What is the difference between colloidal and ionic silver?

Answer:

What's the Difference Between Colloidal Silver and Ionic Silver?

Colloidal silver is basically a very loose "umbrella term" covering many kinds of liquid, silver-based products, including particulate silver, ionic silver, silver protein, silver citrate, silver nitrate, and others.

Some people refer to the "particulate" silver solutions as "true" colloidal silver, because these solutions are composed chiefly of metallic silver particles which are suspended in a solution of pure distilled water - in essence, the very definition of a colloidal solution.

The silver particles in such a solution are composed of clusters of silver atoms. The atoms in a silver particle remain held together by "Van Der Waals' force of attraction that causes identical atoms to be attracted to each other.

On the other hand, ionic silver is a solution consisting of water and single atom silver ions, as opposed to clusters of single atoms.

A particulate silver solution generally contains up to 90% or more silver particles, while an ionic silver solution generally contains up to 90% or more silver ions.

The Great Debate

There is actually a lot of debate on the internet about particulate v/s ionic silver. Some colloidal silver manufacturers claim that only "particulate" silver is true colloidal silver and as such, always works best, while ionic silver is somehow its vastly inferior cousin.

In reality, ionic silver solutions are not in the least bit inferior to particulate silver solutions. In fact, recent studies have shown quite the opposite. As you'll see below, ionic silver solutions have been demonstrated to be up to 10,000 times more effective against pathogens than particulate silver solutions.

The myth that the particulate form of colloidal silver is somehow superior to the ionic form has been perpetrated by a handful of very vocal individuals on the internet who have a vested financial interest in selling an overly-expensive bottled commercial particulate-based colloidal silver product.

Medical Studies Show Ionic Silver Works Best

The reality is that the ionic form of colloidal silver is the form used in hundreds of clinical studies carried out since the early 1900's.

Even Dr. Robert O. Becker's ground-breaking research into the effectiveness of electrically generated silver ions, conducted at Syracuse Medical University during the 1970's and 1980's, attributed the astonishing infection-fighting power of silver to the silver ion, i.e., the ionic form.

What's more, Dr. Becker used a small electronic device that generated very low micro-amps of current in order to produce his silver ions within the human body -- a device very much like the tiny colloidal silver generators used today which also exclusively make the ionic form of colloidal silver ingested by millions of people across North America to fight off or prevent infections, colds, flus, and even help heal serious chronic degenerative diseases.

Dr. Becker's research into electrically generated silver ions (i.e., the ionic form of silver) is largely credited with bringing the healing capacity of colloidal silver to the attention of natural health enthusiasts throughout North America.

Lab Study Concludes: Ionic Silver is Up to 10,000 Times More Effective

Laboratory tests conducted since that time have demonstrated that the ionic form of colloidal silver is up to 10,000 times more effective than the particulate form. This may sound astonishing, even unbelievable, considering the internet propaganda on behalf of the particulate form of colloidal silver. But it is true.

Below I will quote directly from an article titled "Comparative Analysis Study Shows Ionic Silver to Be Up to 10,000 Times More Effective Than Particulate Colloidal Silver: the End of the Great Particulate vs. Ionic Silver Debate," written by former U.S. Army medic by R.D. Todd:

"The results were astonishing! With or without the HCl mixture added, the Staphylococcus cultures (both S-1 and S-2) on the plates were virtually eradicated in just four minutes when treated with ionic silver. But the culture plates treated with the so-called "true colloid" particulate silver showed only a slight reduction in the bacterial count!

The principal conclusions from the study are as follows:

• Before being treated with HCl, the ionic species of silver achieves total kill in four minutes, and is at least 100 times more potent than the particulate form of silver.

• The particulate form of silver, which does contain a small amount of silver-ions, loses almost all its antibacterial potency when the ionic silver component is removed (a result of the reaction to HCl).

• Comparative antibacterial potency loss in ionic-silver, due to the same HCl treatment, is negligible.

• After being treated with HCl, under the same experimental conditions, the ionic-silver is now shown to be a whopping 10,000 times more potent than the particulate silver.

The results of this study clearly show that ionic species of silver dramatically outperformed the particulate species of silver. In fact, it was not even close!

The facts are: ionic-silver killed all S. aureus microorganisms with only a four minute exposure while the particulate species product was only marginally bactericidal at best, which can be attributed to the small amount of ionic silver found in it."

