How Much Colloidal Silver Can You Take Safely Each Day?

The most frequently asked question I get is “How much colloidal silver can I take safely each day?” 

Of course, the answer varies from person to person.  It depends upon a number of factors, including body weight, overall health, and even antioxidant levels.

I personally like the Silver Safety Guideline published by the Silver Safety Council, which I discuss below. 

They have a very conservative method for calculating your maximum daily safe dosage level for a lifetime of colloidal silver usage.

Here’s what they recommend…

Hi, Steve Barwick here, for www.TheSilverEdge.com...

According to the Silver Safety Council, the formula for determining your maximum safe dosage level if you plan on using colloidal silver DAILY as a nutritional supplement is as follows:

First, multiply your body weight by 12.  And then divide that total by the ppm of the colloidal silver solution you're using.

This will tell you how many DROPS (i.e., from an eye dropper) of colloidal silver you can take each day, safely, for a lifetime, without fear of ending up with argyria (i.e., skin-staining).

For example, if you're 125 pounds, and you're using a 10 ppm colloidal silver solution, you'd multiply 12 times 125 = 1,500.  Then divide 1,500 by 10 (ppm), which is 150. 

So at a body weight of 125 pounds, you can safely take 150 drops of colloidal silver per day, for your entire life, according to the Silver Safety Council. That's a little bit over a teaspoonful a day.

My Personal Daily Dosage

Obviously, people have taken more colloidal silver than that, daily, for years on end – and have done so without incurring any harm. 

For example, I'm tall and nearly 240 pounds.  So my daily dosage should be about two teaspoons full, based upon the Silver Safety Council’s conservative calculation. 

But I take about an ounce of colloidal silver daily, and I've done so for nearly 20 years as part of my ongoing nutritional supplement regimen. 

However, I also take regular "colloidal silver holidays" during which I purposely abstain from colloidal silver usage for a week or two – sometimes even for a month or two.

And regardless of whether or not I’m taking colloidal silver, I always drink plenty of fresh, pure water each day to help flush any excess silver from my system. 

What's more, I always take a daily multi-vitamin/mineral supplement that includes 400 IU of Vitamin E, 200 mcg of selenium, and about 500 mg of NAC (N-acetyl cysteine).

Why?  Because cutting edge medical practitioners like Dr. Jonathan Wright, M.D. say these particular antioxidant supplements are necessary to help process silver out of the body effectively.

As Dr. Wright has written previously:

"Silver belongs to the family of metals that also includes copper and gold (both of which can also have numerous health benefits when they're used properly).

One of the primary concerns people tend to have about using these metals is the risk that they'll accumulate in the body and lead to heavy metal toxicity.

But if you have plenty of antioxidants in your diet, such as selenium, vitamin E, and amino acids like N-acetyl cysteine, you're safe from any harmful effects from this family of metals. Germs, however, are not."

-- Dr. Jonathan Wright, MD

Naturally, Dr. Wright is not saying you can take all of the colloidal silver you want, as long as you have plenty of antioxidants in your diet. 

He’s simply saying the body requires antioxidants in order to process silver effectively.  And if you’re low on antioxidants, you’re at greater risk of silver accumulation, even at normal daily dosage levels.

The bottom line is that I take great pains to make sure my regular colloidal silver usage – though slightly above average for my body weight – does not become abusive. 

Just Trying to Make a Point

So please understand: I'm not trying to dictate how much colloidal silver anyone can use. It's not my business. 

Some people tell me they’re taking anywhere from four ounces, to six ounces, to eight ounces, or even 16 ounces of colloidal silver a day.  If you want to abuse your body and take big risks by ingesting astronomically larger than recommended dosages like that, that's up to you.

Just be sure you're willing to take personal responsibility for it. Once you end up with argyria – the blue-gray skin-staining that typifies long-term excessive usage of colloidal silver – you can't switch gears and start blaming others for it. 

So what I am trying to do is this:  Make the point that when people say they're taking 4 ounces, or 6 ounces, or 8 ounces or in some cases even 16 ounces of colloidal silver per day…

…and they've been doing this for months on end when a responsible daily dosage would be closer to somewhere between a teaspoonful and an ounce a day…

…then it's clear to me they're operating WAY outside of the bounds of safety (and sanity) in terms of the very real risk of ending up with argyria. 

