The Chemical and Physical Basis of the Therapeutic value of colloidal forms of s

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The Chemical and Physical Basis of the Therapeutic value of colloidal

forms of silver

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John Marshall Dudley

 

 

Abstract:

 

Silver in its various forms has had a long history of reported therapeutic

value. Recently, through the work of Dr. Bob Beck and other researchers,

it has become popular, individually, as well as part of a 4 part protocol

advocated by Dr. Bob Beck claiming cures for an almost astounding number of

ailments, from the colds/flu to lupus, AIDS, and cancer. We note that a

search of literature has revealed that there is no consensus on how it works,

or even what it does. Most discussions appear to be theories or speculation

with little or no supporting scientific evidence.

 

 

Silver colloids were analyzed from several scientific perspectives to

determine what the expected action is on various pathogens as well as its

effect, if any, on so called friendly or non-pathogenic bacteria.

 

 

The result is what has been generally reported by many people and

researchers and is exactly what is to be expected. This is important, since

winning

the approval of medical professionals and even that of many patients

requires an understanding of what colloidal silver therapy does and does not do

as well as how it works.

 

 

Text:

 

Silver has been reported to have therapeutic value throughout the ages. It

has been suggested that one reason the upper class did not succumb to many

of the plagues that almost wiped out many villages was because they ate

with silver utensils, off silver plates and drank from silver goblets.

Churches did, and still do, use cups made of silver for communion, where one

goblet is passed from person to person. Earlier last century people put silver

dollars in their milk and wells to ward off spoilage and illness (4). The

knowledge of the miraculous healing powers of silver was so well known that

in the legends of werewolves, silver was required to kill the lychantrophy,

and supposedly, evil witches cowered at the power of silver to eliminate

evil.

 

 

More recently, many researchers such as Dr. Bob Beck have reported that

silver in a colloidal state eliminates virtually all known pathogens,

viruses, fungi, bacteria, protozoa, and yeasts. Yet, it appears that there is

rarely any effect on the " good " bacteria in the intestinal tract, either

because it does not attack such bacteria, or it is absorbed into the blood

stream

before reaching the intestinal tract.

 

 

Silver is referred to as a transition metal in chemical literature, along

with copper and gold. These are metals that are heavier than the

life-giving light metals, such as sodium, calcium, and potassium, yet lighter

than

the toxic heavy metals such as lead, arsenic and mercury. Gold and silver are

considered noble metals because they tend to not react easily in forming

compounds.

 

 

The transition metals are known for their catalytic properties. Ionic

silver (such as any silver compound dissolved in water), has very little if any

catalytic effect, and neither does macroscopic silver. Very finely

powdered silver, however, becomes a very good oxidizing catalyst. Starting with

atomic or ionic silver, the catalytic effect increases with particle size

until it reaches a peak at some value, then drops off to a much lower level

when the particles approach the wavelength of light.

 

 

This is easy to explain by examining how a catalyst works. Each positively

charged silver atom will attract one negatively charged atom or molecule.

Once they touch, the charge is neutralized. If you have more than one

positively charged atom of silver in a particle, then each can attract a

negatively charged atom or particle. If a clump of silver atoms binds with two

negatively charged particles, such as oxygen and something else, these two

particles will no longer electrostatically repel each other, but will be

brought together and will react, oxidizing the particle.

 

 

The larger the particle, the more positively charged silver atoms can

attract oxygen and other negatively charged particles to the surface. If

particle size becomes too large, then the amount of silver hidden in the center

of the particle means that the increase in mass, which goes up with the cube

of the diameter, is increasing faster than the active surface areas, which

goes up at the square of the diameter. The catalytic effect thus peaks at

some particle size and decreases with respect to the amount of silver if the

size is increased further.

 

 

Bacteria come in two forms - anaerobic and aerobic. Earlier this last

century, it was discovered by Dr. Gram that he could stain bacteria with a

specially prepared Gram stain, and that in general good bacteria stained, but

pathogenic bacteria did not stain. It was later discovered that the

pathogenic bacteria are negatively charged. Pathogenic bacteria are anaerobic,

and

if oxidized will die. In order to prevent oxidization, they carry an enzyme

to repel negatively charged oxygen. If this enzyme is disabled so that

they lose this negative charge, or if oxygen is supplied in a form such that

it is reactive to negatively charged pathogens, such as ozone water or

hydrogen peroxide, the bacteria will be oxidized. This reaction is lethal to the

pathogen.

