Mild Silver Protein

Effectiveness Against Topical Infections

 By James South MA. 

 Silver (Ag) is atomic element number 47, with an atomic weight of 108. It is one of the so-called 'heavy metals', along with lead, mercury, cadmium and gold. Yet unlike its heavy metal cousins, Ag is surprisingly non-toxic to humans and animals. And unlike the other heavy metals, Ag has a long history of successful medical and public health use dating back 6000 years!

 
Ag has been used to speed wound healing, treat infections, purify water and preserve beverages. For example, the ancient Macedonians covered wounds with silver plates to speed healing (1), and N.R. Thompson has noted that "The germicidal properties of silver, although not recognized as such, have been utilized since the times of the ancient Mediterranean and Asiatic cultures, references being made to the use of silver vessels to prevent spoilage of beverages, and silver foil or plates in the surgical treatment of wounds and broken bones."(2) 

 The modern era of Ag usage began in 1893, when C. Von Nageli reported the first systematic investigation into the lethal effects of metals [especially silver] towards bacteria and lower life forms.... To primitive life forms oligodynamic silver is as toxic as the most powerful chemical disinfectants and this, coupled with its relative harmlessness to [animal] life, gives it great potential as a disinfectant.... The term 'oligodynamic'[silver refers to] solutions in which the metal ion concentration is many orders of magnitude below that which would be lethal to higher life forms."(2) 

From 1900 to the beginning of the modern antibiotic era - circa 1940 with the introduction of sulfa drugs - Ag was one of the mainstays of medical practice in Europe and America. Various forms of AAg were used to treat literally hundreds of ailments: lung infections such as pneumonia, tuberculosis and pleurisy (3); sexual diseases such as gonorrhea and syphillis (4); skin conditions such as cuts, wounds, leg ulcers, pustular eczema, impetigo and boils (4); acute meningitis and epidemic cerebro-spinal meningitis (3); infectious diseases such as Mediterranean fever, erysipelas, cystitis, typhus, typhoid fever, and tonsilitis (3); eye disorders such as dacryocystitis, corneal ulcers, conjunctivitis and blepharitis (5); and various forms of septicemia, including puerperal fever, peritonitis and post-abortion septicemia (3,6). (This list does not even begin to exhaust the published medical uses for Ag in Europe and America, 1900-1940). 

 In 1939 Hill and Pillsbury listed 94 different proprietary Ag preparations in use up to that time (7). However, with the coming of the antibiotic era, Ag rapidly fell into disuse and the medical 'memory hole', as it was replaced first by sulfa drugs, then penicillin (post WWII), and since then by hundreds of specialized anti-biotics.
 

 Under the onslaught of antibiotic warfare, the second half of the 20th century witnessed the seeming eradication, or at least control, of most of mankind's ancient plague scourges. Indeed some major infectious diseases have been virtually wiped out in the modern world, (supposedly) thanks to anti-biotics. By the late 1980's, anti-biotics had so succeeded in controlling/eradicating most germ diseases, that medical researchers and pharmaceutical companies seriously slowed research into new anti-biotics, thinking that there was no longer any need for (and not nearly enough 'big bucks' to be made from) newer and better anti-biotics. Yet by the 1990's the picture began to change again. 

 Due to an antibiotic-accelerated Darwinian evolution of microbes, more and more germ species previously controlled by anti-biotics began to develop ways to combat anti-biotics. This in turn gave rise to so-called 'super-germs', such as killer E. coli, 'flesh-eating' strep a bacteria, multiple antibiotic-resistant tuberculosis bacteria and chloroguine-resistant malarial parasites (8, 9). The over prescription of anti-biotics by doctors under pressure from their patients, for ailments where they are useless (e.g. against common viral diseases such as cold and flu); the failure of patients to take the full course of their prescribed anti-biotics (allowing germs to recover and develop antibiotic resistance); and the widespread use of low-level anti-biotics in animal feed to increase farmer's profits (40% of U.S. anti-biotics go into animal feed), have all helped create antibiotic-resistant bacteria (8,9). 

