What is colloidal silver?
Colloidal silver is a product made of tiny silver particles suspended in a liquid. It can be found in certain dietary supplements, however, evidence supporting the health-related claims of ingesting colloidal silver is lacking.
What is silver?
Silver is a greyish-white metal that occurs naturally in the environment. It is used for making jewellery, silverware, electronic equipment, and dental fillings.
What is colloidal silver used for?
Historically, silver has been used for therapeutic purposes for centuries as a blood purifier, offensive breath, heart palpitations and epilepsy.
In the late 19th century, pre-antibiotic silver became popular as an antibacterial agent, applied to wounds and burns to prevent infections. It was used as nose drops for the treatment of sinusitis and the common cold, as well as the treatment of syphilis.
Silver is still used in foil coverings for burn wounds and topical applications for ulcers, as well as in dressings on surgical incisions and for coating of both temporary and permanent medical devices.
Colloidal silver itself lost some of its popularity in the 1930s and ’40s, when antibiotics like penicillin came along; however, with increased resistance of bacteria to antibiotics, the interest in colloidal silver has risen again. Since the 1990s it has been used for the treatment of ear infections, skin conditions such as tinea, eczema, psoriasis, and acne, and as a natural support for the immune system.
How does colloidal silver work?
It is thought that silver may destroy the enzymes responsible for producing unwanted microorganisms and discourage their growth. However, researchers are still trying to understand more about how they work in the body.
Safety of colloidal silver
Long-term use of colloidal silver products may result in silver building up in the body’s tissues and organs, including the skin, liver, spleen, kidney, cornea, and muscle tissues.
This may lead to an irreversible condition called argyria, a bluish-grey discolouration of the skin, especially in skin areas exposed to the sun such as the face, neck, and arms. The discolouration may also appear in the eyes, internal organs, nails and gums. The condition is rare and is not thought to cause any serious health problems other than the cosmetic appearance; however, once the silver is deposited, there is no way of getting it out.
The use of excessive amounts of colloidal silver may have an impact on the central nervous system and has been shown to cause kidney damage and other serious conditions.
Related reads:
References
- https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/colloidal-silver-what-you-need-to-know
- https://www.ga.gov.au/education/minerals-energy/australian-mineral-facts/silver
- Sim, W., Barnard, R. T., Blaskovich, M. A. T., & Ziora, Z. M. (2018). Antimicrobial Silver in Medicinal and Consumer Applications: A Patent Review of the Past Decade (2007–2017). Antibiotics, 7(4). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6315945/
- Dakal, T. C., Kumar, A., Majumdar, R. S., & Yadav, V. (2016). Mechanistic Basis of Antimicrobial Actions of Silver Nanoparticles. Frontiers in Microbiology, 7. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5110546/
- https://www.tga.gov.au/sites/default/files/foi-156-1213-25.pdf
- Colloidal silver: What you need to know. (n.d.). NCCIH. https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/colloidal-silver-what-you-need-to-know
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