Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Are Colloidal Silver Studies and Testimonials Valid?

 Learn to make colloidal silver at www.TheSilverEdge.com
Colloidal silver naysayers often claim there’s “no evidence for colloidal silver’s safety or effectiveness.” 

Another variation of this claim is that there are “no clinical studies” demonstrating colloidal silver’s safety or effectiveness.

And still other colloidal silver naysayers simply claim “colloidal silver usage is dangerous and will result in argyric skin-staining and serious damage to your organs and nervous system.”

But what’s the truth?  And how do the colloidal silver naysayers come up with their shrill claims?  Here’s the answer…

Hi, Steve Barwick here, for The Silver Edge

I often come across articles in which apologists for Big Pharma claim, usually with shrill abandon, that colloidal silver usage will “turn you blue, damage your kidneys, liver and nervous system, and ultimately kill you."

These articles are usually tagged with labels such as “pseudo-science,” “health scam,” “snake oil,” “quackery,” “health fraud,” and similar tags, so that news organizations looking for sensationalistic stories denigrating natural health products like colloidal silver can more easily find them. 

In other words, the articles are specifically designed to accomplish two purposes:
  • One, to scare the bejabbers out of the general public so they won’t even consider using a relatively safe and completely natural substance like colloidal silver, and…
  • Two, give the news media the sensationalistic ammunition they need to spread similar scare stories. 
But when readers who are experienced in using natural health products such as colloidal silver see these articles, and demand proof for the author’s contentions that colloidal silver usage will “turn you blue, damage your kidneys, liver and nervous system, and ultimately kill you," the supposed "proof" always turns out to be a red herring.

In other words, it’s usually a lone clinical account (or worse yet, a sensationalistic news media account) about some poor misguided soul who decided excessive amounts of colloidal silver every day for months or even years on end, and as a result ended up with argyric skin-staining, i.e., the so-called “blue man syndrome.” 

It’s never an account of someone who took the recommended daily dosage of one teaspoonful to one ounce per day, depending upon body weight and concentration of the colloidal silver product.  Why not?  Because people who take colloidal silver responsibly never have any problems with it – even though responsible colloidal silver users number in the tens of millions worldwide! 

Apples to Oranges

The authors of these anti-colloidal silver articles use the classic "comparing apples to oranges" tactic, where one or two cases of egregious abuse of colloidal silver are passed off as “evidence” that no one should ever use the substance at all, even at normal, responsible daily dosage levels. 

Of course, taking small daily doses of colloidal silver has – with the rare exception of an allergy to silver -- never hurt anyone. 

For example, the U.S. Poison Control Center admits they’ve never seen a documented death from colloidal silver usage

This, in spite of the fact that government-approved prescription drugs are known to kill some 106,000 people per year, and cause up to 250,000 adverse events annually, even when properly prescribed and properly used (Starfield; JAMA). 

It's no wonder so many people turn to natural remedies like colloidal silver when the “government-approved" remedies kill over one million people every 10 years, and cause serious side effects for two and a half million more people every ten years.

In terms of the death rate, that’s the equivalent of 35 separate 9/11 attacks on the U.S. every year, year-in and year-out, like clockwork. 

In other words, FDA-approved prescription drugs cause the equivalent of the number of deaths we’d suffer if we had one 9/11 attack on this country every 10 days!

Yet the colloidal silver naysayers will point to one or two clinical reports in which an individual who was taking egregious amounts of colloidal silver over long periods of time ended up with blue skin, and use that to decry the substance as “dangerous.” 

Clinical Proof of Colloidal Silver’s
Safety and Effectiveness?

The authors of such anti-colloidal silver articles often point to a supposed lack of clinical studies on colloidal silver, claiming there’s “no clinical evidence for its safety or effectiveness.”

Apparently, they’ve never reviewed any of the over 100 clinical studies and medical overviews on colloidal silver (and other forms of antimicrobial silver) that can be found archived on TheSilverEdge.com website at the link in this paragraph.

With so many studies about colloidal silver available, where in the world do the colloidal silver naysayers get the idea that there’s “no clinical evidence for its safety or effectiveness”? 

They get it, of course, directly from the FDA.

You see, the FDA has ruled that unless a substance has successfully gone through millions of dollars worth of FDA-approved clinical trials, and has been approved by them for use as a prescription drug or an over-the-counter drug, it can’t be claimed to be “safe” or “effective” for any medical purpose.

Pretty nifty, huh?  The FDA simply rules that if a natural substance like colloidal silver is not on their list of “approved drugs,” it can’t be claimed to be safe for any specific medical purpose, nor effective for any specific medical purpose.

So, by law, since colloidal silver is not a “drug,” it cannot be called “safe” or “effective” for any medical purpose, including its chief purpose, which is fighting infections.

This gives the colloidal silver naysayers – who are quite often paid apologists for Big Pharma – the ability to twist that to mean “there’s no clinical evidence for the safety or effectiveness of colloidal silver,” which of course, is an egregious lie. 

In reality, there’s tons of clinical evidence for its safety and effectiveness, going all of the way back from the early 1900’s to today.  

For example, here are just a small handful of recent clinical studies and clinical overviews on the safety of colloidal silver:
And here are just a small handful of the dozens upon dozens of clinical studies on the effectiveness of colloidal silver against pathogens and related diseases:
I could easily post links to 80 or 90 more such clinical studies and clinical overviews.  But it would not do a lick of good in terms of convincing the naysayers of colloidal silver’s safety or effectiveness. 

So Why Isn’t Colloidal Silver FDA-Approved?

“But wait, Steve,” you might say, “with all of these studies, why hasn’t the FDA already approved colloidal silver as “safe and effective?”