 Some common (and dangerous) germs such as Staph aureus (found especially in hospitals) are now known to be resistant to all but one antibiotic-vancomycin - and soon are expected to be vancomycin-resistant too (8,9). "In 1992, 13,300 hospital patients died [in the U.S.] of bacterial infections that resisted the anti-biotics fired at them, says the CDC." (8)Thanks to NAFTA, widespread international air travel, eco-tourism to exotic third-world forests and islands, and massive migration of third-world peoples to Europe and America, hosts of exotic diseases once isolated to small areas of the planet are now showing up all over (8,9). Malaria is once again returning to the U.S. The exotic and deadly Ebola virus has broken out in a lab in Maryland. Shigella (which causes dysentery) was practically unheard of in America before 1990, but it is now being spread from contaminated fruits and vegetables imported into the U.S. under NAFTA, and are now routinely seen at clinics in California. 

 Perhaps the scariest scenario that may present a need for a powerful, broad-spectrum antimicrobial such as Ag is the late 1990's threat of 'bioterrorism.' It is now widely expected by biowarfare and terrorism experts that, whether due to small groups of terrorists, or as a form of warfare by 'rogue'/totalitarian nations such as China, Iran, Libya, N. Korea, Syria or Russia, it is only a matter of time before 'germ warfare' is unleashed in Europe or America (10). And if the supergerms released have been produced in sophisticated biowarfare labs, they will probably have been genetically altered to make them resistant to the anti-biotics normally used to treat that species of germ - e.g. tetracycline/doxycycline normally used to treat Anthrax (the number 1 favorite of 'biowarfare warriors' world-wide) (10). It is interesting to note that silver - both in liquid solution and as an airborne-aerosol - has been known since 1887 to be extremely toxic to Anthrax spores (1,10,11,12). And it is widely reported in the medical literature on Ag that various forms of Ag, often at surprisingly low concentrations, routinely kills germs that are known to be antibiotic-resistant (11,13,19,20).
 

 Most anti-biotics have an optimal effectiveness against only a few different disease germs; even broad-spectrum anti-biotics may kill only 10-20 different types of bacteria. Also, most anti-biotics that kill bacteria will not kill fungus/yeasts, protozoal parasites or viruses; anti-fungal anti-biotics will not kill bacteria, viruses, parasites, etc. And virtually all known viruses are immune to virtually all known anti-biotics. 

 Ag is unique among antimicrobial agents in its broad spectrum of action. It has been claimed to kill some 650 different disease organisms (13). And unlike anti-biotics, Ag is an 'equal opportunity destroyer' - it doesn't discriminate, but effectively kills germs of all major types: gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, spore-forming bacteria, fungus/yeasts, viruses and protozoal parasites. Ag sulfadiazine (Silvadene®), used almost universally in hospitals to prevent serious burn infections (11), kills dozens of different bacteria (11,14,16); it also kills 95% of 72 strains of herpesvirus (15), as well as the protozoal parasite Plasmodium berghei (malaria) (17). Silvadene (also kills various yeasts, including several Aspergillus varieties, Mucor pusillus, Rhizopus nigricans and 50 different clinical isolates of Candida albicans (18).
 

 Given the broad range of silver's efficacy against germs - even antibiotic-resistant ones - and it's relatively high degree of safety, one might wonder why Ag isn't routinely used by every doctor and hospital in the world today. 

 Aside from the seemingly cynical (but all too true) reason that the medical-industrial complex would lose revenue (sickness pays, wellness doesn't, and a single pill of a modern 'high-tec' antibiotic typically sells for $10-20), there is a more legitimate cosmetic reason for caution in Ag use: the phenomenon known as argyria. When sufficiently large quantities of Ag accumulate in the body, some of it accumulates just beneath the surface of the skin, which may lead to a permanent bluish-grey tinge to the skin. As Hill and Pillsbury (both M.D.s) note in their massively researched (601 references) 1939 book Argyria, "A striking feature of argyria is the absence of any evidence that the deposits of silver produce any significant physiologic disturbance of the involved organs or tissue.... Aside from the [Ag] pigment deposit, the gross and microscopic appearance of the involved tissues is normal. Argyria is, therefore, of significance only from the standpoint of cosmetic appearance." (7).

