Nexus - 0401 - New Times Magazine-pages

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An antibiotic kills perhaps a half-dozen different disease organisms, but silver kills some 650. What's more, resistant strains fail to develop when using silver. Moreover, silver is virtually non-toxic." Larry C. Ford, M.D., of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the UCLA School of Medicine's Center for the Health Sciences, reported in a November 1988 letter: "I tested them [the silver solutions] using standard antimicrobial tests for disinfectants. The silver solutions were anti-bacterial for concentrations of 10 organisms per ml of Streptococcus pyogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, Neisseria genorrhoeae, Gardnerella, Vaginalis, Salmonella typhi, and other enteric pathogens, and fungicidal for Candida albicans, Candida globata, and M. furfur." Biomedical researcher Robert O. Becker, M.D., from Syracuse University, has reported that "Silver stimulates bone-forming cells into growing new bone where it had not healed for long periods of time." Dr Becker is the author of The Body Electric and Cross Currents, and is also known for his work in regenerating the amputated limbs of bull- frogs. According to Dr Becker, "Silver did more than kill disease-causing organisms. It pro- moted major growth of bone and accelerated the healing of injured tissues by over 50 per cent." In his research he discovered cell types that looked just like the active bone mar- row of children. "These cells grew fast," he wrote, "producing a diverse and surprising assortment of primitive cell forms able to multiply at a great rate, then differentiate into the specific cells of an organ or tissue that had been injured, even in patients over fifty years old. This ability overcomes the main problem of mammalian regeneration." Dr Becker also discovered that silver "profoundly stimulates healing in skin and other soft tissues in a way unlike any known natural process...and kills the most stubborn infec- tions of all kinds, including surrounding bacteria and fungus." He concluded that, "What we have actually done was rediscover the fact that silver killed bacteria, which had been known for centuries...; when antibiotics were discovered, clinical uses for silver as an antibiotic were discarded." COLLOIDAL CHEMISTRY The term "colloid" refers to a substance that consists of ultra-fine particles that do not dissolve but remain in suspension dispersed in a continuous medium. These ultra-fine particles consist of many atoms or molecules of the original material, but so small they cannot be seen by the naked eye. Not all types of colloidal silver are 'true' colloids. Properly manufactured colloidal sil- ver is a liquid solution consisting of a minuscule number (3 to 5 parts per million) of sub- microscopic particles of silver, held in suspension in pure water by a tiny electrical charge placed on each particle. In a 'true' colloid of silver, the ideal size of the silver particles falls within the range of 0.005 to 0.015 microns in diameter. The particles are animated by what is known as Brownian movement, which keeps them in suspension almost indefinitely. You could fit 1,000,000,000 of these submicroscopic particles into a cube that measures four one-hun- dredths of an inch or 250 thousandths to 25 millionths of an inch. PRODUCTION METHODS Many methods were used to produce colloids in the early 1900s—most commonly, the grind process and the electrocolloidal process. The main drawback to the grind method is that the silver particles are so large that they settle towards the bottom of the solution and much of the colloid's value is lost. To offset this problem, some manufacturers add a stabiliser. By so doing, the silver particles tend to settle to the bottom much more slowly. Typically, the stabiliser used is a protein. The use of a stabiliser tends to disturb the charge on the silver particles, thereby blocking their action and reducing their effectiveness. A 'true' colloid does not require an artificial sta- biliser or additive of any kind. In recent years, the chemical process has been widely employed to replace the grind method. The chemical method provides a convenient shortcut, but it, too, falls short of the superior quality of ‘true’ colloidal silver. The reaction used is the reduction of a solu- tion of a silver salt. The problem with using chemicals to produce colloids is the difficul- ty in getting them back out of the solution. These are powerful acid solutions which can cause negative side-effects in the consumer. Also, the use of chemicals has been shown to affect the overall pH of the solution. Typically, a chemical-produced colloid of silver is quite acidic, having a pH of 4.5 to 5.5, while a ‘true’ colloid of silver has a pH in the range of 6.5. 40 - NEXUS DECEMBER 1996 - JANUARY 1997