Those kinds of overly-high dosage levels – which are 400%, 600%, 800% and even higher than normal levels – are not just excessive. They're downright abusive, particularly when taken regularly, over long periods of time.

Another Colloidal Silver Blue Man

I spent nearly a half hour on the phone today with an elderly colloidal silver user who's face and neck are now colored, in his own words, "pastel blue." 

It was heart-breaking. He says children snicker at him in the stores.  People stare at him in wonderment everywhere he goes and point fingers at him.

And nurses have actually stopped him on the street and asked if they can call him an ambulance, thinking he's suffering from cardiac hypoxia -- i.e., lack of oxygen to the body when the heart isn't pumping strongly enough, which can cause the face to turn blue. 

How did he end up in that condition?  Well, his heart is just fine.  But he drank a quart of colloidal silver a day, he told me, for two years straight. 

And why?  Because someone told him you can drink all of the colloidal silver you want and it can't hurt you.

Listen to me, please.  Argyria from excessive, daily long-term colloidal silver usage is very real.  It’s not a joking matter.  And it will change your life forever, and most definitely not for the better. 

What’s more, it doesn't matter what kind of colloidal silver you're taking. Don't let anyone ever tell you they have a special kind of colloidal silver that "can't cause argyria."  It's a crock. 

There’s simply no such thing as a form of colloidal silver that can’t cause argyria if used at excessive levels for long periods of time. 

They key to successful colloidal silver usage – regardless of which kind you use -- is the responsible use of the substance.

Safe, Sane and Responsible Usage

I've been a very vocal advocate for the safe, sane and responsible usage of colloidal silver for nearly 20 years now, ever since colloidal silver saved my wife’s toes from amputation after she came down with a nasty bone infection called osteomyelitis.

Colloidal silver has also been a very successful mainstay in my daily nutritional supplement regimen for chronic fatigue syndrome – a condition I had previously suffered horrifically from. 

What’s more, I’ve seen colloidal silver used as a nutritional adjunct to help the body heal literally hundreds of incidences of infection and disease over the past 20 years, like those you’ll find at the Colloidal Silver Success Stories website.   

But over these past 20 years, I’ve also seen a handful of cases of arygria – sometimes in people who drank as little as four or five ounces of colloidal silver a day, for only a few short years in a row. 

Listen, there’s ZERO need to take such excessive daily amounts of colloidal silver for months and years on end.  A few days here and there, when really needed, perhaps. 

But if you have a health condition and you're taking huge amounts of colloidal silver as a nutritional adjunct for it, and you’re doing so for months and years on end, and it hasn't helped your body heal itself of that condition...guess what?  It ISN'T going to! 

You're taking the silver for NOTHING.  And you're putting yourself at big risk for argyria.  And if you’ll just be honest with yourself, you’ll see that you really need re-evaluate your obsessive desire to take so much of this otherwise very beneficial substance.

I’m Staggered

I don't know what else I can say. 

I'm absolutely staggered by some of the things I've seen posted on the internet lately from people taking huge amounts of colloidal silver on a daily basis for months or even years on end, and worse yet, urging other people to do the same.

When I gently chastised one of these abusive users of colloidal silver, recently, I was brusquely informed by him, “I’ve done my research.  I know what I’m doing.  I’m convinced taking this much colloidal silver is safe for me.”  

Well, so be it.  As Forest Gump says, “Stupid is as stupid does.”

In another instance, a man who was clearly in the beginning stages of argyria on his face and neck was confronted by a friend of mine and handed a copy of the Colloidal Silver Safe Dosage Report.  The man threw the report down and, after admitting he was taking high daily dosages of a super-concentrated colloidal silver solution, said, “I’ve read that report.  It’s crap.  I know what I’m doing.”

Well, I know what he’s doing, too.  He’s turning himself blue from taking huge daily dosages of colloidal silver.

Very Real Dangers

As a long-time vocal advocate of responsible colloidal silver usage, I’ve written emphatically about the dangers of excessive colloidal silver usage over and over and over again. 

And I’ve even posted the well-known clinical study on argyria, titled “Exposure-Related Health Effects of Silver and Silver Compounds: A Review,” here. 

