Colloidal Silver

Ongoing research may eventually restore Colloidal Silver to its once accepted status as probably the most versatile and effective natural agent against bacteria. It has a hugely important bonus in that bacteria find it almost impossible to develop resistance to it.

 

Dr Robert Becker's findings with electrical regeneration

Dr Robert Becker, the American orthopaedic surgeon, pioneer in the field of regeneration and bioelectromagnetics, reports on his success using silver electrodes in his landmark book The Body Electric (with Gary Selden, William Morrow & Co, NY, 1985).

Describing his early work in 1973 on bone regeneration using electricity, he stated: 'In preliminary tests we found that silver electrodes, when made electrically positive, would kill all types of bacteria in a zone about a half inch in diameter, apparently because of positive silver ions driven into the culture by the applied voltage. This was an exciting discovery because no single antibiotic worked against all types of bacteria.'

Although other metals, such as gold, platinum, copper and stainless steel, stopped the growth of four bacteria tested at both poles, they only succeeded when high currents were used, which produced other toxic effects. Only silver at the positive pole killed or deactivated every type of bacteria without side effects, even at very low currents.

Becker then observed an extraordinary effect on fibroblasts, connective cells that form a major part of most soft tissues. He describes his results with purebred mouse fibroblasts: 'While doing their job of holding things together, fibroblasts have a characteristic spiky shape, with long sticky branches extending in all directions. In this region where silver ions had been driven by the current, many of the cells had changed to a static, globular form in which mitosis didn't occur. They seemed to be in suspended animation, floating freely instead of adhering to other cells or the sides of the dishes as usual. Mixed among them were many featureless cells with enlarged nuclei, the end product of dedifferentiation. More and more of the rounded fibroblasts turned into fully de-specialised cells as the test progressed.' (p. 173).

He goes on: 'It remains to be seen exactly what the various forms do but it's obvious that in the aggregate they profoundly stimulate soft-tissue healing in a way that's unlike any known natural process. We ran a controlled study of the healing enhancement on pigs, their skin being physiologically closest to that of humans. Positive silver nylon accelerated the healing of measured skin wounds on the animals' backs by over 50 percent as compared with identical control wounds made on the backs of the same animals made at the same time.'  And he ends by stating:  'We may only have scratched the surface of positive silver's medical brilliance. Already it's an amazing tool. It stimulates bone-forming cells, cures the most stubborn infections of all kinds of bacteria, and stimulates healing in the skin and other soft tissue."  We don't know whether the treatment can induce healing in other parts of the body, but the possibility is there... Just before our research group was disbanded, we studied malignant fibro sarcoma cells (cancerous fibroblasts) and found that electrically injected suspended their runaway mitosis. Most important of all, the technique makes it possible to produce large numbers of dedifferentiated cells, overcoming the main problem of mammalian regeneration - the limited number of bone marrow cells that dedifferentiate in response to electrical current alone.' (p. 175)

Partly as a result of Beaker's work, silver has been used in wound healing for many years and is incorporated into bandages to speed up healing. The difficult-to-substantiate findings reported by some researchers in the '70s and '80s is now giving way to well-researched studies

We're now looking at malarial parasites, which, in preliminary results are killed by Colloidal Silver. I hope to be looking at its anti-inflammatory and anti-viral properties also. As for the mechanism, its broad spectrum suggests some sort of catalyst action, perhaps affecting ATP generation, but it needs more research.

Results at the University of North Texas

Professor Farinha  "The commonly held idea that silver starves the enzymes that the organisms depend of oxygen doesn't really stand up because many of them are anaerobic and would not apply anyway for viruses. It may be having its effect at the electron transfer level and in the case of viruses I suspect silver ions are attaching to the surface proteins of the virus preventing attachment to cells"

More Clinical Evidence

"A 65-year-old diabetic cut himself on the leg. He washed and bandaged it but as often happens with diabetes, the pain persisted, and the cut grew into a sore.  Soon it became bigger than the bandage, and he had to apply a dressing. Still it grew bigger and ugly. In desperation he went to a clinic.  His sore was diagnosed as a 'stasis ulcer'.  For a year, one treatment after another was tried. Nothing, including penicillin and sulphonamide, could heal the ulcer. If his condition had continued unchecked, his leg probably would have been amputated. But finally he was referred to a clinic that treated skin ulcers with a silver compound. This promptly stopped the growth of all bacteria. In less than two months, the ulcer was completely healed."

Science Digest. March 1978 Dr Evan M. Kansas "We have had instant success with colloidal silver and immune compromised patients." A few examples are: pinkeye totally resolved in less than six hours (topical); recurrent sinus infections resolved in eight days (oral ingestion); acute cuticle infections. twenty-four hours (topical).  Another major area in which we have improved our clinical results is in the area of bowel detoxification and dysbiosis. The Colloidal Silver has provided excellent removal of abnormal intestinal bacteria; also it has proved to be a great adjunct to our Candida Albicans. Epstein Barr virus and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome protocols."

