HI guys. I don't post often, but I do read your posts every day. You have all helped me tremendously in my preps. Can anyone tell me if a colloidal silver generator is a good thing to buy? Supposed to create a silver solution that is good as an antibiotic, among other things. Also, has anyone here experimented with a product called Ke-Peg. Claims to preserve fresh eggs for up to 3 years. Thanks for your answers and God bless.

-- Glinda Nofzinger (A Believer@Peace.com), March 31, 1999

Answers

After your body accumulates a small amount of Silver, your skin & eyes turn blue/gray. Seriously!

Tread carefully...

-- Anonymous99 (Anonymous99@Anonymous99.xxx), March 31, 1999.

Agryia (sp?) comes from ingest silver compounds, not colloidal silver.

I do not recommend spending money buying colloidal silver generators, I suggest building one.

The little $50-75 units are nothing more than 3 - 9 volt battery holders, wire, alligator clips, and if you are lucky a L.E.D. and a switch. The three battery clips are overkill, just clip the three batteries together and then clip across the two open posts for the 27 VDC.

The units that are around $200-300 dollars can be replaced with a line cord, fuse (or circuit breaker), switch and light bulb. Yup, just use 120VAC. Yeah I know what you're thinking, but your "load" of distilled water has an ohmage of about 30,000 ohms (? if memory serves me), so run the numbers. :)

The cadillac units can be replaced with a neon transformer 8-15KV typically.

Your water has to be very very pure. Many home stills won't get good enough. (boiler splatter, etc.)

Your silver has to be very pure. Silver wire of 99.9% quality is available from any large jewelry supply house.

-- Ken Seger (kenseger@earthlink.net), March 31, 1999.

See

http://homepages.together.net/~rjstan/rose3.html

for photos of argyria victim, Rosemary Jacobs, who was given colloidal silver in the fifties. (Click through to photo with non-argyria victim for full contrast.) Her e-mail address is at the site. CS keeps cropping up, several threads in archives.

-- Pink Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), March 31, 1999.

Glinda:

Except for a few months, I've been ingesting several milligrams of PROPERLY PREPARED colloidal silver per day since 1997. No, I haven't turned blue yet, and since I started taking it, I've been sick only once or twice, and on both occasions, it was only for a day or two. I'm convinced it works, and could even save your life what TSHTF and no one can obtain traditional antibiotics.

As far as making it, don't buy the battery type units because they make a very low grade product with lots of entrained metallic silver as well. If you don't filter out this metallic silver by-product, who knows what could happen in the long run.

I've also experimented with making colloidal silver using very high voltage AC. It's not as simple as one the the forum participants implies, AND it can be VERY dangerous to your health because playing around with high voltage IS DANGEROUS as I found out personally.

I have used a very reliable DC commercial unit, but this forum should not be used for free advertising, so anyone interested should email me for details. You might also be interested to know that, using myself as a test subject, I ran a series of tests to measure the rate colloidal silver is excreted from my body, and I've also discovered a way to speed it up several times. Again email me for more info.

Roger Altman

-- Dr. Roger Altman (rogaltman@aol.com), March 31, 1999.

We have a colloidal silver generator and have used the stuff. However, I now have my doubts. If you read the internet statements on colloidal silver you will find:

1. Lots of sales literature quoting scientific references that I could not find or do not exist.

2. Reports that are copies of reports with know verification.

Colloidal silver does kill bacteria. No doubt about it. But so does battery acid. The question is, will it kill the bacteria in one's body without harmful effects. To date I have found no references that show verifiable research on how it affects bacteria in the body.

It might be a great preservative to put on meats, eggs. It may be a great disinfectant to wipe down your tables and counter tops. It might be a good mouth wash. Not sure.

I have not given up hope. If anyone knows of a link/url that gives research data or links to good data please post the links here.

-- Tomcat (tomcat@isitsafe?.com), March 31, 1999.

Close but no cigar Old Git.

