Thanks for supplying the link to this webpage; it perfectly illustrates
the type of exaggerated hyperbole and unsubstantiated statements used to
promote useless substances that confuse the colloidal silver issue.  I
should have supplied similar links earlier, including those from
government agencies and colloidal silver debunkers (see my follow-up post
to, um, follow this one).
 
I will debunk the information on the link in another post.  Instead, based
on some of my private email, there is a real need to point out, or rather,
explain previous statements.  First, despite claims of proponents, full
strength colloidal silver poured directly on a blood agar plate did
nothing to stop the growth of normal intestinal bacterial flora!  Nothing!
It may as not have been there at all.  This wasn't a single agar plate,
but twelve; 3 with CS at "duck-soup dilution," 3 diluted 1:4, 3 diluted
1:2, and 3 full strength.
 
The CS solution covered the entire plate, was still wet when the plate
was streaked, and the plate was stored in a dark metal canister during
incubation.  And yet, despite claims CS kills or prevents growth of
microorganisms, each agar plate grew large colonies of bacteria and small
groups of fungus.  But here is a kicker I didn't report (but is in the
research design): I also grew two plates (one from each newly opened
bottle) that JUST had colloidal silver poured on it, and guess what?
They also grew small amounts of gram positive bacteria of an unconfirmed
Bacillus species, and small colonies of budding yeast with, on gram stain,
pseudohyphae (I haven't reported these findings because I am still making
the gram stains and reviewing the slides.  My time is sort of limited...).
This can only mean, assuming correct technique (control plates open to the
environment grew nothing), that the organisms came from the CS solution
itself!!  So stuff can live in the CS inside the bottle!  Hummmm......
 
The second comment is in regards to my objections to using ANY
antibacterial/antiviral agent indiscriminately.  Did you know the THIRD
leading cause of death in the United States is infectious disease?
Infectious disease KILLS 17 million people a year, worldwide.  The leading
killers of humans are pneumonia, AIDS, and UTIs.  Here is a scary thought:
in the United States the mortality due to infectious disease has increased
more than 50% in the period from 1980-1992, and current statistics are
probably much higher.  Age-adjusted mortality is up 39%.  Dr. James
Hughes, director of the National Center of Infectious Disease at the CDC
(Atlanta), says "The most important public health concern is antibiotic
resistant organisms, "killer bacteria."
 
This problem is currently one of the hottest topics in microbiology, and
has even made the covers of Time and Newsweek.  The leading reason for
resistant strains of bacteria?  Microorganisms EVOLVE!  Bacteria can live
in thermal vents where the temperature of the water would boil the meat
off your bones, or form colonies in ice.  They can survive pressures
that would crush humansinto a thin paste.  They can live in high pH
environments, eat radioactive waste, reproduce in rock, survive a vacuum,
and even swap bits of genetic code that provides resistance to toxins
with other bacteria.  As smart as we are, the evolutionary rate of
microorganisms is so rapid that most antibiotics are only considered
effective for a few score of years.  Now, this may be an intuitive
argument, but don't you think that in the last 3.5 billion years,
microorganisms might have ALREADY developed a resistance to silver, a
substance commonly and abundantly found on the planet?  One of the
biggest claims made by colloidal silver proponents is that is substance
is benign.  Duh!
 
But let's suppose Cs works, and herein lies the problem.  IF CS can
kill bacteria, THEN bacteria can develop resistance to it.  That is the
bottom line and cannot be refuted.  IF CS is a true antibiotic, THEN
indiscriminate use will ultimately result in an organism becoming
resistant to the substance.  Suppose a shelter that commonly feeds
colloidal silver to their ferrets accidentally breeds a resistant form of
E. coli, or Salmonella, or, worse creates a form of ADV able to cross to
humans?  Don't think this can happen?  How do you think measles and canine
distemper evolved?  Current theory is the measles-distemper-rinderpest
complex originated in early domesticated cattle.  AIDS is thought to have
evolved in small primates, and a mutation allowed it to cross to humans as
the result of keeping monkeys as pets.  Over the course of human ascent
into civilization, as we domesticated more and more animals, we contracted
more and more diseases.  Most of these, initially "killer bugs", were
mutations which crossed the species barrier, and includes influenza,
measles, smallpox, and tuberculosis, among many others.  IF colloidal
silver is an antibiotic, then indiscriminate use raises the specter of
creating a superbug that can infect, with great mortality, ferret, pet,
and human populations.
 
Why do you think your doctor insists that you take your entire dose of
antibiotics?  The dose is designed to kill not just the sensitive bugs,
but the more resistant ones as well.  If you only take a partial dose
(maybe you started to feel better so thought you didn't need the
remainder), and you have some microorganisms that are resistant to the
antibiotic, they might form the nucleus of a drug resistant strain.
Ferret owners do this all the time; they have such difficulty feeding a
nasty-tasting antibiotic to their ferret that they will stop giving the
drug early in treatment, usually as soon as the ferret starts recovering.
Sooner or later, a resistant strain of a nasty microorganism is going to
evolve and then, boys and girls, we WILL have a problem.
 
My point is, IF colloidal silver actually works, then using it
indiscriminately will ultimately bred resistant organisms.  Somewhere,
sometime, a dose will only be effective enough to kill some organisms,
but allow resistant organisms to survive.  It is a mathematical certainty.
So, if it is effective and you use it indiscriminately, you could be
helping to bred a super, perhaps a killer, bug.  That is irresponsible at
best, and immoral, perhaps even criminal, at worst.
 
If colloidal silver is benign, as the hyperbole spread by proponents of
CS suggests, then it has no real effectiveness.  The sad truth is, there
are no magic pills, there is no way you can create a substance that
selectively kills all microorganisms by destroying their cellular
metabolism, but ignores the cellular metabolism in the microscopic body
cells found in humans and ferrets.  If it can kill viruses, bacteria, and
fungi, then it can kill human and ferret cells.  And if it is benign to
human and ferret cells, then what does that say?
 
More on that in the next post, when I debunk the colloidal silver argument
(and many, many thanks for the link!!!  While easy, the debunking will be
fun!!).  Until then, if you think CS is an effective antibiotic (or even
bacteriostatic), then you must understand the extreme need to use it
sparingly, with veterinarian supervision, and for specific purposes.  If
it is actually effective, THEN IT MUST BE USED CAREFULLY!!!  We simply
cannot afford to indiscriminately bred resistant strains of bacteria,
viruses and fungi.  And if, as my expensive little experiment has shown,
bacteria can actually grow in the presence of colloidal silver, well,
then you are not actually doing much, except maybe helping your ferret
poop quarters.
 
Bob C
 
URL for this post:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ferret-Health-list/message/12833
[Posted in FML issue 3771]