Historical Therapeutic Uses of Silver

Silver-based therapeutics have been recognized for thousands of years. Ancient civilizations used silver containers and utensils to control infections and spoilage. Romans used silver nitrate in the treatment of skin ulcers, compound fractures and suppurating (draining puss) wounds. In 69 B.C. silver nitrate was described in the contemporary pharmacopoeia as an anti-microbial agent. Paracelsus (1493-1541), German-Swiss physician and alchemist known for having established the role of chemistry in medicine, wrote of the healing properties of silver.

Towards the end of the 19th century, Karl Wilhelm von Nägeli, Swiss botanist who discovered what would later become known as chromosomes, found the antimicrobial effects of silver are primarily due to the silver ion and identified its “oligodynamic” effect. Contemporaneously, Dr. Carl Crede, German gynecologist, obstetrician and medical author, pioneered the use of diluted silver nitrate in eye drops for newborns and thereby virtually elimated the incidence of gonorrheal ophthalmia (a disease causing blindness in newborns).

At the turn of the 20th century Dr. William Halstead, surgical educator, a founder of Johns Hopkins Medical School and generally considered one of the most important and influential surgeons in American history, advocated the use of silver in dressings for wounds. These silver dressings were used extensively until after World War II and were listed in the Physician's Desk Reference until 1955 when the use of synthetic antibiotics became widespread.

Broad-Spectrum Antimicrobial Action

Before the discovery of synthetic antibiotics and antibacterial drugs in the early 20th century, conventional medical doctors used silver medicines to treat many serious medical conditions, including gonorrhea, tonsillitis, whooping cough and typhoid.

In the late 1960s, Dr. Charles L. Fox Jr., a bacteriologist in a surgical unit at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, combined two known antibacterial agents for burns, silver nitrate and sulfadiazine and thereby invented silver sulfadiazine as a treatment used to prevent infection in burn patients. Silver sulfadiazine was first used on a large scale during the Vietnam War.

Since about 1980 silver has been used to prevent infections in many implanted medical devices including intravascular catheters, urological catheters and vascular grafts.

Very recently both Curad and Johnson & Johnson Band-Aid introduced silver-based wound-care products into the marketplace as part of a growing trend in using silver as a natural antibacterial.

Silver Ions Accelerate Healing

Another important discovery made in the early 20th century was that electrically produced oligodynamic silver ions increase healthy blood cell production. In 1909 the Journal of The American Medical Association acknowledged that silver caused an increase in white blood (immune) cells and could potentially help purify the blood of pathogenic microorganisms and toxins. Silver was found to function as a secondary defense within our immune system.

More recently, through extensive research and experimentation, Robert O. Becker, M.D., orthopedic surgeon, professor, noted biomedical researcher and author, and twice nominee for the Nobel Prize, found that electrically generated silver ions are capable of producing accelerated healing—reducing healing time by as much as 50%. Dr. Becker and his colleagues found that silver ions increase the rate of healing in wounds and bone by promoting the production of new healthy cells. Dr. Becker's book, The Body Electric, states:

Of course, the germ-killing action of silver has been known for some time ... the Soviets use silver ions to sterilize recycled water aboard their space stations.... It kills even antibiotic-resistant strains, and also works on fungus infections.

... It stimulates bone-forming cells, cures the most common stubborn infections of all kinds of bacteria, and stimulates healing in the skin and other soft tissues.

As a result of Dr. Becker's research and others, regeneration of whole areas of lost skin is now accomplished by the use of silver ion treatments.

Silver's Active Ingredient: Positive Ion

After well over a century of modern research the experts agree that—not pure metallic silver (which releases no ions) but— the positively charged ion (Ag+) is the active component in silver compounds which displays antimicrobial activity.

Researchers also agree that the electrically-generated silver ion (as in SILVERUM™) is more effective than silver salts (as in silver nitrate, silver oxide and silver sulfadiazine).

Click here to compare various types of silver compounds and methods of production.

SILVERUM™ is a safe and highly effective electrically-generated collodial silver containing 30 ppm of superfine particles of 99.999% silver in the range of 0.005-0.015 microns in diameter which are positively charged and suspended in ultra pure and pH balanced distilled water. The active silver ions and silver particles stay in suspension without chemical or protein stabilizers, or artificial additives. SILVERUM™ is therefore a true colloidal silver.

Laboratory test results with SILVERUM™ are most impressive. Among the organisms tested and neutralized by SILVERUM™ are Staphylococcus aureus, Staphyloccoccus epidermidis, Enterococcus faecalis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Enterobacter cloacae, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Proteus vulgaris, Salmonella typhimurium, Serratic marcescens, Candida albicans, Aspergillus niger and Trichopyton mentagrophytes.

It is important to note how quickly disease causing germs are killed with SILVERUM™. Click here to view laboratory test results which show that SILVERUM™ kills all of these dangerous germs in less than six (6) minutes.