"See http://homepages.together.net/~rjstan/rose3.html for photos of argyria victim, Rosemary Jacobs, who was given colloidal silver in the fifties."

Rosemary clearly states in her webpage that she does not know the nature of the nosedrops that she was given, it was silver something or other, that can cover a large area. Therefore, neither the pro or the cons can use her to prove anything. Unfortunately the FDA pronouncements suffer from the same vagueness. The FDA states quite clearly and accurately that various silver compounds and preparations cause argyria, but never connect it to what is currently refered to as colloidal silver (whose definition has changed considerably over the last 100 years or so).

Not much confired hard science on either side of this debate. Check back in 50 to 100 years or so, we'll proably know a lot more about the subject then.

-- Ken Seger (kenseger@earthlink.net), March 31, 1999.

Thank you Dr. Altman for taking me to task. I've lived with electrical circuits and electrical safety techniques since early grade school and sometimes I forget that eletricity is a big mystery to most people. Unless you know what the heck you are doing with electricity, DON'T. This particularily applies to 1,000+ volts. I've seen so many screwballs posting on the internet about "easy cheap" ways to hook gensets to their house, you'ld think I'ld have noticed. Of course it's not just 120/240 VAC that one needs to be concerned about. You can damage your flesh in a big hurry with 12VDC because the average car battery, much less a large deep discharge unit, has a HUGE amperage capacity. Fortunately most OOPS!s with 12VDC are from some piece of metal that wasn't intended to be a conductor, heating up REAL hot REAL fast and the subsequent burn is extremely localized, selfsealed, and sterile. The lovely seared steak smell is a bit disconcerting however when one realizes that the aroma used to be a part of you.

-- Ken Seger (kenseger@earthlink.net), March 31, 1999.

Pardon me, but I'm deeply skeptical of colloidal silver. How does it fare in double-blind, controlled studies? What are the noted side effects? How long does it remain active in the body? Does it build up in fat deposits in such a way that you never clear it from your body?

Why wouldn't it cause metal poisoning in a way similar to mercury, lead, arsenic, or aluminum? What is its mechanism of action? Does it stimulate the immmune system or does it kill any bacteria or virus it touches? Does it put stresses on your GI tract, kidneys, liver, and brain?

-- coprolith (coprolith@rocketship.com), March 31, 1999.

If you are looking something to help with fending off illness, try Echinacea. It is an herb, available in places such as Walmart pharmacy. It boosts your immune system. I have also experienced only 2 bouts of illness in the past several years, and when others are down for a couple of weeks (the crud going around this year) I was uncomfortable for only a couple of days and missed no work because of it (didn't spread it either). Get the product with Golden Seal, which is a natural antibiotic, for when you do catch something, and that clears it up very quickly. Much cheaper and safer than silver!

-- linda (smitmom@hotmail.com), March 31, 1999.

Thanks, guys. Any experience with Ke-Peg (egg preservative)?

-- Glinda Nofzinger (A Believer@Peace.com), March 31, 1999.

Check out www.silversolutions.com This is Mark metcalf's site. I bought one from him about 3 years ago. It has been THE best investment I have ever made! Anonymous 99 has no clue. He does not kbnow what he is talking about. He has been told over and over again, but will not listen. He is a true DGI concering colloidal silver. He is referring to the use of silver in the 1930's when they used silver dust, which created silver skin, because the silver particles were too large and got stuck in the body. Now we use a 9 volt battery pack, which creates moleclular sized particles, which passes right out the rear end after doing it's job on the invader in your body! I even use it as a deoderant, because I do not want to put aluminum under my arms!

-- smitty (smitty@sandiego.com), March 31, 1999.

Hi people,

There isn't much hard science about colloidal silver. Lots of science about silver solutions, salves, ointments, etc. used to kill bacteria externally (dilute silver nitrate solution is used in the eyes of newborn babies to kill eyesight-destroying bacteria).

