[We are grateful to Life & Health Research Group, Inc. for permission to re-print the following interview with independent colloidal silver researcher Daryl Tichy from their newsletter. Absolutely no reproduction of any part of this report is allowed without the expressed written permission of the publisher. Copyright 2006, Life & Health Research Group, Inc., PO Box 1239, Peoria AZ 85380-1239]
An Exclusive Interview With Daryl Tichy:
The Truth About Colloidal Silver and Colloidal Silver Generators
Are Low-Voltage Home Colloidal Silver Generators Safe to Use?
What is the truth about colloidal silver, and is it safe to make it with a colloidal silver generator? To get some solid answers, we spoke with Daryl Tichy, a member of the administrative staff at Brigham Young University and an active independent researcher on colloidal silver. In the 1990's it was his inquiries concerning the effectiveness of colloidal silver against the AIDS virus and other deadly pathogens that captured the public interest and got the ball rolling. Tichy is perhaps one of the most well-read resources on colloidal silver, and one of the few contemporary researchers who have aggressively pursued independent laboratory research on colloidal silver -- making his contributions to this report all the more valuable. Here’s what he had to say on the issue of particle size and toxicity.
Life & Health: Daryl, we are grateful to have you with us today. I’m sure you’re already familiar with the so-called “particle size” and toxicity controversy regarding colloidal silver. The latest twist to it comes from people claiming that the little low-voltage home colloidal silver generators produce an overly-large particle size that could be dangerous -- even toxic -- to humans. In your experience, have you seen any evidence of this whatsoever?
Tichy: No, I haven’t seen any evidence that the colloidal silver produced by the little low-voltage home generators has ever harmed anyone.
Life & Health: Well, what about toxicity? Some people who sell the high-priced commercial brands of colloidal silver are saying that silver produced with the little home generators can be toxic, or build up to toxic levels in the body.
Tichy: Where’s the evidence? The toxicological studies conducted by Mann Fung and Deborah Bowen are frequently touted to show evidence of toxicity from colloidal silver. But these studies dealt with products containing anywhere from 20% to 80% silver load -- which is about 4,000 times greater silver load than is typically produced by the little low-voltage units. Besides that, Fung and Bowen did not address electrically generated colloidal silver at all in their studies, but focused exclusively on chemical compounds of silver -- a different substance altogether. So their studies are not really relevant to electrically generated colloidal silver. In contrast, there are plenty of studies showing no toxicity whatsoever from varying levels of ingested silver. For example, Paul Farber’s preliminary studies on lab rats at the University of Toronto found no pathological detriment after exposure to very large amounts of silver. Furthermore, a researcher named Pifer, writing in the Scandinavian Journal of Work Environment & Health in June 1989, reports on a study of silver reclamation workers who indeed had measurable amounts of silver in their organs and body fluids due to daily exposure, yet there was no evidence of toxicity. And finally, Simonetti and others, writing in Applied & Environmental Microbiology in 1992, reported on the use of electrochemical silver for preservative use. This is perhaps the most closely related comparison you’ll find to the silver produced by the little low-voltage home units. They found no detrimental effect on normal mammalian cells.
Life & Health: What about the condition called argyria, where people’s skin supposedly turns blue from ingesting colloidal silver of too large a particle size?
Tichy: Argyria has never been a consequence of particle size. Take your silver nitrates and other compounds -- historically, there is plenty of evidence of clinical observation of argyria from their use. Yet the molecules in these compounds can be many magnitudes smaller than a particle of colloidal silver -- yet it is these compounds which were the agents producing argyria!
Life & Health: Tens of thousands of people have been using the little home generators for years now to produce their own colloidal silver, and I’ve yet to find anyone who has turned blue from ingesting it. Have you?
Tichy: I have not personally witnessed anyone with argyria. I did see a woman from Vermont on TV with argyria. However, her situation dealt with the chronic exposure of oral-nasal mucosa to a pharmaceutically prepared silver nitrate solution. This was not electrically generated colloidal silver. I have seen perhaps three reports of argyria attributed to silver colloids, but these were historical accounts and not very complete. Keep in mind that historically speaking, any number of different products may have been called “colloidal silver,” regardless of their method of preparation. So although it would be difficult to totally exonerate silver colloid -- whether commercially produced or homemade -- it would also be equally difficult to universally condemn it. However, I don’t think you can find a more appropriate match than the work done by highly respected medical researchers like Berger, Spadaro, Becker and several others, who have regularly used low-voltage apparatuses to produce electrically generated silver for their research, and have found no detrimental effect whatsoever on normal mammalian cells. Generally speaking, under normal circumstances, you just are not going to produce the same silver load with a low-voltage apparatus that you would get in painting the oral mucosa with a silver nitrate solution.
Life & Health: Well then, what’s all of the hoopla about toxicity from those little low-voltage home generators?