Good question.  It’s because the FDA only approves prescription drugs and over-the-counter drugs.  That’s it.  And they have an entire gamut of required clinical studies through which a proposed “new drug” has to be run through, before it can receive FDA approval as “medically safe and effective.”

But colloidal silver is a completely natural substance which has been around since Edison first harnessed electricity.  As such, it cannot be patented and monopolized by the big drug companies, unless they come up with some novel version of it with unique healing qualities that can be clinically demonstrated.    

And even if they were able to come up with a novel form of colloidal silver that could be patented and monopolized, no one in their right minds would pay pharmaceutical company prices for it because safe, natural colloidal silver is so easy to obtain at a local health food store, or even make yourself at home. 

Indeed, if you can run low-voltage electricity from a simple 9-volt battery through two pieces of pure silver wire suspended in steam-distilled water, you can make colloidal silver.  

So no one has ever done the specific, FDA-required studies necessary to have colloidal silver stamped “medically safe and effective” for use against infections and disease because:

A.) The required studies cost tens of millions of dollars to complete, plus millions of dollars more in FDA “approval fees,” and…

B.)  Anybody who’s ever used colloidal silver already knows it’s safe and effective when used responsibly, and…

C.)  Why would anyone in their right mind want to pay tens of millions of dollars in clinical testing fees, plus millions more in FDA “drug approval” fees to bring the product to market, when people can simply make their own colloidal silver at home, or go down to the local health food store and buy a bottle of the “non-approved” stuff for under $30?

So in spite of the reams of clinical literature over the past 100 years demonstrating colloidal silver to be both safe and effective when used responsibly, FDA regulations insure that none of those studies can be used to demonstrate the safety and effectiveness of any particular colloidal silver product in terms of disease treatment

Only through the mandatory FDA drug approval process can a substance be labeled “medically safe and effective” for use against sickness or disease. 

Because of this nasty little monopoly on what can be deemed “safe and effective” and what can’t, the FDA was able to rule back in 1999 that colloidal silver can only be sold as a mineral supplement, and that no medical claims can be made for a colloidal silver product, even if there are reams upon reams of clinical documentation for the claim.

Why Independent Studies Don’t Count

This is why so many colloidal silver manufacturers who have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars or more to have their own independent clinical studies conducted on their specific brand of colloidal silver, have later had to take those studies down from their websites. 

You see, the FDA simply hits them with a notice of “unapproved drug claims” and threatens them with fines of hundreds of thousands of dollars if they leave the studies up. 

The bottom line is that without FDA approval of colloidal silver as a prescription drug, or as an over-the-counter drug, you can’t claim “safety” and “effectiveness” for any medical purpose, no matter how many independent clinical studies you might have to back up your claims. 

In fact, legally, you can’t even use colloidal silver for medical purposes.  You can only use it for “nutritional support.”

That’s why, when the Ebola crisis broke out last year and people tried to send colloidal silver to help the Ebola victims, the colloidal silver was turned back by the international medical authorities at the behest of the FDA and CDC.  It was not an FDA-“approved drug,” therefore it could not be used for specific medical purposes. 

If They Were Completely Honest

Therefore, if the colloidal silver naysayers were being completely honest when they write articles slamming colloidal silver as being “not safe and effective,” they’d instead have to say something along these lines: 

While there are well over 100 clinical studies dating back to the early 1900’s demonstrating colloidal silver and other forms of antimicrobial silver to be safe and effective, it’s never been approved by the FDA as a ‘drug’ for use in medical treatment. 

Therefore its safety and effectiveness for medical purposes cannot legally be claimed in advertising or in labeling, in spite of the mountain of clinical evidence on its behalf. 

That’s because by law the FDA maintains an iron-clad monopoly on which substances can be labeled ‘safe and effective,’ and which can’t. And thanks to that monopoly, only ‘drugs’ can be labeled safe and effective for medical conditions, not nutritional supplements.”

Now that would at least be an honest way of stating the case.  But there’s not much scary sensationalism in such pure and simple honesty, is there? 

Are Colloidal Silver Testimonials Valid?

Another oft-stated complaint by the colloidal silver naysayers is that most evidence for colloidal silver’s effectiveness is based solely on testimonials.

While I’ve already demonstrated above that there’s plenty of clinical literature attesting to the safety and effectiveness of colloidal silver, it does beg the question as to whether or not colloidal silver testimonials are valid. 

The FDA has ruled that testimonials are not proof of medical efficacy.  And of course, they’re not.  They’re just testimonials, which are anecdotal accounts from people claiming they suffered from XYZ condition, but were healed of that condition after they started taking colloidal silver.  

The problem with personal testimonials, of course – whether for colloidal silver or for any other natural substance -- is that there could have been some other reason for the remission of the condition other than the natural treatment being used.

For example, one of the most famous colloidal silver testimonials of all times was from a lady named Nadine Wooley who wrote a book titled How to Beat MS (and the Things Your Doctor Didn’t Tell You), documenting her usage of high-dose colloidal silver and other nutritional supplements to “cure” a very serious case of multiple sclerosis she was suffering from.

Multiple sclerosis, of course, is a very serious chronic degenerative disease that can result in loss of all motor activity, meaning inability to use ones limbs.  Eventually, it leads to an early death as the body simply shuts down.

The premise of Nadine Wooley’s book was that once she began taking colloidal silver and other supplements, she went from being totally non-ambulatory (i.e., unable to walk) to fully ambulatory, meaning she had regained her ability to walk which the multiple sclerosis had previously stolen from her.

The book became an underground sensation. And based on internet accounts many people suffering from multiple sclerosis went on to try colloidal silver, generally with mixed results (i.e., some people experienced profound relief from their MS symptoms, while others experienced no relief at all). 

Later, Nadine Wooley’s multiple sclerosis returned with a vengeance, in spite of her continued use of colloidal silver.  And ultimately she died from the disease. 

