The Return of Silver in Healing: Colloidal Silver - Nature's Alternative to Antibiotics
From Health Newsline
http://educate-yourself.org/cs/csarticle1.shtml
In the early 1900's an antibacterial solution called Colloidal Silver became the choice of medical practitioners. It proved to be enormously effective against infectious organisms and extremely safe to use, without the negative side effects associated with drugs. But Colloidal Silver became increasingly expensive and the pharmaceutical companies developed antibiotics as we know them today. Silver took a back seat. However, as usual, as we deviate from nature, unforeseen problems develop. Forty years after the advent of antibiotics, many types of disease-causing organisms had built an immunity to their action.
Over the years the medical establishment has reported on the new strains of
"Super Bugs" that cannot be destroyed by antibiotics. Newsweek Magazine reported
in March 28, 1994 that in 1992, 13,000 hospital patients died of infections that
resisted every drug doctors tried. Also a well known fact is the detrimental
effect of antibiotics on the naturally occurring flora in the colon. Colloidal
Silver does not disturb this very necessary environment.
Fortunately, the timely re-emergence of Colloidal Silver due to new technology
and much reduced costs in production, may prove to be one of the best remedies
that the public now has to protect themselves.
"And now it's silver that is finding wholly new uses as a wonder in modern medicine...perhaps it soon will be recognized as OUR MIGHTIEST GERM FIGHTER." (Science Digest, March 1978.) Silver is considered to be one of the most universal antibiotic substances known. Jim Powell reported in the Science Digest article quoted above, that an antibiotic kills perhaps 7 different disease organisms, but silver kills some 650. Resistant strains fail to develop. Moreover, silver is non-toxic!
The comeback of silver in medicine began in the 1970's. The late Dr. Carl Moyer, chairman of Washington University's Department of Surgery, received a grant to develop better treatment for burn victims. Dr. Harry Margraf of St. Louis, as the chief biochemist, worked with Dr. Moyer and other surgeons to find an antiseptic strong enough, yet safe, to use over larger areas of the body. Dr. Margraf reviewed 22 antiseptic compounds and found drawbacks in all of them. (SILVER IS USED IN ALL MAJOR BURN CENTERS IN THE UNITED STATES. UCLA MEDICAL LABS FOUND IT EFFECTIVE ON EVERY VIRUS THEY TESTED IT ON.)
He noted that many of these antibiotics were ineffective against a number of
harmful bacteria, including the biggest killer in burn cases - greenish blue
bacterium called Pseudomonas acruginose. Extensive trials proved silver to be
the most effective and is currently used in all major burn centers in the United
States.
In 1834, the German obstetrician F. Crede administered 1% silver nitrate to the
eyes of newborn infants, virtually eliminating the incidence of disease causing
blindness in newborn babies. however, it was not until the late 1800's that
Western scientists were able to prove what had been known in Eastern medicine
for thousands of years...that silver was a proven germ fighter! Once the
discovery was made that the body's chief fluids were colloidal in nature, the
endless possibilities which could occur from the use of colloids in medicine
were recognized. As a result, a silver solution known as Colloidal Silver became
widely used in medicine as one of the main-stays of antimicrobial treatment,
until money became an issue. "What we actually have done, was rediscover that
silver kills bacteria", stated Dr. Robert Becker M. D. "It is non-toxic in
micro-concentrations of 3-5 parts per million."