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The Truth About Colloidal Silver

As promised, Laura and I scoured the document that was posted a couple weeks ago that defames silver. Here's the link:

http://cira.ornl.gov/documents/SILVER.pdf

Colloidal silver is one of the most studied substances in history and has been used for centuries, and we have done extensive research collection and collation ourselves and have found nothing negative about colloidal silver -- when used properly -- at all.

After analyzing this document, we have found that it simply has nothing to do with colloidal silver, except that it mentions it in a couple places. Every other study that is referenced mentions a "silver compound" which colloidal silver is not, or just calls it "silver", which is nondescript so as to have virtually no useful meaning, especially in the context of a "toxilogical" study.

We have also discovered that this document seems to be intentionally vague and omissive. We found a pattern of statements focusing only on information critical of silver while omitting the positive statements -- still in the context of toxicology -- just one or two sentences away.


Does This Document Relate To Colloidal Silver?

We can eliminate about 98% of this document's relevance to colloidal silver by simply acknowledging the fact that nearly the entire document is about "silver and silver compounds", not colloidal silver.

We can use the opening statement of the document to evidence this fact:

"This Statement was prepared to give you information about silver and to emphasize the human health effects that may result from exposure to it."

The references to "silver and silver compounds" that you find throughout the document do not refer to colloidal silver except where "colloidal silver" is specifically mentioned. You can confirm this by looking at which term is used in relation to a particular study. In other words, when the word "silver" is used in the document and is referenced to a study, you will find that the study refers to either elemental silver or a silver compound, not colloidal silver.

In fact, the majority of references to silver specifically name silver nitrate, silver chloride, silver oxide, silver sulphadiazine, and silver acetate.

This is not significant, it is pivotal. It demonstrates that 98% of this document has nothing to do with colloidal silver.


What Does This Document Say About Colloidal Silver?

The Rabbit-Aerosol Study

This document makes this statement regarding the Rabbit-Aerosol study:

"Acute (2-8 hours) inhalation of an aerosol containing colloidal silver by rabbits (whole body exposure, concentrations not given) has been reported to lead to ultrastructural damage and disruption of cells of the tracheal epithelium (Konradova 1968)."

We would have liked to know what the concentration (ppm) of the silver solution was, what carrier was used, and to confirm that the solution was actually colloidal silver. Unfortunately, we were unable to find this study on the web from any source whatsoever.

We would also point out that some of the (older) studies involving aerosols used ceramic heaters to heat and mobilize the liquid being tested, and that this ceramic material may have been a source of aluminum contamination, which is known to be harmful to parts of the respiratory system.

Finally, it's important to consider that colloidal silver is not intended to be used as an aerosol. We would certainly like to see research done to determine the safety of colloidal silver in relation to the respiratory system.

The Rat Mortality Study

The document makes this statement regarding a rat mortality study:

"Death has been observed in rats following ingestion of colloidal silver and inorganic silver compounds. In each case the level of silver was very high. For example, death was reported in rats (number not specified) following acute oral ingestion of silver colloid (Dequidt et al. 1974)."

Again, we would have liked to know what the concentration (ppm) of the silver solution was. All we are told here is that the amounts of silver used were "very high". We would also like to have known how many rats died and what the total number of rats used in the study were. Unfortunately, we were yet again unable to find a copy of this study on the web.

Interestingly, the document goes on to state in the following referenced study that "No lethality occurred in a lower dose
group." (Walker 1971) Of course, we already know that any substance can be lethal in "very high" doses.

12 Grams

The document makes this statement:

"High levels of colloidal silver were observed to cause death in rats when administered in drinking water for acute and intermediate exposure durations. The cause of death was unknown. The corresponding daily oral dose for a 70-kg man based on the dose levels tested would be approximately 12 grams. Death caused by silver has not been observed to occur in humans or animals following dermal exposure to silver compounds, nor is it expected to occur."

12 grams of silver is an enormous amount of silver, many tens-of-thousands of times the doses provided by modern colloidal silver supplements.

A corresponding amount of many vitamins or minerals would be deadly as well, so this really does not provide us with useful information. It may sound scary, and it may scare people away from using colloidal silver, but in reality, it's quite meaningless because it would never occur using modern supplements, except by someone who is very wealthy and is very determined to die by silver.

Cancer

The document makes this statement about cancer:

"Both positive (Schmahl and Steinhoff 1960) and negative (Furst and Schlauder 1977) results for tumorigenesis have been reported following subcutaneous and intramuscular injection, respectively, of colloidal silver in rats. However, the relevance of these routes of exposure to exposure conditions at hazardous waste sites has not been clearly established. Animal toxicity and human occupational studies using normal routes of exposure have not provided indications of carcinogenicity, and silver is not expected to be carcinogenic in humans."

Colloidal silver is not intended to be used subcutaneously or intramuscularly, yet, many well-known "non-toxic" materials when injected subcutaneously or intramuscularly will cause tumors as admitted here in the document:

"In addition, it should be noted that several materials are known to regularly produce such tumors when implanted subcutaneously in animals, and the relevance to carcinogenesis in humans is uncertain."


