Modern day Colloidal Silver is an electrolyte of pure water, silver ions & microscopic particles(colloids). Both the ions & particles are beneficial. It can only be described as a mineral supplement. It is not an 'approved' pharmaceutical drug (approval has never been sought) so it is illegal to make claims about its therapeutic (medical) effectiveness.
Colloidal silver, is an approved method for purifying water, some people take it as a supplement. (see pdf file at the bottom). Silver is now being used in Band-Aids, toothbrushes etc, mainly for its antibacterial properties.

Our Product - electrolysis method.

Colloidal silver made via the electrolysis method is the term "isolated silver". Isolated silver refers to silver particles and silver ions, surrounded by pure water molecules: H2O.

Silver compounds eg silver citrate, silver acetate, silver nitrate etc

A silver compound is silver directly associated or chemically bonded with another element or another compound, can be extremely toxic in the human body due to the extremely high concentration of silver.

See http://www.silvermedicine.org/faq.html

Generally speaking, 3 - 10 PPM high quality colloidal silver product is a sufficient concentration for effectiveness in the body. The bottom line is that higher concentration, for use in the body, is NOT desirable.

Quality of Our Product- the quality of colloidal silver is that it passes three tests.
Test:-1 it has sufficient silver ions, this can be measured by a conductivity meter & the reading needs to be between 10 & 20 micro Siemens ie this equates to parts per million(ppm) or Milligram(mg)/Litre as you can see by the first picture ours consistently measures over 15(over time this will settle back to 10-12 ppm).
Test:-2 Pic.2, it has a sufficient number of colloidal particles without colouring the water. This is very hard to measure but the simple test is to shine a laser beam through the liquid the normally invisible silver particles become visible as tiny points of light suspended in the water, so this gives you a visual guide to the type of silver colloids present. Small particles are preferable giving a dense 'matt' beam as seen in the picture of our product, the presence of larger particles is indicated by a sparkling effect(we estimates our colloid content at 20ppm).
Test:-3 is that it remains clear, you will see some products that say they have 40-50ppm, when we measured one of these products they had a silver ion reading of less than 10, & when viewed with a laser beam there was lots of sparkle & the water was slightly grey, meaning they have tried to put as much silver in as possible, so they could claim the high PPM & in the process the particles have started to join together in larger sizes causing the slight discoloration & also in the process reducing the ionic count.
So we claim (conservatively) that our Colloidal Silver is around 25ppm (85% ionic + 15% colloidal). The ions are about 1/8th of a nanometre diameter, and most of the particles are in the 40 - 140 nm range. It takes billions of silver ions and tiny particles of this size to add up to 15 milligrams of silver per litre.

Some people claim that the best colloidal silver is produced using high AC current machines, this is simply not true over 90% of the positive results and testimonials that you find on the Web was done using low current DC machines. In the past to produce large quantities in a single go you needed the more expensive AC current devices (even then there ionic content was very low) but that was a long time ago DC devices were always used for small quantities, they are now used for large quantities as well. 

Particles and Ions.

Silver ions are silver atoms that have lost an electron. They are positively charged.

Silver particles or colloids on the other hand are exactly what the name implies - microscopic particles (colloids). They are so small they stay permanently suspended within the water and do not settle to the bottom. It’s important to note that these particles are not actually made 'by' the generator (AC or DC), they are created in the water as the ions combine. Current control and Stirring i.e. keeping the water moving slowly, is the key to keeping the particles small. These particles do not raise the conductivity of the water so they cannot be measured with a PPM or EC meter but you can observe them with a laser. 

A note on particle and ion sizes.
A silver ion is a single silver atom that has lost an electron. All silver ions are the same size no matter how they are made. You can't get a silver component smaller than an ion. An ion is not a particle, but some producers will deliberately confuse the two in order to claim they produce extremely small particles or so-called 'micro-particles or nano-particles '. Ions and particles are two completely different and beneficial forms of silver and as such need to be considered independently.

Particle surface area

Regarding particle surface area there are so many terms that seem to appear in the colloidal Silver debate. As they actually say in that article 2nd paragraph this is really just another measure of particle size i.e. the smaller the particle the more of them can fit together in a given amount of liquid, hence larger surface area.

