Silver: An element of good health

Jewelry Discussion
21

You gotta be a little careful with silver taken internally. There
was a man at our church whose skin had been turned a dark, almost
purple, color because in infancy some idiot doctor had him take some
kind of silver preparation.

Yes, silver compounds of some types can help wound healing, No, plain
old silver against the skin does not have healing properties. Yes,
taking silver internally can have unintended and unfortunate
consequences.

Be guided by your doctor to be safe and sensible. Don’t just take
what you read on the internet as gospel. A lot of it isn’t worth the
paper it’s written on (which is no paper at all!)

John
Indiana
(John F. Moe, MD, MPH)

22 
Oh by the way, I am using a Silvasorb Gel...Silver Antimicrobial
Wound Gel - for a wound on my leg, so silver is still being used
for

medicinal purposes! I don’t think anyone here is suggesting that
elemental silver doesn’t have valuable antibacterial properties. What
matters here is the form of the silver, what mixture or compound it
is, and how it is applied. I’m sure the gel is great for your leg,
but strapping a raised sterling silver bowl to your leg is unlikely
to help. My dad (degrees in biology and geology, and a jeweller)
suggests that elemental silver needs to be in colloidal form to be
antibacterial. I’ve used a burn cream called Flamazine, which
contains a silver compound, and it works brilliantly. Once again,
when I burn myself, I reach for the flamazine, not the scrap box.

“Silver” as we use it is generally alloyed for working properties -
I would expect the other metals in the alloy to be non-toxic,
certainly, but we’re hardly going to shout “Buy silver, it won’t
kill you!” from the rooftops.

quick look at Cookson’s datasheets shows that sterling and britannia
silver only contain silver and copper, but their “brilliante”
silver, which is more resistant to firestain, contains zinc, tin,
indium, copper and silver. How does that affect it? It’s all
“silver”. And that’s before we get into the contents of solder.

I’m not targeting the quoted poster here, but I am a little
disturbed by how eagerly people believe that similarity between
modern materials and ancient folk remedies is proof of either a
modern statement or a historic belief. Any statement that claims to
be scientific cannot be taken at face value; to accept it that way
stops it from being scence, which requires rigorous testing and
debate.

This reminds me of one of the UK national newspapers, the Daily
Mail, and its ongoing quest to divide all inanimate objects into
either cancer-causing or cancer-preventing substances. Or both
(sometimes in the same week!). I wish I was kidding - have a glance
at this link: http://kill-or-cure.heroku.com

23

These are my references:

  1. G.V. James, Water Treatment, 4th Ed., CRC Press, Cleveland, OH,
    p. 38 (1971).

  2. I.E. Wacks, C.B. Wang, G.Deo, “Interaction of Polycrystalline
    Silver with Oxygen, Water, Carbon Dioxide, Ethylene, and Methanol: In
    Situ Raman and Catalytic Studies,” Jour. of Physical Chemistry B,
    Vol. 103, p. 5645 (1999).

  3. Samuel F. Etris, Richard L. Davies, “The Development and
    Functions of Silver in Water Purification and Disease Control,” The
    Silver Institute Newsletter (1995).

  4. Samuel F. Etris, “Why Silver Kills Germs & Heals Wounds,” The
    Silver Institute Newsletter (2003).

From Samuel F. Etris:

Metallic silver has been shown to dissolve in water by about
10-5 g/l which is toxic to E. coli and Bacillus typhosus.
Metallic silver has been shown by a study conducted at Lehigh
University's Center for Surface Studies to carry oxygen on its
surface always ready to oxidize and organic material it touches.
This activity has been used commercially by the chemical process
industry for over a hundred years. The entire class of bacteria
is vulnerable to this action.

I hope this helps,

Jeff Herman

24

Thanks Leonid

I knew that silver gel had to be good. From now on I will stay out
of the conversation on Silver - like I got in over my head!!! I am
not a scientist! But I sure do like to read all these subjects on
Orchid, and really do learn some good stuff.

And Leonid, you know your stuff!
Rose Marie Christison

25 
...Can anyone give me the research for this?

Silver in Healthcare: Its Antimicrobal Efficacy and Safety in Use.
Alan B G Lansdown. Royal Society of Chemists. 2010. This landmark
study covers all the currently known angles on the subject.
Excerpts can be read online at

Mary Ellin D’Agostino, PhD
www.medacreations.com

26 
Metallic silver has been shown to dissolve in water by about 10-5
g/l which is toxic to E. coli and Bacillus typhosus.

Metallic silver “dissolved” in water is no longer metallic silver.
It’s ionized to Ag+.

