Silver...It's Worth Its Weight In Gold

If you're old enough like me, then you probably remember when medicine cabinets were full of over the counter meds and less of prescription meds. I can remember the bottle of Mercurochrome, tincture of merthiolate, the little tin of Bayer aspirin, and my favorite, baby aspirin-best orange flavor ever! Included were also our Fred Flintstone vitamins, band aids, and I even remember these chocolate flavored 'candies' that I learned AFTER I COULD READ that they were stool softeners. There was no Tylenol, no Advil, no prescriptions. And maybe, just maybe, your family had a bottle of silver. Were you one of the families?

Well, I honestly can't remember if we were, but as we were raising our kids I know we didn't have that...but fast forward to 2023 and it's one of my top three must haves in my apothecary, completely worth its weight in GOLD, and I believe it should be in yours, too.

So what is this silver I'm talking about? It's known as Colloidal Silver or Silver hydrosol. The easy/basic definition of colloidal silver/silver hydrosol is silver (yes the kind jewelry is made of) in liquid, it's so small it stays afloat. That liquid is normally water. It's been around since ancient times and has been used to treat specifically skin conditions. My research showed that a surgeon, back in 1891, used it to clean wounds and treat skin infections. Then it started getting used for treating stomach ulcers, colds, epilepsy, but by the 1940s doctors started to switch to antibiotics. However, silver is still used in many ways today. It's still used for dressing wounds, it's used in short term catheters to help reduce the risk of catheter acquired UTIs, used in bone prostheses and cardiac devices, and let's not forget silver teeth! Before erythromycin, it was actually used in newborn eyes as silver nitrate (known as the Credé prophylaxis) to combat neonatal conjunctivitis which accounted for 1/2 of all cases of blindness in Europe (STDs being the cause). Hospitals today filter hot water through copper/silver to kill MRSA and Legionella (Legionnaires' disease) in their hot water systems.

The science behind it is actually pretty "easy" to understand, however there is a difference between the two. Colloidal Silver is a mixture of both silver particles AND silver ions in water. Silver hydrosol is the reduction of silver ions (which carry a positive charge) and breaking them down to silver atoms to produce nanoparticles. Just think of hydrosol as 'more refined'. With the use of a device (generator) and silver electrodes, and of course distilled water, many people make their own colloidal silver at home. Purity is what you need to be careful with. If you have access to pharmaceutical grade water, then that's a huge plus. Colloidal silver is what is typically made at home due to the special equipment necessary to achieve particle size for hydrosol. All this is important to know as I get into it in just a bit.

You're probably asking or wondering why silver is one of my top three apothecary tools. Well, after being lead to its usefulness, I decided to do a little diving in and research. Don't laugh when I say this, but I do love me a good PubMed article. Yes, I don't mind reading (as most people should) PubMed articles/studies. I'll tell you what I found as well as what I found on WebMd and a few other sites, including Mayo clinic.

PubMed posted a study (2022) on silver being used as an antimicrobial. With some of today's bacterias reaching antibiotic-resistance, the study showed what silver was doing and if it could be and effective partner. So this was my take-away from the article. First, when looking at bacteria, we have to look at the cell structure. We have what's called GRAM positive and we have GRAM negative. Gram positive bacteria has a thicker yet more permeable cell wall structure and Gram negative bacteria has a thin yet lined cell wall structure, making it less permeable. The goal is to get the silver through the walls where it is shown to 'bind to sulfhydryl groups and proteins'. It is then the DNA structure begins to break up which prevents replication. When a bacteria can't replicate it dies. The ions also hinder the bacteria's metabolism. (How awesome is that!) Now, you would think that the Gram negative bacteria with the thin wall would be the easiest to kill, but it's not. Remember, it has a lining which is basically its "tarp". So the Gram positive is actually easier to kill because it has thick yet PERMEABLE wall. However, the study showed that silver has shown to make the cell wall of a GRAM negative bacteria more permeable, in my words, acting like a paint thinner, allowing it to enter and cause its destruction! So what does this tell us? It shows how, with the use of silver, bacteria can be destroyed.

Now let me tell you what I found on other sites, including WebMd...word for word from WebMd: "FDA lists it as a supplement. It doesn't have to follow medicine rules. Companies don't have to prove that the silver is safe and effective. They are not allowed to lie about colloidal silver health benefits, but many do and have gotten in trouble with the FDA for making claims"... So let me break this down with my interpretation of this. First, and what I ALWAYS keep in the back of my mind, NO REGULATORY OVERSIGHT is Big Pharma's biggest defense against herbal supplements. The fear monger factor of throwing in "FDA" approval is their only defense against something that works that they DID NOT CREATE. The sentence, "It doesn't have to follow medicine rules". Well , no shit, it's not medicine created by Big Pharma. It's a natural therapy. Herbs are not regulated by the FDA because the government cannot patent them...it's illegal. The last sentence is a killer and the one that made me laugh out loud. "They are not allowed to lie about colloidal silver health benefits, but many do and have gotten in trouble with the FDA for making claims. "...I don't believe Big Pharma or the medical field has ANY room to point fingers and accuse someone of being a liar. And yes, the big TROUBLE that someone got into from the FDA is not for putting claims on a bottle, but rather not putting the PROPER TERMINOLOGY REQUIRED FOR HERBAL SUPPLEMENTATION TO HAVE, which is: "This product is not FDA approved. It is not intended to treat, cure, or prevent any disease." If these words or words similar are not present on an herbal supplement, then yes, you can and undoubtedly will get in trouble with the FDA.

