The "Hidden" Health Benefits of Silver

To understand the health benefits of silver, it is important to understand the history of silver and how it was used in prior civilizations. According to Eric J. Rentz, DO, MSc, "Since ancient times silver has been highly regarded as a versatile healing tool. In ancient Greece, Rome, Phoenicia, and Macedonia, silver was used extensively to control infections and spoilage. Hippocrates, the "Father of Medicine," taught that silver healed wounds and controlled disease. Around 400 B.C. he listed as a singular treatment for ulcers "the flowers of silver alone, in the finest powder." Herodotus describes how the King of Persia carried with him boiled water in silver flagons to prevent sickness."

Silver as an Antimicrobial Agent

The antimicrobial properties of silver have been known to cultures all around the world for many centuries. Silver dollars used to be put into milk bottles to keep milk fresh, and water tanks of ships and airplanes that are "silvered" are able to render water potable for months. In 1884 it became a common practice to administer drops of aqueous silver nitrate to newborn's eyes to prevent the transmission of Neisseria gonorrhoeae (gonorrhea) from infected mothers to children during childbirth.

In 1893, the antibacterial effectiveness of various metals were noted and this property was named the oligodynamic effect. It was later found that out of all the metals with antimicrobial properties, silver has the most effective antibacterial action. Silver became commonly used in medical treatments, such as those of wounded soldiers in World War I, to deter microbial growth.

Could this be the end of Antibiotics?

Once antibiotics were discovered, almost 80 years ago, the use of silver as a bactericidal agent decreased. However, due to increasing antibiotic resistance, there has recently been a renewed interest in using silver as an antibacterial agent. With the efficacy of antibiotics in serious decline, the number of lethal hospital infections is rising, worldwide. Pathogens such as Clostridium difficile (C. diff) and Carbapenum Resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE's) have been declared by the United States Centers for Disease Control as the two most deadly pathogens afflicting US hospitals today. These "superbugs" have learned to evade the effects of even the strongest antibiotics with deadly consequences. An additional failing, antibiotics are not effective against either viruses or parasites.

The fact is pathogenic organisms have a net negative charge. A negative charged pathogen will ATTRACT a positive charged silver ion. Therefore, the silver can "find" the pathogens faster if they are in ionic form. Thus, silver ions have a more powerful germicidal effect than do non- ionic silver atoms. This was PROVEN in a study conducted in Italy in 1988 and reported by Peter Lindemann in one of his many essays on colloidal silver.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, "Antibiotics and similar drugs, together called antimicrobial agents, have been used for the last 70 years to treat patients who have infectious diseases. Since the 1940s, these drugs have greatly reduced illness and death from infectious diseases. However, these drugs have been used so widely and for so long that the infectious organisms the antibiotics are designed to kill have adapted to them, making the drugs less effective. Each year in the United States, at least 2 million people become infected with bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics and at least 23,000 people die each year as a direct result of these infections."

In spite of the fact that it has not yet been fully embraced by the medical community as an anti-viral agent, nevertheless, safe, natural mineral silver, in a variety of forms, including colloidal silver, has nearly three decades worth of solid medical research behind it, demonstrating its powerful anti-viral qualities; stopping the spread of potentially deadly bacterial, fungal and viral pathogens.

The Future of Crystalline Nanosilver

Newer clinical laboratory research demonstrates that silver is so powerfully effective against viruses, it even stops the deadly HIV (i.e., the AIDs virus) from infecting human cells. And older research dating back to the 1980's demonstrates that silver can stop numerous types of viruses from replicating, simply by bonding to them. In fact, silver altogether decimates many viruses, simply by being in close contact with them.

The key is in the size of the silver particles. They must be very small silver micro-particles - i.e., what is more commonly known as "nanosilver" - in order to exhibit such powerful anti-viral qualities. Nano-scale sized silver particles - which is to say, very small particles of silver measured in nanometers (nm) - are the single-most effective all-natural, anti-viral substances on the face of the earth. Medical science has now demonstrated that tiny silver nano-particles are absolutely deadly against many forms of viral pathogens.

During my research, I found that some would have you believe that Silver in medicine isn't considered safe, nor is it an essential mineral or that it will turn you blue. Contrary to this misinformation, are thousands of years of historical use of silver in medicine. There are millions of people using commercially available silver formulas today, without incidence or side effects. As we look upon the wisdom of the past and bring forward the scientific technology of medicinal silver formulations into the present, it is important to advance our silver knowledge and apply it to improving the health of people worldwide.

Until recently, the life saving benefits of silver have been kept under wraps, on purpose, with a misinformation campaign being waged simply because if everyone knew about the powerful healing properties of silver, then people could be returned to a healthy wholeness for a fraction of what they are paying in the high cost of prescription drugs.