Colloidal Silver and Mycoplasma Infections: Examining the Anecdotal Evidence

[Preface: A number of the anecdotal reports and suggestions from experts covered in the article below might lead readers to conclude that the only way to use colloidal silver against mycoplasmas infections is to use extremely high quantities or high concentrations on a daily basis for the rest of your life.

I want to point out in advance that this is a contention I strongly disagree with.

Nevertheless, I've decided to post this article in its entirety -- including the anecdotal reports in which high daily dosages of colloidal silver are reported to have been used to control mycoplasmas infections.
Why? Because as a journalist I believe in reporting the whole story -- even if some of the details seem to fly in the face of what I would consider to be safe, responsible and common sense colloidal silver usage.

So please understand that I report on this subject not because I agree with every detail of the anecdotal evidence on behalf of using colloidal silver against mycoplasmas infections, but instead, because I believe that holding back the information is wrong. People should be able to make their own decisions, and have all of the information at hand.

So I count on you dear reader, to exercise your own common sense and understanding when deciding how much colloidal silver to use if you are ever in the unenviable position of having to fight off a serious mycoplasmas infection and you decide to do so through natural means including colloidal silver.

I’m an long-time enthusiastic advocate of colloidal silver, because I've found it to be singularly invaluable to myself, my wife, my family and many of my friends as well as to the literally thousands of people I've interviewed over the years in the course of writing my book, The Ultimate Colloidal Silver Manual.

At the same time, however, I want people to understand that there are risks involved in EVERYTHING, especially when excessive usage of a substance is involved -- and that includes colloidal silver usage. We’ll discuss some of those risks in the below article, as well as ways to dramatically reduce those risks when using colloidal silver to control mycoplasmas infections.

If I had to give my own personal, non-medical advice in the matter of colloidal silver usage for serious conditions like mycoplasmas infection, it would be this: Follow the advice of an experienced health practitioner...use moderation and common sense in all things...and don’t do anything rash just because someone’s anecdotal account says it’s okay. Conduct your own due diligence. And always take responsibility for your own decisions.

With those words as a preface, here’s the article on colloidal silver and mycoplasmas infections I’ve been promising for some time now…]

What Is Mycoplasma?

What are mycoplasmas, and what’s the big deal about mycoplasmas infections?

Mycoplasmas are said to be the the smallest free-living organism known on the planet. And some species of mycoplasma are highly infectious and can cause serious chronic degenerative disease.

But unlike conventional pathogens, mycoplasmas are unique in that they lack a rigid cell membrane. Instead of the traditional rigid bacterial cell membrane, they have a very fluid, gel or lipid-like outer surface.

This lack of a rigid cell wall enables them to change form at will, and move through the body in ways that other pathogens cannot, colonizing tissues, invading other cells with impunity and playing “hide and seek” within the body’s immune system.

According to Dr. Lida Holmes Mattman, these “cell wall deficient forms easily move between groups of cells and fuse together to facilitate ‘genetic experiments’ within the body” frequently triggering or exacerbating numerous types of illness and disease.

According to Donald Scott, MA, MSc, President of The Common Cause Medical Research Foundation:

“The mycoplasma acts by entering into the individual cells of the body. Depending upon your genetic predisposition, you may develop neurological diseases if the pathogen destroys certain cells in your brain, or you may develop Crohn's colitis if the pathogen invades and destroys cells in the lower bowel.

Once the mycoplasma gets into the cell, it can lie there doing nothing sometimes for 10, 20 or 30 years. But if a trauma occurs like an accident or even a vaccination that doesn't take, the mycoplasma can become triggered.”

Stealth Pathogens

This is one reason why mycoplasmas are frequently referred to by researchers as “stealth pathogens.”

For decades medical researchers believed that mycoplasmas and related microorganisms were extremely rare, and probably harmless.

That’s because these insidious microorganisms were virtually undetectable by standard medical technology because of their size and their unique ability to burrow deeply within the tissues and cells of the human body and hide.

But research using a new and highly sophisticated medical technology called DNA-PCR testing has demonstrated that mycoplasmas are far more common than anyone had ever realized.

Dr. Garth Nicholson, M.D.

Highly trained medical detectives who are skilled in using this new technology – such as the highly respected Dr. Garth Nicholson, M.D. of the Institute for Molecular Medicine in Newport Beach, California – now believe that the mycoplasmas family of pathogens are in many cases either the chief causative agents involved in the onset of numerous forms of auto-immune and chronic degenerative disease, or co-factors in those diseases.

In fact, what Dr. Nicholson has discovered in the course of his research with DNA-PCR testing has blown the science behind chronic degenerative disease wide open.

He found that virtually ALL forms of auto-immune, neurological and chronic degenerative disease can have at their very basis these tiny, difficult to detect microorganisms that literally wreak havoc on the human body from deep inside the tissues and cells.

The list of disease that can be caused or triggered by mycoplasma infection is long and includes rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis, Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS), chronic fatigue syndrome, Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease, and even certain forms of cancer!

Researchers Agree

Many other prominent medical researchers now agree with Dr. Nicholson.