You see, multiple sclerosis is one of those dread diseases that’s often characterized by long periods of worsening symptoms, followed by periods of remission.  The periods of remission can be short, or in many cases, quite prolonged.  But for most multiple sclerosis patients, the remissions always end, sooner or later, and the disease process kicks back in and continues to take its toll.

This of course begs the following question: 

Did colloidal silver actually help Nadine Wooley, as she so exuberantly testified in her book?  Or did she simply experience a prolonged period of remission which is often characteristic of multiple sclerosis, and incorrectly attributed it to the colloidal silver usage?

My point in relating the above story is not to denigrate colloidal silver testimonials, nor to cast doubt on Nadine Wooley’s story. 

Instead, it’s to acknowledge the simple fact that while the astonishing plethora of testimonials about colloidal silver are indeed indicative – to me, anyway -- of both its safety and effectiveness, not every colloidal silver testimonial can be taken at face value. 

There are indeed situations in which diseases can go into “spontaneous remission,” or the body can cure itself through the action of the immune system.  And there are situations such as with multiple sclerosis in which the disease process seems to reverse itself.

And if a person were taking colloidal silver at that point, he or she might incorrectly attribute the coincidental “healing” as being due to their colloidal silver usage. 

The bottom line is that coincidences can and do take place in this life.  But “coincidences” can’t explain the thousands upon thousands of testimonials for colloidal silver that can be uncovered with a simple Google search. 

Indeed, in the course of writing my book, The Ultimate Colloidal Silver Manual (547-pages; Life & Health Research Group, LLC), I’ve documented hundreds such colloidal silver testimonials, many of which are posted here

Hypocritical and Disingenuous

More importantly, when the colloidal silver naysayers rail against testimonial accounts, they’re being at least a little bit hypocritical and disingenuous. 

After all, while the colloidal silver naysayers tend to discount testimonials out-of-hand, they simultaneously rave about the need for clinical studies.  So I must ask the following question:  What are clinical studies based on?

Well, I'll tell you:  They’re based on clinical researchers giving drugs to people while monitoring their response to the drugs over periods of time, and then writing down what happened.  If that sounds like a “testimonial” to you, that’s because it is a testimonial!

For example, a clinical researcher might write in a study, “In our study Patient X took 20 milligrams per kilogram of body weight daily of XYZ drug, and after three days visible signs of infection appeared to be in remission.  After 10 days there were no visible signs of infection left in the patient, and blood tests demonstrated Patient X was infection-free. No significant side effects were observed.

Now, compare that to a real-life colloidal silver testimonial:

“My wife is has been 32 months on Prednisone for temporal arteritis, and we were told there’s no medical miracle that can heal her. I started giving her 1oz a day of the colloidal silver, just to try it. Suddenly her blood tests improved; her CRP serum proteins went down from 42.4>0.4. Now that’s a miracle!”

Not a whole heckuva lot of difference, is it?  Here’s another testimonial the naysayers would automatically scoff at:

“Using a standard colloidal silver concentration we have successfully ‘cured’ two different infections that conventional medicine has not consistently addressed.

In particular, ‘Bruiser,’ our Japanese Bobtail cat, was sentenced to certain death by a local vet who declared that the kitty's illness indicated by lab tests was FIP (feline infectious peritonitis) and was incurable.

Three other vets confirmed the FIP and the death sentence, including an area alternative medicine vet who refused my suggestion to try colloidal silver, and abused the kitty with vitamin shots (to no avail).

For the first few months after Bruiser's four veterinarians failed to successfully address FIP, my wife and I gave him an eyedropper full (approximately 1 teaspoon) several times daily. His appetite improved quickly and he started playing with his sister again, so we reduced the dosage to several times a week.

Bruiser is now another five years older (total six+ years) and is well and healthy. We occasionally fill an eye dropper and give him a "drink" if he seems to be feeling lethargic.

We feel that colloidal silver performed miraculously, where conventional ‘cat medicine’ and veterinarians failed the test.” 

Oops.  No wonder the colloidal silver naysayers don’t like testimonials, right? 

You see, all too often, the person giving their testimony mentions the fact that he or she had previously been failed by prescription drugs or other official medical interventions.  And it was only when colloidal silver was used that remission of the disease symptoms began.

In short, when clinical researchers write up a bunch of "testimonials" regarding how well a drug worked on a group of people, it's called a "medical study."

But when individuals write up testimonials regarding how well a natural substance like colloidal silver worked for them, it's called an "unsubstantiated anecdotal account." 

And when there's hundreds or even thousands of these "unsubstantiated anecdotal accounts" about the beneficial effects of a natural substance like colloidal silver, they’re collectively (and sneeringly) referred to by apologists for the medical community as…(drum roll, please)…"placebo effect." 

(And by the way, I double dog dare you to tell me the cat sentenced to death by four separate veterinarians in the above anecdotal account experienced a “placebo effect” when he was cured of his feline infectious peritonitis by small doses of colloidal silver.)

So medical testimonials – written up in the form of “clinical studies” -- are deemed to be valid.  But testimonials written up as first-hand accounts by the people actually experiencing the healing event are deemed to be invalid.  And that’s the way of the world. 

Can You Even Trust Medical Studies?

Speaking of medical studies, it's important to point out that Dr. Richard Horton, current editor-in-chief of The Lancet -- considered to be one of the most respected peer-reviewed medical journals in the world -- has recently stated that as much as HALF of all modern clinical study literature may be untrue. 

Indeed, he's publicly complained that "science has taken a turn towards darkness," and explains that many modern clinical studies can no longer be considered valid because, essentially, they're rigged from the get-go to produce the positive results the drug companies want. 

