I would appreciate those who can help with refute on this. Please if you can post referance to source or if you could send entire aritcle I would really appreciate it. I am on a list for people struggling with Hepatitis C. As all list go when ever somone makes a stand on anything but the approved pharmaceutical this stuff comes out of no where. I would like to know the articles on bacteria and resistance to silver, or lack there of. appreciate any info on this. Thanks in advance guys :-)
[Unproven product warning, Univ of Wisconsin Cooperative Extension News Office, Madison 11/11/94] Colloidal Silver Colloidal silver is being touted as a "natural universal antibiotic." It is also said to (guess what) "enhance the immune system" (which seems to have become the universal claim for contemporary quackery!). Promoters claim colloidal silver is useful for HIV/AIDS, cancer, herpes, candidasis, staph & strep infections, shingles, TB, diabetes, as an antiparasitic medication, and more. The FDA is not aware of any substantial evidence which demonstrates that colloidal silver solution is useful to prevent or treat any serious condition, or that it is safe. The substance has not been proved safe or effective. FDA warns that the indiscriminate use of colloidal silver solutions can result in argyria which includes a permanent ashen-grey discoloration of the skin. ************************************** [From "Here's To Your Health" November 1996, by Donald J. Carrow, MD] SILVER ANTIMICROBIAL PRODUCTS Can They Deliver as Promised? A variety of silver-containing products are being marketed as antimicrobial agents and/or immune system stimulators. In some cases literature for these products contains claims for successful treatment of diseases such as tuberculosis, bubonic plague and cholera. Some claim a total absence of toxicity, regardless of the amount of product ingested. I believe that these claims are not only unproven and very unlikely to be factual, but also that they are potentially dangerous to both consumers and sellers. Silver compounds were used to some extent as antimicrobials in antiquity, long before the discovery of bacteria and viruses. In more recent times solutions or salves containing silver salts, and colloidal silver-protein complexes, have been used topically in the treatment or prevention of infections in the eye, nose or throat, and as antiseptics. In these roles, despite their moderate effectiveness, they have largely been replaced by more effective and safer agents. Silver metal itself appears to be ineffective against microbes; it must be ionized to be active. The colloidal silver-protein preparations were once used to prevent colds, but their effectiveness for this has not been demonstrated. To my knowledge, no silver preparation has ever been properly demonstrated to be effective against internal infections, except formerly in the treatment of gonorrhea, by injection into the urethra. It is frequently claimed that silver has been proven effective against hundreds of disease organisms - but these tests have been conducted in test tubes or petri dishes, not in living animals or humans. The major clinical use of silver today is as silver sulfadiazine, the silver salt of a sulfa drug, which is widely used in the treatment of severe bums to prevent or treat infection. Prolonged silver therapy can produce a discoloration of the skin, mucous membranes and internal organs. Known as argyria or argyrism, this blue-black appearance is irreversible. Other adverse effects have been reported and include dermatitis (silver sulfadiazine), ocular toxicity (silver nitrate) and cytotoxicity to white blood cells (from both components of silver sulfadiazine). There have been isolated reports of more serious adverse effects from use of silver products, and industrial exposures have also resulted in systemic complaints and argyria. Medline literature searches have not yielded articles indicating other antimicrobial uses for silver or any immune stimulating effects. The majority of articles which were found relate to silver sulfadiazine or uses of silver compounds incorporated into devises such as catheters to reduce the risk of infection. In 1995, The Food & Drug Administration issued a FRAUDULENT HEALTH BULLETIN No. 19 devoted to colloidal silver products. The policy statement in this bulletin says in part, 'We are not aware of any substantial scientific evidence which demonstrated that any OTC colloidal silver solution is useful to prevent or treat any serious disease condition. Colloidal silver products are misbranded when they're labeling falsely represents or suggests that there is substantial scientific evidence to establish that the drugs are safe and effective for their intended uses". Most of us are aware of the rapid development of antibiotic resistance by pathogens and the chilling prospect of a future in which infectious diseases are increasingly difficult to treat. Unfortunately, silver products do not provide any reasonable substitute for antibiotics and, even within its very limited range of use, the rapid development of bacterial resistance to silver is well known. Consumers should not be misled about the usefulness of these products. Despite the glowing claims, these products will neither prevent nor treat pneumonia in the elderly or the common infections of the very young. -- The silver-list is a moderated forum for discussion of colloidal silver. To join or quit silver-list or silver-digest send an e-mail message to: [email protected] -or- [email protected] with the word subscribe or unsubscribe in the subject: line. To post, address your message to: [email protected] List maintainer: Mike Devour <[email protected]>