For example, Dr Shyh-Ching Lo, senior researcher at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology and one of America’s top mycoplasmas researchers, now forthrightly asserts that the various types of mycoplasmas are causative agents in numerous illnesses including cancer, chronic fatigue syndrome, Crohn’s colitis, Type II diabetes, multiple sclerosis (MS), Parkinson’s disease, Wegener’s disease, and collagen-vascular diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and Alzheimer’s (see Nexus Magazine, Volume 8, Number 5 August-September 2001).

D.J. Fletcher of the famous San Diego Clinic concurs, saying, “Practitioners at SDC have seen evidence that mycoplasma are highly active in 80% of their cancer patients and are also involved in the autoimmune process, playing a role in conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis.”

And even Dr Charles Engel, who is with the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, stated at an NIH meeting on February 7, 2000: “I am now of the view that the probable cause of chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia and other forms of chronic degenerative disease is the mycoplasma...”

Dr. Nenah Sylver states:

“Mycoplasmas can live anywhere in the body, stealing nutrients from the host cells. These pathogens invade organs, blood, spinal fluid, bone marrow, urine, lungs, nose, mouth, and nervous system. They even cross the blood/brain barrier, and are known to infect developing fetuses.

Slow-growing, they can remain in the system for years and even decades, until chemicals, sizable emotional stress, injury, vaccination, or other trauma sets them off.

Mycoplasma can bind with virtually any cell type and interfere with protein, RNA, and DNA synthesis. The resulting cellular abnormalities can result in cancer.

The ability of mycoplasma to invade the body’s lymphocytes, bind to them, and reduce their numbers, considerably weakens immunity so the person is susceptible to many other infections as well.

When a mycoplasma emerges from a cell, it can take a piece of the host cell membrane with it. Later, the immune system attacking the mycoplasma cannot differentiate the mycoplasma from the body’s own cells and attacks the host cells, too. This is the beginning of all types of autoimmune conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s Disease, fibromyalgia, thyroid and adrenal dysfunction, Lupus, Multiple Sclerosis, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and others.

Other mycoplasma-triggered diseases can include Gulf War Syndrome / Gulf War Illness, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), chemical sensitivity, HIV/AIDS, and Alzheimer’s.”

Why You May Already Be Infected!

But that’s not all. According to Nexus magazine, Dr Maurice Hilleman, chief virologist for the pharmaceutical company Merck Sharp & Dohme, has recently stated that this insidious disease-causing agent is now carried by just about everybody in North America and possibly most people throughout the world.

And how did we all get infected with this tiny but potentially deadly disease-causing pathogen?

The emerging consensus among cutting edge medical researchers is that most humans were inadvertently vaccinated with them. “Some of the more common contaminants of commercial vaccines are mycoplasmas,” asserts Dr. Garth Nicholson in a research paper he recently delivered to some of the nation’s top medical authorities.

He continues, “These tiny microorganisms do not have rigid cell walls like most bacteria; instead they possess fluid lipid outer surfaces like tiny jellyfish, and because of this they can squeeze, bend and move into tight spaces. They can also slide right through laboratory and hospital filters used to produce or maintain sterility – making them one of the most common contaminants in diagnostic laboratories and vaccine manufacturing.”

Does Colloidal Silver Kill Mycoplasmas?

It's been widely reported that Dr. Darryl See, M.D., former co-director of the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia Clinic at the University of California at Irvine has had incredible success using ultra-small particle colloidal silver to treat patients with chronic degenerative diseases associated with mycoplasmas pathogens.

In published reports Dr. See says he has witnessed the DNA-PCR tests of patients with known mycoplasmas infections turn from positive to negative with the use of ultra-small particle colloidal silver (see Arthritis and Infections: The Hidden Link, Health Sciences Institute, Vol. 2, #10, April 1998.)

This, of course, offers profound hope to millions who suffer from the debilitating infections and the subsequent chronic degenerative diseases these insidious microorganisms can trigger or exacerbate.

Anecdotal Evidence

Unfortunately, there’s been very little additional clinical research conducted on the treatment of mycoplasma infections with colloidal silver since Dr. See’s work in the late 1990’s.

Yet since that time colloidal silver has become one of the most popular natural treatments in existence for mycoplasma infections and the debilitating chronic degenerative diseases caused or exacerbated by mycoplasmas.

The growing popularity of colloidal silver as an all-natural treatment for mycoplasmas infections is due largely to the number of positive anecdotal reports found on the internet involving the successful treatment of a variety of mycoplasmas-induced chronic degenerative diseases with colloidal silver.

In fact, colloidal silver appears to work so well against mycoplasma infections that most licensed testing labs now ask you to quit using colloidal silver for at least several weeks before you come in to be tested for mycoplasmas!

Dr. Nenah Sylver says, “Many people successfully treat mycoplasmas infection by drinking large amounts of colloidal silver.”

According to Gwen Scott, N.D., “Mycoplasma seems to respond especially well to the colloidal silver treatments.”

Nicola McFadzean, N.D., writing about opportunistic pathogens that can infect Lyme Disease patients in the book, Insights Into Lyme Disease Treatment (BioMed Publishing Group), states, “Doxycycline and rifampin are among the medications used to treat mycoplasma, but I also have success with natural agents such as colloidal silver.”

And according to Brooks Bradley, of the Harborne Research Foundation, “We have found colloidal silver to be quite effective against all mycoplasma-related organisms that we have tested in vitro.”

