Sunday, October 31, 2010

Colloidal Silver and Colds: A Safe, Simple and FAST Way to Stop Colds Before They Get Started!

Dr. Mercola once recommended putting a couple of drops of standard household 3% hydrogen peroxide into your ears, using an eye dropper, the moment you feel a cold or flu coming on.

His rationale was that many viral infections actually start in the ears, and then spread. And that hydrogen peroxide could halt the process at its inception by killing the viruses before they spread throughout the respiratory tract.

This idea was apparently based on the work of Richard Simmons, M.D., who, way back in 1928, first hypothesized that colds and flu virus enter through the ear canal.

Dr. Simmons’ findings were dismissed by the medical community. But of course, the medical community has off-handedly dismissed many helpful and healthful ideas, only to find out 20 or 40 or even 60 years later those ideas were true.

My Personal Experience

So…the very next time I felt a cold coming on, I tried this idea at bedtime. I put three drops of hydrogen peroxide in my ears, one ear at a time. I could hear and feel the peroxide bubbling like mad in my ears.

And the very next day all cold symptoms were gone! The key, apparently, is that you have to catch the cold just as it is beginning. Once it's full blown and the viruses have spread into the respiratory system, it's too late.

But…I discovered there was a potential PROBLEM with this method...

...For several days after using the hydrogen peroxide drops in my ears, I got the distinct impression that it had slightly burnt the soft tissue on the inside of my ears and even diminished my hearing a bit. The slight stinging feeling eventually subsided. But...

Using Colloidal Silver in the Ears, Instead…

...The next time I felt a cold coming on, I used COLLOIDAL SILVER in my ears, instead of hydrogen peroxide. I used three drops of 10 ppm homemade colloidal silver in each ear.

Here’s what I did:

I simply laid down on one side, and used an eye dropper to administer the three drops. Then I waited six to eight minutes and turned over and drained the colloidal silver into a tissue.

Then I laid down on my other side and repeated the process in the other ear. Wow...

...what a difference! No burning or stinging sensation whatsoever. In fact, it was remarkably soothing, instead. No perceptible hearing loss afterwards. And once more the budding cold was knocked out before it could fully take hold.

It's an interesting and very simple remedy – much safer, in my opinion than the use of hydrogen peroxide in the ears.

And since that time I've used it successfully many, many times to stop fledgling colds from becoming full-blown colds.

Works great on kids with symptoms of a fledgling cold, too!

Do YOU Have Any Unusual Uses for Colloidal Silver?

There are many other unusual uses for colloidal silver discussed at the Colloidal Silver Success Stories web site.

Or you can find more at the Testimonials page at The Silver Edge web site.

How about you? Do you have any unusual ways to use colloidal silver?

Please join us on the Colloidal Silver Secrets Group on Facebook where you can share your most unusual ways to use colloidal silver with more than 2,500 avid colloidal silver users!

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Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Bob Beck: Numerous Ways to Use Colloidal Silver

A Few Unique, Plus Traditional Uses for Colloidal Silver

By Dr. Robert C. Beck, Ph.D.

[Dr. Robert C. Beck, Ph.D., more popularly known as Bob Beck, was the original colloidal silver guru, and early proponent of the home colloidal silver generator. He was a well-known inventor of popular electro-medical and electro-magnetic devices widely used in the natural health community, a speaker at numerous health conferences, a critic of Big Pharma and the FDA, and a tireless advocate of natural healing. Dr. Beck passed away at the age of 77 in 2002. Here is an early article he wrote on the myriad of health-enhancing ways you can use colloidal silver on a daily basis, when you own a high-quality colloidal silver generator and can therefore produce colloidal silver for pennies per gallon…]

When you control a source of pennies-per-gallon, make-it-yourself silver colloid you can use it for hundreds of health improvement applications.

A few are suggested here.

You can use most tap water to make silver colloid for industrial and external uses, and use distilled or de-ionized water for internal applications.

Here are just a few ways to use it:

· Add to drinking water when traveling or camping.

· Colloid sprayed burns heal rapidly without scarring.

· Safely sterilize anything from toothbrushes to surgical instruments.

· Use topically on cuts, wounds, abrasions, rashes, sunburn, razor nicks, bandages.

· Spray on garbage to prevent decay odors.

· Mist kitchen sponges, towels, cutting boards to eliminate E. Coli 0157:H7 and salmonella bacteria to prevent food poisoning, gastrointestinal inflammation, and genital tract infections.

· Add when canning, preserving, bottling.

· Use like peroxide on zits and acne.

· Add to juices to enhance shelf-life.

· Add to milk to delay spoiling, fermenting, deteriorating, clabbering or curdling.

· Spray in shoes, between toes, between legs to stop most skin itch, athlete’s foot, fungi, jock itch.

