View Full Version : Colloidal Silver
harlequin
15-06-2007, 17:07
Not sure if I've posted in the right place (where else?) but a part of my FAK is a small bottle of colloidal silver. This has tremendous antibacterial and disinfectant properties. I know it is sometimes regarded as a bit of a 'quack cure' but for bushcrafters it's excellent. Most injuries to deal with are small cuts and nicks. This fits the bill admirably well - disinfects and speeds healing. When I've used it the healing is almost visibly faster!
Some of the more 'adventurous' claims for this chemical can/should be taken with a pinch of salt, but for our bushcrafting purposes it's admirable.
What do you think?
Harly
P.S. Under no circumstances should you buy this chemical! The prices are ridiculous (with a capital 'R'!). Buy a generator kit and make your own.
Hunter_zero
15-06-2007, 17:19
Not sure if I've posted in the right place (where else?) but a part of my FAK is a small bottle of colloidal silver. This has tremendous antibacterial and disinfectant properties. I know it is sometimes regarded as a bit of a 'quack cure' but for bushcrafters it's excellent. Most injuries to deal with are small cuts and nicks. This fits the bill admirably well - disinfects and speeds healing. When I've used it the healing is almost visibly faster!
Some of the more 'adventurous' claims for this chemical can/should be taken with a pinch of salt, but for our bushcrafting purposes it's admirable.
What do you think?
Harly
P.S. Under no circumstances should you buy this chemical! The prices are ridiculous (with a capital 'R'!). Buy a generator kit and make your own.
Well give us some more info!! Where do you buy the kits? How is it made?
Thanks
John
Squidders
15-06-2007, 18:06
Colloidal liquids are basically a fluid medium with particles of something in them that are well dispersed. I'm aware of some antibacterial properties of silver but i'm not sure I'd want to be pouring the stuff in to an open wound... that's not to say I'm against the idea... just that I'd like to have a read up on it.
Have you got any original source material we could read through?
Cheers,
Joe
Sorry ,Guys , but it sounds very much like one of those (cica 1740) old cures for the clap,
Ceeg
It gets a really good rep for disinfecting but.....there are folks who end up looking like ghouls because of it. They ingest the stuff and end up with dull matt grey skin. They really look like the dead not very much warmed up and the result is permanent.
Good stuff, handle with care.
cheers,
Toddy
The skin condition is called argyria.
Links below.
cheers,
Toddy
http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/PhonyAds/silverad.html
http://www.uk-cs.co.uk/research.htm
http://nccam.nih.gov/health/alerts/silver/index.htm
harlequin
15-06-2007, 18:52
Ok here's a link http://www.utopiasilver.com/generator.htm,usual usual addenda not affiliated etc.
I've bought a kit from this site. The best thing is the tester that comes with the kit to tell you the parts per million so you can make your own strength.
The fears of argyria are a bit of scare tactics. The benefits of this stuff is that it costs very little to make and it is very effective at what it does. A brief google will bring you all the scare stories (1) and image(s). To suffer from argyria the guy must have been drinking the stuff by the bottleload. I'm not one of these people that say the establishment is out to get you, but this stuff is cheap and effective. Pharmecuetical companies do not like this.
Let's put it into perspective; to make an effective solution it should be of a strengnth of 5-8 parts per million. This is very diluted and yet is still effective. To turn your skin grey how much do you think you would have to drink.
A preventative dose is 1-2 drops per day, if you use it that way, which is not about the application we are talking about here, and you think that is going to turn your skin grey, think again.
All this aside, I use it and find it very effective.
Harly
What is the preventative dose preventing?
The argyria is an all too real side effect of ingestion of colloidal silver. There are two ladies in Hamilton ( a few miles away from here) who have this condition from using silver.
I'm not scaremongering, just advising caution. As I said, it's good stuff, but please use with care.
http://www.together.net/~rjstan/rose2.html
cheers,
Toddy
Well, each to their own but I've just read enough not to touch it with a barge pole - I'd prefer a small bottle of dettol.
There are plenty of reports of argyria in the medical literature - it's rare, yes, but as Toddy says, real.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=pubmed <-- type argyria in the dialogue box
harlequin
15-06-2007, 19:26
The preventative dose is to prevent you from asking awkward questions!:joke:
You can go and research the other 'claims' for this chemical but that is not what I'm advocating. All I'm saying is it is a very effective disinfectant and promotes healing of skin trauma (cuts etc.).
I'm talking from experience that your small cuts etc. will heal almost twice as fast.
Harly
Wouldnt want to put it near my eyes, from my silversmithing I kow people go blind from silver dust.
Not sure about the exposure or medical backing to this, but just that thought is enough for me to be a little suspect.
Mind you, i know very little, so will read a little :-)
c
Most of the uses of colloidal silver is quackery, there is no empirical evidence that it works, to tell the truth there is more evidence that it does not work, and that prolonged use is actual harmful. Studies have shown that silver builds up in the tissues of the body. In humans, the build-up of silver from colloidal silver can lead to a side effect called argyria. (http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/tfacts146.html) it causes a bluish-grey discoloration of the skin, other organs, deep tissues, nails, and gums. Argyria cannot be treated or reversed, and it is permanent. Colloidal silver is a poisonous substance, and should not be used, by anyone with fully understanding the risks. Spray it on your skin fine, coat your clothes with it, to keep the smell down, fine. Ingest it at your peril
Northern Giant UK
15-06-2007, 19:47
Can you get colloidal gold?
Us pale skinned northern giants dream of a golden suntan (and it looks permenent) :D
JK.
Kev
Can you get colloidal gold?
Us pale skinned northern giants dream of a golden suntan (and it looks permenent) :D
JK.
Kev
Yeah but knowing our luck it'd accumulate preferentially in the freckles, and we'd all look like we'd gotten hit with the Xmas spray paint stuff :rolleyes:
:D
Toddy
Northern Giant UK
15-06-2007, 21:27
Yeah but knowing our luck it'd accumulate preferentially in the freckles, and we'd all look like we'd gotten hit with the Xmas spray paint stuff :rolleyes:
:D
Toddy
True. . .would look good in the clubs tho :lmao:
Kev
I suspect I've absorbed enough silver through my skin from photographic chemistry to last me a life time.
To say nothing of the case of metol dermatitis I got some years back....:sigh:
Eric_Methven
15-06-2007, 23:04
It's funny how silver keeps croping up throughout history as a benefit to health and wellbeing.
In days gone by, when disease was rife, infants who were teething would be given a wooden spoon to gnaw on to help their teeth break through. Sometimes they became ill and the infant mortality rate was quite high (for many reasons).
In wealthier families, the teething child would often be given a spoon of silver to gnaw on and it was believed that this helped ward off infection and the child would have a better chance of surviving infancy.
It's where the saying 'Born with a silver spoon in his mouth' came from.
Eric
I just came across an ad on a different site to plasters with silver:
http://www.elastoplast.co.uk/silverhealing/
I wish they'd back up their claims with a wee bit of evidence though :)
Dr Onion
20-06-2007, 10:01
I have some snake oil if anyone's interested?!!!
;) :D