Generations
ago, pioneers trekking across
the Wild West in the US faced
many hardships. Keeping safe
drinking water was one of them.
Bacteria, algae, etc., found a
fertile breeding ground in
wooden casks, which were carried
by the wagons. They placed
silver coins in the casks to
retard the growth of the
spoilage organisms. They also
placed silver coins in their
milk to keep it fresh.
Settlers
in the Australian outback suspended
silverware in the water tanks to
retard spoilage.
Wrapping
wounds in silver foil was a common
treatment around the turn of the century
to prevent infection.
Eventually,
man learned to make silver nitrate and
use it in wounds as an antibiotic. But
silver nitrate is a silver salt and is
caustic, and therefore burns tissue,
much like iodine.
These
early, unstable and crudely made silver
solutions were sometimes injected
directly into the body, taken orally or
applied topically. Remarkably, there
were no significant side effects.
Silver in the Colloidal Form
The
comeback of silver in medicine began in
the 1970’s when the late Carl Moyer,
chairman of Washington University’s
Department of Surgery, received a grant
to develop better treatments for burn
victims. Dr. Harry Margraf, as the chief
biochemist, worked with Dr. Moyer and
other surgeons to find an antiseptic
strong enough, yet safe to use over
large areas of the body. Silver has
always been one of the most universal
antibiotic substances. When administered
in the colloidal form, it is non-toxic.
Reviewing
medical literature, Dr. Margraf found
repeated references to silver. It was
described as a catalyst that disables
the enzymes microorganisms depend on to
“breathe”. Consequently, they die.
Medical
journal reports from the early 1900’s
demonstrated that a properly prepared
colloid of silver was the only form of
silver solution that was not deposited
under the skin, no matter how many times
the proper amount was administered.
Jim
Powell reported in a Science Digest
article in March 1978, titled “Our
Mightiest Germ Fighter”: “Thanks to
eye-opening research, silver is emerging
as a wonder of modern medicine. An
antibiotic kills perhaps half-dozen
different disease organisms, but silver
kills hundreds. Additionally,
silver-resistant strains fail to
develop”.
While
silver has been used for centuries to
purify water, modern ionization
technology was developed by the National
Aeronautic and Space Administration
(NASA) in the early days of the space
program as a lightweight method of
purifying recycled water on spacecrafts.
In
the United States and Canada, more than
100 hospitals have installed
silver-based water purifying systems to
eradicate Legionnaire’s disease, a
deadly bacteria that infects hot water
pipes and storage tanks in large
buildings.
Antibiotic
resistance is quickly becoming a public
health nightmare. Traditional
antibiotics continue to lose their
ability to kill certain strains of
bacteria. To date, nearly every disease
causing organism known has become
resistant to at least one antibiotic,
and several are immune to more than one.
Scientists have known since the dawn of
antibiotic age that the more an
antibiotic is used, the quicker it tends
to become useless due to bacterial
resistance.
