Silver water is another name for colloid silver or colloidal silver.
It has been known for centuries to help people with infections, fungus, and bacterial infections, making it a favorite go-to for homeopathic healing options. Colloidal silver is sold in most health food stores across the US and can be found online at big box store chains like Walmart pharmacies, CVS Pharmacy, Walgreens, and Amazon.
Two types of colloid silver water pack the most effective anti-bacterial effects: ionic and metallic.
It’s said that the most effective is the ionic type of colloid water, which is manufactured and sold worldwide but can even be made a home by following a simple and inexpensive process.
The biggest difference among all colloid silver waters is how they’re produced and how they work inside the human body.
History of Silver Uses for Medical Purposes
For thousands of years, silver has been used as a healing treatment and germicide, and can be traced back to the ancient Greek and Roman Empires.
Before antibiotics, colloidal silver was used in hospitals and was known as a bactericide for at least 1200 years. Throughout history, you can find stories of silver being used to thwart off bacteria by throwing silver coins into water, some even keeping silver in milk. Wine was stored in silver urns. Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, and other ancient cultures all used silver vessels to safely store food and purify water.
The ancient cultures were on to something big and knew silvers’ anti-microbe properties long before we discovered it scientifically. Today, many medical instruments or things used in or on the body are coated or made with silver, but you won’t hear much about colloid silver in the doctor’s office these days.
Back around the 1940s, when penicillin was introduced, colloid silver was getting bad reviews. Manufacturers began making colloid silver water in ways that were not effective, causing adverse reactions and bad publicity. However, even though silver was still widely known as the go-to antibiotic, it lost the battle to the new mainstream synthetic medicines. Plus, colloidal silver was more expensive to make at the time, and it was more profitable to push the new synthetic medications.
The Breakdown – Colloid Silver and its Uses
Ionic colloid silver water is composed of relatively small particles of one form of silver or another, suspended homogenously and indefinitely in high-quality distilled water. Silver is not dissolved in the water itself but has submicroscopic particles of silver suspended in water.
There are two main types of colloid silver, ionic and metallic, and several ways to produce metallic silver (also known as nanosilver if the silver particles are less than 100 nanometers in size).
Regardless of how it’s produced, you’ll drink ultra-tiny particles of bare metal elemental silver in metallic silver water, which doesn’t break down like ionic particles do, making metallic silver the second choice to ionic colloid silver.
Ionic silver water is typically made through a low voltage D/C electrical process versus being somewhat chemically processed like metallic silver. The low volt of electricity passes through silver rods in high-quality distilled water, producing hydrogen and hydroxide ions, making the distilled water conductive, causing enough electrical current to flow through to the other rod.
The ionic form is known to work better since it’s already in the biologically active, infection-fighting state. It works best against pathogens in the human body because it carries a positive electrical charge, while bacteria carry a negative electrical charge, causing silver ions to have a high affinity for positive bacteria. (opposite ions attract to form an ionic bond).
The metallic form works only to the extent it’s converted inside the human body to the ionic form; otherwise stated, metallic silver isn’t “ready” when ingested to tackle the bacteria like the ionic form.
As this process gradually accelerates, submicroscopic silver ions (i.e., tiny atomic and molecular particles of pure silver) are slowly liberated into the water from one of the silver rods, where a positive electrical charge suspends them.
These tiny atomic and molecular particles of silver act as electrolytes, allowing the electrical current to flow even more strongly between the two silver rods, liberating even more silver ions in the process. Essentially, they are silver particles missing an electron.
Find more detailed information about both metallic and ionic processes here.
The human body has a way of leading positively-charged silver ions through the stomach and into the cells, tissues, and organs where pathogens settle. It’s called the Metalloprotein Transport System, all forms of colloidal silver are dependent upon silver ions to work against pathogens. It’s the tiny, submicroscopic silver ions (i.e., positively charged atoms or molecules of silver) that give all forms of colloidal silver their infection-fighting properties.
If it’s not ionic, it cannot kill pathogens.
Benefits of Colloid Silver
It’s no wonder silver was used for thousands of years for its infection, bacterial and fungal fighting properties.
Today, millions of people claim colloid silver has helped them, even claiming it heals bone infections, ear and some eye infections, will help with boils (even with pets), and has even been known to help certain viruses like herpes and shingles.
Silver is known to relieve inflammation, reduce pain and even increase the healing rate of cuts, burns, bites, various types of skin outbreaks (including acne), tooth and gum infection, dermatitis (eczema), skin inflammation, toenail fungus, cystic fibrosis, lung disease, monkeypox virus and the smallpox virus.
It’s also known to effective against burns, severe chronic osteomyelitis, urinary tract infections, central venous catheter infections, (E. coli) and Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). Researchers have also found both ionic silver and metallic silver to cause cervical cancer cells to commit cellular suicide through a process called apoptosis.
There have been many independent studies of colloidal silver proving the hundreds of millions of positive claims carry some weight.
Dosage
Most people take colloidal water by using a dropper to drop a small amount under your tongue, others are sprays and made in bottles for regular drinking. Remember to research how many PPM (parts per million) that it contains.
If you’re treating an infection and taking it internally, you may take it three times a day, or if you’re taking it for a longer period of time for other reasons, you may take a small amount once a day or swish it around in your mouth and spit it out.
You can also use it externally with a small amount to treat cuts and scrapes.
Warnings About Colloid Silver
As with many homeopathic remedies, the Mayo Clinic doesn’t recommend taking colloid silver at any dosage, as it can have adverse effects when taking some medications, can also cause poor absorption of some drugs, such as certain antibiotics and thyroxine (used to treat thyroid deficiency), and, according to their guidelines, shows no overall health benefits.
However, it can be argued that companies who back big pharma do not recommend non-synthetic medicines even if it has known benefits (try thousands of years of documented benefits, at least by using “silver” in its most generic way).