Shutting down the use of herbs as a natural treatment as well as using silver as we see here, is business propaganda. When people wake up to the fact that Big Pharma is a business of money not cures, then it should come to no surprise that more and more Americans (and other countries) are looking to more natural approaches. That doesn't mean that if it's grown in the ground on planet earth that it is safe. No, there are many herbs, trees, and flowers that are not safe. This is why I encourage everyone to always research. I wish everyone would find the time to research more. But we have grown up in a country that has taught us to trust those with a degree and/or a license; programed us to believe that medical science is far "better" for lack of words, than nature, when in fact nature is what science is trying to replicate. And then they criticize, make fun of, and name call generations of people who contradicted them, and tried to make them look like they were whacked out, stoned, tree hugging naturalists, mountain people, etc. etc. Tactics used to make everyone but them look crazy...and dumb. They were/are all far from dumb. Humans are a lot older than Big Pharma. With all the food issues, agricultural issues, and environmental issues, is science REALLY helping us?

To get back to the silver, yes, there can be side effects. All in all , silver is low toxicity. But, it is not an essential mineral for humans, meaning we can't have a 'deficiency' in silver. Taking too much silver can accumulate in the body and one can develop Argyria where the skin becomes blue/blue-gray. The skin can also turn this color in localized areas with the use of an exorbitant amount of cream/solutions. Argyrosis is the condition where silver accumulates in the eye-giving that color change to the whites of the eyes. Also, let's not forget a possible allergy.

So how much is someone suppose to take or use? Colloidal Silver and Silver Hydrosol is measured and sold (written on the bottle) in PPMs (Parts per million) If you remember what I wrote above, colloidal silver isn't broken down so the ingredients in that bottle may say 10ppm, but you are possibly getting a mix of neutral silver particles (remember hydrosol is positive charged ions), silver ions, and possibly compounds like silver salts and/or proteins. Colloidal silver also may start to take a different color in the bottle because of its density, whereas hydrosol is clear. Colloidal Silver is NOT as bio-available as Silver Hydrosol. The hydrosol is purposefully made to be bio available, meaning easily absorbed and used by the body. What's important is the bio active silver. Obviously, the hydrosol is what we use. Then comes the ppm amounts. Are we suppose to use 10, 20, 30, +++ ppms? I, personally use 10ppm, but I read 20 ppm is a nice average to use. But with grand babies around, I like that it's still safe yet effective. We could always bump it up to 20 or 30 if we are having a difficult time with an illness, but we haven't had to do that yet. We use it for skin conditions, and yes we take it orally (it has no flavor) even though almost ALL online medical sites recommend not doing that at least with colloidal. When we start to come down with something from sore throat to congestion, we will take a dropperful a couple times a day along with our other herbals. With kids, we cut the dosage in 1/2. One way we really like to use the hydrosol is in a small face mister. You can find them here on Amazon. We fill it with a dropperful of hydrosol and turn it on and let it mist around our nose, eyes, and inside our mouth. This is great for little kids with congestion and/or sore throats as the mister is fun and doesn't hurt them. It's great to use on cuts, infant acne, or other skin irritations and problems. And just a side note, remember I told you that I sell Norwex? Well, the reason we use the Norwex cloths is because they are infused with SILVER!! Yes, Norwex patented what's called BacLock, which is a silver agent weaved into their cloths. This allows the silver to stop the growth of germs and as you learned above, killing the cycle. It's in their household kitchen cloths as well as their baby cloths, towels, and mop pads. All you do is use, rinse, hang for 24 hours, and use again! I have to also mention, BacLock was weaved into their face masks and when Covid hit and all of America was forced to wear masks, the number of comments made from parents who had their kids wear them while in school was astounding. The BacLock actually helped prevent iritation and breakouts! I absolutely love my face cloths and bibs for the grand babies! Helps with their skin so much (think neck and drool). You can checkout my Norwex page HERE for more info or to order.

I've linked what we use and keep in our apothecary HERE if you'd like to order some as well. The hydrosol also comes in a nasal spray I've linked as well. Please know that I do get a very small incentive from Amazon with any of these purchases.

I hope this helps with any questions you may have and as always, I encourage you to look into more for your own peace of mind and health! Now go invest in some silver!