158 Clinical Studies Prove Ionic Silver Works Best

Indeed, in a brand new 547-page book called The Ultimate Colloidal Silver Manual (published by Life & Health Research Group, Inc.) there are over 158 clinical studies listed that demonstrate the astonishing effectiveness of the ionic form of colloidal silver. See www.UltimateColloidalSilverManual.com

For example, studies like the ones conducted at Brooke Army Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston, Texas, which is home of the world renowned Army Burn Center operated by the United States Army Institute of Surgical Research, have proven beyond any shadow of a doubt that it is the ionic form of silver that is necessary to healing.

The Army Burn Center has been at the forefront of research and development of burn treatments and has been researching the use of silver in medicine for decades. To quote Albert T. McManus, MD, Chief of Microbiology at the Army Burn Center who conducted one such study, "…conversion of silver to silver ions is necessary for efficacy". In other words, for silver to do its infection-fighting and immune-boosting work, it must first be converted into the ionic form.

There is a reason why millions of people worldwide have been using the ionic form of colloidal silver with great success for decades! Simply put, because it is the form that works!

Among the 40 in-depth chapters featured in the newly updated 547-page Ultimate Colloidal Silver Manual mentioned above, you'll find the full-length version of the article mentioned earlier on ionic v/s particulate colloidal silver, with a complete list of the 158 clinical studies showing the ionic form of silver to be the "colloidal silver" of choice among researchers.

No Additives or Coatings

What's more, it is important to note that electrically generated colloidal silver has been demonstrated to be more effective than chemical concoctions of silver, or silver solutions containing unnecessary additives such as gelatin or protein coatings.

For example, in a medical study on colloidal silver's efficacy against HIV (i.e., AIDS virus), scientists tested the idea of coating tiny silver nanoparticles with several different surface chemistries including a "foamy carbon matrix," a polymer and a protein molecule. The goal was to determine if any of these substances would help stabilize the silver particles and aid the silver's anticipated reaction against the virus.

What they discovered, however, is that only the 'free surface' silver nanoparticles in the range of 1 to 10 nanometers interacted with the HIV-1 cells. This basically means the silver needed no help from the other substances. In fact, anything added to the basic silver nanoparticle served only to prevent the metal's interaction with the viral microorganism!

Similarly, Peter Lindemann reports in his 1997 article, Colloidal Silver, A Closer Look, that a study conducted in part by the Institute of Microbiology in Rome, Italy and published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology (Dec. 1992), stated that "Pure electro-colloidal silver out-performed silver nitrate, silver chloride, and silver sulfadiazine as a broad spectrum germicide. For all classes of bacteria, fungus, and mold samples tested, pure electro-colloidal silver worked better, and at much lower concentrations. They concluded that "additives reduced the effectiveness of the pure silver ion."

Make Your Own Ionic Silver Solutions for Only 36 Cents a Quart

Thankfully, you can make your own high-quality, electrically generated, ionic colloidal silver with a simple device called a colloidal silver generator. Colloidal silver generators are as easy to use as a coffee maker. (See short 3-minute video demonstration at: http://thesilveredge.com/vidclip.shtml)

And instead of paying $20 or $30 for a tiny, four-ounce or eight-ounce bottle of store-bought colloidal silver at health food stores or through internet resources, you can now make your own for about 36 cents a quart. Check out, for example, the brand new Micro-Particle Colloidal Silver Generator at: http://thesilveredge.com/howto.shtml

Additional Information

If you're brand new to colloidal silver usage, you might consider obtaining an inexpensive copy of the brand new 60-minute studio-quality Colloidal Silver Secrets video, available for under $20 in both DVD and VHS formats at www.ColloidalSilverSecretsVideo.com.

The video contains hands-on demonstrations of numerous ways to fight infection and boost immunity with colloidal silver. And you'll likely learn more about colloidal silver usage in the hour it takes to watch it than in weeks of internet research.

For loads of FREE information on ionic colloidal silver and its usage, check out the Colloidal Silver Secrets blog at: www.ColloidalSilverSecrets.blogspot.com

And for a FREE 16-page downloadable special report on safe daily colloidal silver dosages based upon your personal body weight, see http://www.thesilveredge.com/