Thanks to the internet, there’s now tons of anecdotal evidence available demonstrating the remarkable effectiveness of colloidal silver against many forms of mycoplasma infections and the auto-immune, neuro-degenerative and chronic degenerative diseases they are most frequently associated with.

Miracle Survivors

For example:

ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosisis) is a debilitating neuro-degenerative disease characterized by progressive degeneration of motor neurons leading to complete paralysis and ultimately death. It is thought by many researchers to be triggered or exacerbated by a mycoplasma infection.

According to Dr. Neil Rouzier, M.D., one of his ALS patients named Eric Edney has not only managed to survive for a remarkable 14 years since his diagnosis, but has developed a natural healing protocol that has allowed him to reverse many symptoms of his disease. Dr. Rouzier writes, “Eric was not only able to stop all progress of ALS, but he has enjoyed a great deal of improvement.”

According to Eric’s book, Eric is Winning, which chronicles his 14-year odyssey as a survivor of ALS, he regularly uses colloidal silver as part of his regimen, stating, “Colloidal silver is a natural antibiotic and has been known to effectively eliminate unwanted parasites from your colon. Most people, including 85% of all people with ALS, have excessive bad bacteria, fungus, and/or mycoplasmas in their colons.”

Linda Emmanuel is another miracle survivor. In 2001 she was diagnosed with lupus, bi-polar depression, Crohn's disease, fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis (all of which are diseases associated with mycoplasmas infection), and was 100% disabled from the diseases.

In 2002 she nearly died, and was bedridden for the entire year and had to use a wheelchair or walker to get around.

In 2003 a friend of hers found on the internet what she believed was causing all of these horrible diseases. The culprit, she discovered, was mycoplasma. She then embarked on a course of treatment using a form of colloidal silver called mild silver protein, and was, by her own account in her book, The Messenger, completely cured.

Nadine Wooley, Multiple Sclerosis and Colloidal Silver

Multiple Sclerosis, frequently referred to as MS, is another debilitating neuro-degenerative disease in which the fatty myelin sheaths around the axons of the brain and spinal cord are damaged, leading to demyelination and scarring. It ultimately results in complete physical and cognitive disability, and finally, death.

Researchers such as Dr. Garth Nicholson, M.D. have found mycoplasmas infections in most MS victims tested.

In her book, How to Beat MS (And the Things Your Doctor Didn’t Tell You), author Nadine A. Wooley recounts her diagnosis of MS in 1988 and her subsequent gradual decline from being completely ambulatory (she was a marathon runner) to being relegated to a wheel chair.

Wooley began studying nutrition and natural remedies, and devised a diet and nutritional supplement regimen that included large daily dosages of homemade colloidal silver, up to a pint (16 ounces) a day.

Remarkably, over time, she regained her ability to walk, albeit with a cane, and later detailed her remarkable recovery in How to Beat MS. According to Nadine:

“When I began drinking colloidal silver on March 12, I could not walk a city block without holding someone’s arm with one hand and a cane with my other hand. In fact, unassisted, I could only walk between my kitchen counters. The first week I began drinking colloidal silver, I quit using the walker in my house. The second week I walked 4/10ths of a mile up my street holding Les’ arm and without a cane.

When I saw Dr. Grimm for my standing appointment, he asked with surprise, ‘Nadine, what are you doing? You’re moving so well.’ I said ‘I don’t want to tell you, you’ll think I’m nuts.’ Dr. Grimm said dryly, ‘I know you’re nuts. Tell me what you’re doing. I have to make sure it’s not toxic.’ That’s when I told him the information on colloidal silver.

… As I write this, I have been using the silver solution for just under three months and I can walk further than I have in seven years. This is too exciting...It is my recommendation that MS patients begin using Colloidal Silver on a daily basis. As noted, I drink one bottle, 16 ounces per day. That may be excessive, but it has worked for me. Do not use less than 4. ounces per day. A maintenance program is figured at 1 ounce per 100 pounds of body weight. But you are not looking for maintenance.”

[Nadine Wooley, author of How to Beat Multiple Sclerosis (pg. 76-77)]

Multiple Sclerosis Survivor Nancy DeLise and Colloidal Silver

Another MS survivor, Nancy DeLise, is a 59 year old woman who has had relapsing-remitting MS for 31 years.

According to the web site mswithattitude.ca:

“Nancy had many of the symptoms most MS victims experience…numbness, dragging foot, fatigue, weakness, spasms, severe problems with heat and bladder control, etc. to name a few.

In August of 2000 she started drinking colloidal silver, which she had first heard about through Nadine Wooley, author of the book How to Beat MS.

Nancy started slow and gradually worked her way up to 16oz. a day. She kept a diary, logging her progress every few days. Within a few weeks she started getting feeling back in her fingers and toes, and found she could walk without holding on to walls.

Although she admits she went through periods of intense pain before she saw improvements, she stuck with it. During Week 12 she wrote:

‘I feel like a caterpillar in a cocoon. I wonder if they have pain during the metamorphosis? The bottoms of my feet are no longer numb, the fingers on my right hand tingle only at the tips. I don’t even think about lifting a heavy container with my right hand. For years, I wouldn’t dare lift or I would drop whatever I was holding. I poured coffee from a pot without even thinking about it, until I noticed myself doing it. There is NO WAY I could be working the hours I have this Christmas, if not for the colloidal silver.’