In his booklet "Silver Colloids", Professor Ronald Gibbs wrote " The size of the particles in the colloidal silver suspensions we use for health purposes is very important. Particle size controls the surface area and therefore the effectiveness of the colloidal silver suspension. "

Anyway here's some more information on particle sizes regarding our product.

Nano particles are within the 1 to 100 nanometer size. In a typical batch, 90% of the particles produced will be less than 100 nanometers. ('Microparticles' is just a made-up word used by some generator sellers to hype up their product. Basically, all generators produce micro-particles, but not all generators produce nano-particles.).

Don't confuse particles with ions!

The process that we use produces both particles and silver ions. By design, approximately 85% of the silver in the batch is ionic. A silver ion is a single silver atom that has lost an electron. All silver ions are the same size, just .129 nanometers across, no matter how they are made. You can't get a silver component smaller than an ion. An ion is not a particle, but some producers will deliberately confuse the two in order to claim they produce extremely small particles. Ions and particles are two completely different and beneficial forms of silver and as such need to be considered independently.

So what happens is that the process produces mainly silver ions which then slowly bump into each other and join together forming colloids. You measure the ionic component using a meter initially ours will measure about 25 ppm(silver ions) but slowly the ionic component will decrease and the colloidal part will increase as the ions merge together to form silver colloids generally stabilising at around 12 to 13 ppm after several months ie ions decrease colloids increase. The test for the particle size of the colloids is very simply measured by shining a laser through the liquid the more even the line i.e. no big individual sparkling pieces, the smaller and denser the colloids, as shown in the pics.

What works best? Ions or particles?

If you search the internet you will soon find very persuasive sites supporting both sides of the 'Ions Versus Particles' debate. But the truth is that no-one really knows if it’s the 'oligodynamic' properties* of the ions or particles that are the doing the most good in colloidal silver, although most current research seems to favour the ions. It's also possible that ions and particles both achieve the same thing, but in different areas of the body. There are also some theoretical chemical sequences that suggest that ions convert to particles in the blood stream, or alternatively, some particles release ions. What we can be sure of though, is that what most people have been using and praising for the last 20 years is colloidal silver that contains BOTH ions and particles - because that's the sort of colloidal silver that has been most readily available. Good quality, commercially bottled colloidal silver is about 85% ionic and 15% particles. Statements by some bottlers that their 'new' CS is more effective because it is (supposedly) 100% ionic, or 100% particles, have no such history of everyday usage to support their claims. Quite simply, we don’t need to take sides in the ions versus particles debate because the electrolysis method, done correctly, gives you both.

*The Oligodynamic property is the ability of small amounts of metals to exert a lethal effect on bacteria. (Greek: Oligos/small. Dynamis/power.) The effectiveness of some metals as germicidals is due to the high affinity of cellular proteins for metallic ions. Bacteria cells die due to the cumulative effects of ions within or in contact with the cell, even if the concentration of ions in the solution is miniscule. Exactly why these ions are lethal to bacteria is not fully known but it may be that they disable the bacteria's ability to deal with oxygen.

'Invive' brand colloidal silver is heavily promoted on the internet in strengths from 50 to 10,000 ppm. The manufacturer of Invive basically uses the argument that the more silver you pour into your body the more effective it is for you, and that any website that disputes this is 'outright lying'. What they don’t explain is that Invive particles are relatively huge so, as a consequence, you need to take very high ppm's of their product in order to obtain sufficient numbers of particles to effectively kill bacteria. By comparison, the particles and ions in electrolytic colloidal silver (our production method) are tiny, so you only need a very small silver intake to provide the same number of individual silver units.

Some people also say that you cannot store colloidal silver in plastic containers, firstly we agree glass is always preferable to plastic, we ship our products in plastic containers for a number of reasons, cost of transport being one of them. We have tested our product after being in plastic for over six months, there was no drop in ionic or colloidal content apart from the normal dropout of ionic which stabilises around at about 10 - 12 ppm whether it is in glass or plastic. You will also notice over time there is a slow sediment buildup on the bottom which is the colloids settling out of solution, sometimes some companies put their product in dark coloured bottles, may be so you won't see this, but it happens and is inconsequential, if you like you can shake vigorously and the colloids of silver will go back into suspension. There is a popular YouTube video showing someone making colloidal silver using 3x9V batteries and taking 10 mins. the man is saying how much benefit he has received from taking this product, this shows how powerful this is. To achieve higher concentrations and finer particles our process is a lot slower, it takes approximately 5 hours for each 1 L to be produced. 