Tichy: It’s really a moot issue. For example, the EPA contaminant level for silver in drinking water is stated in concentrations significantly higher than what most people ever take in from using the little home generators to make colloidal silver, unless they are abusing the process by ingesting excessive amounts or excessive concentrations. Moreover, before modern food processing techniques came into being, fairly high concentrations of silver were quite readily found in the food chain — particularly in cheeses, milk, mushrooms, and grains. Wheat, for example, contained as much as .9 parts per million of silver. As you know, wheat has always been eaten on a daily basis for years on end by millions of people in a wide variety of cultures. Yet no silver toxicity. In the not too distant past, when people ate and drank they used real silverware, silver platters, silver bowls, silver cups and other silver utensils. Generally speaking, it is likely they took in far more silver over time than what people ingest from those little low-voltage home generators. Yet silver toxicity was never a problem. This is not to say that you absolutely cannot produce toxicity using colloidal silver made from a low-voltage generator or any other technique for that matter. Abusive or excessive use, or taking excessively high concentrations of colloidal silver for long periods of time can result in toxicity. But that is true also with just about any vitamin or mineral supplement.
Life & Health: That’s certainly a load off my mind. I’ve personally used homemade colloidal silver off and on for several years now with nothing but good results. My wife, my mother, my sister, my brother-in-law and my children all use it too. But I certainly wouldn’t want to use it if I thought it could harm my family.
Tichy: All of the research I’ve seen indicates it would take thousands of times the concentrations of silver that those little home generators produce to result in a toxic effect.
Life & Health: Recently, one individual who has been publicly harping about the particle size issue told me that when particles of silver from the little home generators are ingested, they tend to silently build up in the body over long periods of time with absolutely no toxic symptoms whatsoever until one day you just keel over and die from the toxic buildup. What do you think of that idea?
Tichy: Not much. My suspicion is that many of these people are simply trying to define colloidal silver solely within the narrow parameters of the product they produce. In this way, by their own definition, they become the sole repositories of “good” colloidal silver.
Life & Health: Yes, this guy was selling his own brand of colloidal silver, and his pitch was that only his brand was safe to use because of the small particle size. So this whole particle size/toxicity issue is pretty much just a sales pitch... a scare tactic used by others to push their own brand of colloidal silver to an unwitting public?
Tichy: Let’s just say that defining “good” colloidal solely within the narrow parameters of the product they sell is one of the hallmarks of their sales technique. Again, in regard to particle size, keep in mind that in cultures like India, medicines are often encased in silver foil “troches.” These medicines are chewed and ingested silver foil and all by the Indian people. Chewing and ingesting such a medicine would certainly produce extremely large particles of silver. Yet there are no reports of toxicity. On top of that, an Indian delicacy is roast chicken covered with silver foil. When the meat is eaten, the silver foil is consumed as well. Yet I’ve never seen a report of silver build-up or toxicity from these extremely large particles.
Life & Health: What about the issue of silver buildup in the organs?
Tichy: Studies have been done in which 98% of the silver ingested by test subjects is recovered from the urine and feces in a given period of time. Under normal common-sense use, considering the low levels of silver people may ingest when using one of the little home generators, I’d say it’s pretty hard to build up toxicity with elimination like that. It’s not impossible of course. Again, if a person were to drink large amounts or excessively high concentrations of colloidal silver daily for long periods of time such as for weeks and months on end, it is quite possible that silver could accumulate in the body. Theoretically, you could reach toxic amounts if you continued to do so.
Life & Health: Ok then. What about those who sell the expensive high-voltage commercial colloidal silver generators? They claim the little low-voltage home units produce too large an array of particle sizes, and that only the high voltage process is capable of creating smaller and more uniform particles that stay electrically charged longer, and are therefore more efficacious against pathogens.
Tichy: Actually, as particles become smaller and smaller it is harder to maintain a charge on them. In purely technical terms, as particles get smaller you undergo a change from producing a charge on the particle. This shifts from ionization potential to work function. A charge can be imparted and maintained with greater facility when you are stripping a shared electron rather than a shell electron. So again, the smaller the particle size, the more difficulty in maintaining an electrical charge. As to the efficacy and uniformity of particle size, it is extremely important to consider that different biological agents [such as pathogenic microorganisms -- ED] interact with different particle domains. To me, the ideal situation would be the production of a stable colloid with an array of particle sizes. Contrary to all of the sales hype, there is no single “best” size. It all depends upon what your target is.
Life & Health: Wow. Are you actually saying that different pathogenic microorganisms respond to different particle sizes, and therefore the broader the array of particle sizes you ingest, the greater the chance that the silver will be effective against the invading pathogens?
Tichy: That’s right.
Life & Health: That would really put the lie to those who say the little home generators are no good because they produce too broad an array of particle sizes, wouldn’t it?
Tichy: Indeed it does. I believe the most meaningful evaluation of colloidal silver should be based upon results, not on self-serving definitions.
Life & Health: Well, people are certainly getting some fabulous therapeutic results from the colloidal silver they are producing with their own little low-voltage home generators, and I guess that says it all. Daryl, thank you again for taking the time out of your busy schedule to speak with us today. We deeply appreciate your insights into this vital issue.
Tichy: You’re welcome. It has been my pleasure.
Absolutely no reproduction of any part of this report is allowed without the expressed written permission of the publisher.
Copyright 2002-2006
Life & Health Research Group, Inc.
PO Box 1239
Peoria, AZ 85380-1239 33313