 

 

It would follow that that negatively charged bacteria, and negatively

charged oxygen will be attracted to and will bind with silver particles. Since

the negative charge is neutralized through an electron transfer with the

particle of silver, each can easily combine with the other, and will do so,

oxidizing the pathogen and destroying it.

 

 

It has been determined specifically that oxygen reacts with anaerobic

bacteria and viruses with the sulfhydryl (-S-H) groups surrounding the surface.

It removes the hydrogen (converting it to water) so that the sulfur atoms

form an -R-S-S-R bond. This interferes with the organism's transport or

membrane proteins and deactivates them.(5)

 

 

This will not only result in the catalytic oxidation of the bacteria or

other pathogens (since almost all pathogens are negatively charged and the

silver is positively charged), the silver and pathogen are attracted to each

other via a static attraction causing much faster interactions and at much

larger distances than would be expected by pure chance of collision.

 

 

However " good " bacteria, those that breathe oxygen, do not carry a

negative charge. This enables the good bacteria to attract oxygen which these

bacteria require to breathe. One would expect that aerobic bacteria would not

be killed by silver. However, testing done at University of Tennessee under

our direction has shown that colloidal silver is also quite effective in

killing aerobic bacteria. The method by which the aerobic bacteria are killed

is still under investigation.

 

 

It has been previously thought that the reason that colloidal silver does

not affect the good bacteria in the intestines was because it did not kill

" good " bacteria. We have proven this to be false. Further investigation

indicates that colloidal silver is unable to move around and interact with

bacteria when in a gel or solid matrix. This in conjunction with the fact that

most if not all of the silver, when particle size is correct, will get

absorbed through the stomach lining and into the blood stream, most likely

accounts for the lack of killing the good bacteria in the intestines.

 

 

It should be clear now why silver colloids are extremely effective at

destroying pathogenic bacteria, yet do not affect good bacteria in the

intestines or mammalian cells. Yet, the reports on the effectiveness of silver

colloids, when compared with normal antibiotics, still seem to call into

question why silver is so much more effective, often effecting a cure in hours,

when powerful antibiotics may take days or weeks.

 

 

There are a number of reasons why silver seems to have much more

effectiveness than normal antibiotics. Here are a number of them:

 

 

1. Colloidal silver is positively charged; most antibiotics do not carry a

strong positive charge. This causes silver to virtually seek out and

destroy pathogens, instead of simply having to move around until they happen to

bump into each other. This effect is quite appropriately referred to as the

" Silver Bullet " - effect by Dr. Robert Beck.

 

 

2. Silver kills immediately by oxidizing the pathogen. Antibiotics do not

affect viruses at all, and for bacteria will only kill the bacteria when it

tries to divide (penicillin type antibiotics) or will prevent the pathogen

from dividing (tetracycline type antibiotics). In the first case, it may

take the bacteria several days before it attempts to divide; and in the

second case the bacteria is not killed at all, but just prevented from

replicating. In both cases, the immune system must take care of most or all of

the

pathogens. With silver, they are killed outright immediately.

 

 

3. Silver is a catalyst. Thus, as soon as a particle of silver has

oxidized a pathogen, the pathogen loses its' negative charge and floats away,

and

the silver is free to attack another pathogen. Antibiotics usually bind

with the pathogen and for each pathogen destroyed, one particle or molecule of

the antibiotic is used up.

 

 

The result is that silver will usually give a much faster kill than an

antibiotic. The downside of this is that the high and rapid kill rate can

result in Herxheimer's reaction or healing crisis (1). The body simply does not

have time to eliminate the huge amount of toxins and dead pathogens that

can result from silver water. Other therapies which work along similar lines,

such as ozonated water, are reported to have the same problem. It is

highly recommended to never initially give therapeutic dosages of colloidal

silver to a severely ill person, but to give small amounts initially and work

up to therapeutic dosages in a couple of days. This allows the kill rate to

be maintained where the body can eliminate the dead pathogens and toxins

without undue stress. Of course, drinking large amounts of liquids can help

flush the toxins and should be encouraged.

 

 

Other Possible negative effects

 

As most people know, silver is used as the photo-sensitive ingredient in

almost all photographic processes. Silver compounds, when exposed to light,

will often result in the silver being reduced to atomic or metallic silver.

