Structured Silver vs Colloidal Silver
Are you comparing the benefits of structured silver with older forms of silver? While several forms of silver can be useful health tools, it is important to understand the many differences that distinguish the good from the great.
100 Year Old, 10 Year Old & Today's Silver Technologies
|Older Colloidal or
|Silver Hydrosol||Structured Silver|
|Date of Development||Late 1800's||Mid 1990's||Early 2010's|
|Nature of Compound||Silver Suspension||Silver Solution||Structured Silver Solution|
|Parts Per Million (ppm)||5 - 300,000 ppm||10 - 30 ppm||10 - 30 ppm|
|Bio-Availability||15-65%||Exceeds 99%||Exceeds 99%|
|Can Cause Argyria||Yes||No Known Cases||No Known Cases|
|Color||Brown, Yellow or Silver||Colorless||Colorless|
|Taste||Strong Metallic Flavour||Faint Metallic Aftertaste||Faint Metallic Aftertaste|
Silver Performance in Side-by-Side Tests
The efficacy of today's structured silver is well ahead of the older silvers.
To see research and a full explanation of how this is possible, visit this Silver Health Institute page.
For an explanation of how these different forms of silver can behave so differently despite having the same ingredients, see this video:"Structured silver is far better than just a single silver or an ionic silver or a colloidal or even the hydrosols of the past. This is new and improved silver." (source)
If you are confused about the terms used for silver's different forms, here are some definitions (source):
A colloid is a particle between 1 and 0.001 micrometers in diameter that is evenly dispersed throughout another substance. A colloidal system may be liquid, solid, or gaseous. Examples of colloidal substances include whipped cream, styrofoam, fog, milk, smoke, and blood. To learn more about colloids, see this infographic:
A colloidal system with small particles (colloids) of silver evenly dispersed within a liquid, typically water. Colloidal silver has been produced in a wide variety of forms for over 100 years, with variations in concentration, purity, stability, colloid size, molecular structure, etc. These variations result in vastly different substances that are commonly referred to under the general term "colloidal silver."
An atom or molecule with an unequal number of electrons and protons. As a result, an ion has a net positive or negative charge. If the ion has a negative charge (it has more electrons than protons), it is called an anion. If the ion has a positive charge (it has fewer electrons than protons), it is called a cation.
The state of silver in an ionic form, ionic silver is commonly found within creams and liquids. Prior to the advent of digital photography, ionic silver was in widespread use as one of the chemicals employed to process film.
A sol is substance where particles of a solid material are evenly mixed within a liquid and these particles are very small (1 to 0.001 micrometers in diameter.) A sol is a colloidal system.
A unique combination of silver and water with benefits, characteristics, and a manufacturing method unlike any other silver product.
Excerpt from A New Fighting Chance
In written form, here is another explanation of the different forms of silver in a side-by-side comparison:
This brings us to a critical point: structured silver is not the same as other silver products. Even other products that contain silver and water are not the same as structured silver.
1000 years ago, people used primitive forms of silver and received mild antimicrobial benefits.
100 years ago, people used primitive colloidal and ionic silver products and received good antimicrobial benefits, but also suffered side effects like Argyria. Argyria is not life-threatening and is rare, but it is an undesirable discoloration of the skin towards a bluish-grey. Argyria can occur with concentrated silvers (very high ppm, such as 50,000 ppm) and impure silver compounds (eg. silver salts) that precipitate within the body. Argyria cannot happen with new structured silvers, when taken as suggested.
10 years ago, people used more advanced silver solutions and gels and received excellent antimicrobial benefits and vastly improved safety standards.
Today, people have access to structured silver products that even outperform last decade’s products. The new silvers are safer and more effective. When compared with last decade’s top products at top U.S. laboratories and in clinical usage, today’s structured silver shows significantly improved performance against pathogens and reduced healing times as high as 40% faster.
In short, our ability to access silver’s benefits has moved from primitive to good over the centuries, with new levels of excellence available now that are even better than last decade’s best. Just as computers have developed at a rapid pace, so have silvers. A computer from 25 or 10 years ago was a good tool at the time, but how many people choose an old computer when faced with a design, communication, programming, or entertainment need? 10 years old may be good, but it is no longer the best. As it is with computers, cameras, and smartphones, so it is with silvers.
When choosing your silver products, be mindful of what you seek. You might not be able to see the differences with the naked eye, but they are real and can impact your health.
If you were five or six nanometers tall, the differences between silver products would be as obvious as the differences between a horse and a cow. Yet, since you are likely closer to five or six feet tall, the differences between a pH-balanced (alkaline) structured silver and other substances are invisible without closer inspection.
In short, you do not need to use your grandma’s silver. Just as horses and cows are similar yet critically different, old-fashioned silver products and pH-balanced structured silver are similar but critically different from one another.
With clarity on this point, a new health vector emerges. Without clarity, today’s new silver products are incorrectly called ”snake oil” or worse due to confusion with older technologies.
(pages 4-5 from "A New Fighting Chance" by Dr. Gordon Pedersen.)