‘Last year when I went home, I could barely walk to my car. Some days I literally dragged my right leg to get to my car. I had to hold on to the building to get around the corner and into my car. When I got home I actually crawled on my hands and knees to get up the steps. This year I walk normally to my car at the end of the day, and the steps are not too much of a problem. I still go up one leg only, but it is stronger. The fatigue is minimized, also. I’ve worked many more hours this year than last.’

By week 14, she started making her own colloidal silver as it is much more economical and convenient. By Week 28 she increased her intake to 24oz. per day. After one full year, she saw about a 65% improvement overall.

Then at the suggestion of her friends, she added Gatorade to the mix; with the belief that the electrolytes in Gatorade would get the silver to her blood stream faster. She mixed 2 parts Gatorade to one part CS, and sure enough, she believed it truly helped.

After a year and a half, she further sped up recovery by adding hydrogen peroxide - one drop of 3% H2o2 per 2 oz. of CS. She learned this would cause the tiny silver particles to break up into even more minute particles. After 15 minutes, the peroxide was evaporated out of the CS, so it is not harmful to the body, but the tinier particles of silver got into the blood stream quicker. She believes this would have aided in a faster recovery if she had known this sooner!

Today Nancy has very few symptoms and her MRI shows that she does not have MS.

Nancy says, based on her experiences:

“The thing you have to remember is that the nerves are still functioning; it is the myelin that is destroyed by the MS pathogen. Colloidal silver will not only kill the pathogen, but help regenerate tissue, and will help repair the myelin. When I first started taking the colloidal silver, I was walking with a cane and not getting around well at all, among other things. I told my husband I would be happy if I could stay where I was, and not get any worse. The great surprise was how much I have improved. I truly have been given my life back.’”

Doctor’s Recommended Dosage?

In a small online booklet called Ag-Therapy: Doctor’s Desk Reference, which is said to have be composed of “Research Data that has been supplied by practicing licensed physicians,” high concentrations of colloidal silver are recommended rather than high doses.

Here’s what is said in regards to treating a mycoplasmas infection:

MYCOPLASMAS

5000 (ppm) mandatory

1 tsp q.i.d. sublingual for 30 days to bring the body back to homeostasis.

10 cc of 5000 ppm mixed with 30 cc (1 oz.) of distilled H2O q.i.d., swallowed immediately all at once for 30 days or until asymptomatic.

4 oz. of cranberry juice q.i.d., 1 hour after swallowing the above 40 cc.

16-8 oz. glasses of distilled H20 per day taken away from meals and 2 hours "after" taking the silver in any form.

Lactobacillus acidophilus 1 Billion+ per capsule 20 min. before every meal, during this protocol.

Low cholesterol diet during this protocol N.B. Mycoplasmas need sterols such as cholesterol for growth, high cholesterol foods should be avoided.

What does this mean?

Essentially the therapy described in the booklet for using colloidal silver against mycoplasmas is that the patient should start by taking 1 teaspoon of 5,000 ppm colloidal silver, 4 times a day. Then start taking 10 cc (one third ounce) of 5,000 ppm colloidal silver mixed with one ounce of distilled water four times a day, for a total of 30 days.

The protocol also recommends taking 4 ounces of cranberry juice four times a day, one hour after using the colloidal silver and distilled water.

The protocol also recommends drinking 16 eight-ounce glasses of distilled water a day, at least two hours after taking the silver.

Finally, the protocol recommends a capsule of Lactobacillus acidophilus (friendly digestive bacteria) before every meal (apparently in order to restore any lost digestive bacteria from taking such high concentrations of colloidal silver) and further recommends that high cholesterol foods be avoided, because mycoplasmas apparently feed on cholesterol for growth.

Of course, there’s no way to prove this is actually a “doctor’s” protocol for treating mycoplasma because no doctors signed their names to the booklet. And indeed, as far as I can tell no human being claimed authorship, either. All we are told at the end of the booklet is that, “The information in this desk reference is intended for the use of HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS ONLY. The suggested protocols are based on the personal clinical experience of doctors who are using Ag-Therapy.”

We are also told in the protocols preface, “Amounts should be adjusted to severity of infection and patient response to therapy. Duration of treatment varies with individual.”

It appears to me the “doctors” have simply substituted a very high ppm (i.e., a solution containing a very high concentration of silver by weight in a given amount of water) for the lower ppm but higher amounts of colloidal silver solution recommended in the anecdotal accounts of Nadine Wooley and Nancy DeLise above.

In those accounts, it was generally recommend that taking 16 ounces per day of a relatively meager 10 ppm colloidal silver solution is the most appropriate therapy, whereas the Ag-Therapy: Doctor’s Desk Reference recommends mere fractions of an ounce a day, but of an extremely high concentration (i.e., 5,000 ppm). The is even further diluted by the recommendation to drink a total of 16 eight-ounce glasses of distilled water per day.

I’m not including this information as a recommended protocol to follow, but instead to demonstrate that even some alleged “doctors” recommend using high amounts (i.e., in terms of concentration) of colloidal silver to treat mycoplasmas infections.

Colloidal Silver, Goats and Mycoplasmas-Induced Pink Eye?

