What’s the deal with colloidal silver? It’s purported to be some kind of wonder antibiotic with miraculous abilities, and the number of retailers who sell silver generators over the net is enough to make one think A) golly, maybe they know something I don’t or B) there’s a colloid born every minute.
Then there’s Rosemary, who suffers from Argyria. Gulp. Does anybody know what the real story is–how and why CS got so much attention, and if there’s any basis in reality here?
My best friend was taking colloidal minerals. She said she felt great. I was curious so I tried to look them up on the net. I found very little about them other than ads for various distributors. What I did find was a couple of reports about the dangers of taking colloidal minerals, silver and other metals being especially dangerous. Evidently certain minerals and heavy metals are good for us in very small quantities and if administered in the correct way. It’s just that metals like silver cannot be ingested. Supposedly because these preparations are taken from some ancient mineral deposit they are safe. Something like that. It’s just knowing whether or not these claims are true that is difficult. Anyway, what I read is that some people who have been taking this stuff for long periods of time can end up with all kinds of problems. One of them because of the silver content in these things can turn a person’s skin permanently gray! It’s been a couple of years since I looked all this stuff up. You might be able to find something on it. Keep digging if you do because many of the sites you will come up with will be companies that are selling the stuff and not unbiased sources.
Need2know
YOu get enough silver with those fillings in your mouth, no need to take any more.
Definitely NOT SAFE!
You get all the metal you need (eg: iron, zinc) in trace amounts in foods you eat. Vegetarians might need iron suppliments, but noone needs to drink silver! If you must buy useless gimmick-laden nutritional suppliments, stick to One-A-Day vitimens. The simple fact is that, in the 20th Century A.D. in a developed country, it’s almost impossible to be under-nourished.
BTW: You do know the technical term for an overdose of metal, don’t you? 
Regular water has traces of silver in it…lots of other stuff too.
In the course of our coin business, we sell pure silver. In the last two years, certain individuals(read wackos) have come in to buy pure silver for their generators. They are beyond strange. They are usually male and almost always think they have “magical” powers, the ability to tell if something is “pure” silver just by the feel.
One can only hope that reproduction is interrupted by silver deficiency.
Silver does in fact have mild bacteriostatic properties, which explains its use in quality water filtration devices, it prevents the growth of bacteria in the filter media.
Interestingly, an old cowboy allowed that I should keep a silver dollar in my canteen for similar reasons. Now, ingesting metals in anything more than trace amounts is a Bad Thing ™; Iron and lead poisoning are especially tragic.
Tedster how do you get the silver dollar into the canteen?
Years ago, in a science book, I read about the phenomenon that Tedster referred to. I have often since wondered whether this was the original reason behind tossing silver coins into wells (wishing wells).
Sequent, I think the rule of thumb to follow is this: Don’t put anything you see advertised on the internet in your body. This goes for patent medicines, sexual aids, and unassuming little merlot’s. The laws governing these things are lax enough in the real world. They do not exist in the virtual world. People will lie to you to get your money. They are strangers who do not care if you live or die, as long as the check doesn’t bounce.
A related rule is to never invest in anything you hear about from spam or from my brother.
Older Western style water canteens are quite large, so putting a silver Dollar inside presents no problem.
I know of a microbiology professor at the local university who has been hired to do some real, scientific studies on this stuff. He was hired by a company that is making colloids of much smaller particles than anyone else is producing. The owner believes in the stuff, of course, and admirably, wants some scientific basis for his claims, so is funding the study. It’s still preliminary, but they’ve found some indications of a mild antimicrobial activity. It seems to have something to do with the way cells metabolize the stuff. Keep an eye out in the journals for a paper within the next few years.