He cites "small sample sizes, invalid exploratory analyses, flagrant conflicts of interest" and the "hyping of minuscule effects as if they were clinically significant effects," as just some of the myriad of problems he's commonly witnessed as editor-in-chief of The Lancet

He also says modern clinical researchers are often afflicted with "an obsession for pursuing fashionable trends of dubious importance." 

In other words, modern clinical research is largely agenda-driven. 

This means researchers are being paid to do research that confirms an underlying agenda.  So they use clinical studies to create a perception of safety and efficacy for the drugs they’re testing, rather than determining actual safety and efficacy.  After all, perception trumps reality every time in this crazy world we live in.

So when the colloidal silver naysayers start screaming from their little podiums that FDA-approved drugs are all good because they have “clinical studies” to back them up, and colloidal silver usage is terrible because it’s largely based on testimonials, you pretty much have to hold back the urge to track them down and jack-slap them. 

Indeed, based on what Dr. Horton of The Lancet medical journal has publicly stated, it appears that even FDA-approved clinical studies have to be taken with the same big grain of salt that personal testimonials should always be taken with.

And what is the FDA doing about this rampant fraud in clinical literature?  Well, here’s what Charles Seife, M.S., of New York University said about it in a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine:

The FDA has repeatedly hidden evidence of scientific fraud not just from the public, but also from its most trusted scientific advisors, even as they were deciding whether or not a new drug should be allowed on the market…

…For an agency devoted to protecting the public from bogus medical science, the FDA seems to be spending an awful lot of effort protecting the perpetrators of bogus science from the public.

Yes, in all too many cases, Big Pharma’s drug researchers base their studies on phony data, and the FDA often does not take the fraud into account when approving the drugs, even when they catch it.  Indeed, according to Seife, the FDA often sends the research papers back to be “fixed,” and hides the research fraud. 

But what do you hear about this travesty from the online article writers who regularly trash nutritional supplements like colloidal silver?  Crickets, that’s what. 

In conclusion, let me admit that, yes, I'd certainly prefer to see properly conducted, double-blind, peer-reviewed clinical studies on the use of colloidal silver among various population groups, such as people with colds or flu, people with ear infections, people with strep throat, people with chronic fatigue, people with arthritis, people with AIDS, people with MRSA, etc.. 

But those would be FDA “drug” studies.  And absent such drug studies, the reams of anecdotal accounts (as well as the multitudes of independent, non-FDA-approved clinical studies such as those at this link) will have to do – along with plenty of common sense and personal discernment as well. 

Learn More

Here are a few additional articles debunking false claims about colloidal silver, which you might want to take a look at:
The bottom line is that the colloidal silver wars have been going on for several decades now, ever since the FDA ruled that since colloidal silver is not a “drug,” colloidal silver manufacturers and vendors can no longer tell their customers what colloidal silver is actually used for (i.e., fighting infections) and instead must only refer to it in product labeling and advertising as a “mineral supplement.” 

So the shrill claims from the colloidal silver naysayers continue unabated. 

For example, on the Colloidal Silver Secrets Community on Facebook, for example, I can hardly post a positive article about colloidal silver without some shill for Big Pharma posting links to the Mayo Clinic’s anti-colloidal silver article…the Quackbuster website’s anti-colloidal silver article…or any number of sensationalistic (but factually devoid) news articles denigrating colloidal silver. 

But facts are facts. And when you really pin the colloidal silver naysayers down, they don’t have any facts to back up their contentions that colloidal silver – when used responsibly – is dangerous, unsafe or ineffective.  And that’s because, simply stated, it isn’t.

Indeed, colloidal silver used responsibly has one of the best safety profiles of any nutritional supplement on the market.  And the facts demonstrate clearly that it is far safer than toxic prescription drugs. 

How to Make Your Own Colloidal Silver

 Learn how to make your own colloidal silver at www.TheSilverEdge.com
Colloidal silver – the world’s safest and most effective natural infection-fighting agent -- is available at just about any well-stocked health food store in America.  

Unfortunately, it’s a bit on the expensive side, costing between $20 and $30 for a tiny, four-ounce bottle.

But there’s good news:  With a brand new Micro-Particle Colloidal Silver Generator from The Silver Edge, you can make your own high-quality colloidal silver for less than 36 cents a quart.

Yes, that’s right -- less than 36 cents a quart!

In fact, at normal health food store prices, a quart of colloidal silver would usually cost you as much as $240.  But you can make that same quart forless than 36 cents with a Micro-Particle Colloidal Silver Generator from The Silver Edge. 

In other words, compared to health food store prices for colloidal silver, your very first one-quart batch of micro-particle colloidal silver actually pays for the entire cost the generator. 

Do you know of any other health product that literally pays for itself the very first time you use it?

4 Simple Steps to
Colloidal Silver-Making Perfection!

 What’s more, colloidal silver is so simple to make at home, anyone who can use a coffee pot has all the skill needed to make colloidal silver.  Let me demonstrate for you how amazingly simple it is:

 Learn to make your own colloidal silver at www.TheSilverEdge.com
1.) Just plug the two pure .999 fine silver rods into the two jacks in the bottom of the generator box, one on each side of the bubbler tube.


 Learn to make colloidal silver at www.TheSilverEdge.com
2.)  Sit the generator box on top of a one-quart glass jar full of pure steam-distilled water, so that the two silver rods and the bubbler tube are immersed in the water.


 Learn to make colloidal silver at www.TheSilverEdge.com
3.) Set the handy appliance timer for three hours, and plug it into any convenient grounded household electrical outlet.

  
 Learn to make colloidal silver at www.TheSilverEdge.com
4.) Plug the generator into the timer and then turn the timer wheel clockwise until you hear the generator start bubbling. The generator will shut off automatically after three hours.

It’s really that easy! You just “Set it, and forget it.” And you get a perfect batch of high-quality micro-particle colloidal silver every time!

