Why Can Silver be Safe and Effective at the Same Time ?
Silver-in-a-BottleTM is silver dissolved in water, making a reactive germicidal liquid. Steam-distilled water and 99.9% pure bullion-grade silver are the only ingredients. Nothing is added to artificially boost its strength. There are no patents, nor mysterious proprietary processes used. Domestic ingredients for better standards.
Important Definition |
Colloid ─ is a solution that has particles ranging between 1 and 1000 nanometers in diameter, yet are still able to remain evenly distributed throughout the solution.i |
The definitions of "colloid" and "ion" are not mutually exclusive. Colloidal silver can also be defined as “ionic” because an electric charge is holding the silver particles in suspension in the water; the liquid is both colloidal and ionic at the same time, by definition.
Important Definition |
Ion ― an atom or group of atoms that carries a positive or negative electric charge as a result of having lost or gained one or more electrons.ii |
Colloidal
silver has a 100-year history of use as an anti-microbial,
anti-pathogenic aid. It was widely used before modern antibiotics
became prevalent. Silver has long been used for its antimicrobial
properties, and its gentle, soothing and refreshing effect. The
antimicrobial effect of silver never loses its effectiveness the way
modern antibiotics do when germs develop resistance. It has a clear
to slightly yellow color and a mildly metallic taste. In
contrast to alcohol or hydrogen peroxide, colloidal silver does not
have a drying, bleaching or burning effect.
A
colloid is a special form of a substance; also called a “sol,”
which is neither a true liquid solution, nor just a suspension of a
substance in a liquid; but something in-between. A colloid should be
thought of as being a distinct state of matter because the particles
of the solid are held in perpetual suspension by the liquid.iii
This writer suggests that it might be useful to think of colloidal
silver as a form of silver which is soluble in water.
The
particles can remain in colloidal suspension indefinitely, because
true colloidal silver has electrical properties which overcome the
effects of gravity. Different elements have the characteristic of
taking on positive (+) or negative (-) electric charge when
electricity is used to change their state from solids to colloidal
particles in water. In water, silver is an anionic substance;
meaning that is is negatively charged and moves to the positive
electrical pole during an electrolytic process. Other metals, such
as copper and aluminum are cathonic, having a positive charge, and
move to the negative electrical pole. Accordingly, the negative
electric charge is a characteristic of colloidal silver. In
colloidal silver, the silver particles have a negatively electrified
layer on their surface; while the surrounding water contains a second
electric layer having a positive charge. The positively charged
layer can be ignored for the purpose of our analysis because the
mutual repulsion of the negatively charged. Similar to the effects
of magnets on each-other, opposite poles attract each-other; while
like poles repel. The silver particles in colloidal silver all have
a negative charge, so their behavior is mutual repulsion.
Colloidal
substances are “most remarkably active...They owe their activity to
their minuteness and to the fact that substances when in the
colloidal state have an enormous surface area as compared with their
volume or weight, and as chemical reactions depend on the amount of
contact between two or more particles these reactions will proceed
the more rapidly and completely when the substances have a large
surface area and are in a state of oscillation. It is well known
that chemical reactions can only occur when two or more substances
are in direct contact, colloidal substances are very powerful because
of the enormous area they possess.”iv
It seems that Searle is referring to two different surface areas;
the surface of the minute particle of silver, and the "enormously"
larger surface area of the same particle when it is in the colloidal
state! The image here is but only an artist’s rendering of the
imaginary expanded surface area Searle might have envisioned. In the
colloidal state, the layer formed by the electric charge gives the
particle an effective surface area many times larger than that of the
particle itself.
Searle
continues, stating that, “On the other hand, mass (weight) plays an
important part in all chemical reactions and largely regulates their
intensity. The mass of colloidal sol particles is so minute that the
objectionable effect of intense
reactions
on the human subject are largely avoided, whilst the advantages of
rapid and complete reaction are secured. For this reason, certain
medicines administered in the colloidal form are not merely more
active and possess greater penetrating power, but they are free from
the poisonous effect of the same substances when given in the form of
tincture or solution.”