For chronic fatigue we recommend Colloidal Silver in conjunction with Zell-Oxygen to repair the mitochondria, and hence repair the immune system, we recommend this combination for all chronic infections and auto-immune disorders.    

Cancer Researcher Dr Gary Smith

"Success depends on the amount of silver in the person's body, and problems result from the lack of silver in the body. When silver is present, the cancer cells stop their development and the body is basically restored. When silver levels are low or non existent, the cancer growth rate slows or continues to grow because the cells cannot reverse themselves.".. "If we cannot assimilate silver for some reason or as the tissues age, we develop a silver deficiency and an impaired immune system, leading to cancer in most cases. I suspect a silver deficiency is possibly one of the main reasons cancer exists and is increasing at such a rapid rate." Dr. Robert Becker, in his book "Cross Currents", describes the promising results of experiments wherein positive silver ions caused cancer cells to dedifferentiate back to normal cells.

Who is Using Colloidal Silver?

In Canada, Switzerland and the US, physicians use various forms of silver to treat a multitude of infections. In the US, silver is used in bone surgery and in 70 per cent of US burns centres. Naturopaths and chiropractors use colloidal silver to treat the effects of Cryptosporidium.  Ayurvedic, Chinese and homoeopathic practitioners also regularly use silver in their treatments. Swiss biochemists are studying silver's ability to interrupt the cellular replication of HIV at various stages. Colloidal silver water-filters are approved by the US Environmental Protection Agency and also by the Swiss government for use in homes and offices. The American space agency NASA uses a silver water-purification system for its space shuttles; so do the Russians. The airline companies Air France. Alilalia, British Airways. Canadian Pacific. Japan Air Lines, KLM, Lufthansa, Olympic.Pan Am, SAS and Swissair use silver water-filters to curtail waterborne diseases. Silver is often used in place of chlorine in swimming pools because it doesn't sting the eyes. Japanese companies are using silver to remove cyanide and nitric oxide from the air.

Laboratory Evidence

Colloidal Silver has been tested at numerous laboratories. It appears to be effective on microbiological organisms because it carries an electrical charge opposite to that of most pathogens. One researcher O. Diaries, in describing the effects of silver, states that administration of silver is  "rapidly fatal to parasites, both bacterial or otherwise without any toxic action on the host".

Thompson of the Runcorn Health Laboratory in Cheshire, England states "to primitive life forms, silver is as toxic as, conventional chemical disinfectants".

Silver Helps Regrow Human Tissue

Physician Patents Technique Using Silver Ions, Silver News July 27, 1999, a bi-monthly newsletter published by The Silver Institute.

Clinical tests indicate that the silver-based procedure is so successful that one patient who had sustained three crushed fingers in an accident grew new tissue rapidly. Within 2-1/2 months, skin coverage was complete and there was normal full sensation, good blood supply and all joints had a normal range of motion. If left untreated, the 30-year old electrician's fingers would have fallen off after turning black from gangrene, and he would have been left with a totally useless hand. Ironically, his orthopaedic surgeon recommended amputation of all three fingers, but the patient requested silver-ion therapy, which proved successful.

The mechanism by which silver ions help rebuild tissue has been studied for more than a decade by Dr. Robert Becker of Becker Biomagnetics in New York. Dr. Becker initially reported his findings at the First International Conference on Silver and Gold in Medicine, co-sponsored by The Silver Institute in 1987. In the decade since, this technique has been used in clinical settings where hundreds of patients with various wounds have recovered. In addition, a laboratory study conducted by the U.S. Army Institute for Surgical Research in Houston, Texas, showed that laboratory animals with burn wounds treated under controlled conditions experienced shortened time for reconstruction with silver-nylon dressings. Recovery of skin function was faster when electric current was applied compared to no application of electric current. Last fall, Dr. Becker received a U.S. patent (5,814,094) for the devices, materials, and techniques involved in regeneration of tissue using silver ions.

After several hundred cases, Dr. Becker believes that the technique works in three stages. The first stage is the chemical combination of highly active free silver ions with all bacteria or fungi present in the wound, which are inactivated within 20 to 30 minutes. The second stage occurs over the next few days. Silver acts on fibroblast cells to cause them to revert to their embryonic state, becoming stem cells. These cells are universal building blocks whose role is to reconstruct new tissue. In the final stage, silver ions form a complex with the living cells in the wound area to produce immediately convertible stem cells. The end result of this conversion is that the stem cells supply all the building blocks necessary to completely restore all anatomical structures.  No other known treatment provides sufficient numbers of the embryonic or stem cells required for true regeneration of damaged or destroyed tissues in humans and animals. The success indicates that there is the potential not only for the healing of near-surface wounds, but also for regenerative repair of internal organs such as the heart, liver, brain and the spinal cord.