOTE: This article represents my own opinions and/or experiences, and should not be construed as authoritative. I am not a practitioner in the medical industry, and have no medical training whatsoever. Use your own discretion, and investigate the safety, practicality, and applicability of anything you read here before attempting to use it yourself.