Dear friends. We all have heard of the millions of people who died in Europe during the fourteenth century from the bubonic plaque. There was one group of people during that time that were not affected by the bubonic plaque and none of them died. That group of people were the Nobility that were wealthy and lived in castles.

What saved them was the fact that they used silver for jewelry and they used eating and drinking utinsels. Silver is a natural antibiotic. The pioneers put silver dollars in their milk and drinking water to keep it pure. I learned about this fact on the internet.

Two and a half years ago we decided to make use of silver in our life. I bought a silver neclace chain and a bracelet. I put 20 one ounce silver rounds in our drinking water container in the refrigerator. Cost about $100.

As a result we have not had a cold, flue, sore throat, or chest cold since then. I'm convinced the silver has protected us from disease and bacteria. In fact I believe it will protect us from many diseases in the future.

I urge you to spend a few dollars buying silver and let it protect you from disease also. We are in the process of purchasing real silverware to eat from. If I can find silver drinking glasses and eating plates, I will also purchase them. I urge you to do the same. May you also get the same positive results by using silver in your life.

Silver prices are at an all time low right now with the silver spot price at about $4.60 per ounce.

Please forward this message to all your friends and relatives and wipe out disease that is caused by micro organisms. Silver also kills parasites.

-- Anonymous, December 14, 2000

Answers

Freddie, what's the source for your health claims? (I've heard the same said about garlic and other herbs)

-- Anonymous, December 14, 2000

Do a search on Yahoo! or Altavista or Google for "colloidal silver" and you'll find out more than you ever cared to. (I like the garlic approach, if only because if you eat mass quantities, no one will ever come close enough to give you any germs. But you probably won't be invited to The Best Parties.)

-- Anonymous, December 14, 2000

http://www.quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/PhonyAds/s ilverad.html

-- Anonymous, December 14, 2000

http://www.quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/PhonyAds/silverad.ht ml

Quackwatch Home Page

Colloidal Silver:
Risk Without Benefit

Stephen Barrett, M.D.

Colloidal silver is a suspension of submicroscopic metallic silver particles in a colloidal base. Long-term use of silver preparations can lead to argyria, a condition in which silver salts deposit in the skin, eyes, and internal organs, and the skin turns ashen-gray. Many cases of argyria occurred during the pre-antibiotic era when silver was a common ingredient in nosedrops. When the cause became apparent, doctors stopped recommending their use, and reputable manufacturers stopped producing them. The official drug guidebooks (United States Pharmacopeia and National Formulary) have not listed colloidal silver products since 1975.

Dubious Ads

In recent years, silver-containing products have been marketed with unsubstantiated claims that they are effective against AIDS, cancer, infectious diseases, parasites, chronic fatigue, acne, warts, hemorrhoids, enlarged prostate, and many other diseases and conditions. Some marketers claim that colloidal silver is effective against hundreds of diseases.

During 1998, a Florida-based multilevel company, stated:

Our colloidal silver contains 99.99% pure silver particles suspended indefinitely in demineralized water that kills bacteria and viruses. It can be applied topically and/or absorbed into the blood stream sub-lingually (under the tongue), thereby avoiding the negative effects of traditional antibiotics that kill good bacteria in the lower digestive tract.

An all natural antibiotic alternative in the purest form available. The presence of colloidal silver near a virus, fungi, bacterium or any other single celled pathogen disables its oxygen-metabolism enzyme, its chemical lung, so to say. The pathogens suffocates and dies, and is cleared out of the body by the immune, lymphatic and elimination systems.

Unlike pharmaceutical antibiotics which destroy beneficial enzymes, colloidal silver leaves these beneficial enzymes intact. Thus colloidal silver is absolutely safe for humans, reptiles, plants and all multi-celled living matter.