When you’re finished, you’ll have a full quart of high-quality micro-particle colloidal silver.  And you can make quart after quart for the rest of your life, for less than 36 cents each! 

Indeed, the set of pure .999 fine silver wire that comes with your generator is enough to make over $24,000 worth of colloidal silver (see here)!

Why should you ever again pay $20 to $30 for a tiny, four-ounce bottle of colloidal silver at the health food store, when you can make your own superior-quality micro-particle colloidal silver for just pennies per quart?

Almost FREE, for the Rest of Your Life!

Obviously, having the ability to make your own high-quality micro-particle colloidal silver for only a few pennies per quart is about as close as you’ll ever get to having "free" colloidal silver for the rest of your life, any time you or a family member, friend or loved one needs it. 

And because the silver particles produced by this amazing breakthrough in colloidal silver-making technology are as low as .8 nm – a fraction of a single nanometer – their effectiveness against colonies of pathogenic microbes is astonishing. 

Perhaps that’s why so many thousands upon thousands of people absolutely rave over the effectiveness of their homemade micro-particle colloidal silver, as you can see at this web page full of real-life colloidal silver success stories. 

Discover How Easy It Truly Is…

If you’d like to learn more about making your own high-quality colloidal silver for just pennies per quart, you can…

  • Read how unbelievably simple it is to make your own high-quality colloidal silver for less than 36 cents a quart, here.
  • Learn why the Micro-Particle Colloidal Silver Generator is the world’s #1 best-selling colloidal silver generator, here.
  • Find out how to save a whopping $100 on a brand new Micro-Particle Colloidal Silver Generator, here.
Meanwhile, I’ll be back next week with another great article on colloidal silver….

Yours for the safe, sane and responsible use of colloidal silver,


Helpful Links:
                                                                                                                                                 
Important Note and Disclaimer:  The contents of this Ezine have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.  Information conveyed herein is from sources deemed to be accurate and reliable, but no guarantee can be made in regards to the accuracy and reliability thereof.  The author, Steve Barwick, is a natural health journalist with over 30 years of experience writing professionally about natural health topics.  He is not a doctor.  Therefore, nothing stated in this Ezine should be construed as prescriptive in nature, nor is any part of this Ezine meant to be considered a substitute for professional medical advice.  Nothing reported herein is intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.  The author is simply reporting in journalistic fashion what he has learned during the past 17 years of journalistic research into colloidal silver and its usage.  Therefore, the information and data presented should be considered for informational purposes only, and approached with caution.  Readers should verify for themselves, and to their own satisfaction, from other knowledgeable sources such as their doctor, the accuracy and reliability of all reports, ideas, conclusions, comments and opinions stated herein.  All important health care decisions should be made under the guidance and direction of a legitimate, knowledgeable and experienced health care professional.  Readers are solely responsible for their choices.  The author and publisher disclaim responsibility and/or liability for any loss or hardship that may be incurred as a result of the use or application of any information included in this Ezine. 

Copyright 2015 | Life & Health Research Group, LLC | PO Box 1239 | Peoria AZ 85380-1239 | All rights reserved.







Friday, July 24, 2015

Using Colloidal Silver in Your Fish Tank or Aquarium

 Learn more about colloidal silver at www.TheSilverEdge.com
Experienced colloidal silver users know that colloidal silver works wonderfully to help heal infections and injuries in aquarium fish. 

Not only that, but it helps keep fish looking more vibrant and alive, and it helps keep aquarium water sparkling clear, as well, by killing the bacteria that create cloudy water.

What’s more, using colloidal silver in a fish tank is perfectly safe, as long as you use it in very small amounts. 

Of course, the colloidal silver naysayers will start rolling their eyes and barking out shrill warnings the moment you publicly mention you’re using colloidal silver in your fish tank.  But read below what other aquarium hobbyists are saying, and you might be pleasantly surprised at what you learn…

Hi, Steve Barwick here, for The Silver Edge

A reader asked, “Can colloidal silver be used in fish tanks, to help stop “ich” and other tropical fish infections?”

Actually, yes, it can.

 Learn more about colloidal silver at www.TheSilverEdge.com
In fact, as evidence, in Europe there's a product called "FungiStop," the main ingredient of which is…drum roll, please…colloidal silver

FungiStop is specifically made for treating aquarium fish, tropical and decorative, and is sold as a “Remedy for freshwater ornamental fish.”

The product description claims, “FungiStop contains active ingredients that are effective in controlling fungal diseases and which also promote general wound healing.”

And they say all you have to do is add a tiny 5 ml worth of the liquid per every 20 liters (approximately five gallons) of aquarium water, at weekly intervals when fish infection is present.  Finally, FungiStop is said to treat:

“Fungal infections caused by Achlya, Saprolegnia, etc., spawn fungus, bacterial mucous membrane infections, mouth decay and mouth rot, infectious wounds, heals wounds safely by providing overall mucous membrane protection.”

Occasionally, FungiStop can even be purchased on Amazon.com for delivery to the U.S.  (I have no connection whatsoever with this company, by the way.  And I’ve never used their product.  I’m just reporting that aquarium owners in Europe actually use a colloidal silver product for their tropical fish.) 

However, FungiStop ships from the UK, and transit times can be quite long, making it not particularly helpful if you have an immediate need for it in your aquarium. 

Would Colloidal Silver Work?

Many experienced colloidal silver users who also have tropical fish aquariums have found that both store-bought and homemade colloidal silver work just as well as commercial products for healing infections in their tropical fish.   

There's even a patent on the internet for using colloidal silver in tropical fish aquariums, which states: 

"This is a method of treating a wide range of skin lesions in tropical and decorative fish in which the animals to be treated are exposed to dilute suspensions of colloidal silver. 

During the course of the treatment, colloidal silver is added periodically to the aquarium in which the fish lives, so that the water therein has a silver concentration on the order of 1 ppm.