· Diminish dandruff, psoriasis, skin rashes, etc.

· Add to bath water, gargle, douches, colon irrigation, nasal spray and dental water-pic solutions.

· Cuts downtime dramatically with colds, flu, pneumonia, staph, strep, respiratory infections and rhino viruses.

· Skin itch, eye and ear infections, some moles and warts vanish when colloid is sprayed on body after bathing.

· Use with Q-tip on fingernail, toenail, and ear fungi.

· Neutralize tooth decay and bad breath. Silver colloid stops halitosis by eliminating bacteria deep in throat and on back of tongue. Unlike pharmaceutical antibiotics, silver colloid never permits strain-resistant pathogens to evolve.

· Put a few drops on band-aids and bandages to shorten healing times.

· Health professionals might consider IV and IM injections. Tumor and polyp shrinking is reported when masses are injected directly (when colloid is added in correct proportions to sterile physiological saline or Ringer's Solution which contains ~9000 ppm sodium chloride).

· Toothaches, mouth sores, bacterial irritations are diminished.

· Soak dentures to reduce bacterial count and help prevent mouth infections.

· Spray refrigerator, freezer and food storage bin interiors.

· Stop mildew and wood rot.

· Mix in postage stamp, envelope, and tape moistening wells, paint and paste pots to prevent bacterial growth, odors, spoiling or souring.

· Add to water based paints, wallpaper paste, dishwasher, cleaning and mopping solutions, etc.

· Spray pet bedding and let dry.

· Spray on top of contents of opened jam, jelly, and condiment containers and inside lids before replacing.

· Mix a little in pet water, birdbaths, cut flower vases.

· Always add to swamp cooler water.

· Spray air conditioner filters after cleaning.

· Swab air ducts and vents to prevent breeding sites for germs.

· Use routinely in laundry final rinse water and always before packing away seasonal clothes.

· Damp clothes or towels and washcloths will not sour or mildew.

· Eliminate unwanted microorganisms in planter soils and hydroponics systems.

· Spray plant foliage to stop fungi, molds, rot, and most plant diseases.

· Treat pools, fountains, humidifiers, Jacuzzis, hot tubs, baths, dishwashers, re-circulating cooling tower water, gymnasium foot dips, and bath and shower mats.

· Spray inside shoes, watch bands and gloves and under fingernails periodically.

· Treat shower stalls, tubs, fonts, animal watering troughs, shavers to avoid trading germs.

· Rinse fruit and vegetables before storing or using.

· Put in cooking water.

· Human and animal shampoos become disinfectants.

· Prevent carpets, drapes, wallpaper from mildewing.

· Wipe telephone mouthpieces, pipe sterns, headphones, hearing aids, eyeglass frames, hairbrushes, combs, loofas.

· Excellent for diapers and diaper rash.

· Spray toilet seats, bowls, tile floors, sinks, urinals, doorknobs to disinfect.

· Kill persistent odors by spraying area.

· Rinse pillowcases, sheets, towels and bedclothes.

There are literally thousands of other essential uses for this ridiculously inexpensive, odorless, tasteless, colorless, totally benign and easily produced powerful non-toxic disinfectant and healing agent.

You'll find that a spray or misting bottle of silver colloid solution may be the most useful health enhancement tool in your environment.

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Using Colloidal Silver With 35% Food Grade Hydrogen Peroxide (H202)

A member of the popular Colloidal Silver Secrets Group on Facebook recently presented the following question:

“Steve, what are your thoughts on adding the ratio of 1:1000 of 35% food grade hydrogen peroxide to colloidal silver?

I see a lot of posts about this on the net. They say in order to make a proper colloidal silver solution where the majority of the silver in the liquid, at least 85%, is ionized and suspended in water. They say hydrogen peroxide has been shown to greatly increase the efficacy of the colloidal silver solution. The hydrogen peroxide breaks apart and reduces the size of the ionized silver particles.

Steve is this true or are they a bunch of quacks? I imagine you have read about this process. I am very interested in hearing your thoughts on this.”

Since I receive variations on this question at least several times a month, it’s obviously time to address it.

Here’s My Answer:

Let me state first that I understand there is a long history in the use of hydrogen peroxide for healing. I’ve read many works on the topic. I’ve used it myself, sparingly. I prefer colloidal silver.

That said, at this time I'm a skeptic on the question of adding hydrogen peroxide to colloidal silver for the purpose of ingesting it to help fight internal infections.

I have used the combination of these two substances for external (i.e., topical) purposes, as I’ll explain later, below. But until there is more evidence for its safety, I cannot advocate the combination of hydrogen peroxide with colloidal silver for internal use.

Here’s why…

The use of small amounts of hydrogen peroxide combined with colloidal silver is based on a studies conducted at water treatment plants – not in human usage. In these water treatment plant studies, silver particles and small amounts of hydrogen peroxide were combined in an attempt to curb the growth of water-borne bacteria.