Animals can get mycoplasmas infections, too. And while the FDA does not approve of the use of colloidal silver for farm animals (or for humans, for that matter), thousands of farmers apparently use it anyway because of its often profound and almost immediate effects.

According to the Evening Star Farm web site, one particularly infectious form of mycoplasma is a common cause of Pink Eye in goat herds.

They state: “Mycoplasma conjunctivae has been isolated from naturally occurring cases of Pink Eye in goats and sheep and has induced the disease in experimental studies. It can also exist in a carrier state in a clinically healthy eye. Due to this, a carrier goat may give rise to an outbreak when added to a herd.”

While the farm recommends the use of standard prescription antibiotics such as Terramycin, LA-200, Bio-Mycin 200, Liquimycin 200, Duramycin 72-200, Oxy-Tet 200, and discusses the use of some unusual natural substances such as squirting port wine directly into the infected eye of the goat, they also note:

“Colloidal silver works in goats' eyes, too. Last year I had a doe for whom pink eye powder and port wine, successively, didn't work. So I got some colloidal silver and tried that. Needed only two applications.”

Similarly, the Happy Chicks web site for chicken farmers states:

“Chicken sneezing, coughing, runny nose, diarrhea, rattling and gasping…If your hens have the above, they have mycoplasma. This is very common in poultry and easily treated. Mycoplasma is an infection passed around in hens throughout the country. Hens with mycoplasma need to have antibiotics. These antibiotics can be put in the drinking water of given straight to hen orally.

We have high stability colloidal silver which is a natural antibiotic - safe on humans and animals. You can either spray direct into the hens mouth twice a day or put a teaspoon in their drinking water.”

A Few Important Words of Caution

As you can see, although strictly anecdotal, it is widely reported that colloidal silver is one of the most powerful natural remedies for alleviating mycoplasma infections and the debilitating diseases this insidious family of pathogens can induce or exacerbate.

Nevertheless, it is important to understand there are ZERO published medical studies on colloidal silver and mycoplasmas.

Even Dr. Daryl See’s aforementioned work at the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia Clinic at the University of California at Irvine, during which time he was widely reported to have used colloidal silver to heal mycoplasmas infections related to chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia, was not officially conducted as a medical study.

So the evidence on behalf of using colloidal silver for mycoplasmas infections is strictly anecdotal. Interestingly, it is apparently strong enough that laboratory testing facilities urge patients coming in for a PCR-DNA mycoplasmas screening test to avoid all use of colloidal silver before being tested, because it is thought the colloidal silver might suppress the underlying mycoplasmas infection to the point that it would be undetectable. Nevertheless, that’s not concrete medical proof of efficacy.

I point this out because I believe it is important to understand the difference between anecdotal accounts and medical evidence. They are as different as night and day. As a journalist specializing in writing about colloidal silver and other natural substances, I feel obligated to bring both anecdotal accounts and medical evidence to you. Unfortunately, in the case of using colloidal silver against mycoplasmas infections, there are apparently no bona fide medical studies whatsoever. Only anecdotal reports exist.

Some Necessary Thoughts on Colloidal Silver Usage and Argyria

As you can see, it is widely accepted that colloidal silver is one of the most powerful natural remedies for mycoplasma infections and the debilitating diseases this insidious family of pathogens can induce or exacerbate.

And as you’ve read above, some people have used very high ongoing quantities of colloidal silver to heal diseases related to mycoplasma infections. Others have used additives like hydrogen peroxide in their colloidal silver, ostensibly to enhance its effectiveness.

But as recent events such as the publicity surrounding the so-called “colloidal silver blue man” have demonstrated, taking such large quantities of colloidal silver, or taking colloidal silver that’s been altered with substances such as hydrogen peroxide, MSM, vitamin C, and others, can over time result in unexpected side effects such as argyria (i.e., skin graying).

Ultimately, argyria is caused by excessive levels of colloidal silver being ingested over long periods of time, with our without additives. It is apparently the total silver load on the human body that can result in argyria.

The human body has a remarkable capacity to absorb, utilize and excrete silver particles. But when the amount of silver particles being ingested on a regular basic are more than the body can excrete – i.e., when the total silver load becomes more than the body can get rid of -- the body tends to store the excess silver in the cells, tissues and organs.

And sooner or later, as the silver load becomes burdensome, the body begins pushing that excess silver out to the skin – its third major organ of elimination -- in an effort to get rid of it.

A Better Solution?

A better solution, according to some experts, is to dramatically reduce your total daily silver load, while still consuming approximately the same number of silver particles.

How do you do this? Simply by ingesting a colloidal silver solution composed of extremely tiny silver micro-particles.

You see, silver micro-particles are a tiny fraction of the size of conventional silver particles, so you don’t have to ingest anywhere near as much total silver load in order to get the same number of silver particles.

Keep in mind that theoretically speaking, every silver particle, regardless of its size, is capable of attaching itself to and killing a single pathogen.

A conventional silver particle in a colloidal silver solution can be as large as 50 to 100 nanometers (nm), or even larger. Yet silver micro-particles can be uncommonly small by comparison -- a fraction of a single nanometer (nm) in size!

In other words, if a conventional silver particle was 50 nm, you could theoretically make well over 50 silver micro-particles from that one conventional silver particle.