A suitable treatment procedure entails adding 1 teaspoon of colloidal silver which contains about 6 ppm of silver to 10 gallons of aquarium water every other day. 

This treatment has been found effective in healing some fish, even those with rather large wounds, in a matter of days. 

If a longer treatment period is required, then the colloidal silver addition is continued at the same rate, and then 50 percent of the water is changed once a week, until the lesions have healed. 

It was also found that bacteria and virus skin problems could be prevented by having silver colloidal concentrations of 0.3-.05 ppm in the aquarium water."

Now, that’s fascinating, because it means that in small amounts, colloidal silver can be used to heal infections in aquarium fish, and in even smaller amounts, it can safely and effectively be used as an infection preventative.

An Interesting Example

A Colloidal Silver Secrets Community member named Denise recently posted about her experiences with using colloidal silver to treat her fish in a fish bowl.  She stated:

"I have had fish many times just in a bowl with no equipment, and they die and get stressed so easily.

So when I had bad experiences with water going murky too quickly, and fish getting white spot, and having to spend money on chemicals to fix them.

So I figured out, must be bacteria.  I researched colloidal silver and fish, and found a website where a man used colloidal silver to save thousands of dollars worth of fish when nothing else worked and that was his last resort.

So I dropped 10 drops of colloidal silver in my fish bowl and have had happy fish now for 6 months.

I change the water once a month; sometimes 5-6 weeks. When I change the bowl I put them in a little water and completely fill the whole bowl with new water and tip them in.

Ha, Ha, you are not supposed to do this you are supposed to only remove 2/3 water as they will get stressed. But not my fish with the colloidal silver in the water.  They absolutely love it. 

I only put an eyedropper full in every 2 weeks or whenever I feel I want to.  A squirt here, squirt there and that is all I use, that is it. 

That says a lot about colloidal silver to me. The more I use it the more I love it." 

-- Denise

As you can see, a lot of people are finding colloidal silver to be a Godsend for sick fish, whether it be fungal infections, fin rot, or even wounds and injuries from fish fighting with each other.

Another Interesting Example

On the Fishlore.com website for aquarium hobbyists, I found the following interesting post:

Hello! I read an article about the effects of Colloidal silver on fish 16 inches or less in regards to scale health and healing injuries.

I read the levels regarding toxicity and it had to be quite high, so I figured if I added a capful to my 25 gal tank it wouldn't be a danger.

That was 2 days ago and I have noticed that my fish are all quite vibrant now.

My Blackskirt tetra is much darker then he was before, my guppy is a deep purple and brilliant peach, and my Danio's are heavily patterned now…

… It seems to make them happy, they look healthy and are eating, they are just alot more active and pretty to look at...

Has anybody else tried doing this? 

-- tatty_kassy

Naturally, the anti-colloidal silver crowd began to weigh in on the above comment, making negative remarks about the potential for the lady’s fish “turning blue,” and accusing the poster of unnecessarily “medicating” her aquarium fish. 

But she continued to insist that her fish seemed to be healthier and more active than ever after the one-time colloidal silver treatment.

Of course, what the colloidal silver naysayers don’t tell you is that for silver to harm freshwater fish, they have to be massively overdosed in it.  (See my rather caustic expose’ of one such study claiming to demonstrate silver’s toxicity to fish, at this link:  Environmentalists Claim Silver Is Toxic to Fathead Minnows.)

Indeed, as I’ve written previously, millions of tons of trace silver exists in nature, and has since the beginning of time – including an estimated two million tons of trace silver in the oceans of the world alone, and millions of tons more in freshwater lakes, streams, rivers, ponds, etc. 

And in spite of the millions of tons of supposedly “toxic” trace silver contained in the world’s oceans, the sea is literally teeming with wildlife, including uncountable trillions of microscopic living creatures ranging from tiny protozoa and other single-celled microorganisms all the way up the food chain to minnows, shrimp, sardines, larger fish, and even mammals such as porpoises and whales.

So silver is a natural part of the world’s major water habitats, and as long as silver from industrial waste isn’t poured into a waterway, the fish and other aquatic creatures seem to handle it quite well. 

Apparently, the Naysayers
Will Always Be With Us

Almost every tropical fish-related website I went to contained similar tales, which is to say, people posting that they’d used colloidal silver in their aquariums and their fish were doing unbelievably well as a result, and replies from other aquarium hobbyists that colloidal silver is “dangerous” and would likely harm their fish. 

But I couldn’t find even one documented case of colloidal silver actually causing harm to aquarium fish, as long as it was used within reason. 

One reader warned ominously, “Silver is toxic to freshwater fish!  You need to use commercial fish antibiotics, like everyone else.” 

I could hardly stop laughing at the above comment, considering the fact that the “commercial fish antibiotics” so frequently used by aquarium hobbyists are no different than human antibiotics. 

In other words, the most common fish antibiotics are also the most common human antibiotics, i.e., cephalaxon (Keflex), amoxicillin (Penicillin derivative), ciprofloxan (i.e., Cipro) and doxycycline.  And those antibiotic drugs are among some of the most toxic substances on the face of the earth. 

Yet the aquarium hobbyists who gleefully pour capsules full of those toxic antibiotic drugs into their fish tanks at the first sign of a fish infection, are the same ones who get their panties into a twist at the mere mention of using a little bit of colloidal silver in a fish tank.

Another colloidal silver naysayer wrote, “Colloidal silver kills bacteria indiscriminately.  That means it will kill both the good bacteria and the bad bacteria alike, leaving your fish more susceptible than over to sickness with no good bacteria to protect them.”

Of course, I can hardly believe some of the comments are from actual aquarium hobbyists, or even from adult human beings, because anyone with just a modicum of common sense knows that commercial antibiotic drugs also kill both good and bacteria alike. 

