Colloidal Silver: A Multi-Tasking Addition to Your Natural Medicine Cabinet

by: Katie Varela

One of my favorite natural medicine tools is colloidal silver. From ear infections to burns to pink eye, this beneficial mineral can help cure many ailments. It is naturally antibiotic, anti-viral, and anti-fungal, and, if a high quality silver is used, there are no side effects.

Colloidal silver, which is made either by the "electro-arc" method in deionized water, or by the "low voltage electrolysis" method in distilled water, consists of microscopic particles of pure, elemental silver suspended in water, with no other elements present. It was widely used in Western medicine until antibiotics became prevalent. With the recent rise in natural medicine, though, it is seeing a comeback.

Uses

Pink eye: for either a bacterial or viral eye infection, put one drop of colloidal silver directly in the eye. I let my kids gently close their eyes, then put one drop in the inside corners, and tell them to blink ten times. Dab off the excess. Do this three times the first day, two times the second and third days. I have never had to do more than three days.

Burn: spray onto burns to prevent infection and promote healing.

Ear infection: while I tend to use other methods of treatment for ear infections in addition to colloidal silver, I do put one drop of colloidal silver in the affected ear and have my child lie down to let the liquid stay in the ear for 5 to 10 minutes before we drain it. I do this twice a day for two to five days, depending on the severity of the infection.

Sore throat and/or strep throat: spray into back of mouth as needed. The beauty of true colloidal silver is that it can’t be overused.

Skin: colloidal silver can help with rashes and sores.

Household: spray doorknobs, light switches, tables, or anywhere you want to disinfect.

Pets: put one drop in your pet’s water bowl to eliminate pathogens and keep your pet healthy. I put one drop in our chickens’ water bucket each week.

Water treatment: if you ever find yourself without access to clean drinking water, one drop of colloidal silver will destroy the pathogens in one liter of water, making it clean and ready to drink.

Nearly all “colloidal silvers” you can buy at health food stores are ionic silver solutions, not true colloidal silver. While they do provide some benefits, true colloidal silver, which will be yellow/amber and not clear, has actual nano-sized silver particles in it, making it more potent and more effective. On a side note, the dangers you may read about online about silver—specifically argyria, where the skin turns blue-grey—occur when silver protein is used. Ionic silver (the kind typically found at health food stores) will not cause argyria if you follow the dosage on the bottle. And true colloidal silver will not cause argyria.

The kind I have found that I like best is called NutraSilver and can be bought here: http://www.nutrasilver.com/. NutraSilver is highly concentrated (3600 parts per million, or ppm), so I make my own diluted bottles to save money. (Make sure to use dark glass bottles, either brown or cobalt.) If an infection seems particularly bad, I use the straight, undiluted drops. For everyday health, mild issues, and preventative uses, I like to have a spray bottle and a dropper bottle of diluted colloidal silver on hand. Even diluted, this colloidal silver is high quality and potent. For a 200 ppm concentration, dilute the silver at an 18:1 ratio in distilled water (18 drops water, 1 drop NutraSilver). This is the concentration I use most. For a household spray, just drop a few drops of NutraSilver into a large spray bottle full of distilled water.