It’s all in how “finely diced,” so to speak, the silver particles are.

The Golf Ball and the Marble

To give people an idea of how this works, some experts use the analogy of a golf ball and a glass marble. Let’s say the golf ball represents a total silver load of 10 ppm, which by weight is 10 mg/l (i.e., 10 milligrams of silver per liter of water).

And the marble represents a total silver load of only 1 ppm, which by weight is 1 mg/l (i.e., one milligram of silver per liter of water).

So the marble represents ten times less total silver load on your body than the golf ball, were you to ingest it.

Now let’s say you slice that golf ball up into 1,000 smaller pieces. For purposes of this example, each one these 1,000 pieces represent a single conventional silver particle like you’d find in most store-bought colloidal silver products.

Taken altogether, these 1,000 pieces by weight are still the same amount – they still weigh a total of 10 mg/l, which is the same as 10 ppm. But you now have 1,000 individual pieces of “silver,” each of which is capable of killing a single pathogen.

Not bad, huh? But wait. Let’s switch over to the marble for a moment…Imagine taking a sledge hammer and striking the tiny glass marble, breaking it up into a million tiny slivers of glass.

For purposes of this example, each of these one million slivers of glass represents a single silver micro-particle. So you now have a total of one million silver micro-particles. Yet it is still only 1 ppm of silver by weight – a tenth of the amount represented by the sliced up golf ball

Which would you rather take?

If you take the one million tiny pieces of “silver” represented by the smashed up glass marble, you have one million opportunities to kill pathogens. And you’re only taking a total silver load of 1 mg/l, or more commonly stated, 1 ppm.

But if you take the 1,000 pieces of “silver” represented by the sliced up golf ball, you have only a mere 1,000 opportunities to kill pathogens. And you’re taking a whopping 10 times more total silver load, or 10 ppm.

Think about that: With the “golf ball,” you end up with 10 times the total silver load, and you only get a small fraction of the antimicrobial killing power.

Silver Micro-Particles Rule!

That’s why I say silver micro-particles rule.

With silver micro-particles, you can get ten times (actually, far more than that) the antimicrobial killing power, and you need only ingest a fraction of the total silver load.

Theoretically speaking, this means you don’t have to burden your body with an excessive daily silver load, just to get the high level of antimicrobial killing power you’re looking for.

With silver micro-particles, you take far smaller amounts of silver by actual weight, but that silver is more finely “sliced and diced,” so to speak, giving you dramatically more antimicrobial killing power.

Indeed, a mere 1 ppm solution composed of silver micro-particles will actually give you at least ten times more silver particles than a 10 ppm solution composed of standard silver particles.

Put another way, theoretically speaking, instead of taking 10 ounces of a conventional 10 ppm colloidal silver solution, you would only need one ounce of micro-particle colloidal silver to enjoy approximately the same number of silver particles!

Who wouldn’t want that?

No Sure-Fire Guarantee!

Of course, this is not meant to imply that using micro-particle colloidal silver is a sure-fire guarantee you’ll never contract argyria (i.e., skin graying).

The bottom line is that if you ingest more silver on a regular ongoing basis than your body can expel, then your body will indeed store that silver in the tissues and organs. And eventually your body could push that silver out to the skin, where upon exposure to sunlight it will tarnish and turn the skin gray.

According to experts, even low to moderate consumption of colloidal silver can result in argyria, if, for example, a person’s liver or kidneys are not functioning normally, and are thus not fully eliminating the silver particles after ingestion.

But by using micro-particle colloidal silver instead of conventional colloidal silver, you can dramatically reduce your total silver load, while still getting the same number of silver particles.

In other words, many experts believe that by using silver micro-particles instead of conventional colloidal silver, you can dramatically reduce your overall risk of excessive silver exposure -- and thus your risk of argyria -- should you make the decision to follow the examples of the above individuals and use colloidal silver in larger quantities to combat certain chronic degenerative and auto-immune diseases thought to be associated with mycoplasma infections.

Better Assimilation

Because micro-particle colloidal silver contains such small silver particles, it is generally considered to be much easier for the body to absorb, transport throughout the tissues and cells, utilize and afterwards excrete.

This is extremely important when dealing with a mycoplasma infection, because these tiny “stealth pathogens” like to hide deep inside the body’s tissues and cells where conventional silver particles can’t get to them.

But tiny silver micro-particles – being only a small fraction of the size of conventional silver particles – can get to these insidious disease-causing microorganisms with relative ease!

The New Micro-Particle

Colloidal Silver Generator

So how do you obtain a colloidal silver solution consisting of tiny silver micro-particles?

Well, there are several good commercial colloidal silver manufacturers who sell bottled colloidal silver products composed of tiny silver micro-particles. But the price is often exorbitant – as much as $10 per ounce for a dinky little four-ounce bottle.

Fortunately, thanks to a brand new breakthrough in colloidal silver-making technology, you can now make your own high-quality colloidal silver solutions containing billions of tiny silver micro-particles, for only about 36 cents a quart.

Yes, that’s right – about 36 cents a quart!

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Additional Observations

As a journalist writing about natural health and colloidal silver usage, I've spoken over the years with a number of people suffering from various auto-immune, neuro-degenerative and chronic degenerative diseases.

