The Historical Uses of Silver

While silver's importance as a bactericide has been documented only since the late 1800s, Silver has been reported to have therapeutic value throughout the ages.

Early records indicate that the Phoenicians used silver vessels to keep water, wine and vinegar pure during their long voyages. The ancient Greeks discovered the health benefits of silver when they noted that in battle the upper class, who had silver canteens, never got dysentery but the regular troops often did. Consequently, they also lined their eating and drinking vessels with silver, as did many other cultures throughout the world.

Herodotus (79 A.D.) wrote that Cyrus the Great, King of Persia (550-529 B.C.), a man of vision who established a board of health and a medical dispensary for his citizens, had water drawn from a special stream, had it boiled and placed in silver vessels. These vessels of water were placed on four wheeled wagons drawn by mules, to accompany the king where ever he went. Around 400 B.C., Hippocrates, the "Father of Medicine," taught that silver healed wounds and controlled disease".

The Romans used silver nitrate therapeutically, and in 69 B.C it was described in the contemporary Roman pharmacopoeia. Pliny the Elder, in his survey of the world's knowledge, Natural History (78 A.D.), states that the slag of silver "... has healing properties as an ingredient in plasters, being extremely effective in causing wounds to close up...".

The popularity of medicinal silver rose from 702 A.D. through 980 A.D. throughout the Middle East where it was widely used and esteemed for blood purification, heart conditions, and controlling halitosis. Paracelsus (circa 1520) extensively incorporated silver medicinally and speaks of the virtues of silver as a healing substance in his hermetic and alchemical writings.

Through the centuries, royal households carried on the practice of storing their provisions in silver containers. Privileged family members used silver eating utensils; had their meals served on silver plates and their drinks served in silver cups. It is believed that this is one reason the upper class did not succumb to the many plagues which almost wiped out villages. Churches did, and still do, use cups made of silver for communion, where one goblet is passed from person to person.

Interestingly, the term “Blue Blood”, used to indicate royalty, arises from the reportedly bluish tinge of the skin of royal family members, caused by the minute traces of pure metallic silver they regularly consumed from the use of silver utensils. It is also interesting to note that the expression, "born with a silver spoon in his mouth", is not a reference to wealth, but to health. In the early 18th century, babies who were fed with silver spoons were healthier than those fed with spoons made from other metals, and silver pacifiers found wide use in America because of their beneficial health effects.

American pioneers found that a silver dollar put in a jug of milk would delay spoilage. They also found that if they kept their silverware "hidden" in their water barrel the water would not go bad. Therefore, pioneers moving west put silver and copper coins in their water barrels to keep them clean.

During the wars with Napoleon, the armies of Tsar Alexander used water casks lined with silver to store clean drinking water from rivers and streams. This practice by the Imperial Russian army was common through World War I and continued to be incorporated by some units in the Soviet Army during World War II.

Through the middle-ages right up to the early part of the 20th century, pure silver wire was inserted into battle wounds and hunting accident wounds to keep the wound clean of infection and accelerate healing.

It was not until the late 1800's that Western scientists were able to prove what had been known in Eastern medicine for thousands of years...that silver was a proven germ fighter! Several physicians discovered the antibacterial qualities of silver and applied them to their practice of medicine. They used silver nitrate successfully in the treatment of skin ulcers, compound fractures and draining puss wounds. In 1881, the German obstetrician, Dr. F. Crede, began to administer 1% silver nitrate solution in the eyes of newborn infants. This virtually eliminated the incidence of disease causing blindness in newborns, such as gonorrheal ophthalmia. This technique has been used effectively up to the present.

In 1901, a Prussian chemist named Hille and Albert Coombs Barnes discovered a method of preparing a true colloid by combining a vegetable product with a silver compound and patented it as Argyrol, the only non-toxic antibiotic available at the time.

By the turn of the century, scientists had discovered that the body's most important fluids were colloidal in nature. Upon this discovery, the endless possibilities for the use of colloids in medicine were recognized. As a result, a silver solution known as Colloidal Silver became widely used in medicine. The first electro-colloidal silver was produced in 1924 and became widely used in medicine as one of the mainstays of anti-microbial treatment. It proved to be enormously effective against infectious organisms and extremely safe to use, without the negative side effects associated with many drugs.

In 1910, Dr Henry Crooks, a pioneer in colloidal chemistry, (Use of Colloids in Health-Disease) wrote that: "… certain metals, when in a colloidal state, have a highly germicidal action but are quite harmless to human beings...it may be applied in a much more concentrated form and with better results... no microbe is known that is not killed by this colloid in laboratory experiments in six minutes, [and] the concentration of the [silver] does not exceed twenty-five parts per million.”

Colloidal Silver and Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria

Antibiotic resistant bacteria are bacteria that are not controlled or killed by antibiotics. They are able to survive and even multiply in the presence of an antibiotic. Most infection-causing bacteria can become resistant to at least some antibiotics. The most serious concern with antibiotic resistance is that some bacteria have become resistant to almost all of the easily available antibiotics. These bacteria are able to cause serious disease and this is a major public health problem. Important examples are methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE) and multi-drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MDR-TB).