The upshot of the studies was that the combination of hydrogen peroxide with silver particles produced significantly greater bacterial "killing power" in the water treatment plants than either of the two substances by themselves.

This has led some colloidal silver users to conjecture that combining small amounts of hydrogen peroxide and colloidal silver, and drinking it, will increase the bacterial “killing power” of the substances in the human body.

No Studies

To my knowledge, there has NEVER been a study to determine how the reaction between these two substances works in the human body, for good or for bad.

I say this because, while I defend everyone's right to experiment on themselves if they want to (as I reserve this same right for myself), my goal is to promote the safe, sane and responsible use of colloidal silver.

It would simply be irresponsible of me to fail to tell you there are no safety studies on the internal ingestion of colloidal silver and hydrogen peroxide combined.

What’s more, there are no studies demonstrating most of the supposed attributes of combining hydrogen peroxide with colloidal silver, such as the idea that this combination somehow makes the silver particles “more bioavailable” in the human body. It’s all pure conjecture.

Caustic Combination

Please note that silver and hydrogen peroxide are a caustic combination – caustic meaning corrosive, capable of burning, corroding, dissolving, or eating away by chemical action.

Indeed, combined in the right amounts, silver and hydrogen peroxide are an absolutely explosive combination -- so much so that these two substances were used to power our country's rockets in the early days of our national rocket program after WWI and WWII.

Indeed, when silver and hydrogen peroxide meet, pure, flammable oxygen is thrown off at a very furious rate. The powerful reaction between these two substances begins rapidly, and can continue for hours depending upon the amount of silver and the amount of H202 in the solution.

A quote from the How Stuff Works web site:

“Hydrogen peroxide's chemical formula is H2O2. When it comes into contact with silver, the silver acts as a catalyst. The reaction frees the extra oxygen atom to produce water, and also generates a lot of heat. The heat turns the water into steam, which the engine can eject at a very high speed through a rocket nozzle.”

A Simple Demonstration

You can demonstrate the explosive nature of these two substances for yourself by taking 35% food grade hydrogen peroxide and pouring some into an eight ounce glass container, and then dropping two 6" pieces of pure silver wire into the glass. The reaction will be so strong it will actually bubble over violently onto the table, and it will keep doing so for hours afterwards.

What's more, if you touch it with your bare hands it will burn your skin. (Of course, 35% food grade hydrogen peroxide will burn your skin anyway, but adding silver to it makes an even more caustic end product; it will also blind you if you get it into your eyes).

You can do a safer version of this experiment using typical household 3% hydrogen peroxide. It won't bubble nearly as much as the 35% food grade hydrogen peroxide. But the reaction will nevertheless be substantial.

Of course, I understand that the ratio of hydrogen peroxide combined with colloidal silver (1:1000 H202 to colloidal silver) discussed on the internet sites advocating this combination for internal use against infections are extremely miniscule compared to the examples above.

So please understand I’m definitely not saying if you combine H202 with colloidal silver at a 1:1000 ratio, you’ll get rocket fuel. You won’t. And it won’t bubble over all over your floor. In fact, the reaction will be basically unnoticeable to the human eye.

But…there will nevertheless be a caustic reaction taking place between silver and the hydrogen peroxide when combined in ANY ratio.

And most importantly of all, there is simply no way to know what kind of potential damage to soft tissue inside the body this ongoing caustic reaction between the two substances may cause when ingested -- particularly if this combination is used on a regular, daily basis.

The one and only commercial colloidal silver and H202 product I ever used internally left my stomach feeling “burned” for hours afterwards. I must admit, that is the source of my skepticism for the use of this combination of substances together.

Pure Conjecture/Zero Evidence

Most of the internet web sites touting the use of this combination for internal, infection-fighting purposes, state that adding one part H202 (hydrogen peroxide) to one thousand parts colloidal silver "enhances the colloidal silver" and "increases bioavailability of the silver particles."

In reality, there is ZERO evidence for either of these statements. I've never seen a study proving this contention. It is pure conjecture.

Any positive antibacterial results from using the combination of colloidal silver and hydrogen peroxide internally are most likely a result of the very well known fact that incredible amounts of oxygen is liberated when silver comes into contact with hydrogen peroxide – not from any theorized “enhancement” to the silver particles.

After all, certain classes of infectious microbes -- known as anaerobic pathogens -- do not fare well in the presence of increased oxygen. Higher oxygen levels literally wipe them out.

So I don't question the increased bacterial "killing power" of the combination of colloidal silver and hydrogen peroxide. Theoretically, it should work. I know from personal experience that it does work topically.

I only question its safety inside the human body, and in regards specifically to its potential harmful effects on the soft tissues surrounding the internal organs.

