Pro response to the Con below:
Don't believe all the mainstream information on this thread – the only risk properly made and administered colloidal silver poses is to the huge profits of the pharmaceutical industry's patented antibiotics – which are less effective, less safe and far more expensive.
Silver receptors have been discovered on human nervous tissues – indicating that, far from being a health threat, silver is actually an essential item. If nano-sized particles of silver is quackery, one wonders why NASA and the Russian space agencies use it to purify the astronauts water in the space station? Or why Potters for Peace uses it in their filters to purify water in underdeveloped countries? Why one supposes do most major hospital burn units use silver bandages and often have no scarring even with third degree burns? Or why does the Hong Kong subway system use colloidal silver to prevent the spread of infections in their subways?
Silver ineffective? That rather flies in the face of the Merck Index, which demonstrated silver was effective at killing over 650 single celled pathogens. Prior to the advent of patentable and more profitable sulfa-drugs and antibiotics, silver was an essential ingredient in no less than 34 FDA approved prescribed and over the counter medications. Silver did not become less effective (in fact, with improved technology to make sub nanometer sized particles, it has become much more effective), it simply became less profitable and a threat to the patented products of the drug companies.
Silver makes you blue? Rubbish! Millions of people use it, so where are all the tribes of Smurffs? All you find are very rare instances like the famous blue man Paul Karason, who we have seen paraded around to endless media shows and publications. He made his own home-made ionic silver, contaminated it with salt and drank over a quart a day for months on end. Seldom mentioned is the fact that Karason, who claims silver saved his life from at least three serious conditions, took a complete physical at Mount Sinai Hospital at the request of one of the talk shows and, despite the blueness he seems to revel in, was given a clean bill of health.
One has to cast a jaundiced eyes at the motivation of those who always spring forward to condemn silver. And I note that, after years of denying silver's benefits, a group of so-called activist and environmental organizations got together to petition the EPA to regulate silver as a pesticide. Their reasoning – silver kills bacteria and viruses, which they chose to define as "pests". Isn't it interesting that virtually every group that signed up to initiate the petition was discovered to have funding and/or other links to the pharmaceutical companies.
You can pretty well count on industry-backed "studies" and articles condemning just about anything that represents a threat to patented drugs. After all, there is a trillion dollars a year at stake. And that includes natural vitamins, minerals and plants (remember the FDA going after Washington cherry growers because the dared suggest they had health benefits?). I have to wonder when did God and Nature become quacks, and man become God?
Pravda recently announced that colloidal silver beats the Swine Flu. It is a shame that we find more truth about some things like colloidal silver in a publication like Pravda than in our own mainstream media – which not coincidentally receives hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising from the drug companies annually. As Robert F. Kennedy, Jr recently noted though – due to the control of our media by special interests we are the least informed of all the developed countries.
For more real information about colloidal silver, see:
Colloidal Silver Has Mainstream Medicine "Singing the Blues"
Merck, other Pharma Companies Funding Activist Groups behind the EPA Petition to Regulate Silver
Colloidal Silver Beats the Swine Flu
The Merck Index (listing pathogens killed by colloidal silver)
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Con:
Colloidal Silver had been tested by medical science and the outcome is always negative. This treatment is ineffective and actually quite dangerous.
"the Food and Drug Administration's 1999 ruling that colloidal silver is not recognized as a safe or effective treatment in over-the-counter products for any condition, and its manufacturers therefore cannot make drug-like claims about the product. "
http://quackfiles.blogspot.com/2004/10/theres-unvaccinated-sucker-born-every.html
"Considered potentially toxic by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration"
"there's no evidence that taking colloidal silver can do anything to fight disease or improve health, says Dr. Edmund Pribitkin, a professor of otolaryngology at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia"
"the National Institutes of Health warns that large doses of colloidal silver could cause seizures, kidney damage, stomach trouble, headaches and fatigue"
"People are spending a lot of money on something that has never been proven to work"
http://www.latimes.com/la-he-skeptic9-2009feb09,1,5020689.story
Argyria (Skin turning blue) can occur after many months of exposure.
"Argyria occurs in people who eat or breathe in silver over a long period (several months to many years)"
http://www.kval.com/news/local/12648491.html
"Colloidal silver can cause serious side effects. One is argyria, a bluish-gray discoloration of the body. Argyria is not treatable or reversible."
http://nccam.nih.gov/health/silver/
Please don't put your hope in these scams, you'll end up with is less money and could get terrible side effects from unproven and untested medicines.
EDIT:
Tony I- The 'Big Pharma' conspiracy theory is nonsense. 'Big Alt Med' makes a LOT of money from selling alternative medicines. Both fields are out to make money, but mainstream medicine is the only one that can prove efficacy of most products.
If your best evidence is what you've seen and testimonials, that just doesn't hold up. If silver works, you can easily prove it with a proper double blinded test, using the agreed on standards of scientific testing. If you don't trust 'big pharma' to do the tests, do them yourself. Write your results in a peer reviewed journal. If you can prove it works, we'll be happy to apologise.
When you've finished doing that test, you'll also need to do a full scale test on human subjects to prove that it is safe. It is disgusting that you tell people it is safe without the evidence to prove it… and the fact that you've seen people take it without problems is NOT evidence. Are you really that stubborn in your beliefs that you don't care if people are injured?
Unfortunately most proponents of silver don't do proper tests. They just believe what they want without evidence. That's is fine if you want to keep your beliefs private – but the moment you come on here and give unproven medical advice to people, you're putting lives in danger.