Silver’s History
Silver has been used medicinally for more than 2000 years. Hippocrates, the “father of medicine” wrote in his medical texts that silver had beneficial healing and anti-disease properties. He praised silver for its tissue repair and wound healing abilities. It is reported that Cyrus the Great, king of Persia stayed healthy by drinking only boiled water stored in silver vessels. According to Herodotus, mule-drawn carts laden with silver urns followed King Cyrus wherever he went. During the Middle Ages, monks popularized the use of silver nitrate, a salt formed by reacting silver with nitric acid, to treat ulcers and burns. Pliny the Elder reported in AD 78 that silver slag, what’s leftover from smelting silver, “has healing properties as an ingredient in plasters”. In America’s Old West, people commonly dropped silver coins into barrels of water for protection from water borne illnesses. NASA used silver in the water purification systems of the space shuttle and continues to use it in the water purification system of the international space station.
Through the 1960’s most American newborns received silver nitrate eyedrops at birth to prevent eye infections. It’s still occasionally used for that purpose, but silver nitrate occasionally causes skin burns and eye damage. For this reason, scientists in the early part of the 20th century started suspending silver in water to make silver less irritating but still an effective antimicrobial. The problem with many colloidal silver preparations is dose. If too little or too much silver is ionized then ingestion or topical application either is useless or results in a condition called argyria, which is a condition in which someone’s skin turns blue.
Choosing a colloidal silver product of quality and distinguishing it from products that are not can be a difficult task. Here are some important ideas to keep in mind and why I use Argentyn 23 made by Natural Immunogenics.
Concentration of particles: Most people think more is better but with regards to silver this isn’t true. Just like taking a 10,000 mg aspirin might not be a good idea, taking a dose of colloidal silver that contains 200-300 parts per million (ppm’s) would not be a good idea either. At a high concentration like that, not only will silver kill bad bacteria it could kill good bacteria in your gut as well. Argentyn 23 which is only sold to physicians and got its name because it is at a very safe 23 ppm. They do make another colloidal silver product called Sovereign Silver sold to the public that is 10 ppm.
Particle size matters: In the case of silver, a smaller particle size is better. A smaller sized particle means that it will be easier to absorb, and the particles will have more surface area in which to interact with more infectious microbes.
