Dear Liz, Welcome aboard!
You write: > And along comes someone like me who is > looking for information and it just gripes my rear to have to try to > wade through all the malarkey for the real story. Sigh. Maybe I'm the > one who is crazy? No, not at all! You're just exploring the wonderful, chaotic world of alternative health and medicine. Lacking an over-controlling central authority, such as the FDA/AMA, etc., it is left to *US* to do our own research and choose among many options. Somewhere between the rampant hucksterism and outright fraud at one extreme, and the fanatical debunkers at the other, you will find people who can tell you what works. Hopefully here, in fact! The good news is that along with the chaos comes ultimate freedom and access to far more options than exist within the mainstream. There are several classes of silver preparation that are generically referred to as "colloidal silver," whether the term is really descriptive or not: 1) "Mild silver protein (MSP)" 2) Chemically precipitated silver 3) Solutions of silver compounds 4) High voltage electrolytic or sputtering processes 5) Low voltage electrolytic process The first, MSP, is based on a standard preparation that was in common use before there were pharmaceutical antibiotics. Some of these are well made, but expensive, and with their higher concentration have been associated with argyria when over used. The chemical precipitates and compounds suffer from uncertainty as to what is in them -- from too much to too little to just food coloring -- and have also been associated with cases of argyria. These are most often seen in health-food stores. Some of the high volume high voltage production processes seem to produce a product of reasonable (low) concentration that is fairly stable and affordable and may be worth buying under some circumstances. What most of us have settled on is the last one. The product is clear, usually colorless, maybe 5 to 10 ppm, and simply and inexpensively produced at home. Basic equipment to make this product can be home-built, and very well controlled and reliable generators are available for less than $200 (US). You will quickly recoup your investment in equipment when making perfectly fine "CS" for the cost of distilled water and some electricity. You'll be free to use it as generously as you need, and you'll also have the security of knowing exactly what goes into it. You'll see the term EIS used here, which stands for Electrically Isolated Silver. It was coined by some of our members to distinguish what we make from the spectrum of other products being sold. It highlights the fact that it is produced by an electrolytic process, and consists of a low concentration of isolated particles and ions of silver in pure distilled water without additives or impurities. I'm sure other folks will fill in the blanks of this overview. No doubt I'm leaving out, mis-stating, or oversimplifying some things, but I hope it'll confirm some of what you've already begun to find out and save you some confusion and time wasted. Be well, Mike D. [Mike Devour, Citizen, Patriot, Libertarian] [mdev...@eskimo.com ] [Speaking only for myself... ] -- The Silver List is a moderated forum for discussing Colloidal Silver. Instructions for unsubscribing are posted at: http://silverlist.org To post, address your message to: silver-list@eskimo.com Address Off-Topic messages to: silver-off-topic-l...@eskimo.com The Silver List and Off Topic List archives are currently down... List maintainer: Mike Devour <mdev...@eskimo.com>