However, I 'tested' home-made colloidal silver on people, pets and things around here. My observations are:

1. It cleared up a case of athlete's foot my oldest son had for several years,

2. It seems to be doing a better job at controlling my youngest son's acne than commercial preparations,

3. An open wound a pet cat had for a few weeks started healing within a day of spraying it (3 times during the first day) with colloidal silver,

4. It allowed one outdoor plant to start regrowing new leaves and stems after it, and all nearby plants, had been attacked by a fungus (all plants had their stems and leaves turn brown and start shrivelling -- the treated plant came partially back to life while the untreated plants withered away).

5. It keeps a large, outside animal watering tank free of algae and crud (it doesn't keep dirt and leaves from blowing in, though :) ).

HTH,

-- Dean -- from (almost) Duh Moines (dtmiller@nevia.net), March 31, 1999.

My best friend got rid of his athletes foot problem with colloidal silver. My father had a sore that would not heal for the past couple years and the Colloidal silver healed the skin. My cousin has been applying it to cancerous toes and they are healing up. Seems like it works.h

-- Bob Bollow (Ebollow@aol.com), March 31, 1999.

http://homepages.together.net/~rjstan/rose1.html

Under a photograph of Rosemary Jacobs with a friend:

"Guess who took the colloidal silver (CS)? Rosemary did. That's why she is slate-gray. The condition is called argyria. It is irreversible and cannot be covered by makeup.

Actually, Rosemary's doctor in New York prescribed CSP for her back in the fifties as a treatment for allergies. It was sold as a drug then. Today it is sold as a dietary supplement. You can find it in "health food" stores and on the Internet. You can even buy the equipment to make your own. It was snake oil when it was given to Rosemary. It is snake oil now. . ."

-- Pink Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), April 01, 1999.

The following makes some helpful distinctions about colloidal silver (from Baranowski, Z. Colloidal Silver: The Natural Antibiotic Alternative):

Safety and Effectiveness

.....In 1940 and 1966, respectively, R.A. Kehoe and I.H. Tipton reported that under normal circumstances the average daily diet will yield approximately 50 mcg to 100 mcg of silver.

Therefore, it seems logical that a concentration of 3 to 5 ppm, yielding 15 mcg to 25 mcg of silver per teaspoon, will be a sufficient concentration to be both effective and safe to consume on a regular, daily basis. A 4 oz. Container of colloidal silver at a concentration of 3 ppm will contain approximately 355 mcg of total silver - well below any reported toxicity level of orally consumed silver - even if several ounces were consumed on a daily basis for several years. Higher concentrations about 5 ppm, or about 591 mcg of total silver in a 4 oz. container, may cause silver build-up in the system and are not necessarily more effective. For example, a 25 ppm solution would yield 2.96 mg (2,960 mcg), a 500 ppm solution would yield 59 mg (59,000 mcg), a 5,000 ppm solution would yield 590 mg (590,000 mcg)! Any product containing higher concentrations, for example having higher levels than what could be found in the average daily diet, should definitely be taken with caution, only during a time of need and certainly not for extended periods. [Emphasis Added]

[snip]

Stability, especially long-term, is another important aspect of colloidal silver products. To avoid 'fall out' [NOTE this is his term for the electro colloidal solution losing its charge, like a battery] some companies add a protein or chemical stabilizer, allowing a higher concentration of silver with a greater level of stability. The downside is that most stabilizers bond to and therefore reduce the antimicrobial effect of silver. Such products contain higher levels of total silver to compensate, and should be taken with caution because in all documented cases of silver toxicity, called Argyria (the permanent discoloration of the skin due to silver deposits), the product in question contained high concentrations of silver compounded with stabilizers such as silver nitrate or silver acetate. Argyria has never been reported from pure electro-colloidal silver free of protein or other stabilizers." [Emphasis Added!]

