| With all the talk about gold and other precious metals | | | | could cure everything from malaria to leprosy and |
| rising in value, one topic that has resurfaced lately is | | | | everything in between. In early 2003, reported that |
| the possible health benefit of silver. Colloidal silver has | | | | there was a rise in the occurrence of argyria - a |
| been used in treating illnesses and wounds since the | | | | condition brought on by ingesting too much silver. The |
| beginning of medical thought and theory. Paracelsus, a | | | | silver actually collects in the skin and turns it gray, blue, |
| fifteenth-century alchemist, wrote about the healing | | | | or purple. The condition is permanent. |
| power of silver in his famous medical tracts. Maybe he | | | | Because of this, and the fact that ingesting too much |
| got the idea from Hippocrates, who wrote and taught | | | | silver can cause coma or even death, the FDA no |
| that silver could prevent disease. This is why ancient | | | | longer allows producers of colloidal silver "remedies" to |
| people used silver-lined vessels for drinking water. | | | | claim any sort of health benefit, although producers are |
| Another benefit from this was that it kept the water | | | | allowed to call their product a "health supplement." |
| tasting fresh. | | | | Some people swear by using silver supplements, like |
| Not that there are many ancient Greek writings on | | | | Stan Jones, a senate candidate who manufactured his |
| how fresh the water tasted out of silver-lined vessels. | | | | own silver supplement when he was afraid that the |
| In more modern times silver has been used to fight off | | | | year 2000 would bring an end to the availability of |
| bacteria. American pioneers would drop a silver coin | | | | antibiotics. Sure, he's sort of gray, but he claims that his |
| into their canteens to keep their water tasting pure. | | | | health has been better because of his silver |
| They'd also put a silver coin into milk to keep it fresh | | | | consumption. |
| when they couldn't keep it cold. Also, flatware was | | | | On the other hand, Rosemary Jacobs is an |
| (and is, if you can afford it) made out of silver. This is | | | | argyria-sufferer who speaks out against the use of |
| because silver was thought to protect the body from | | | | colloidal silver as a health remedy or supplement. She |
| illness. | | | | used some eye drops containing silver back in the |
| Silver does have antibiotic properties. In one | | | | fifties and her skin has been gray ever since. She saw |
| experiment, a scientist set out to prove this point. He | | | | the advertising that starting hitting TVs and computers |
| injected some silver colloids (which are compounds of | | | | at Y2K and decided to speak out. She started her |
| silver suspended in water or some other liquid) into a | | | | own website to debunk the "snake oil" that turned her |
| culture of a type of E.coli bacteria. The silver killed all of | | | | gray and she has done a lot of research on the |
| the E.coli within six minutes of contact. That is fairly | | | | contents of many of the "health supplements" that |
| compelling evidence that there is some truth to the | | | | contain silver. |
| idea that silver can protect us from disease. | | | | Perhaps it is best to be a little cautious when ingesting |
| But to what end? Prior to the wide release of antibiotic | | | | something that contains silver, unless you fancy being |
| treatment, silver was used to treat infection. Antibiotics | | | | gray, blue, or purple forever, but Jones swears that he |
| came along, and doctors stopped prescribing | | | | just took too much, that despite his unconventional hue |
| silver-based treatments. In the late nineties there was | | | | that he would resume treatment in a heartbeat, if he |
| a resurgence of advertising via the internet; claiming | | | | was diagnosed with any sort of disease. Except |
| that colloidal silver was some kind of panacea - that it | | | | argyria, of course. |