Most people take colloidal silver hoping to cure infections, boost immunity and prevent colds, flu and other infections.

Colloidal silver is a liquid mineral supplement found in almost every health food store in North America. It is much like mineral water, except that in this case, the only minerals in the water are tiny, sub-microscopic particles of pure silver.

Pure silver, by itself, has been known for thousands of years to have powerful, broad-spectrum infection-fighting qualities. So when the process for making colloidal silver was discovered in the late 1800's, shortly after Edison harnessed electricity, it immediately became a popular infection-fighting agent, used both topically on cuts, burns and infections, and internally as a remedy for a wide variety of infectious diseases.

Numerous medical studies were conducted on colloidal silver throughout the early 1900's, and the substance was used in hospitals and laboratories around the world, in a wide variety of forms, to help fight infection and disease. Studies documenting its phenomenal infection-fighting qualities were written up in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the British medical journal Lancet, and many others. Indeed, as far back as 1919, Alfred Searle, founder of the giant Searle Pharmaceuticals firm, had written, "Applying colloidal silver to human subjects has been done in a large number of cases with astonishingly successful results...it has the advantage of being rapidly fatal to parasites without toxic action on its host. It is quite stable. It protects rabbits from ten times the lethal dose of tetanus or diphtheria toxin."

How Is It Made? - Colloidal silver is made through a simple electromagnetic process that pulls microscopic particles of silver from a larger piece of pure silver immersed in water. These tiny silver particles are held in suspension in the resulting solution. When ingested, these tiny particles of silver travel throughout your body like any other mineral before being (supposedly) excreted through your normal channels of elimination. (In the case of silver, however, some of it will accumulate more or less permanently in the skin and other organs. Chronic - persistent, long term - ingestion of colloidal silver can result in argyria.)

100 Year Medical History - The simple process for producing colloidal silver was developed shortly after Edison harnessed electricity in 1892. It was then used for decades by doctors, in a variety of forms and under a variety of brand names, as a natural infection-fighting agent. But it fell out of widespread usage after the advent of prescription antibiotics in the 1940's.

Then, in the mid-1970's colloidal silver experienced a resurgence after doctors discovered that many pathogens were developing immunity to prescription antibiotics, but not to pure, elemental silver. According to science writer Jim Powell in the March 1978 issue of Science Digest, "Thanks to eye-opening research, silver is re-emerging as a wonder of modern medicine. An antibiotic kills perhaps a half-dozen different disease organisms, but silver kills some 650. Resistant strains fail to develop. Moreover, silver is virtually non-toxic."

Where Can It Be Found? - Colloidal silver is widely available through health food stores and on the internet. There are literally thousands of vendors across the United States and Canada, offering a variety of colloidal silver products for about $30 for a tiny four-ounce bottle. That's quite expensive, when you consider how quickly a tiny four-ounce bottle might be used up.

Fortunately, you don't have to spend a lot of money to get colloidal silver because you can very easily make your own colloidal silver, at home, for about thirty six cents per quart, using a safe, simple electronic device called a colloidal silver generator. These tiny devices, frequently ranging from palm-sized models for travel and home use, to more sophisticated counter-top models, are available through a number of companies. You can even afford to bathe in it. In fact, many users simply throw a quart or so of colloidal silver into the bathwater, for its soothing effects on the skin and scalp! Others use it in their spas or hot tubs, in place of chlorine, bromine and other harsh chemicals. Of course home operated colloidal silver generators yield totally unpredictable and inconsistent purity and concentrations of colloidal silver so it's a significant case of YMMV. Also - consumer need to beware that the device actually does what it claims since the water will look pretty much the same before and after.

The Bottom Line: - For thousands of years silver has been recognized as one of nature's most powerful natural infection-fighting agents. Presently colloidal silver is one of the most popular nutritional supplements in the world (although many - if not most- people taking it are doing so consuming assuming it has some kine of magical cure-all properties that it simply doesn't). If current medical research on colloidal silver finds it effective against drug-resistant pathogens, it may well turn out to be an important part of the solution to today's frightening infectious disease crisis in which multiple drug-resistant pathogens simply no longer respond to traditional prescription antibiotics.

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This is one of the worst health frauds of modern times. It's worthless for your health, you will end up turning yourself or whoever your force to take it permanently blue, and there has been at least one very ugly death from massive brain damage due to the toxic effects. Fortunately at the dosages most people intake, it usually takes months to years to cause the worst effects.

