Kevin: Always love the way you think. I think this concern is worthy of consideration. Children in particular, who are developing immune systems, need to actually experience pathogen-derived illness in order to build their immune systems to begin with. When people relocate, their immune systems need to adjust to the new climate and local pathogens as well.
However, try to think in percentages. CS, of course, is not an antibiotic. It is anti-microbal. It's been described as "broad-spectrum", a term loosely borrowed from the medical antibiotic field. Ideally, when people are subject to a new type of bacterial or viral illness, they "catch" the illness, fight it off, and build up resistance without the individual really even knowing they acquired a new illness. This, of course, is IDEALLY, when conditions in the body are perfect and the pathogens themselves not "geared" to defeat this process. I don't buy that silver has immune system supressing tendencies - not only does this go against common sense ( CS is not REALLY a drug ) but it goes against my personal experience as well. I believe that it truly SUPPORTS the immune system, just like drinking water supports the immune system. The only real danger in regards to your questions would occur IF every illness-causing organism were killed before being subject to the immune system. While this is certainly possible, I consider it unlikely, because colloidal silver does not TARGET anything. It is the exact same way with bentonite and healing clays. If you think in percentages of pathogens eliminated, and what it takes to actually experience symptoms of an illness, then it is pretty clear that small maintenance doses would only augment the function of the immune system and not replace it, unlike many antibiotics. Of course, no real research, to my knowledge, has been done on the subject. The greater concern is that the body itself adjusts to silver use, and becomes increasingly effective in eliminating it from the body, therefore requiring larger doses more often for the same effectiveness in the event that one does get ill. However, this is not even related to silver effectiveness. I even think that colloidal silver is safer for long-term use than herbs such as Echinacea, which can over-stimulate the immune system. I think that preventative use of colloidal silver must have some consequence on immune system function, but I don't believe it is setting the body up to be hammered in the event of cessation of use. I think other factors, such as diet, have a far greater impact in this area. ----- Original Message ----- From: Kevin Nolan To: [email protected] Sent: Friday, October 26, 2001 10:06 PM Subject: CS>Too much of a good thing? Back in the 1920's I think, there was a severe Polio epidemic, affecting mainly children. My father remarked that it was the kids of the well-to-do that succumbed far more often those of the poorer neighbourhoods. This was put down to the increased sanitary standards among the upper class - little contact with germs meant "unexercised" immune systems incapable of fighting off the polio virus. Similarly today, westerners holidaying in places like Egypt, India, Mexico etc are, without the customary "shots", easy prey to diseases that the locals for the most part are quite immune to. Could it be that a similar danger exists for long term prophylactic CS usage? Many on this list seem to do just that. While great for knocking out both acute and chronic infections, I for one don't like the idea of developing a dependence that would leave me overly vulnerable to any passing bug if for whatever reason I was not in a position to regularly inbibe CS. Is this fear warranted or not? Let's hear it from the medical types, or perhaps those with personal experience. I think this is an important issue worthy of a FAQ placing. If the issue has already been adequately dealt with, please direct us to the relevant entries. regards, Kevin Nolan [email protected]
