Silver

Continuing our series about Geology and Medicine, this blog is all about the healing properties of Silver.

Silver has antimicrobial and antibacterial properties, and it has been used throughout the ages to cure infections and help heal wounds.

Now new medical studies have shown that it can kill a wide range of bacteria and viruses, including the very dangerous E.Coli and Staphylococcus.

The form of silver generally used as a medicine is colloidal silver, which is the suspension of microscopic particles of silver in liquid.

Before the advent of antibiotics, colloidal silver was used to treat infections, but after antibiotics came into vogue, silver went out of favour with conventional doctors except for a few uses - as a salve for burns and wounds, in nitrate eye solutions to prevent blindness in new born babies, and as an antibacterial coating in the lining of catheters.

Now with various bacteria strains becoming increasingly resistant to the effects of antibiotics, the rest of the medical community is once again becoming interested in colloidal silver. Silver attacks microbes in several different ways at once so it is more difficult for these microbes to develop protective mechanisms.

In a Taiwanese study published in the journal Colloids and Surfaces B: bio - interfaces, colloidal silver was found to kill the potentially deadly superbug methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa on surfaces such as door knobs and light switches where these bugs are known to colonize and spread between people.

Colloidal silver's effectiveness against a range of viruses, including hepatitis C, herpes and HIV has also been shown in both laboratory tests and in people.

(Bottomline inc.com. Photo courtesy of Google Images.)