So apparently, according to the colloidal silver naysayers, you can’t use colloidal silver in a fish tank because it will kill all of the good and bad bacteria alike.  But you can use antibiotic drugs on your aquarium fish, because…well…because it’s what everyone else does.  And we all need to comply with what everyone else does, right?

Of course, the key to using antibiotic drugs on fish infections is to expose the disease-causing bacteria to the minimum concentration of the antibiotic that will kill it.  This is known as the “minimum inhibitory concentration,” or MIC.  By using the minimum amount possible, less damage is done to good bacteria. 

Another key to using antibiotic drugs in fish tanks is to treat the water afterwards with a good water treatment product containing the enzymes and beneficial bacteria fish need most, like this one

And guess what?  Those are the very same two keys to using colloidal silver against fish infections.  Go figure.

So why all of the screaming and hollering about using colloidal silver in fish tanks, from people who have no problem using commercial antibiotic drugs in fish tanks? 

Well, frankly, it’s because people tend to regurgitate negative information about colloidal silver without checking to make sure it’s true, first. 

If you want a truly good chuckle, go to your favorite online aquarium hobbyist forum and do a search for “colloidal silver.”  Then look at all of the negative comments from people claiming it will “turn your fish blue” if you use it.  The level of ignorance would be unbelievable, if you didn’t see it with your own eyes.

Another Interesting Example

Here’s another testimonial, this one from the MyFishTank.net site:

“As a user of Colloidal Silver on occasion I have often wondered if one could use it to treat sick fish but looking at what 'experts' mention on various forums I have always been hesitant to use it as a treatment

Then a few weeks ago my wife purchased 5x Albino Swords which I discovered to have fin rot a few hours after she had added them to the 200 Liter tank

On discovering this I immediately added a shop bought treatment to the water (all my other fishes fins were fine) but by the next morning the 1st Albino Sword turned into a floater

Realizing that there may be more than fin rot involved I moved the remaining 4x Albino Swords to the 10 Liter (just over 2 gallons) hospital tank

Added some sea salt and again some of the treatment. The condition of fins kept deteriorating and a fish a day (in the hospital tank) kept dying.

Down to the last fish I decided to add some Colloidal Silver (almost no fins left) 15ml to the 10 Liters as a last resort.

He was still alive the next morning. I added 15ml more Colloidal Silver for the next 2 days and he kept going (all together 45ml to 10 liters).

I realized that the 200 liter can also be infected and added 15ml to the 200 liter (way less than in the hospital tank) as a precaution.

Then looked around at what the 'experts' had to say regarding Colloidal Silver's effect on the bacterial colonies within the system.

There are a lot 'doomsday' warnings regarding Colloidal Silver as many claim it will destroy all the bacteria, good and bad…

The sole surviving Albino Sword is happily back her new friends in the 200 liter tank. None of the other fish have gotten sick (or turned blue). The water is crystal clear.

I have even overfed for a few days an all is still normal which means that the Colloidal Silver attacks the bad bacteria rather than the good

I am adding around 5ml every time I do a water change just to ensure that the Colloidal Silver stays present be it at a very low PPM rate

Once can of course use it in a separate tank only when treatment is required

It appears that there is definitely a misconception regarding the usage of Colloidal Silver as a treatment in aquariums

And like with all treatments… remember to follow the correct protocols.

So as you can see, once again, colloidal silver used in very low amounts can be a Godsend for aquarium hobbyists, in both healing infected or injured fish, as well as preventing infections from taking place when used in small amounts periodically.

One Last Example

Most of the online comments from people who have used colloidal silver to help cure infections in their aquariums were from people with freshwater tanks.  But here’s one from a salt water aquarium hobbyist who says it also works for salt water fish:

“Recently my Clown Fish had ‘ich’ bad . So I had some colloidal sliver laying around and decided to dose the fish with colloidal silver.

I took my two clown fish and put them in a 2 gallon bucket full with saltwater. I dosed 1 tablespoon of colloidal silver every two hours (4 times total )

24 HOURS later I checked the fish they still had some spots left on them but most of the parasite was gone.

So I then added the fish back into my display tank in within a day all the spots were gone and the fish look great.

Colloidal silver is a natural antibiotic and anti-parasitic once it is digested by the fish they have the silver in their system and it stays there and gets rid of all parasites.

Colloidal silver has become like my coral dip but for fish. I no longer have ‘ich’ because all new fish I get I let them sit in a colloidal silver based water for a couple hours and the ‘ich’ never develops when I added them to my display tank.”

Of course, it’s important to note that in saltwater aquariums containing live coral reefs, colloidal silver should never be used directly in the aquarium. 

That’s because live coral is made up largely of tiny microscopic living creatures known as polyps, along with algae which lives in symbiosis with the polyps. 

Unfortunately, colloidal silver can be toxic to both the tiny microscopic polyps and the algae that make up live coral reefs.  And even the small  amount of silver needed to heal fish of infections can be enough to cause harm to the live coral reefs. 

This is why the individual who wrote the above testimonial emphasized that he treats his infected salt water fish with colloidal silver, but only in a separate tank set aside specifically for that purpose

So there you have it.  Using colloidal silver in fish aquariums to help heal fish infections and external injuries is apparently pretty much like using it for humans:  It works, as long as you don’t overdose the fish on it by using too much.  A little bit goes a long way.

However, if you write about it on the online aquarium hobbyist forums, prepare to be bashed relentlessly for it by people who…of course…have never used it themselves, but who apparently have watched every stupid YouTube video ever made about the so-called “colloidal silver blue man.” 

A Few More Quick Tips

According to tropical fish enthusiasts, you should never forget that tropical fish infections are generally caused by imbalances in the aquarium habitat that allow infectious microbes to proliferate. 