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Colloidal silver is known to be an effective "Antibiotic Adjunct, i.e. it can improve the efficacy of certain antibiotics. It actually decreases the effectiveness of others.

Quinolone antibiotics interact with COLLOIDAL SILVER: Colloidal silver might decrease how much antibiotic the body absorbs. Taking colloidal silver along with antibiotics might decrease the effectiveness of some antibiotics. Some antibiotics that might interact with colloidal silver include ciprofloxacin (Cipro), enoxacin (Penetrex), norfloxacin (Chibroxin, Noroxin), sparfloxacin (Zagam), trovafloxacin (Trovan), and grepafloxacin (Raxar).

Tetracycline antibiotics interact with COLLOIDAL SILVER: Colloidal silver might decrease how much tetracycline antibiotics the body can absorb. Taking colloidal silver with tetracycline antibiotics might decrease the effectiveness of tetracycline antibiotics. To avoid this interaction take colloidal silver two hours before or four hours after taking tetracyclines. Some tetracyclines include demeclocycline (Declomycin), minocycline (Minocin), and tetracycline (Achromycin).

Levothyroxine interacts with COLLOIDAL SILVER: Colloidal silver might decrease how much levothyroxine the body absorbs. Taking levothyroxine along with colloidal silver might decrease the effectiveness of thyroxine.

Penicillamine (Cuprimine, Depen) interacts with COLLOIDAL SILVER: Penicillamine is used for Wilson's disease and rheumatoid arthritis. Colloidal silver might decrease how much penicillamine your body absorbs and decrease the effectiveness of penicillamine.

Recent studies have shown that silver can kill up to 650 species of pathogenic microbes and it has shown some promise for combating antibiotic resistant bacteria such as MRSA, especially when used to treat surfaces that may be contaminated with such bacteria.

...So - colloidal silver has some utility as an antibiotic. Unfortunately antibiotics are only effective against bacteria. Those hyping colloidal silver as anti-viral agent are either "snake oil salesmen" (con artists) or wishful thinkers. You are much better off sticking with with FDA-approved anti-viral drugs if you have a virus.

It has been proposed as a treatment or preventative for quite a few diseases and conditions including:

Ear infections.
Emphysema.
Bronchitis.
Fungal infections.
Lyme disease.
Rosacea.
Sinus infections.
Stomach ulcers.
Yeast infections.
Chronic fatigue syndrome.
HIV/AIDS.
Tuberculosis.
Food poisoning.
Gum disease.
Digestion.
Preventing flu and colds.

Unfortunately, as of 2016, there is no reliable scientific evidence that it helps with any of these; more evidence is needed to rate the effectiveness of colloidal silver for these uses.

Colloidal silver is not recognized as safe or effective by the FDA for anything other than wound dressings, antibiotic creams, and as an antibiotic coating on medical devices. Colloidal silver was used in the early 20th century for its antibacterial properties but mostly abandoned as better, more effective antibiotics were developed. The 1990's saw a resurgence of the use of colloidal silver as a supposed "cure-all" for all sorts of maladies, although none of the OTC formulations are effective in treating any known condition and carry the risk of both permanent cosmetic side effects and more serious ones such as allergic reactions, as well as interactions with prescription medications.

In August 1999, the U.S. FDA banned colloidal silver sellers from claiming any therapeutic or preventive value for the product.

In 2002, the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) found there were no legitimate medical uses for colloidal silver and no evidence to support its marketing claims.

Consumer Reports lists colloidal silver as a "supplement to avoid", describing it as "likely unsafe".

Chronic intake of silver products can result in an accumulation of silver or silver sulfide particles in the skin. These particles in the skin darken with exposure to sunlight, resulting in a blue or gray discoloration of the skin known as argyria. Think of it this way - black and white photography uses the gelatin silver process with currently available black-and-white films and printing papers. A suspension of silver salts in gelatin is coated onto a support such as glass, flexible plastic or film, baryta paper, or resin-coated paper. When exposed to light it undergoes a chemical reaction and darkens. Taking colloidal silver turns your skin into a full-body film plate that darkens (permanently) on exposure to the sun.

Also - Increased silver levels in pregnant women have been linked to abnormal development of the ear, face, and neck in their babies. Colloidal silver supplements can also lead to silver accumulation in the body of the baby, which can lead to argyria. Silver can also be deposited in vital organs, where it does serious damage.

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