And, in most cases where they achieved truly impressive results with colloidal silver was when they used what I would consider to be very high dosages for around a month or so, often building up gradually over a period of several weeks to taking 16 ounces a day. (For example, taking one ounce on day one, two ounces on day two, etc.) Then, they would remain at the 16 ounces a day level for a week before gradually reducing their dosage back down to a standard maintenance dose of one ounce a day.

I'm not prescribing. I’m just reporting what others have told me who have had significant success with colloidal silver against serious auto-immune, neuro-degenerative and chronic degenerative conditions.

The risk in following this course of action, of course, is argyra (i.e., skin greying caused when excessive levels of silver build up in the body and get pushed out to the skin).

In other words, if your body has trouble expelling the silver particles from the higher than normal dosages, then over time it could end up pushing the excess silver particles that can build up in your tissues out to the skin. When the sun hits these silver particles trapped in your skin, they tarnish, which can turn your skin grey, or even greyish blue.

Out of the thousands of colloidal silver users I've interviewed over the years, none to my knowledge have ever suffered from argyria, including the ones who used higher than normal dosages for serious diseases. However, most of them used the gradual, incremental dosage method I mentioned above, and none of them continued taking the higher dosages for longer than a month.

In spite of the fact that none of those I interviewed ever contracted argyria from their relatively high levels of colloidal silver usage, we know from news media reports and internet accounts that people who use colloidal silver in excess, for long periods of time, DO INDEED from time to time become argyric.

I'm not trying to scare you. I just want you to have all of the information.

I have seen people take very high levels of colloidal silver for up to a month or so, and achieve very impressive results in terms of alleviation of some of the more severe symptoms of their auto-immune disease, chronic degenerative disease or neuro-degenerative disease. And as I stated above, to my knowledge none of these individuals have become argyric to date. But it CAN happen. And it is solely up to you whether or not to take the risk.

Why Do Some People Become Argyric?

By the way, one theory of why some people become argyric and some don't is that some people don't have high enough antioxidant levels in their body to handle the excessive silver intake.

According to this theory, the excessive silver intake (which can vary from person to person in terms of what "excessive" is) can inhibit the synthesis of the seleno-enzyme glutathione peroxidase in the liver, which in turn impairs liver function just enough to prevent silver particles from being properly expelled from the body.

In a study, when researchers exposed lab rats to excessive daily levels of silver, they found that eventually the excessive daily exposure resulted in a toxic effect on the liver in the lab rats, impairing its function. However, when the researchers gave the lab rats supplemental selenium or vitamin E, the silver ceased to inhibit of the glutathione peroxidase pathway, there was no more liver impairment and the rats were fine in spite of the fact that the researchers continued to give them very high levels of silver daily.

This has led some researchers to suggest that when colloidal silver users take higher than normal levels of colloidal silver for an extended period of time, they should also supplement daily with the antioxidants selenium and/or vitamin E.

Independent researchers have extrapolated from the previously mentioned lab rat study that approximately 400 IU a day of vitamin E and 200 mcg a day of selenium may help prevent the excessive levels of silver from damaging the liver during periods of high colloidal silver intake.

This again is one of those things for which there is no direct medical evidence. But I suppose it could not hurt to take such relatively benign amounts of vitamin E and selenium as a precaution.

My Own Personal Experience: Low Doses of

Colloidal Silver Can Work if You Take Other Helpful Supplements

Many people treating chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia (two disease thought to be associated with mycoplasmas infections) with colloidal silver have found that they've been able to significantly reduce their daily intake of colloidal silver by adding two supplements to their daily regimen: D-Ribose (a powerful cellular energy booster) and NSC-24 (a powerful immune system booster based on micronized beta-1,3-1,6-glucan from baker's yeast).

I've personally battled chronic fatigue/fibromyalgia since 1977, when I collapsed of extreme fatigue and weakness in a college class and ended up in UCI Medical Center for several weeks. Frankly, my experience with chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia was an ongoing losing battle until 1994 when I discovered colloidal silver and began to use it.

Like many others, I took relatively large doses between 8 and 12 ounces a day – sometimes 16 ounces -- in order to maintain relief of symptoms. Those large doses worked, but always worried me due to the very real risk of argyria. But when I found out about the two aforementioned crucially important nutritional supplements for people with these insidious diseases, I was able to dramatically reduce my colloidal silver intake with no reduction in benefit.

Here's what you need to know:

It turns out the mycoplasmas and other “stealth pathogens” thought to be behind diseases such as chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia tend to get directly into the cells of the human body and begin to damage the function of the cellular mitochondria, which is in essence the "engine" in your cells that produces a crucial substance called adenosine triphosphate – the energy molecule your body completely depends upon for peak energy.

Without proper energy production, your immune system also goes into a tailspin. And that allows the tiny “stealth pathogens” to create even greater havoc in the body. It becomes a never-ending cycle: The damaged cellular mitochondria leads to more energy loss, the energy loss leads to more impaired immune system function, and the impaired immune system function allows the pathogens to spread more widely throughout the body, causing even more cellular mitochondria damage and energy loss. The chronic energy deficit and resulting immune system dysfunction ultimately results in the condition commonly known as CFIDS – chronic fatigue immune dysfunction syndrome, nowadays shortened to chronic fatigue syndrome.