Around the WEB you will occasionally find an article that tries to put colloidal silver down, this is generally the same article that has been minimally reworked, we have attached it here, in its latest incarnation with a few of our comments just to show you how ridiculous some of these old school closed minded, medical establishment views can sometimes be. A Subscription Newsletter for the Medical Profession.pdf 

MODERATE consumption of good quality, clear, colloidal silver has no side effects. Argyria is a rare blue/grey discoloration of the skin caused by massive OVER-CONSUMPTION of very poor quality colloidal silver. Argyria is the only known side effect from consuming too much silver. Other claimed side effects have no credible scientific or medical support. Argyria is easily avoided. 

Pic.3 Argyria happens because some people drink WAY too much of this. Or it's colloidal silver made with ordinary tap water. Or it’s a Colloidal Compound eg citrate, nitrate etc Colloidal silver for human consumption should NEVER be made with tap water!

Colloidal silver made with tap water produces a mass of silver chloride particles as the silver ions combine with impurities. A basic silver maker without 'current control' will turn a jar of tap water into a grey soup in just a couple of minutes. And the high conductivity of the tap water means the silver content of this brew could be thousands of milligrams per litre (1000 ppm or more) that’s hundreds of times higher than the CS you'd buy in a shop or from LivingApartment. 

To avoid argyria the rules are simple. Colloidal silver for human consumption MUST ALWAYS be made with PURE distilled, demineralised, or reverse osmosis water. Tap water, spring water, mineral water, soda water, etc is NO GOOD.             

Pic.4 After just 30 minutes in sunlight, the cup now looks like this, It's almost as black as ink because it's extremely light sensitive. All the argyria cases we have been able to investigate have this in common; they all used impure water. In some cases they even added salt or baking soda to the water to make it even 'stronger'. They didn't know any better. They simply got bad advice off the internet and followed it. 

Incredibly, it can take a long time to get Argyria even when drinking stuff this bad. It’s harder to get argyria than you may think. Some people have consumed 2 or 3 glasses of junk like this every day for many months or even years before argyria started to show.

This is true of the recently famous argyria case of 'Blue Man' Paul Karosan. He drank two glassfuls a day for 3 years of colloidal silver made with salt added to the water. He then changed to CS made with baking soda for another 10 years. In all he's been drinking CS like this for about 13 years. Furthermore, Paul Karosan has never used a controlled current generator like we do at LivingApartment. He uses his own homemade silver maker. He would have no idea of the strength of the colloidal silver he is drinking.           

Pic.5 This is what colloidal silver should look like. This cup of CS was made with pure water. It's been sitting in sunlight for 4 days but it's still nice and clear.

The method we use can't make bad colloidal silver. It switches off automatically in inferior water. And its 'current controlled' to produce silver ions slowly so the CS only contains pure water and silver at a safe strength of about 15 milligrams per litre. (15 ppm). After this point is reached we clean the electrodes & do a further 2 hrs on a timer. No-one has ever developed argyria from drinking nice clear colloidal silver made with pure water. 

Risk without benefit?

Many people will be amazed or shocked when you say you take colloidal silver. This is not surprising. It’s relatively new, its unknown, and it certainly sounds strange. Some people will immediately search for "colloidal silver safety" in Google or Yahoo and come back to you with one disparaging article or another.

Positive references about CS outnumber the negatives by about a thousand to one, but they tend to be buried in sites such as colloidal silver 'users groups' that usually don't appear in a Google search. 

So unfortunately the 'Quackwatch' article 'RISK WITHOUT BENEFIT' is the first result many people see when they do a Google or Yahoo search on colloidal silver. It’s easy to scare people and grab a 'hit' by throwing a few alarming words like RISK into a title. Sadly its the sort of headline that will send many people into a state of panic.