Document Conclusions

In reviewing the Toxicological Profile for Mercury by the ATSDR, we realize that it is a toxicological profile, not a document meant to explore the benefits of colloidal silver. I only wish that the document was more precise in its expression of the kind of silver being tested, especially in instances where only the word "silver" is used.

Nevertheless, we did find that "colloidal silver" was only found to have toxicity when used in amounts so huge, that it would be very difficult to ingest in these quantities.

Concerning inhalation, the single related study was so vague, that it is very hard to draw any meaningful conclusion from the information provided, and the fact that the study is so old and currently unavailable makes it impossible to access.

Having personally experienced silver to prevent several emerging episodes of food poisoning, and having used it countless times over the years against mold, eye infections, and several other ailments, I am saddened when people attempt to discredit this amazing supplement.

I wonder how many people have suffered from unnecessary ailments or have even died because of misinformation or disinformation spread about colloidal silver. Of course, if we consider that ill health is profitable for some, we find a clear motive for such disinformation.


Argyria

Argyria is a non-toxic condition caused when extremely large amounts of silver are consumed such that the body is unable to excrete it at a suitable rate. In this case, it is deposited under the skin causing a discoloration of the skin. There are no other known side effects of silver. Even the few people who have consumed enormous amounts of silver over long periods of time and who now have argyria have reported no other symptoms.

Argyria is rare. Very few people have ever experienced argyria despite the large numbers of people that use colloidal silver on a regular basis. Argyria has never been reported with the use of low PPM, non-salt related silver products. In fact, because the use of silver is so common today, the EPA has issued an RFD (daily intake limit) for silver of .005 milligrams per kilogram of weight per day (EPA RED document p. 2, para. 4). This means an average adult could safely consume 6 teaspoons of 10 PPM silver every day for their entire 72 year life and still be well within the EPA safe guidelines. The EPA RED document goes on to state:

"The EPA does not anticipate that dietary exposure to these low levels of silver will be associated with any significant degree of risk."

In a study (Hill & Pillsbury 1939), they concluded:

"the ordinary use of colloidal silver compounds practically never give rise to any gross untoward effect other than argyria."

The minimum amount of silver known to cause argyria in adults (this includes silver salts which are known to be much more likely to cause argyria) is 900 mg taken orally for 1 year. In order to ingest this amount, a person would have to consume 380 8 ounce bottles of 10 PPM colloidal silver within 1 year. Suggested usage is 1/2 to 1 teaspoon 1-to-3 times per day. You would have to consume 50-times this amount to be at risk, and even then, you're not consuming silver salts.

The EPA IRIS Report on Silver (Integrated Risk Information Systems) (p. 5 para. 1) silver tests were conducted in a number of animals including primates, and concluded that between 90% and 99% of ingested silver was excreted within 2 days, and that 99% was excreted in less than a week. Excreted silver obviously has no chance of accumulating under the skin to cause argyria.

Numerous silver products have been used worldwide for centuries. In the 1940's, chemical antibiotics replaced most of the very strong silver solutions that were being used. Of the millions of people given very strong silver solutions by their doctors, there were no deaths reported and only 239 causes of argyria (EPA Report ECAO-CIN-026 Jan '91 p. VI-3), but remember, these people were given unnecessarily-strong silver solutions, and millions were given silver for decades resulting in a very, very high benefit-to-adverse affect ratio, surpassing nearly all modern medication.

In the same EPA report, (p. VI-4) it states that 8 grams of silver arsphenamine at 145,000 PPM by injection was a safe dose (Gaul & Staud 1935). They also report that other authors suggested safe doses of 12 to 15 grams, and this was based on clinical experience by doctors. Furthermore, Furchner (et al 1968) stated that small amounts of silver did not accumulate in the body of primates. Perhaps this is the reason that low-dose (<500 PPM) silver has never been reported to cause argyria.

As a demonstration, if we assumed that every bit of ingested silver was retained in the body, and that a person consumed two teaspoons of 10 PPM silver solution daily, it would take this person 235.66 years to achieve the total consumption of 8 grams, the level these doctors and medical researchers considered safe.

The EPA-OW (EPA Office of Water) classified silver as a Group D carcinogen. This means that it is not classifiable as a substance that causes cancer.

In contrast to the safety of silver, JAMA (The Journal of the American Medical Association) published an article estimating that there were 106,000 deaths annually caused by antibiotics that were prescribed or used incorrectly. If colloidal silver solutions could again be used in place of chemical antibiotics, how many lives would be saved? How much money would pharmaceutical companies lose?


Finally

There is a myriad of data on the safety of colloidal silver, but as many who read research and keep up with the latest information have witnessed, there is also a continuous regurgitation of scary disinformation that seems to be designed to keep people from ever trying colloidal silver.

For those who know how the world works and who know how information is so often manipulated for the profit of special interest groups and pharmaceutical companies, it becomes easy to see why such an amazing supplement could be kept from so many for so long, despite that fact that mainstream medicine used it safely and effectively for many decades.

It is important to myself and to the many natural health professionals that I know to promote accurate information that helps people overcome their illnesses. To this end, I hope many will consider the benefits and safety of colloidal silver over chemical-based drugs and medicines.