It is impossible for single-celled germs to mutate into silver- resistant forms, as happens with conventional antibiotics. Also, colloidal silver cannot interact or interfere with other medicines being taken. Colloidal silver is truly a safe, natural remedy for many of mankind's ills. Colloidal silver can be taken indefinitely because the body does not develop a tolerance to it [1]

Seasilver Intermational, a California-based multilevel company, claims that American are suffering from "silver deficiency." Although silver is not an essential nutrient, product information posted on the company's Web site states:

The depletion of minerals in our soil has left us deficient of silver, one of our most essential trace minerals, causing a drastic increase in immune system disorders in our society in the last decade. Research has taught us that all disease is allowed to manifest itself because of a weakened immune system. In over 20 years of worldwide research on Colloidal Silver, numerous interviews with government agencies, health care practitioners and their patients, no other nutrient, herb or drug (prescription or over-the-counter) is as safe and effective against all known forms of unfriendly virus, bacteria, and fungus. Additionally, while it is generally known that most antibiotics kill only perhaps 6 or 7 different disease organisms, reports have shown that Colloidal Silver has been used successfully in the treatment of over 650 diseases! Furthermore, strains of disease organisms fail to develop in the presence of Colloidal Silver. Colloidal Silver's greatest attribute is its unique ability to function as a superior second immune system in the body! [2]

The ad below is from the July 1996 issue of Alternative Medicine Digest.

Critical Studies

In 1995, an herbal distributor named Leslie Taylor tested nine commonly marketed colloidal silver products available at health-food stores and concluded:

• Two of the products were contaminated with microorganisms.
• The amount of silver suspended in solution varied from product to product and would gradually decrease over time.
• Only five products actually showed antibacterial activity in a laboratory test. To perform the test, she prepared a culture plate with Staphylococcus aureas bacteria, which can cause infections in humans. She then placed a drop from each product on the plate and used disks of two common antibiotics as controls. After eight hours of incubation, she found that bacterial growth had been inhibited around the antibiotics and four of the products.

Of course, the fact that a product inhibits bacteria in a laboratory culture doesn't mean it is effective (or safe) in the human body. In fact, products that kill bacteria in the laboratory would be more likely to cause argyria because they contain more silver ions that are free to deposit in the user's skin. .

FDA laboratory studies have found that the amount of silver in some product samples has varied from 15.2% to 124% of the amount listed on the product labels. The amount of silver required to produce argyria is unknown. However, the FDA has concluded that the risk of using silver products exceeds any unsubstantiated benefit [3].

Enforcement Actions

In October 1996, the FDA proposed to ban the use of colloidal silver or silver salts in over-the-counter products [4]. A Final Rule banning such use was issued on August 17, 1999 and became effective September 16th. The rule applies to any nonprescription colloidal silver or silver salt product claimed to be effective in preventing or treating any disease [5]. Silver products can still be sold as "dietary supplements" provided that no health claims are made for them.

In May 2000, the Federal Court of Australia banned Vital Earth Company Pty Limited and its director Darryl John Jones from falsely representing that the colloidal silver produced by their "Vital Silver 3000 Zapper," "Vital Silver 2000 Automatic" and "Vital Silver 2000":

• Can kill all disease-causing bacteria, fungi and virus within six minutes of contact
• Has no harmful side effects; that colloidal silver could be used as an antibiotic for all the acquired diseases of active AIDS
• Is effective with more than 650 different pathogenic bacteria and virus types
• Has been used successfully against diseases including AIDS, cholera, diabetes, leprosy, leukemia, lupus, skin cancer, syphilis and whooping cough.

The company was also ordered to pay AUS$9000 in costs and to provide refunds [6]

References

1. The company (Changes International) is no longer in the supplement business.
2. Seasilver International Product Information, accessed October 12, 1998.
3. Fung MC, Bowen DL. Silver products for medical indications: risk-benefit assessment. Journal of Toxicology and Clinical Toxicology 34:119-26, 1996.
4. Federal Register 61:53685-53688, 1996. (To access this document, search the 1996 volume for "colloidal silver.")
5. FDA. Final rule: Over-the-counter drug products containing colloidal silver ingredients or silver salts. Federal Register 64:44653-44658, 1999. Download PDF version
6. Refunds for buyers of alternatuve therapy devices. News release, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.,May 5, 2000.