Is that really 5 to 10 grams per liter? Can’t be. It’s insoluble in
pure water, and in sea water it’s measured in parts per billion.

Ah, I think 10-5 must be 10 to the -5 power. Still a lot.

Al Balmer
Sun City, AZ

27 
here is one article 
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/513362

Available to members only.

relevant excerpt

I suspect there are more relevant excerpts, that make it clear
they’re discussing ionic silver.

Al Balmer
Sun City, AZ

28

I know I’m about to annoy a variety of my colleagues but I think
it’s important to get this right.

Enthusiasm should not take over solid scientific research. We have
to be truthful.

All these following quotes form the correspondence on Ganoksin are
about research into colloidal, ionic or silver compounds.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/513362

This refers to ionic silver and is a secondary resource.

G.V. James, Water Treatment, 4th Ed., CRC Press, Cleveland, OH, p.
38 (1971).

This too is about ionic silver reactions.

I.E. Wacks, C.B. Wang, G.Deo, "Interaction of Polycrystalline
Silver with Oxygen, Water, Carbon Dioxide, Ethylene, and Methanol:
In Situ Raman and Catalytic Studies," Jour. of Physical Chemistry
B, Vol. 103, p. 5645 (1999).

Is not applicable to medicinal usage but a study of catalytic
reaction.

Samuel F. Etris, Richard L. Davies, "The Development and Functions
of Silver in Water Purification and Disease Control," The Silver
Institute Newsletter (1995).

This is about colloidal silver

The last appears to be propaganda and is not a research paper. It is
also a tertiary source…

Samuel F. Etris, “Why Silver Kills Germs & Heals Wounds,” The Silver
Institute Newsletter (2003).

Some silver compounds (having silver as an ionic component) and
silver in very fine suspension (colloidal) have antibacterial
properties and have been successfully used in the treatment of
wounds and infections. The reason is that pure silver in its
colloidal and ionic forms converts and absorbs tiny amounts of
oxygen breaking it up into the nascent form. This is highly reactive
and oxidizes carbon molecules that come into contact with it.

Sterling silver, or even pure silver, by itself seems to have no
application. Using silver utensils in no way has been demonstrated
to have similar properties. If it did then silver plated objects
would have the same properties.

29

Additional reading:

Jeff Herman

30 
Yes, taking silver internally can have unintended and unfortunate
consequences. Be guided by your doctor to be safe and sensible.
Don't just take what you read on the internet as gospel. A lot of
it isn't worth the paper it's written on (which is no paper at
all!) I quoted all of that to get the MD (Doctor of Medicine) and
the MPH (Master of Public Health) part in. Me, I'm not any expert
on this topic....

Unfortunately, we live in a world of “Somebody said green tea is good
for you. Let’s put green tea in everything everybody eats…” I
forget who said it, today - everything is either cancer causing or
cancer preventing, in the media. I can only tell people my own
attitude: If there is something wrong with you that a drug, chemical
or ~anything~ can fix, then take it if you wish. Otherwise, don’t.
Eat good food…

Don’t be a guinea pig…

31

I don’t believe Jeffrey is suggesting silver flatware and hollowware
be used for wound treatment, I certainly didn’t read that.

It seems silver’s effect happens when in contact with water,
releasing the silver ions that kill bacteria. Ummmm, aren’t silver
items often used with water? Teaspoons, goblets, teething rings?
Isn’t one’s saliva water based? As is the food on one’s plate?

Sorry, but I think some of the comments in this thread are
overstated.

32

Metallic silver acts as a biocide, the ionic form is even more
active but it does not need to be in that form to work. This
knowledge dates back in to antiquity and was one of the reasons for
using silver vessels to store food and drink. Activated charcoal
water filters are available with metallic silver incorporated in the
charcoal to inhibit bacteria growth in the filter. There is plenty of
science to support it if you want to look for it.

Jim

James Binnion
James Binnion Metal Arts

33 
There is plenty of science to support it if you want to look for
it.

I’ve been looking. Why don’t you help? All the scientific citations
I’ve seen so far say metallic silver has no effect, but ionized
silver does.

Al Balmer
Sun City, AZ

34

Neil,

It seems silver's effect happens when in contact with water,
releasing the silver ions that kill bacteria. Ummmm, aren't silver
items often used with water? Teaspoons, goblets, teething rings?
Isn't one's saliva water based? As is the food on one's plate?

That’s exactly what I’m saying. I’m in the process of finding more
proof on this. The FDA approved silver nanotechnology for medical
devices years ago. This technology has been proven to kill
microorganisms. Silver has been used as tracheotomy tubes to reduce
infection.

I’m sorry, but university research papers are very difficult to
find.

