Colloidal Silver, Part Four: Results

See Also:
- Colloidal Silver, Part one: Backstory
- Colloidal Silver, Part Two: Explanation
- Colloidal Silver, Part Three: Homebrew

[ Disclaimer: Any time you write about something related to health and medicine, it seems you need a disclaimer. So here's mine. I am not a doctor. I am not an expert. I cannot be responsible for what you do or don't do. I am not making any claims, nor selling a product. Be careful, be reasonable, be intelligent. Do your own research. I'm just hear to share some experiences. Insert all the standard disclaimers here: Void where prohibited. Not a Flying Toy. Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball. ]

So in Part One, I told you that it seemed to work for my nagging cough. Now that I can easily make it a quart at a time, I'm willing to try it on any number of minor things that I happen to think of. I'll adopt the Mythbusters convention of Busted, Plausible, and Confirmed, at least in the context of my own unscientific experiments. For my experience with the persistent cough, I'll call it's curative properties Plausible.

Most of the rest of these aren't necessarily things colloidal silver is supposed to fix, but I can't see any risk in trying. I mean, if it's really a cure-all, let's put it to the test. It's become a bit of a running joke for me. Headache? CS to the rescue! Scratched DVD? Pour some CS on it! Carpet stain? Where's the CS? But here's the list of things I actually did try, along with my anecdotal results.

Scratchy throat: After the holidays, colds are pretty much a given. Everybody travels to visit far-flung relatives with their many and varied germ pools (germsheds?). Afterward, they all come back to the office, to school, to church, to the grocery store... and share their miniature hitchhikers with everyone. We had a fairly minor cold come through, though it hit Lori the hardest. I teetered on the edge of sickness, and one night when my throat was feeling particularly scratchy, I gargled with some colloidal silver. A half an hour later, and that was the end of that. Did it fix it? I couldn't say for sure. But I'm filing that away for future testing. Plausible.

Dandruff: This was an interesting one. I've always had dandruff, and without washing every single day with dandruff shampoo, my scalp would get itchy and flaky, and my hair would get oily. And I'd be extra susceptible to bed head, hat head, and other such embarrassments. Depending on who you ask, dandruff seems to be fungal or yeast-oriented condition. Colloidal silver is supposed to have anti-fungal properties, right? Turns out, for me at least, it works better than the store-bought shampoo. Less itchy, less flaky, less oily. I'm calling this one Confirmed.

Bad breath: The odors that cause garlic breath are bacterial, right? So why not? I'd say it was more effective than just rinsing with water. In combination with toothpaste or mouthwash, I think there's a lot of potential. Plausible

Indigestion: I know, I know, this doesn't really fit the profile of what this stuff should cure, but hey, it's all in the name of pseudo-science. I mean, they used to think ulcers were caused by stress. Now they think they're caused by some kind of micro-organism. Sadly, this shot in the dark missed for me. Busted.

That red dot on top of my foot: A podiatrist once looked at it, said maybe it was a fibrous corn, and told me as long as it didn't cause any discomfort, to just forget about it. I was never confident of the specific diagnosis, but he's the doc, so I stopped worrying about it. Say, let's try putting a few drops of colloidal silver on it for a week and see what happens. Well, nothing. Busted.

Shower curtain mildew: Again, why not? I'm already using it in the shower for my hair. Why not splash some on that sneaky black stain in between the folds of the curtain at the same time? Ok, so it didn't really do much here. I don't know, maybe it killed the stuff, but it didn't make it go away. I guess I'll have to do a side-by-side comparison of whether it's easier to scrub it away with or without colloidal silver treatment. Inconclusive, but we'll call it Busted for now.

That's all I've come up with so far. I've used it on minor scratches, but without a side-by-side comparison, it's hard to know if it mattered. If I ever get two side-by-side scratches, maybe I can do a real test there. Here's hoping I don't have too many more reasons to test it. If nothing else, I'm sure I'll try it on some powdery mildew or other plant problems this summer.

So that's all I have to report for now. Time will tell if anything else comes along, or any of the plausible ones are repeatable...

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