For Further Information

Rosemary Jacobs, an argyria victim, has made a detailed study of the colloidal silver marketplace and is willing to answer questions.

-- Anonymous, December 14, 2000

The nobility died in the bubonic plague as much as anyone else did; the folks who didn't die in massive plagues in Europe were Jews, because they were an extremely clean people. Colloidal silver is a waste of time and money; at best you're paying money for a clinically disproven placebo, at worst you're setting yourself up for a permanent clinical condition called argyria. Giant bracelets made out of silver does nothing for the health of anyone except the silver merchant, who can no go out and buy some cold medicine.

Good lord, are we allotted a daily dosage of drivel?

-- Anonymous, December 14, 2000

Good night that woman looks awful! I really feel for her. Yikes!

-- Anonymous, December 14, 2000

Set the record straight. Debunking Colloidal Silver.

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Poole's Roost II : One Thread

National burn centers use colloidal silver to prevent infection on their burn victims.

Doctors put silver drops in the eyes of new born babies.

Debunking Colloidal silver

Some articles and web sites are devoted to the debunking of all alternative, non-pharmaceutical therapies, including colloidal silver. This intentional disinformation is being promoted by pro-pharmaceutical shills who want to freighten people away from using colloidal silver. Why? Because colloidal silver works too well, and the drug companies know it! If the general public knew how wide-spectrum and incredibly effective collidal silver is, people might begin to realize that they don't need to take all those expensive pharmaceutical antibiotics, with their wonderful side effects. When you consider both human and animal consumption of antibiotics, the loss would represent billions each month!

The principle scare story used is always about Argyria, a rare blue/grey skin condition. For the past couple of years, the drug company debunkers have been dragging around a poor woman by the name of Rosemary Jacobs. Rosemary has Argyria and her skin has a slate- grey cast to it. The debunkers trot her out at press conferences and at medical conventions to demonstate what will happen to people who take collodial silver for a prolonged period of time.

For many years, Rosemary used nose drops, prescribed by her doctor, that contained colloidal silver protein. Articles written by debunkers about Rosemary's condition will discuss her use of colloidal silver and type the initials "csp" in parentheses behind the words colloidal silver only once, at the very beginning of the article. For the balance of the article, they will use the term colloidal silver repeatedly and denounce it as the cause of Rosemary's condition.

However, Rosemary's condtion was brought about by the use of a prescription drug, a protein compound that contained colloidal silver; and not colloidal silver itself. They are two entirely different things. Hydrochloric acid, for example, is something entirely different than water and table salt, yet hydrochloric acid is composed of the elements found in water and table salt. Pure colloidal silver is simply a superfine suspension of submicroscopic silver particles in water.

There is No protein, No Argyria, and No problem. The debunkers would prefer to mislead the public to believe otherwise, however. And more often than not, they succeed, because fear will win out every time over positive, affirmative stories- at least for the naive, the easily manipulated, and the uninformed.

My two and a half years of not having a cold, sore throat, flue and chest cold is absolute proof that colloidal silver is better than any antibiotic.

Those who choose to not believe and not investigate silver will just have to suffer the consequenses and get numerous illnesses which they could so easely prevent.

Ignorance is pure STUPIDITY!!!!

-- Freddie the Freeloader (freddiethefreeloader@aol.com), December 14, 2000

Answers

http://educate-yourself.org/index.html

For those who want to educate themselves and who are in search of the truth.

-- Freddie the Freeloader (freddiethefreeloader@aol.com), December 14, 2000.

-- Anonymous, December 14, 2000

Ignorance is pure STUPIDITY!!!!
You can say that again, me bucko.

-- Anonymous, December 14, 2000