I’ve also repeatedly tried to make the point that if you started taking two vitamin tablets a day, and they helped you feel better, you're not going to increase your dosage to half a bottle of vitamin tablets a day, right? 

I think just about everyone would agree it would be crazy to take such an excessive amount of vitamins.  So why in the world would you take 100 or 200 times the normal amount of colloidal silver each day?

That’s NOT safe, NOT sane, and NOT responsible.  It’s obsessive. 

So if you’re one of those people who are taking such large daily amounts of colloidal silver, and intend to keep on doing so, please reconsider.  That's all I can ask of you.

If you haven’t done so already, you can learn more about the safe, sane and responsible usage of colloidal silver by obtaining a FREE copy of the Colloidal Silver Safe Dosage Report. 

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,

Steve Barwick, author
The Ultimate Colloidal Silver Manual

Helpful Links:

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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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Man Turns Blue (Really Blue) From Drinking Colloidal Silver for the Past 14 Years

Man Turns Blue (Really Blue) From Drinking Colloidal Silver for the Past 14 Years

If you haven’t yet seen the CNN news video of the so-called colloidal silver “blue man,” you should probably go online as soon as possible and watch it. You can find it simply by using the Google search engine and typing in “colloidal silver blue man.” The video is currently on dozens of web sites across the internet.

Several things about this news story that strike me as odd right off the bat: First of all, the man is really blue. I mean really blue. When people contract argyria (i.e., skin graying) from ingesting excessive amounts of colloidal silver over long periods of time, they usually turn grey, not blue. That’s because the excessive silver buildup in their body has worked its way to the skin (the human body’s largest organ of elimination), and when the sun strikes the skin it tarnishes the large number of silver particles lodged there, turning the skin slate grey.

It is quite possible this man actually has a heart disease resulting in cyanosis (skin bluing from oxygen deficiency in the blood). Nevertheless, he says his condition is the result of taking colloidal silver for the past 14 years, so we have to take his word for it.

As I have been warning for the past 12 years, drinking excessive amounts of colloidal silver on a daily basis for long periods of time will indeed result in argyria for many people, particularly those with poor kidney and liver function. That’s because the excessive daily intake of silver particles is more than their kidneys and liver can expel at any one time. This can result in a residual buildup of the silver particles in the body’s tissues each time a person drinks more silver than their excretory organs can expel. Eventually, over time, the body tries to push this residual buildup of silver from the tissues out toward the skin, at which point the skin turns grey upon exposure to sunlight.

Also, the news story doesn’t tell us how much colloidal silver this man was taking daily. This is a typical ploy of the corporate news media. They want you to believe that any amount of colloidal silver is potentially dangerous, when that is in reality the farthest thing from the truth. But to create the illusion, they don’t bother to tell you how much colloidal silver was taken each day for those 14 years, even though that is the most critical factor in the story! As one experienced colloidal silver user stated in a blog regarding this news video, “This idiot would had to have drank Colloidal Silver by the gallon to have that happen to him!” While we disavow the name-calling, the point is well taken. You have to try real hard to discolor your skin by drinking colloidal silver. It is actually easier to turn your skin orange from drinking too much carrot juice than it is to turn your skin gray (or blue) from drinking colloidal silver.

We also noticed that in the original news video of this story from CNN, the man is shown using a conventional colloidal silver generator distributed by a company in Canada. We are familiar with the company that makes the exact generator displayed in the news video, and personally like the people behind the company. We have spoken with them several times in the past, and they are clearly very sincere about helping, educating and empowering people to be responsible for their own health. But as we have warned you for many years now, most conventional colloidal silver generators produce overly-high levels of silver (i.e., ppm, or silver by weight) in every batch, and the particle size of the silver is also often overly-large. So you have to be very careful if you are using a conventional colloidal silver generator.

This is precisely the reason why we chose to recommend the new Micro-Particle Colloidal Silver Generator, which allows you to produce silver particles so small it takes a Transmission Electron Microscope operating at a whopping 175,000x magnification to see them. In comparison, silver particles produced by conventional colloidal silver generators can generally be seen under a standard microscope operating at only 20,000x magnification. This means the silver particles produced by the new Micro-Particle Colloidal Silver Generator are an astonishing 875% smaller than those produced by conventional colloidal silver units. In other words, they are far smaller than any blood cell, blood vessel, virus, bacteria, or fungus.