Many people read the title but few people critically read the whole article. It contains out-dated information, a famous but discredited argyria case that is over 50 years old, factual errors, and misleading statements. It deliberately confuses colloidal silver with silver compounds, and is padded with numerous references that sound impressive but have nothing to do with silver safety. Most of the article is about exaggerated advertising claims made by early marketers of bottled colloidal silver - an undesirable situation for sure, but hardly life-threatening or 'risky'. (Some of this advertising is nearly 20 years old). It ignores silver's long history of safe and effective medical use, and takes no notice of the numerous credible laboratory tests that prove colloidal silver kills bacteria. The mountain of positive testimonials from everyday users of colloidal silver is never acknowledged and CS users around the world are simply dismissed as victims of a scam.

The argyria references are attention grabbing but they are vague and represent the most extreme examples of the abuse of very poorly made silver products. A little research soon reveals that these products are very different to the good quality, clear colloidal silver that can now be purchased or made at home. In summary, if this distorted mish-mash is the best argument Quackwatch can muster then there is little to worry about. 

Quackwatch is funded by 'donations' and advertising commissions. We might conclude then that the main motivation for continuing to present such an unbalanced and deceptive article is simply that it is virtually guaranteed to attract maximum 'hits' and so maintain Quackwatch's prized number 1 position on Google and Yahoo searches. So perhaps it's the web surfers, seeking honest information, who are really the ones being scammed ...by Stephen Barrett. It's also worth noting that even on Quackwatch's own extensive 'Cheers' page there are no letters of support for Stephen Barrett's comments about colloidal silver.

Most other anti-CS stories, written by people who have no personal experience using CS, just re-cycle the same misleading information.

Other searches might reveal scary titles such as 'A REPORT INTO SILVER TOXICITY IN DRINKING WATER' which upon further reading (which hardly anyone does) will actually reveal that silver is NOT a problem.

To put it in perspective try doing a Google search on the dangers of: Coca Cola, Aspirin, Distilled water, Vitamin B,C,D,E, Iron, Zinc, any approved drug, Bread, Milk, Sunscreen, etc, etc, etc.

It's probably harder to hurt yourself with CS than with any other mineral or vitamin.

All silver toxicity tests suggest that only maximum ignorance, carelessness, and persistence could achieve a negative outcome, and even then these tests were carried out with repeated high doses of silver compounds which, compared to CS, is like comparing sulphuric acid to watered down orange juice. 

The slightest bit of research on a site like this or an independent site such as 'silvermedicine.org' or a discussion group such as '4colloidalsilver' will soon reveal how to avoid problems and make CS that is safe and effective.

Unfortunately the CS argyria fear is unwittingly perpetuated by CS bottlers who recommend that you only drink a 'teaspoon' of their product.

The true test is simply this. If colloidal silver really does cause argyria so easily, where are all the blue people hiding? Hundreds of thousands of people take colloidal silver, but argyria stories are very rare. Why aren't they regularly popping up on '60 Minutes' or 'A Current Affair'? Why aren't they featured in magazines and newspapers? Why isn't the web full of 'first hand' stories from colloidal silver victims?

The internet is the greatest tool ever devised for individuals to easily air their personal grievances, yet a world wide search reveals very few cases of persons complaining that colloidal silver caused their argyria. And one of those cases (Rosemary Jacobs) has been exposed as highly improbable because her symptoms developed over 50 years ago (before electrolytic colloidal silver was even available) and she admits she never drank colloidal silver in her life! She took silver nitrate nose drops, perhaps daily, for at least 3 years. 

Another person openly named as an argyria victim, US Senate Candidate Stan Jones, never complained about colloidal silver causing his mild case of argyria. His complaint was that the media had exaggerated the story and 'doctored' the photos. He admitted he had foolishly made his colloidal silver using a solution of tap water and salt. And he had 'brewed' it until it looked like ink. In spite of the embarrassing attention, he said he would re-commence taking colloidal silver, but now he would make it the correct way.

UPDATE. The argyria case of Paul Karosan recently received a lot of media attention. Mr Karosan has been drinking colloidal silver for about 14 years. Details are sketchy but he has admitted that for that entire period he has been making colloidal silver with salt or baking soda added to the batch - with no way of determining the concentration of the mix.