The Los Angeles Times, in an article entitled "Arsenal of Antibiotics Failing as Resistant Bacteria Develop" (October 23, 1994), writes "In the last decade, a broad resistance to antibiotics has begun to emerge. And because bacteria can transfer genes among themselves, experts only expect this resistance to grow. The potential nightmare is an Andromeda strain which is immune to all antibiotics and could wreak havoc."

Over the years, the medical establishment has reported on the new strains of "Super Bugs" that cannot be destroyed by antibiotics. Newsweek Magazine reported in the March 28, 1994 issue, that in 1992 thirteen thousand hospital patients died of infections that resisted every drug doctors tried. Some of these patients caught the infections in the hospital. Many diseases once thought to be easily treated with antibiotics are no longer treatable, not even with some of the newly developed antibiotics.

The September 1995 issue of Time Magazine featured an article titled "Revenge of the Killer Microbes". The author wrote: "Faced with AIDS, and with an ever increasing number of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, doctors are forced to admit the medical profession was actually retreating in the battle against germs. The question ceased to be, when will infectious diseases be wiped out? and became, Where will the next deadly new plague appear?"

An extensive article entitled "Antibiotics, The End of Miracle Drugs?" appeared in the March 28, 1994 issue of Newsweek. "The rise of drug resistant germs is unparalleled in recorded history" the article states. "Penicillin and tetracycline lost their power over staph back in the 1950's and 60's. Another antibiotic, methicillin, provided a back up for awhile, but methicillin-resistant staph (MRSA)is now common in hospitals and nursing homes world wide."

An article, released in October 2006 by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, states "MRSA in healthcare settings commonly causes serious and potentially life threatening infections, such as bloodstream infections, surgical site infections, or pneumonia. In addition to healthcare associated infections, MRSA can also infect people in the community at large." The article continues "People infected with antibiotic-resistant organisms like MRSA are more likely to have longer and more expensive hospital stays, and may be more likely to die as a result of the infection. When the drug of choice for treating their infection doesn’t work, they require treatment with second- or third-choice medicines that may be less effective, more toxic and more expensive." According to CDC data, the proportion of infections that are antimicrobial resistant has been growing. In 1974, MRSA infections accounted for two percent of the total number of staph infections; in 1995 it was 22%; in 2004 it was some 63%.

The New England Journal of Medicine, April 28, 1994, reported that researchers have identified bacteria in patient samples that resist all currently available antibiotic drugs. The overuse of antibiotics has created super-resistant classes of bacteria that can resist antibiotics and evade our immune systems. This poses a serious threat to our health and has the medical profession very concerned.

In an article entitled "New Way To Stop Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria Found" on Medical News Today, July 11, 2007, Catharine Paddock writes "The last decade has seen an unprecedented increase in antibiotic resistant bacteria to the point where almost every type of bacteria is now resistant, and they can cause deadly infections that are very difficult and expensive to treat." Researchers at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill think they have found a way to target and kill antibiotic resistant bacteria using a drug that is already approved as a treatment for bone loss.

What I find most disturbing in all this is reality that this predicament was avoidable and perhaps at one time even correctable. There is sufficient history, research and anecdotal information to strongly support colloidal silver as an effective first-line-of-defense against not only bacteria, but also fungi and viruses. As an antibiotic, silver kills over 650 disease causing organisms; resistant strains fail to develop and it is nontoxic. Silver is the best all-around germ fighter we have (Bio/Tech News, 1995). It is also reported that colloidal silver promoted major growth of bone, and accelerated the healing of injured tissues by over 50%. Dr. Becker discovered that "silver, profoundly stimulates healing in skin and other soft tissues in a way unlike any known natural process...”

So why did they stop using silver?

Does Our Body Require the Intake of Silver?

Silver occurs naturally in the soil as a trace mineral and is one of many essential elements required by plants, animals, and man. We obtain silver from the food we eat, such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains, and legumes, if this food is grown in organic soil containing living organisms. These organisms assist in making the minerals available to the vegetation.

EPA guidelines outline that a balanced diet would normally contain 90 mcg of silver, if the fresh foods we ate were grown in nutrient rich soil. Today, most of our crops are grown on highly depleted chemically fertilized soils, and we do not get the necessary quantity of many important metallic minerals like iron, zinc, copper, magnesium and chromium; and trace minerals like silver and gold are no longer readily available to us except through the use of mineral supplements.

Dr. Robert Becker noticed a correlation between low silver levels and sickness; colds, flu, etc. Some Biochemists also suspect that a silver deficiency is possibly one of the main reasons cancer exists and is increasing at such a rapid rate today. Becker believed a silver deficiency was the reason for the improper functioning of the immune system. Dr Gary Smith, a medical researcher, also suggests that silver may be linked to the proper functioning of the body's natural defense system and that people with an inadequate intake of silver may be more prone to illness.

According to the National Academy of Sciences, silver has no declared value. However, it is important to recognize that it took long periods of time for many of the metal minerals to be officially recognized for the critical roles they play in maintaining health. For several decades, chromium, fluorine, manganese, and selenium had no declared human daily value, even though there was strong scientific evidence that indicated otherwise.

Two Time Nobel Prize Winner, Dr. Linus Pauling, PhD stated: "You can trace every sickness, every disease, and every ailment to a mineral deficiency."