by Tammera J. Karr, PhD
In today’s medical world we have clients daily being exposed to highly contagious flesh-eating bacteria. Most antibiotics have little or no effect and clients battle for their lives. Silver was known to the Caldeans as early as 4,000 B.C. Over the passage of time, silver has been used for numerous medical conditions, mostly empirically before the realization that microbes were the agents of infection.
The metal was used in many configurations, including vessels or containers for liquid, coins, shavings, foils, sutures, solutions (e.g., nitrate, oxide, bromide, chloride, and iodide), colloids providing fine particles, and electric colloids (introduced in 1924, which provide even smaller particles of 0.1mcm to 0.001mcm in diameter). Electric colloids of silver became the mainstay of antimicrobial therapy in the first part of the 20th Century until the introduction of antibiotics in the early 1940s.
At the turn of the century, there were over 90 medications that contained silver, it is still used in third world countries due to its affordability and effectiveness. Burn patients whether from radiation therapy or accident are treated with Silvadene cream due to its ability to reduce inflammation, pain and scar tissue and prevent infection.
I routinely for years have recommended professional silver products to clients and family, for chronic sinus infections and the Family Nurse Practitioner and Doctor who share office space with me, recommend it to those with MRSA.
So when I saw the following headline on NPR and the The Alliance for Natural Health a watchdog organization for health freedom newsletter, I was stymied. “FDA Protects Big Pharma Products by Declaring that Silver Has No Therapeutic Value- September 10, 2013” – The EPA, on the other hand, allows its widespread use as a germ killer in clothing, bedding, cosmetics, electric shavers, baby bottles, and food containers.
Nanosilver, however, sprang out of the new science of nanomaterials, which involves creating objects smaller than 100 nanometers. (A nanometer is a billionth of a meter.) For example, the period at the end of this sentence is a million nanometers wide.
Objects this small can penetrate parts of the body that larger sizes of silver cannot and thus potentially increase silver’s antimicrobial effect. The new size however also poses potential risks of misuse. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) filed a lawsuit in January 2012 to block the EPA from allowing nanosilver on the market without the legally required data about possible harmful effects. Australian microbiologist Gregory Crocetti adds that important clinical uses of silver “will be diminished by completely hysterical and frivolous uses” such as nanosilver being used in bedding and clothing simply to prevent odors and keep linens fresher longer between washings. He implicitly acknowledges as the FDA will not, that nanosilver has important therapeutic applications.
Because silver weakens the wall of the bacteria, it also allows conventional antibiotics to enter more easily. Research on mice at Boston University showed that with silver added, lower doses of antibiotic drugs were needed to kill bacteria. Silver was also able to reverse the antibiotic resistance of E. coli bacteria, making them once more susceptible to tetracycline. The mice were left unharmed by the silver.
This is huge, if only because it may force medical authorities to recognize silver as a therapeutic agent. It could also be the answer to the growing problem of antibiotic-resistant diseases that are becoming endemic.
Individual studies have confirmed silver’s powerful therapeutic effects against thrush, pericoronitis (infection of the gums around the back teeth), E.coli, and Staphylococcus aureus.
The FDA does not recognize colloidal silver (silver suspended in a liquid) as a safe and effective antibiotic and believes there is no evidence to support its use. This has been the agency’s position since 1996. This led the authors of this study to want to evaluate the mineral’s antimicrobial efficacy (and therefore the FDA’s claim). They found that, contrary to the agency’s claim, ionic colloidal silver is highly effective in killing bacteria.
Another study similarly concluded: “Silver particles could offer great potential for application as [an] antibacterial agent with low human toxicity.” There are no known cases of silver-resistant bacteria.
Is colloidal silver safe for use by individuals and families? The evidence is supportive. However, care must be taken to follow the manufacturer’s directions to avoid an overdose. Meanwhile, the FDA continues to ignore mounting evidence; silver is an important general antimicrobial, an important tool especially against resistant infections and pandemic while ignoring the proliferation of nanosilver in consumer goods.
The difference between drug company products and silver is of course that the latter is natural and $1 billion less expensive to you the consumer, client, and patient.
Protecting your health with old-school Silver.