So exactly what are these two nutritional substances, known as D-Ribose and NSC-24?

D-Ribose happens to be the exact 5-carbon sugar your cellular mitochondira use in order to make adenosine triphosphate, which in turn helps "jump start" and restore your body's energy production system.

You can read more about D-Ribose and chronic fatigue syndrome at this web page: http://thesilveredge.com/rib.shtml)

NSC-24 is quite different: It’s a powerful immune system booster that helps kick your body’s macrophage system back into play (i.e., macrophages are the large immune system cells that run throughout your body eating up pathogens, toxins, viral fragments, etc and preventing them from reaching toxic levels). This puts the immune system back into high gear because it is no longer burdened by the effects of the toxic load it has been carrying for so long.

You can read more about NSC-24 here and here.

By adding the above two supplements to your daily regimen, you can (in my personal experience) then take much smaller daily amounts of colloidal silver in order to help kill any residual pathogens.

It's like a three-punch knockout, i.e., the colloidal silver helps kill the pathogens, the D-Ribose "re-boots" your body's energy-production system, and the NSC-24 triggers your macrophage system to do its job at an accelerated level, which in turn helps "re-boot" your flagging immune system.

I found I was able to gradually reduce my colloidal silver intake from 8-12 ounces a day, down to a single ounce a day simply by adding the D-Ribose and NSC-24 to my daily nutritional supplement regimen.

In fact, it has worked so well that today, I only take the D-Ribose and NSC-24 on as "as needed" basis, and I still only take the one-ounce-per-day of the micro-particle colloidal silver. And I've been able to remain almost completely free of chronic fatigue/fibromyalgia symptoms.

When I feel the chronic fatigue/fibromyalgia symptoms coming back, I start back on my daily doses of D-Ribose and NSC-24 again, and increase my colloidal silver intake to about 4 ounces a day, sometimes a little more. Then, after I feel the symptoms being diminished, I gradually cut back down on my colloidal silver intake to my normal one ounce per day maintenance dose, and gradually reduce my daily intake of the D-Ribose and NSC-24 to several times a week, then to several times a month, and then the back to an "as needed" basis again.

You can read purchase D-Ribose here: http://thesilveredge.com/rib.shtml

You can purchase NSC-24 here: http://www.NSC24.com

Disclosure: My company, TheSilverEdge.com, sells one of the very best D-Ribose supplements on the market, at the web page linked above. We also sell the Micro-Particle Colloidal Silver Generator. We do not sell the NSC-24 immune booster, but I have long recommended and personally use Nutritional Scientific Corporation's brand, available at the above link, because they are the original manufacturers of this powerful immune-boosting product and because they only sell the highly micronized form which is super-absorbable by the body.

In Conclusion

This topic of using colloidal silver to alleviate a mycoplasmas infection is a difficult one because…

A.) there are no medical studies to back up the contentions and anecdotal reports mentioned in this article or published elsewhere on the internet;

B.) some of the anecdotal reports urge usage of excessive amounts of colloidal silver on a regular daily basis, which I personally eschew; and

C.) the use of colloidal silver for mycoplasmas infections is so far outside the mainstream that even among naturopathic practitioners there are probably very few experienced enough to provide reliable guidance and direction.

Nevertheless, colloidal silver usage against mycoplasmas infection appears to be growing by leaps and bounds among those prone to use natural substances for such serious hidden underlying infections and related diseases, guided chiefly by anecdotal reports published on the internet.

So please accept this report as my own journalistic observations and personal thoughts on the phenomena, and not the final word on it by any means. Use this article as a starting ground, so to speak, for your own research. Do your own due diligence, use common sense and discernment, and make up your own mind about it.

Finally, it bears repeating that when battling a mycoplasma infection, the use of micro-particle colloidal silver rather than conventional commercial colloidal silver allows you ingest the same number of silver particles while dramatically reducing your overall silver load, thus dramatically reducing any risk of argyria.

And in the experiences of many people I've spoken with (and my own personal experience) augmenting your colloidal silver usage with nutritional supplements like D-Ribose (to kick start your damaged cellular energy system) and NSC-24 (to kick start your damaged immune system) can allow you to dramatically reduce your daily colloidal silver intake and still achieve the same results that higher colloidal silver intake is said in the anecdotal accounts above to achieve against mycoplasma infection, thanks to the synergistic effects of these three supplements together.

This is extremely important because the high levels of colloidal silver used to combat mycoplasma infections in the anecdotal accounts above are by any definition excessive. And considering the possibility of argyria from taking excessive daily doses of colloidal silver for long periods of time, anything that can be done to reduce the total silver load on the body while still achieving the same benefiicial results against a mycosplasmas infection, should be done.

Above all, if you suspect you might have a mycoplasma infection or related chronic degenerative disease, check with your doctor, and have the necessary tests performed to verify before deciding to embark on any form of treatment. Finally, be sure to keep your licensed physician in the loop on all of your health-related decisions.

Regards and great health!

Steve Barwick

* This article subject to change as new information comes to light.

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The Ultimate Colloidal Silver Manual

The Colloidal Silver Secrets Video

www.999PureSilverWire.com

Colloidal Silver Kills Viruses

Colloidal Silver Cures MRSA

Colloidal Silver Secrets blog

Secrets of Natural Healing blog

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