So merely killing the infectious microbes – whether with colloidal silver or with standard fish antibiotic drugs – is not enough. 

The water in the aquarium also needs to be checked for imbalances (such as excess ammonia caused by rotting fish food and fish excrement), followed by a proper cleaning along with the use of products designed for correcting such imbalances. Your local aquarium shop can give you guidance for handling this correctly.

Also, as we discussed briefly above, many advocates of using colloidal silver to help cure tropical fish infections say you should put infected fish into a smaller “hospital tank” while they’re being treated. 

That way, the infected fish won’t infect the others in the community tank.  And you can take care of any chemical imbalances in the community tank before returning your healed fish from the “hospital tank.”

This will help prevent the healed fish from becoming re-infected when you return him to the community tank after he’s been healed in the “hospital tank.”

How to Make Your Own Colloidal Silver

 Learn more about colloidal silver at www.TheSilverEdge.com
Colloidal silver is available at just about any well-stocked health food store in America.  Unfortunately, it’s a bit on the expensive side, costing between $20 and $30 for a tiny, four-ounce bottle.

But there’s good news:  With a brand new Micro-Particle Colloidal Silver Generator from The Silver Edge, you can make your own high-quality colloidal silver for less than 36 cents a quart.

Yes, that’s right -- less than 36 cents a quart!

In fact, at normal health food store prices, a quart of colloidal silver would usually cost you as much as $240.  But you can make that same quart for less than 36 cents with a Micro-Particle Colloidal Silver Generator from The Silver Edge. 

In other words, compared to health food store prices for colloidal silver, your very first one-quart batch of micro-particle colloidal silver actually pays for the entire cost the generator. 

Do you know of any other health product that literally pays for itself the very first time you use it?

4 Simple Steps to
Colloidal Silver-Making Perfection!

 What’s more, colloidal silver is so simple to make at home, anyone who can use a coffee pot has all the skill needed to make colloidal silver.  Let me demonstrate for you how amazingly simple it is:

 Learn more about colloidal silver at www.TheSilverEdge.com
1.) Just plug the two pure .999 fine silver rods into the two jacks in the bottom of the generator box, one on each side of the bubbler tube.



  
 Learn more about colloidal silver at www.TheSilverEdge.com
2.)  Sit the generator box on top of a one-quart glass jar full of pure steam-distilled water, so that the two silver rods and the bubbler tube are immersed in the water.

  


 Learn more about colloidal silver at www.TheSilverEdge.com
3.) Set the handy appliance timer for three hours, and plug it into any convenient grounded household electrical outlet.

  


 Learn more about colloidal silver at www.TheSilverEdge.com
4.) Plug the generator into the timer and then turn the timer wheel clockwise until you hear the generator start bubbling. The generator will shut off automatically after three hours.

 It’s really that easy! You just “Set it, and forget it.” And you get a perfect batch of high-quality micro-particle colloidal silver every time

When you’re finished, you’ll have a full quart of high-quality micro-particle colloidal silver.  And you can make quart after quart for the rest of your life, for less than 36 cents each!

Indeed, the set of pure .999 fine silver wire that comes with your generator is enough to make over $24,000 worth of colloidal silver (see here)!

Why should you ever again pay $20 to $30 for a tiny, four-ounce bottle of colloidal silver at the health food store, when you can make your own superior-quality micro-particle colloidal silver for just pennies per quart?

Almost FREE, for the Rest of Your Life!

Obviously, having the ability to make your own high-quality micro-particle colloidal silver for only a few pennies per quart is about as close as you’ll ever get to having "free" colloidal silver for the rest of your life, any time you or a family member, friend or loved one needs it. 

And because the silver particles produced by this amazing breakthrough in colloidal silver-making technology are as low as .8 nm – a fraction of a single nanometer – their effectiveness against colonies of pathogenic microbes is astonishing. 

Perhaps that’s why so many thousands upon thousands of people absolutely rave over the effectiveness of their homemade micro-particle colloidal silver, as you can see at this web page full of real-life colloidal silver success stories. 

Discover How Easy It Is…

If you’d like to learn more about making your own high-quality colloidal silver for just pennies per quart, you can…

  • Read how unbelievably simple it is to make your own high-quality colloidal silver for less than 36 cents a quart, here. 
  • Learn why the Micro-Particle Colloidal Silver Generator is the world’s #1 best-selling colloidal silver generator, here. 
  • Find out how to save a whopping $100 on a brand new Micro-Particle Colloidal Silver Generator, here. 
Meanwhile, I’ll be back next week with another great article on colloidal silver….

Yours for the safe, sane and responsible use of colloidal silver,


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Important Note and Disclaimer:  The contents of this Ezine have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.  Information conveyed herein is from sources deemed to be accurate and reliable, but no guarantee can be made in regards to the accuracy and reliability thereof.  The author, Steve Barwick, is a natural health journalist with over 30 years of experience writing professionally about natural health topics.  He is not a doctor.  Therefore, nothing stated in this Ezine should be construed as prescriptive in nature, nor is any part of this Ezine meant to be considered a substitute for professional medical advice.  Nothing reported herein is intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.  The author is simply reporting in journalistic fashion what he has learned during the past 17 years of journalistic research into colloidal silver and its usage.  Therefore, the information and data presented should be considered for informational purposes only, and approached with caution.  Readers should verify for themselves, and to their own satisfaction, from other knowledgeable sources such as their doctor, the accuracy and reliability of all reports, ideas, conclusions, comments and opinions stated herein.  All important health care decisions should be made under the guidance and direction of a legitimate, knowledgeable and experienced health care professional.  Readers are solely responsible for their choices.  The author and publisher disclaim responsibility and/or liability for any loss or hardship that may be incurred as a result of the use or application of any information included in this Ezine. 

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