Colloidal silver

Colloidal silver

Colloidal silver has appeared in the news yet again. It's one of those stories that comes around every year or two: maybe someone's decided to start selling it again or perhaps yet another man has turned blue as a result of taking it. The time of the story may change but the story itself is always the same. Colloidal silver is another one of those health fads which while it is based in a minor part of reality, is in fact a scam and a fraud. You see, while colloidal silver might indeed have certain antibiotic effects, it also has some rather bad side effects. And not only that, we now have vastly better antibiotics which you should be better off using rather than the colloidal silver. Here's an example of the sort of claims made for colloidal silver:In the world of colloids, particle surface area is the property of colloidal silver that directly determines the ability of the colloid to react with its environment.

Therefore the effectiveness of colloidal silver is predicated on particle surface area. The higher the particle surface area the more effective the colloidal silver. Particle surface area is defined as the total surface area in square centimeters (cm2) of all the particles in one milliliter (mL) of colloid. In the world of chemistry the ability of one substance to interact with other substances in its environment is predicated on the surface area of the substances or stated another way, reactivity increases with increasing surface area. A larger value of particle surface area increases the reactivity of the colloid. In the booklet "Silver Colloids" Professor Gibbs wrote "The size of the particles in the colloidal silver suspensions we use for health purposes is very important.

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.