Colloidal Silver Facts

by Marvin Robey:

In the 1970's, Dr. Carl Moyer, Chairman of Washington University's Department of Surgery, received a grant to develop better treatments for burn victims. Dr. Harry Margraf worked with Dr. Moyer and other surgeons as chief biochemist on this project. They tested 22 antiseptic compounds and rejected all of them. The problem was that infections in burns often failed to respond to antibiotics. Most antiseptics actually destroyed the delicate healing tissues in severe burns and were very painful. The greatest problem was the bacterium Pseudomonas acruginose, which is particularly infectious to burns and fails to respond to all common antiseptics and antibiotics.

In his research into medical history, Dr. Margraf found numerous references to silver as an antimicrobial agent. It was found that silver has been used for hundreds of years in one form or another to treat infection and has well proven itself to be totally nontoxic at all concentrations. Bacteria have never developed an immunity to it. He found references to it as a catalyst that disables the enzymes anaerobic microorganisms depend on. Dr. Margraf therefore tried silver nitrate, the same solution used in newborn babies' eyes at birth. It worked! However, he found it disturbed the balance of body salts, stained everything it touched and in high concentrations was corrosive and painful. After further study he found that all of these problems were solved by colloidal silver. With colloidal silver as the base, he then developed a salve, marketed as "silver suladiazine" that has been extremely effective in treating the infections and promoting the healing in serious burns. It is now routinely used for severe burn victims, resulting in a large reduction of scarring and a heavy reduction of deaths for extensive severe burns.

The article in Science Digest, March 1978, relates: "A speeding car overturned and burst into flames. The 18-year-old driver suffered burns all over his face, neck, arms, hands, back, stomach, and legs --- burns covered more than 80 percent of his body. Until recently, this would have been a death sentence. Doctors knew how to restore vital body fluids and salts, but had no way to fight infection, the primary cause of death in burn cases. Fortunately, for this youth, a new silver compound killed deadly bacteria and enabled him to heal. He was out of the hospital within four months."

UCLA ran some tests on colloidal silver and their report states: "The silver solutions were antibacterial for concentrations of 10 organisms per ml of Streptococcus pyogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, Neisseria gonorrhea, Gardnerella Vaginalis, Salmonella Typhi, and other enteric pathogens, and fungicidal for Candida albicans, Candida globata, and M. furfur."

Another line of research that has led to this change of thinking is described in the best seller, "The Body Electric", which states on pg. 167: "Of course, the germ-killing action of silver has been known for some time...the Soviets use silver ions to sterilize recycled water aboard their space stations...It kills even antibiotic- resistant strains, and also works on fungus infections." On pg. 175 the author says: "It stimulates bone-forming cells, cures the most common stubborn infections of all kinds of bacteria, and stimulates healing in the skin and other soft tissues."

Certainly that is a broad statement! But " The Body Electric" further relates a fascinating story which would seem to substantiate his belief. A man's broken right tibia and fibula refused to bond and the skin refused to heal over a large area of the leg for a year and a half. The leg was infected with five kinds of bacteria, all of which refused to respond to antibiotics. As a last resort before amputation, The author treated the condition with silver charged with a very minute electrical current. This produced silver ions in the bone area and at the surface area. "...I debrided the wound, removing the dead tissue and all grossly infected or dead bone. There wasn't much left afterward. It was an enormous excavation running almost from his knee to his ankle. In the operating room, we soaked a big piece of silver nylon in saline solution and laid it over the wound. ...We packed the fabric in place with saline-soaked gauze, wrapped the leg, and connected the battery unit."

About two weeks later, the author tells us: "all of our bacterial cultures were sterile -- all five kinds had been killed. The soft healing tissue, called granulation tissue, was spreading out and covering the bone. In two weeks, the whole base of the wound, which had been over eight square inches of raw bone, was covered with this friendly pink carpet. The skin was beginning to grow in, too, so we could forget about the grafts we thought we'd need to do. I decided to take an X-ray to see how much bone he'd lost." [he was expecting the bone to start withdrawing before the knitting process began] "I could hardly believe the picture. There was clearly some bone growth! ...I removed the cast, felt the leg, and found that the pieces were all stuck together. John watched, and when I was done, he lifted his leg into the air triumphantly."

After extensive experiments along these lines, the author concluded: "They" (cells exposed to positive silver ions)..."profoundly stimulate healing...in a way unlike any known natural process...Whatever its precise mode of action may be, the electrically generated silver ion can produce enough cells for blastemas; it has restored my belief that full regeneration of limbs, and other body parts, can be accomplished in humans." When the author placed the silver-coated nylon in the wound and connected an electrode at each end, he produced silver ions: "colloidal silver." This cannot be entirely credited with the rapid healing of the bone, as his research proved that the small electrical current was effective in the bone growth all by itself. However, the silver electrodes proved much more effective than any other metal and this would seem to lead to supposition that the silver ions are effective in stimulating the healing of the bone when in direct contact. His continuing experiments left no doubt of this."