You can see a Transmission Electron Microscope photograph of these tiny sub-microscopic silver particles by going to http://www.thesilveredge.com/ and scrolling down until you get near the bottom of the page, where you will see it on the right-hand side. As you will see, the new Micro-Particle Colloidal Silver Generator produces silver particles as small as .0008 microns, which is eight ten-thousandths of a single micron. As far as we know, these are the smallest silver particles produced by any low-voltage colloidal silver generator on the face of the earth. This is probably why the new Micro-Particle Colloidal Silver Generator is now the world’s #1 most popular colloidal silver generator.

Finally, this gentleman’s contention that his skin turned blue from rubbing colloidal silver on it, rather than from drinking it, is…well…rubbish. If the colloidal silver actually did cause his condition, then it was from drinking it in excessive quantities over long periods of time. If he rubbed anything on his skin and turned it blue, I can assure you it was not colloidal silver. This man is apparently blue nearly from head to toe. It is highly unlikely he was rubbing colloidal silver all over his body. And even if he was, it would not have turned him into a Smurf.

One final point : He claims that he was rubbing colloidal silver into his skin because of a dermatitis he contracted 14 years ago. My goodness, if you can’t cure a case of dermatitis in a week or so, you really need to switch remedies. Rubbing colloidal silver into the skin for well over a decade is not a sound remedy…it’s an obsession.

Also I would be extremely remiss if I did not point out one more vital fact in regards to this news video: Out of the estimated seven to 10 million regular colloidal silver users in the United States alone, this is only the second or third person the news media have been able to find in the last 20 years (to my knowledge, anyway) who has “turned blue.” I still find it absolutely amazing that the news media will find two or three people who get this benign but unsightly skin condition out of the literally millions of regular colloidal silver users in the U.S. and Canada, and then broadcast it from the rooftops as if it were the norm. But they won't mention the astonishing 2.2 million people who suffer serious and quite often life-threatening adverse reactions from prescription drug use every single year, or the 100,000 Americans KILLED each year from prescription drug use, which is 30 times more than all of the U.S. troops killed in the Iraq war! Let’s see now: two or three people turning blue in 20 years from excessive colloidal silver usage, versus 100,000 people a year being flat-out put into their graves by common drugs their doctors prescribed them. Which is more newsworthy? I’ll leave that up to you to decide.

This man’s case is obviously an extremely rare one. But it is a good example of what we have been saying for years: In much the same way you wouldn’t eat a half a bottle of vitamins a day unless you want to endure some potentially nasty side effects over time, you also can’t take excessive amounts of colloidal silver daily without eventually provoking a nasty side effect called argyria. Most people are intelligent enough not to take the kind of huge daily dosages that would be necessary to stain your skin like this man has apparently done over the course of the past 14 years. But there are still many web sites out there that claim colloidal silver has “no side effects whatsoever” and that you can “drink all you want with no risk.” Those are blatantly untrue statements. And we have been sounding the alarm against such statements for years.

Again, just as you can’t take all of the vitamins you want every day without risk, so you can’t drink all of the colloidal silver you want each day without risk. If you take excessive quantities of colloidal silver daily for long periods of time, you do indeed risk contracting argyria (i.e., skin graying). It is not a guarantee you will become argyric. But it is a very real risk. The key to avoiding side effects from colloidal silver, or from any other natural supplement for that matter, is the same one your mother taught you when you were a little child: “Don’t overdo it; use MODERATION in all things.” If an ounce or two of colloidal silver a day works good for you, then for goodness sakes don’t start thinking that maybe 16 ounces a day will be even better. It is that “more must be even better” mentality that ultimately produces these rare cases of side effects which the news media in turns capitalizes on in order to scare people away from using this otherwise safe and powerfully effective all-natural infection-fighting agent and immune system booster, which has been used by tens of millions of people worldwide since it was first invented in the late 1800’s shortly after Edison harnessed electricity.

For those interested in learning more about colloidal silver dosage, you can visit http://www.thesilveredge.com/ and download a FREE special report titled “What's the "Safest" Daily Dosage for Colloidal Silver?” which uses the EPA’s (Environmental Protection Agency) own figures to determine how much colloidal silver is safe to take daily. Just use the link in the located in the upper left-hand corner of the home page.