(Baranowski, Z. Colloidal Silver: The Natural Antibiotic Alternative, 1995, ISBN #0-9647080-1-9 This is a book worth getting, helps in evaluating product quality (which varies a lot), methods of production; early uses, and gives references for followup. (There is much more I wanted to quote more but I'm getting the copyright jitters.) My holistic practitioner's take on colloidal silver FWIW is, it's excellent as a remedy in the customary micro doses, but cautioned me that daily use is using it like a nutrient mineral, so unless silver is established a nutrient, we should treat its action as drug-like, with caution. Makes sense to me.)

Pink Old Git :) you should stay with extreme caution if that's where you are comfortable, but the Rosemary story isn't the whole story. The jury is in, and is considering the case.

-- Debbie (dbspence@usa.net), April 01, 1999.

Debbie:

All those quotes seem authoritive and I would be persuaded if I could see the actual studies upon which these opinions are based. Without the benefit of scientific studies, all this VERY authoritive looking advice remains nothing more than opinions.

You know, about a year ago I got so fed-up reading opinion after opinion with absolutely NO scientific data to back it up that I decided to take the bull by the horns and use myself as a test subject to find out once and for all if colloidal silver DOES OR DOESN'T remain in the body. And if it doesn't how does it leave.

Anyone interested in reading a REAL RESEARCH REPORT and not just another "expert" opinion can contact me.

Oh, BTW, I've been taking over 2 milligrams (NOT micrograms, MILLIGRAMS) of colloidal silver since the end of '97 (except for a few months while I was conducting the above study), and I'm still getting through those metal detectors at the airport.

Dr. Roger Altman

-- Dr. Roger Altman (rogaltman@aol.com), April 01, 1999.

Roger:

Thank you for the response. I only recently started looking into colloidal silver and to be honest, I have not checked out this author's references myself, but decided I'd post now, or I might never do it. By posting these cites and their source, I was providing a service so that others might take this further than I have.

It's interesting that you have taken it further and found for yourself that most of the research leads to a dead end. How frustrating, and how commendable that you were not deterred by this. Would we still be in the proverbial slime if no one dared to take a risk? etc.

I sense that you've not been foolhardy, but saw enough promising "soft" evidence to make your self-experiment with colloidal silver seem worth doing. I'll contact you to learn more. Also (Old Git, you probably knew this was coming :) ), I felt I had to say something about the heartwrenching story of Rosemary and her Argyria, which has gained huge notoriety by being up on the Quackwatch.com site. It really should NOT be taken at face value, but it is, all the time.

On the one hand: I have nothing against being prudent. No harm will come to a person by NOT using colloidal silver. This is like the calculated risk to prepare for Y2k: do the most prudent thing, with the limited knowledge available.

And on the other hand: (general rant) I suppose Quackwatch could be viewed as a public service if it actually does teach people to think, but I'd lay odds that in most cases it doesn't, just as happy-face Y2k reports in the media don't encourage people to think either! People want to feel that someone authoritative is pointing out who the good guys and the bad guys are. People want answers, and they want to feel safe, and who can blame them? Read Quackwatch if you must, but THINK!! READ!! Put your contrarian glasses on!! Ever hear of "spin"? Many (certainly not all) of the things being debunked are there because they are a substantial* (not frivolous) threat to established interests in medicine. Use the site to hear of promising new developments :-) then do your due diligence. (/general rant off)

-- Debbie (dbspence@usa.net), April 02, 1999.

Debbie:

The reason I decided to take the plunge and try colloidal silver myself is BECAUSE of Y2k. If our manufacturing base and distributiuon systems will be affected seriously then how can we rely on traditional medicine to control epidemics and other health related problems?

Looked upon in this light, and having anecdotal info about the very significant benefits, and TOTAL lack of side effects of properly prepared and administered colloidal silver, I decided the risk/reward was acceptable.

I haven't been disappointed.

Roger

-- Dr. Roger Altman (rogaltman@aol.com), April 03, 1999.