Jeff Herman

35

Norwex cleaning products from Norway have microfiber cleaning cloth
woven with silver that they profess is anti bacterial because of the
silver fibers. I use them- not sure if they are killing bacteria but
I trusted their claim and bought some. Something to look into?

Sara

36

Regarding Lansdown’s Silver in HealthcaRe: Its Antimicrobal Efficacy
and Safety in Use (2010):

http://www.rsc.org/shop/books/2010/9781849730068.asp

This book is an in-depth scholarly review of the history and current
knowledge on this topic by a prominent toxicologist.

Mary Ellin D’Agostino, PhD
www.medacreations.com

37

These papers help illustrate how ions are released from solid
silver:

  1. Focus on Silver, Jean-Yves Maillard, BSc, PhD, Senior Lecturer in
    Pharmaceutical Microbiology, Welsh School of Pharmacy, Cardiff
    University, Cardiff, Wales; Stephen P. Denyer, FPharm, PhD, MRPharmS,
    Head of School and Professor of Pharmacy, Welsh School of Pharmacy,
    Cardiff University, Cardiff, Wales
    Focus on silver

  2. Bactericidal Actions of a Silver Ion Solution on Escherichia
    coli, Studied by Energy-Filtering Transmission Electron Microscopy
    and Proteomic Analysis, Mikihiro Yamanaka, Keita Hara, and Jun Kudo,
    Research Dept. 8, Devices Technology Research Laboratories, Corporate
    Research and Development Group, Sharp Corporation, 2613-1,
    Ichinomoto-cho, Tenri, Nara, Japan
    http://aem.asm.org/cgi/content/full/71/11/7589

  3. The Role of Antimicrobial Silver Nanotechnology, Bruce Gibbins,
    PhD, AcryMed
    The Role of Antimicrobial Silver Nanotechnology | mddionline.com

Any additional findings will be placed on this page:
http://www.silversmithing.com/silver_an%20_element_of_good_health.htm

Jeff Herman

38 
I've been looking. Why don't you help? All the scientific
citations I've seen so far say metallic silver has no effect, but
ionized silver does.

This is where you are splitting hairs by trying to separate metallic
silver from silver in the ionic state. One theory is that the
chemical actions of the bacteria act to release the ions from the
surface of the silver. Also many foods/liquids that get stored in
silver for its preservative effect are slightly acidic (wine,
vinegar, etc) which liberate silver ions. So to say that the metallic
silver is ineffective is to only look at it in isolation to its
environment.

Anyway you want references:

Here is one reference talking about the use of silver in endodontics

"ilver points have been used in endodontics for more than 100 years.
The underlying premise during the development of silver point root
canal fillings was the antibacterial effect of silver. Even small
amounts of silver or mercury kill bacteria in vitro.

The oligodynamic effect which is what the bacterial killing effect
of silver and several other metals is called is real and documented.
Silver-Coated Endotracheal Tube Dramatically Reduces Resistant
Infections

Spacecraft Water Exposure Guidelines for Selected Contaminants:
Volume 1 (2004) Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology (BEST)

http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id10942&page324

Saint S, Elmore JG, Sullivan SD, Emerson SS, Koepsell TD (September
1998). “The efficacy of silver alloy-coated urinary catheters in
preventing urinary tract infection: a meta-analysis”. The American
Journal of Medicine105 (3): 236 - 41

http://www.amjmed.com/article/S0002-9343(98)00240-X/abstract

The wikipedia article at

has numerous references.

In Google searches there seems to be vast numbers of references to
the effectiveness of colloidal silver (much of it quite dubious) and
ionic silver (well supported by research) as anti bacterials there
are also lots of references to metallic silver’s use and
effectiveness as an anti bacterial agent if you just look for them.

James Binnion
James Binnion Metal Arts

39 
I'm sorry, but university research papers are very difficult to
find.

Unfortunately, most research papers are not free, but often the
abstracts will answer questions.

Al Balmer
Sun City, AZ

40 
Norwex cleaning products from Norway have microfiber cleaning
cloth woven with silver that they profess is anti bacterial because
of the silver fibers. I use them- not sure if they are killing
bacteria but I trusted their claim and bought some. Something to
look into?

That type of product is not intended, nor effective, at killing
bacteria it finds on the surfaces you clean. What the silver does,
however, is reduce the degree to which your used/damp cleaning cloth
becomes a bacterial nursery. Ordinary washcloths and dishtowels, used
to pick up general gunk, then stored still damp, can quickly develop
a fairly significant bacterial population right on the cloth itself.
The silver in the fabric discourages that colonization. It will also
help to keep the cloth from developing odors when not in use if it’s
put away still damp.

Peter Rowe