 In their chapter on Ag in the 1986 Handbook on the Toxicology of Metals, Fowler and Nordberg also remark that "argyria... is bluish-grey discoloration of the skin.... Although not esthetic, this condition is considered harmless.... a total dose of 1-8 g Ag would be required to induce the condition in a long-term inhalation exposure situation. The dosage required to induce argyria by ingestion seems to be somewhat higher, i.e. between 1 and 30 g of soluble silver salts...."(29). 

 Hill and Pillsbury could only find 239 reported cases of argyria by 1939, in spite of silver's widespread medical and over-the-counter use in America and Europe during the previous 40 years. Only 16 cases occurred from less than one year's chronic use of Ag; about half occurred with 3 years or less of chronic Ag use; and about half of all cases involved chronic Ag use ranging from 3 to 25 years. Where the published information (214 cases) provided data on the Ag compound used, 55% (118) of the argyria cases were caused by Ag nitrate; 13% (28) were caused by Argyrol, a mild Ag protein; 9% (19) were caused by Ag arsphenamine; 6% (13) were caused by Collargol, a chemically produced colloidal Ag, and various other products caused the remainder of reported argyria cases (7). In their summary Hill and Pillsbury report that a safe (with respect to argyria) total dose of the intravenous drug Ag arsphenamine would be 6 grams (.9 grams Ag), while with Ag nitrate "the danger of argyria is very slight if the total amount injested by mouth is below six grams [3.8 grams Ag]."(7).
 

 To put this in perspective: if one assumes that electrocolloidal Ag and mild Ag protein are equally prone to cause argyria compared to Ag nitrate (and they probably are actually less prone to promote argyria), then it would take 11.5 years of daily oral use of two tablespoons of 30 PPM Ag to reach the 3.8 gram Ag threshold. Thus the risk of developing argyria from occasional use of Ag to treat specific infectious conditions must be considered virtually non-existent. I have used colloidal Ag intermittently since 1994, sometimes taking 2-3 tablespoons of 30 PPM Ag daily for months at a time, consuming about 250 mg Ag total, and I do not exhibit the slightest hint of argyria.

ARGYRIA: REDUCING THE RISK  

The two simplest methods to reduce argyria risk are: 1) Do not use AgNO3 internally - it's the best reported promoter of argyria. 2) Limit use of colloidal Ag/mild Ag protein products to at most several weeks to several months at a time. Do not take oral (or intravenous or intranasal) Ag on a permanent, ongoing basis unless carefully monitored by and under the supervision of a physician who is knowledgeable in Ag use and argyria. 

 The dietary supplement NAC (N-acetylcysteine) may also provide significant protection against Ag accumulation and thus argyria. Fowler and Nordberg state that "Alexander and Aeseth (1981) reported that rats injected intravenously with silver nitrate excreted silver in the bile mainly bound to a low molecular-weight complex which appeared to be glutathione." (29). Glutathione (GSH) is a tripeptide composed of glutamic acid, glycine and cysteine. Based on their study of the protective effect of NAC against various toxic agents, Dawson et al reported: "The protective effect [of NAC] in some cases is due to the free sulfhydryl group which N-acetylcysteine contains, and in other cases it is due to its role as a precursor for cysteine in [GSH] biosynthesis." (30).Bergstrom and colleagues remarked that "...oral NAC in fact offers prompt availability of thiol groups needed for [GSH] biosynthesis in the hepatic cells where the need is highest." (31).Lorber et al stated that "Our in-vitro studies demonstrated that NAC effectively complexes gold, mercury and silver.... Our [clinical] findings suggest that NAC may be a promising and effective treatment of gold [and thus presumably Ag] intoxication.... The use of N-acetylcysteine may thus afford better detoxification for... heavy metal poisoning than other available agents in current use." (32). In order to avoid cancelling out the microbicidal effect of Ag, it would probably be best to wait until a given course of Ag treatment is complete, then begin taking 200-600 mg NAC two or three times daily with meals. This will enhance clearance of any residual Ag from the body, thus reducing the risk of argyria.