The Silver Rabbit Hole

What I can tell you about colloidal silver (and why I can't tell you how to use it).

If you've spent any amount of time wandering around the natural-health world, you've probably encountered colloidal silver. And if you have, you may have noticed something peculiar.

There are approximately 47,000 opinions about it.

Some people think it's the answer to everything. Some people think it's dangerous nonsense. Some people have a bottle in the back of their medicine cabinet that they bought ten years ago and have absolutely no idea what's actually in it.

And then there's the FDA.

Which brings us to the slightly awkward part of this article:

I can't actually write you a list of all the things you can use your silver for.

Not because I don't have thoughts on the subject. Not because there isn't a fascinating history behind silver preparations. And certainly not because I think you shouldn't educate yourself.

It's because colloidal silver occupies a very particular regulatory corner.

So What Exactly Is the Problem?

The FDA has a specific regulation addressing OTC products containing colloidal silver or silver salts.

Under 21 CFR § 310.548, an OTC product containing colloidal silver that is labeled, represented, or promoted for the treatment or prevention of disease is considered a new drug for which an approved application is required.

And the FDA has demonstrated that it takes this seriously.

Over the years, the agency has sent warning letters to silver companies whose websites made claims about using silver for infections, viruses, fungi, wounds, respiratory illnesses, immune function, and numerous other conditions.

In other words, putting "not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease" in tiny letters at the bottom of the page doesn't magically make a website full of therapeutic instructions okay.

The claims themselves matter.

So I'm going to do something a little different here. I'm going to tell you what I can tell you.

First: What Is Colloidal Silver?

At its simplest, silver solution is silver dispersed in water.

But that's where "simple" stops being quite so simple.

Silver in an aqueous preparation can exist in different forms, including silver ions and particulate silver. The proportions and characteristics of those forms depend upon how the preparation is made and measured.

This is one reason I don't particularly love the phrase "colloidal silver" being used as though it describes one standardized substance.

It doesn't.

Two bottles that both say 20 ppm colloidal silver on the front may not necessarily be chemically identical preparations.

And ppm doesn't tell you everything.

It tells you concentration—not automatically particle size, ionic fraction, or every other characteristic of the finished solution.

That's worth knowing when you're shopping for silver.

So Why Morningstar Silver?

This is actually the part I can tell you about all day long.

I make Morningstar Silver in small batches using the SilverLungs generator and exceptionally pure water.

The SilverLungs manufacturing documentation specifically calls for distilled water and emphasizes water purity because dissolved minerals and other contaminants can interfere with silver production.

That's why I went looking for something better than the ordinary jug of distilled water I could pick up at the grocery store.

Our production water is exceptionally pure (0 ppm to be axact), and I keep the preparation simple:

Water.
Silver.
Nothing else.

No salt. No herbs. No preservatives. No mysterious proprietary "silver complex."

Just a carefully made silver solution. And because I make it myself, I know what went into the bottle.

What Does 20 ppm Mean?

This is one of those things that sounds much more complicated than it actually is.

20 ppm refers to the concentration of silver in the finished solution.

It does not mean "20 times stronger." It does not tell you that a product is automatically better than a 10 ppm preparation.

And it certainly shouldn't be treated as a competition where the winner is whoever can print the biggest number on the bottle.

In fact, SilverLungs' own documentation makes an important distinction between ionic silver measurements and particulate/colloidal content when discussing its water-testing process.

So when you're comparing silver products, look beyond the big number on the label.

A Brief Trip Down the Silver Rabbit Hole

Silver has a long history of human use.

It's been used in vessels and household objects, incorporated into traditional preparations, and eventually found a place in early modern medicine.

But here's where I'm going to ask you to slow down.

Historical use is not the same thing as modern clinical evidence. Those are two completely different conversations.

The fact that people used something 500 years ago doesn't automatically prove that it treats a particular condition today.

And the fact that something has a fascinating mechanism of action in a laboratory doesn't automatically mean that using it in a human being produces the same result.

This distinction gets lost constantly in the natural-health world.

I don't want to lose it here.

So... How Do You Use It?

Ah. There it is.

The question you've been waiting for. And this is where I have to disappoint you.

I'm not going to give you a list of conditions and tell you to put silver on them.

I'm not going to give you an internal dosing protocol.

I'm not going to tell you to put it in your drinking water.

I'm not going to tell you to nebulize it.

I'm not going to tell you to use it in your eyes, ears, nose, or anywhere else on or in your body as a treatment.

And I'm definitely not going to call it a natural antibiotic.

Not because I don't want you to learn.

Because I want you to learn without me.

And because federal law places very specific boundaries around how a product like this can be marketed.

But I Will Teach You How to Think About It.

This is actually much more useful. If you're researching silver for yourself, here are some questions worth asking:

What exactly is in the bottle?

Is it actually a silver solution? Are there additives? What does the manufacturer disclose?

How was it made?

What kind of water was used?

What kind of silver?

What production method?

Is the manufacturer transparent about the process?

What does the ppm actually represent?

Don't assume that a higher number automatically means a better product.

Are they making outrageous claims?

This one is probably my favorite.

If a silver company tells you its product treats everything from athlete's foot to cancer, run.

The FDA has specifically cited those kinds of claims in enforcement actions.

Can you distinguish evidence from anecdote?

Someone saying "I used this and it worked for me" is an experience.

It isn't automatically clinical evidence.

Both can be worth hearing.

They aren't the same thing.

Why I'm Selling It, Then

Fair question.

If I'm going to be this cautious about silver, why put it on the shelf at all?

Because I think people deserve access to well-made preparations and good information at the same time.

I don't believe an apothecary should be a place where I hand you a bottle and tell you what to believe about it.

I'd rather give you the bottle and the tools to understand it. That's been the philosophy behind Morningstar from the beginning.

Herbs aren't magic. Neither is silver. Neither is anything else in the apothecary.

The interesting part is learning what we're actually working with.

And That's the Rabbit Hole

Once you start looking into silver, you quickly discover that there's an enormous amount of information out there.

Some of it is fascinating. Some of it is useful. Some of it is outdated. Some of it is wildly exaggerated. And some of it is just plain wrong.

So yes... I'm going to make you do some of your own research.

But not because I want to hide information from you. Quite the opposite. I want you to have enough information to ask better questions. To recognize a ridiculous claim when you see one. To understand what you're buying. And to make informed decisions for yourself in conversation with the appropriate professionals.

That's what an apothecary is supposed to do.

Not tell you what to think.

Teach you how to think.

— Danni