What’s more, that web site will explain how a company called The Silver Edge became the largest colloidal silver generator distributor in the world, and it also reveals their role in helping develop the world’s most popular colloidal silver generator – the Micro-Particle Colloidal Silver Generator – which produces silver particles so infinitesimally small the human body is able to absorb, utilize, and successfully excrete them with greater ease than any of the silver solutions produced by conventional colloidal silver generators. This superior absorption, utilization and excretion alleviates the need to take huge daily quantities of colloidal silver, giving you all of the benefits of this powerful natural infection-fighting agent and immune system booster without the risk associated with excessive usage.

Finally, if you want to learn even more about the safe usage of colloidal silver, I am happy to announce that Life & Health Research Group has recently placed their one-hour, studio-quality Colloidal Silver Secrets video on sale for only twenty bucks. If features Steve Barwick, author of The Ultimate Colloidal Silver Manual, being interviewed relentlessly by television personality Kristyn Burtt on just about every aspect of colloidal silver usage you can imagine. He even demonstrates how to make a crude, emergency colloidal silver generator out of common household implements in under two minutes. I don’t know how long they will keep this great 60-minute long video (available in DVD or VHS) available at such a low price, so you should check it out now at http://www.lifeandhealthresearchgroup.com/

Is Argyria a Side Effect of Colloidal Silver Usage?

Is Argyria a Side Effect of Colloidal Silver Usage?

Yes, argyria (skin greying) is a very real side effect of excessive usage of colloidal silver. And many people will use that fact to try to scare you away from using colloidal silver to cure infections or boost immunity.

But you've got to realize that there is no substance on earth that does not have very real side effects when used in excess. For example:

Diabetes, pancreatitis and heart disease are very real side effects of excessive usage of sugar.

Cirrhosis of the liver and heart failure are very real side effects of the excessive usage of iron supplements.

Kidney malfunction, calcification of soft tissue within the body, cellular toxicity and impaired immune function are very real side effects of excess usage of calcium.

Muscle pain, fatigue, irritability, depression, schizophrenia, fever, liver damage and anemia are very real side effects of the excessive usage of Vitamin A.

What's more, DEATH is a very real side effect of the excessive usage of...water (it's called "drowning").

None of those side effects justify being afraid to use the substances mentioned. Why? Because the key phrase involved in each one is "excessive use." When used in moderation, these substances are not only benign, but helpful. When used in excess, they can cause serious health consequences.

It is exactly the same with colloidal silver. If you use it in moderation it is completely harmless, and in fact extremely beneficial for boosting immunity and warding off infections of all sorts. It even helps the body heal from chronic degenerative diseases such as lupus, MS, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, Lyme disease and a host of others that often are caused by underlying hidden infections. But if used in excess daily over long periods of time, the result can be argyria, or skin-staining. It is a harmless, but cosmetically unappealing condition resulting from silver particles being pushed to the skin (the body's third major organ of elimination) at which point they oxidize (or tarnish)from exposure to the sun.

Out of the estimated 10 million users of colloidal silver throughout North America, only a very small handful have been naive, ignorant or ill-informed enough to take such excessive quantities over such long periods of time to result in skin-staining. It is ridiculous to blame the substance for the misuse by the person. That's kinda like saying water is terrible for you because several thousand people a year die in it due to drowning.

For anyone interested in learning about safe and common sense colloidal silver usage, please visit http://www.thesilveredge.com/ and download a copy of the FREE special report titled “What's the "Safest" Daily Dosage for Colloidal Silver?” which uses the EPA’s (Environmental Protection Agency) own figures to determine how much colloidal silver is safe to take daily. Just use the link in the located in the upper left-hand corner of the home page.

Also, if you want to learn even more about the safe usage of colloidal silver, a company called Life & Health Research Group has recently placed their one-hour, studio-quality Colloidal Silver Secrets video on sale for only twenty bucks. If features Steve Barwick, author of The Ultimate Colloidal Silver Manual, being interviewed relentlessly by television personality Kristyn Burtt on just about every aspect of colloidal silver usage you can imagine. Check it out now at http://www.lifeandhealthresearchgroup.com/