Beth,
I am probably one of the least qualified to answer your question
regarding the effectiveness of silver particles but I will try and the
more knowledgeable can correct me where I am wrong.
Starting with the negative charge on silver particles in solution.
Silver particles do not have an innate charge but when in a solution
with ionic silver they take on a negative charge. This is because the
overall charge within a solution must be close to zero and therefore a
negative charge must exist within the silver solution that counter
balances the combined positive charge of the silver ions.
In the case of colloidal silver, silver ions are created during the
electrolysis that makes colloidal silver. The creation of silver ions
would tend to make the net charge of the solution positive. Ionization
breaks the water molecule into hydrogen H+ and hydroxyl ions OH-, which
are negatively charged. The negative charge of the hydroxyl ions
counters the positive charge of the silver ions and maintains a solution
of whose net charge is zero. Thus the negative hydroxyl ions are created
at the same time that the positive silver ions and silver particles are
created. The hydroxyl ions are non-metallic ions that then bond to the
atoms of the silver particles thus imparting their negative charge to
the particles. The H+ migrates to the cathode, where it is reduced to
hydrogen gas, H 2, which is liberated.
While it is known that silver particles within a colloidal silver
solution have a negative charge, I do not know that the silver-hydroxyl
ion bonding is maintained when the silver is ingested into the body.
However, in my opinion the charge of the silver particle is not relevant
to the effectiveness of the silver particle in the body. This gets us
into an area of some dispute: whether silver particles themselves are
biologically active. It may be that they are but from what I have read
it appears to me that it is primarily silver ions that are biologically
active.
My opinions relative to silver particles and silver ions:
Silver particles::
* Even nano sized silver particles contain many silver atoms. For
example, a silver particle one nanometer in diameter would consist of 31
silver atoms, and a 5 nm diameter particle would be about 3900 atoms
while a 20 nm diameter particle would contain about 250,000 silver
atoms. The particle size typically observed in colloidal silver is
typically in the range of 5 to 200 nanometers.
* Silver particles release silver ions in the body and it is those
silver ions that are primarily responsible for the biological activity
of the silver. It is unknown just how many silver ions will be released
by the silver particles since many factors such as blood pH, blood
chemical composition, temperature, etc. will affect silver ion
generation. Another important factor is the effective surface area of
the silver particles since it is from the surface of the silver particle
that ions are released. The smaller the particle sizes within a
colloidal solution the greater the surface area to mass ratio.
* The limiting factor on effectiveness for silver particles is how
many silver ions will be created in vivo.
Now a quick look at silver ions:
* A silver ion is a silver atom minus one electron.
* A silver ion is very active and will quickly bind to pathogens
or other atoms/molecules it can. This is its greatest strength. And its
greatest weakness as an ionic solution.
* Detractors of ionic silver claim that all the silver ions bind
with the HCl in stomach acid to form silver chloride, which is not a
bioavailable form of silver. This is not totally correct. Some silver
ions do form silver chloride but many silver ions do not:
* Many silver ions enter the body through the mucous
membranes of the mouth. Silver ions can also pass through the mucous
membranes of the nose. When taken this way, the silver bypasses the
brain/blood barrier entirely. It can also be inhaled into the lungs
where it passes through the mucous membranes of the lungs. All these
avoid the issue of silver chloride formation. I think these pathways for
silver ions are too often overlooked, esp. the ease of use of a nasal
spray bole used with ionic silver.
* From one of the posts here: Your saliva has over 200
different proteins and fully one third of body proteins are
metalloproteins I.E. carrying metallic ions. Thus, reactive ions
(missing one or more electrons) can be transported past the stomach and
thru the circulatory system without local reactions, ie Silver Ions
reacting with chloride ions to from Silver chloride.
* Silver ions can bind with a substance other than
chlorine in the stomach and then pass through the digestive system.
Makers of silver citrate products claim that their product passes
through the digestive system unchanged ant that pathogens consider the
citrate as food. When the pathogen digests the silver citrate it
releases the silver ion which then destroys the pathogen.
Some general thoughts:
* How many silver ions are generated by a silver particle in vivo?
5? 10? 100? 1,000? 10,000? My guess is that it isn't a lot. If you were
to place some powdered silver in slow running water, how long would it
take for it to convert to silver ions and rinse away? Is this a fair
question?
* If you had two separate silver solutions, both 10 ppm. One is
pure silver particles around 40 nm in size. (a quite small size) And one
is pure ionic silver. Then for each 40 nm silver particle in the silver
solution there would be roughly 1,000,000 silver ions in the ionic
silver solution. If only 10% of the silver ions successfully passed into
the blood stream you would still have 100,000 silver ions for each
silver particle. If 1% passed you would have 10,000. If only 0.1% passed
you would have 1000, ...
Regards,
Steve N
________________________________
From: Norton, Steve [mailto:stephen.nor...@ngc.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2008 9:41 AM
To: silver-list@eskimo.com
Subject: RE: CS>positive silver ions and negatively charged bacteria
Relative to bacteria, from Wikipedia: There are two main types of
bacterial cell walls, Gram positive and Gram negative, which are
differentiated by their Gram staining characteristics.
Gram positive:
Teichoic acids give the Gram positive cell wall an overall negative
charge due to the presence of phosphodiester bonds between teichoic acid
monomers.
Gram negative:
In addition to the peptidoglycan layer, the Gram negative cell wall also
contains an additional outer membrane composed by phospholipids and
lipopolysaccharides which face into the external environment. As the
lipopolysaccharides are highly-charged, the Gram negative cell wall has
an overall negative charge.
>From what I have read, viruses have a slight negative charge at neutral
PH.
- Steve N
________________________________
From: Bethany Methven [mailto:mrs_ak_h...@yahoo.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2008 12:38 AM
To: silver-list@eskimo.com
Subject: CS>positive silver ions and negatively charged bacteria
Hi, I'm new to this list. Here in Alaska, very few people actually know
about CS. I am trying to learn as much as I can so that I can educate
those around me. I have been studying about the positive charge from
silver ions losing an electron during the electro colloidal process.
Anyway, my question is - Does anyone know if all bacteria, fungus,
viruses, etc are negatively charged? Some web site was talking about
how the positive charge from the silver ions attracts to the negative
charge of the bacteria, and then basically short circuits it's
biological clock, making it unable to reproduce. If this is true, then
how effective are silver particles, if they are negatively charged, vs.
the positive charge of the ions? I have heard so much confusion
regarding ions vs. particles. I"d like to hear some other opinions.
Thanks - Beth
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