Colloidal Silver Kills Bacteria
December 9, 2009
Natural News
By S.L. Baker
In 1999, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) handed down a dictate against products known as colloidal silver — tiny silver particles suspended in a liquid base. The FDA proclaimed colloidal silver was not recognized as safe and effective by that government agency. Then the FDA sent warning letters to people selling colloidal silver that demanded an end to any claims that the silver products diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease. While colloidal silver products have remained on the market, controversy has continued with the mainstream medical establishment attacking any use of colloidal silver while many natural health experts continue to advocate that it has beneficial uses, especially for fighting infections.
In fact, silver has been used for medicinal purposes for centuries and, in modern times, several prescription drugs contain the precious metal. For example, silver nitrate is used to prevent the eye condition conjunctivitis (inflammation of the conjunctiva, the clear membrane that covers the white part of the eye and the inner surface of the eyelids) in newborn babies and it treats corns and warts, too. Another medication, silver sulfadiazine (sold as Silvadene) contains a micronized form of silver that is applied topically to the body to treat burns. And now researchers have found that when silver is used with copper, the combination may offer protection against the majority of serious hospital-acquired infections.
The germ-killing properties of copper, like those of silver, have been recognized for hundreds of years. Scientists have discovered that copper ions are deadly to bacteria because they penetrate the micro-organisms and disrupt molecular pathways that are important for their survival. In fact, in 2008 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officially registered copper alloys and allowed them to be marketed with the label “kills 99.9% of bacteria within two hours”.