The Question Remains

So for me, the question remains, what happens in the human body when silver and peroxide are combined, resulting in a caustic release of millions of bursts of oxygen over, say, a period of 20 or 30 minutes after ingestion? Think about it as a potential internal "slow burn."

Here are some questions I’d like to see answered:

Has the much-touted 1:1000 ratio of food grade H202 to colloidal silver ever really been tested for safety in humans? How was this ratio arrived at? Or was it simply made up, based upon conjecture and extrapolation from the waste water treatment plant experiments?

Again, my chief concern is this: What happens to the soft tissues surrounding the internal organs of the human body when this combination is ingested?

Experimentation

I have no problem with people experimenting with this combination, as long as they recognize they are EXPERIMENTING on themselves. It is perfectly fine with me.

However, I've read the web sites that tout the use of H202 and colloidal silver, and from what I've seen so far, it is all conjecture and faddish extrapolation -- just like the "adding cayenne pepper to colloidal silver" fad was several years ago, and the "adding MSM to colloidal silver" fad (which led to argyria in several cases I know of) was in previous years.

I'd certainly like to hear from some other knowledgeable colloidal silver users on this fascinating subject, nevertheless.

My ONLY Hydrogen Peroxide and Colloidal Silver Protocol at Present: Eliminating Bleeding Gums and Plaque

While my position may change on this subject as more reliable and less speculative information comes to light, I currently do not recommend the internal use of hydrogen peroxide and colloidal silver in combination, at any ratio.

However, for external purposes I have used – and continue to use -- a combination of very miniscule amounts of hydrogen peroxide and colloidal silver – specifically, for eliminating bleeding gums and plaque.

Here's what I do:

I use a toothpaste product called Hydroxy Tooth Gel from Dr. Donsbach, which contains a very, very small amount of stabilized hydrogen peroxide.

Hydrogen peroxide by itself is highly antimicrobial. It kills the plaque bacteria that adhere to the teeth and cause plaque buildup and eventual decay.

But what I do is put the hydrogen peroxide tooth gel on my toothbrush and then spray it with a couple of sprays of 5 ppm colloidal silver from a pump spray bottle.

As I mentioned, hydrogen peroxide reacts very strongly to silver. That's because silver acts as a catalyst when exposed to hydrogen peroxide. You would not want to use regular, full-strength hydrogen peroxide in your mouth, and you certainly would not want to use regular, full-strength hydrogen peroxide together with colloidal silver in your mouth, as the two products together can be very caustic, and possibly damage the soft tissue of the gums and lower palate over time.

However, the very small amount of hydrogen peroxide in Dr. Donsbach's Hydroxy Tooth Gel tooth gel mixes well with a few sprays of colloidal silver. It is not caustic at all -- at least not in my personal experience. You can see it start to bubble just a tiny bit when you spray the colloidal silver directly onto the tooth gel on my toothbrush.

I then brush my teeth with this mixture.

The results?

My bleeding, sensitive gums have healed up completely. It took a few weeks, but there is no more bleeding at all, and I now have very little gum sensitivity or discomfort.

What’s more, I’ve had no more cavities in several years now.

If you have bleeding gums, it's an idea you might want to try on an experimental basis to see how it works out for yourself – keeping in mind of course the fact that combining any amount of hydrogen peroxide with silver can be caustic and as a result may harm soft tissue wherever applied.

P.S. I’ve been an advocate for the safe, sane and common-sense usage of colloidal silver for over a decade and a half now. And I know my skeptical opinion on the use of hydrogen peroxide with colloidal silver is not going to sit well with the purveyors of this technique.

Some defenders of this technique will claim I’m over-dramatizing the situation in order to scare people away. I’m not. I’m just urging caution and common-sense.

I also realize there are colloidal silver users out there who believe everything they read on the internet (after all, “If it’s writ down, it must be true!” to quote late night TV’s Craig Ferguson), and have already bought into this technique based upon what they’ve read on other web sites, and therefore will want to criticize me for my skeptical opinion.

I don’t care. I’m a big boy. I can handle the criticism, however misplaced.

But I must ask: If the internal use of hydrogen peroxide in colloidal silver was really safe, why are the web sites touting it so full of disclaimers and weasel words like “experimental combination” and “it is possible that…” or “it is likely that…”?

In my opinion, the reason for the use of so many weasel words is that the purveyors of this combination of hydrogen peroxide and colloidal silver have no proof of their claims, other than the two wastewater treatment plant studies that had nothing whatsoever to do with the use of hydrogen peroxide combined with colloidal silver in the human body.

Over time, more evidence will come in regarding this combination of substances. And I for one hope it is positive. But in the meantime, with only speculation and conjecture to go on, I must remain a skeptic.

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