Then in the presence of a developer, any silver compounds that contact the

silver particles will also undergo a reduction reaction, enlarging the

silver particle.

 

 

While this process is essential to photography, it is undesirable in the

skin of a person. It is thought by many that the reason that the royalty

long ago were called blue bloods is because the silver from the goblets and

wares would react with acids in their drinks and foods, then precipitate out

in their skin giving them a bluish color. It is known that consumption of

silver compounds, such as silver nitrate, followed by exposure to sunlight

can result in a graying or bluing of the skin, a medical condition called

argyria (2). As it turns out, a number of chemicals that can appear in the

blood make quite effective developers. Caffeine and tannin are just two of

them (3).

 

 

Fortunately, colloidal silver, when made by the electrolytic process in

pure distilled water without any salts being added, produces no silver

compounds. Thus, silver plating out of colloidal silver is not possible; the

silver particles are already reduced to pure silver, and are mutually repulsed,

because of their positive charges.

 

 

If the colloidal silver is made from silver salts by reduction chemistry,

(as the high ppm level products are) traces of silver salts can remain.

Although silver metal is non-toxic to mammals, silver salts are poisonous

because of the associated cations, and can result in argyria (2). Also, when

colloidal silver is made by the electrolytic process and salt or sea salt is

added, silver salts will be produced as well. Although, in an emergency,

one would be wise to make one's own silver water using techniques previously

given by Dr. Beck, for long-term use all exposure to silver salts should be

avoided.

 

 

The use of table salt (sodium chloride) will produce some silver chloride.

This is undesirable, and although the amount of silver chloride is limited

by its solubility in cold water to 89 PPM (6), this is still a significant

amount of silver compound compared with the amount in the colloid itself

(5 to 10 PPM).

 

 

The use of sea salt, which many people recommend, is especially

disturbing. Sea salt contains many compounds, including various nitrates and

fluoride. Many of the compounds can combine with silver to produce silver

compounds. Specifically silver can combine with nitrates forming a highly

soluble

and toxic silver nitrate salt and with fluoride producing highly soluble and

toxic silver fluoride. Nitrates in sea salt can run as high as 20 ppm, and

fluorides are typically 40 ppm (7). Therefore colloidal silver should be

only made with pure distilled water to prevent the formation of any toxic

silver compounds. If one must use an accelerating agent, then adding a small

amount of previously produced colloidal silver is recommended, over adding

any type of salt.

 

 

Effectiveness verses particle size

 

Several publications indicate that for absorption through the stomach

wall, particles must be .015 micron (15 nm) or smaller.

 

 

Traditionally, particle size has been determined by electron microscopy.

This technique is quite slow and tedious, resulting in a procedure which is

both slow and inaccurate.

 

 

The absorption band of silver colloids increases in wavelength as the size

of the particles increase. This allows a qualitative measurement on the

particle sizes in a colloid by use of a scanning photospectrometer. Ionic

silver has an absorption band in the UV range and thus is virtually clear. As

more atoms aggregate into a particle, the absorption band moves from the UV

into the violet, blue, green, yellow, orange and red. Since the color of a

substance is the complement of the color absorbed, colloidal silver will go

from clear to very light yellow, gold, orange, red, blue and green. (CC) p

65. Colloids that contain a broad range of sizes can absorb wavelengths

across the spectrum resulting in brown and black. It is generally accepted

that only clear to light gold silver colloids have particle sizes small

enough to be effective, and to be able to reach the blood stream.

 

 

References:

 

 

1. FUNGUS The species specific understanding of, and difference between

bacterial phase and fungal phase developments in blood pictures. Michael

Coyle. Explore! 1997.

 

2. CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics 76th Edition 1995-1996 CRC Press.

David R. Lide Editor in Chief. P 4-27.

 

3. A Use for that last Cup of Coffee: Film and Paper Development. Dr. Scott

Williams. _http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/text-coffee.html_

(http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/text-coffee.html)

 

4. Health Consciousness Magazine Vol 15, No 4.

 

5. The Development and Functions of Silver in Water Purification and

Disease Control. The Silver Institute. Richard Davis & Samual Etris.

 

6. CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics 52th Edition 1971-1972 page B-135

 

7. ibid. F-165

 

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