Colloidal Silver - What's the Real Story?

[2manyfibers]

Hey Knight-Ryder – I agree that people have to make their own decisions about their health and what they choose to use or take as a means to try to help themselves. And like you, I hope science does find a cure for Morgellons (and every other disease) sooner rather than later. MAANNNN – I’m not so sure about doing MMS like I did this thread but I will try to post something soon about it (I did study quite a lot on it before I actually tried it myself). My general conclusions on it are a bit more positive than silver for a number of reasons, one being that from what I can tell, it has no chance of actually building up in organs and tissues like silver does.

My intent with this thread was to hopefully provide people with more objective information on colloidal silver so they could make a more informed decision about it. The sites selling silver do a very good job of promoting their products and really do make it seem as if studies prove that silver isn’t retained in the body and it won’t harm the body over time. Based on my own research I found that they really aren’t being as truthful as they should be in my opinion. My personal conclusions aren’t too positive overall on silver, but some people really believe in it and that’s fine – hopefully they’ll learn more about it from the information I posted. What I found from well over 100 hours of research is that the risk of negative side effects like argyria is greater than what the marketing web sites tell you. Silver does have some apparent benefits in some cases and for some uses, but I personally came to the conclusion that the potential benefits of using it internally generally aren’t worth the risks which are greater than what the marketing information would lead you to believe (and there are more natural ways to accomplish the same goal with less risk).

I personally think that natural medicines (like vitamin supplements and herbal remedies) have far more potential for actually curing people than prescription drugs in many cases, so I’m certainly not against alternative or homeopathic medicines by any means (most prescription drugs are developed from herbs and root extracts and the like – they isolate the chemicals that appear to accomplish something and synthetically reproduce them so they can be patented, but they also lack the ingredients that accompany these chemicals in nature which can cause problems). For the most part, prescription drugs treat symptoms rather than actually curing anything, and they often create more problems than what you started with. I’ve read that only heart disease causes a greater number of annual deaths than the number of deaths caused from adverse reactions to PROPERLY prescribed drugs (and the REPORTED numbers are believed to be only about a fourth of the ACTUAL number of deaths).

For alternative medicines (like anything else), you just have to sort through what’s marketing hype and what is actually objective information which is not as easy to do as it might seem. Although I have pointed out some risks associated with silver, compared to many prescription drugs that are approved by the FDA, silver’s risks are at least known and people can make their own assessments about those risks when they have objective information. Although it took me a lot of time and effort to find the information I posted in this thread, at least it was available for people that want to find it badly enough.

I truly have far greater concern for the trust people put into government agencies like the FDA to insure that foods and medicines are safe (and information on how these agencies “do their jobs” is protected or impossible to find). People also put a lot more trust than is deserved into prescription drugs and the companies that make them. At least with “alternative” therapies people aren’t lulled into being complacent by the perception that the FDA (or some other government bureaucracy) is supposedly insuring that whatever they buy is safe and won’t harm them – I think people generally do more of their own research on alternative medicines precisely because it is understood to be a business of “let the buyer beware”. It’s amazing to me that the FDA seems to have plenty of time and resources to harass companies that sell alternatives to prescription drugs (like supplement manufacturers) yet they say they have no resources to inspect plants that make prescription drugs or the drugs that come from them (and they also apparently don’t have the resources to make sure that the drug companies they regulate actually follow rules and regulations and actually honestly perform the studies they use as “proof of safety” to gain approval for their drugs).

Kritters posted a good article recently noting that many of the prescription drugs sold in the US are made in China or other countries with far less stringent safety standards than we have here in North America. The article noted that the FDA only rarely inspects the manufacturing plants or the prescription drugs they make, and the vast majority of these plants have never inspected. Recently, some of these drugs have been found to contain paint chips, metal shavings and assorted other impurities, so the perception that the FDA is keeping our drug supply safe is a far cry from reality.

Recently, a blood thinner “heparin” that was imported to the US from China was manufactured incorrectly and caused dozens of deaths here in the US. This batch of drugs was never tested by the US distributor for anything and the FDA never inspected the plant or the drugs from what I understand. Another recent example of how dangerous some of these prescription drugs can be is the antibiotic called “ketek”. It was recently discovered that the studies used for approval of this drug were falsified and many of the various studies “participants” didn’t even exist. Now the FDA has documented more than 50 cases of liver failure including several deaths (and liver transplants) as well as many cases of kidney failure from people taking ketek. In some cases, as little as one or 2 doses resulted in liver “death” and hundreds if not thousands of people experienced severe liver and kidney problems from taking ketek.

Similar falsifications of data and studies have been uncovered regarding the COX2 inhibitor Vioxx (an NSAID that is a somewhat more “advanced” version of ibuprofen). Early studies on Vioxx indicated a significant increase in the risk of heart attacks and strokes, but the data was manipulated at least in part by simply removing the data of the participants that got sick or died from taking the Vioxx during the study – which is why so many lawsuits against Vioxx have been successful.

In my estimation, the sad truth of the matter is that we really can’t depend on government agencies or prescription drug companies to improve our health or heal us when we get sick. The drug companies have done a tremendous amount of research on DNA and they know a lot about how DNA “works” to create and maintain our bodies. But they generally develop drugs to try to inhibit DNA from doing what it normally does, rather than actually trying to use it to make us healthier. In my opinion, they use this valuable information in the wrong ways. Rather than enabling our DNA to produce proteins to maintain our health or heal us as it is designed to do, many of today’s drugs prevent our bodies from making certain proteins that DNA is designed to produce. Although I used to not believe it, I am more firmly convinced than ever that money is the overriding goal of drug companies today and actual health of their customers is at best a secondary concern (in some cases, the health of the consumer is of no concern at all).

I have a thread in the “theories and speculation” section on “nutritional factors” that kind of discusses this in detail and notes how DNA actually uses and processes only certain vitamins, minerals and amino acids in order to construct and maintain our bodies. While nutrition and vitamin supplements may not be able to get rid of parasites, bacteria, etc. in and of itself, I do think it will go a long way toward helping the body be able to cope better with these types of problems by strengthening our immune systems and simply enabling our DNA to do what it is supposed to which is produce the proteins that enable life. I read your recent post on the various problems and symptoms you’ve endured and can’t help but think that some specific vitamin supplements might be helpful in your case, at least to help you have more energy and feel better overall. I posted a general regimen early in the thread (maybe on page 2 or 3 now) that I think is a good start for anyone along with some information on the various supplements. I’ve been meaning to add some to the thread and hope to post a condensed list in the next couple of days.