Why Did Colloidal Silver Disappear?

Many have asked the question, "If colloidal silver is so good, why did it drop out of the picture for about 50 years?" As far as anyone can tell, it was because of a combination of factors which all occurred about the same time. These factors fall into four categories, i.e., quality control, the advent of alternative wonder drugs, patentability, and world events.

QUALITY CONTROL - As you may have gathered from previous posts, colloids of silver vary markedly in their potency and basic characteristics. Before 1938, a wide range of silver products were produced and sold, all under the name of colloidal silver. Many of these products were barely colloidal if colloidal at all, and came with serious side effects. Most physicians, during this time, were trained to use the Tyndall effect (You may want to read the post, Colloidal Silver: What's The Tyndall Effect?, if you haven't already.) to determine the quality of the colloidal silver they were using. Because anyone could produce and sell colloidal silver, anything and everything was available (Very much like today). On occasion, colloidal silvers were even sold which contained NO detectable silver at all.

Reading through various medical journals describing colloidal silver research of the time, one finds many articles which extol how beneficial colloidal silver is. However, one also finds articles suggesting colloidal silver didn't seem to do anything, when treating the same ailments used in the positive studies. This can be very confusing. How can some researchers derive great benefit and others see no benefit? It didn't make sense. However, upon reflection, the studies that lauded colloidal silver usually were very careful in their description of the kind of colloidal silver they were using. On the other hand, those on the negative side gave very general descriptions about the colloidal silver they used. It was clear some of the research was done with better quality colloids of silver and others were done using a poor quality. The effectiveness of colloidal silver seems to correspond directly with the quality of the colloidal silver.

So, with so little control over the quality of colloidal silver, physicians always wondered if the colloidal silver they were using would work. Thus, when the quality of antibiotics was insured by the rising pharmaceutical industry, the medical community found it easy to adopt. Such products could be used with confidence, even if the new products didn't do everything quality colloidal silver could.

THE ADVENT OF ALTERNATIVE WONDER DRUGS - It was about this same time when sulfa drugs and later penicillin came into the picture. These were considered genuine wonder drugs. These antibiotics were fairly broad banded so they worked to solve many conditions. The quality was insured. The price was competitive. It was fairly easy to obtain. The method of administration was straightforward. What more could you ask for? It was a new age!!!

PATENTABILITY - With the advent of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the U.S.A. drug claims had to be validated to high standards. The cost for that validation was enormous. No company could afford to spend the necessary money unless it could be confident it would recoup its investment. This could only be done by holding the patent on the product. Colloidal silver had been in the public domain for decades by that time. Therefore, it was non-patentable.

The FDA grandfathered colloidal silver along with a handful of other drugs when the FDA was formed because colloidal silver was so commonly known and researched. The only restrictions were the colloidal silver had to be manufactured in the same way it had been manufactured before 1938, was administered in the same fashion as it was before 1938, and could only be used for the same ailments for which it'd been used before 1938. Otherwise, anything new would have to undergo the same validations any other new drug would be required to undergo by the FDA, with the associated cost. Since colloidal silver was non-patentable, it would have been virtually impossible to recoup the cost of the necessary research. In fact, further colloidal silver research quickly came to a screeching halt after 1938. No one could afford to pay for further colloidal silver research when the new patentable wonder drugs cost so much to validate.

WORLD EVENTS - It was during this same time there was great political and social unrest. With the commencement of World War II shortly after 1938, wonder drugs were in great demand. The client was the national government. As a result, the pharmaceutical industry grew by leaps and bounds because of the national demand. By the end of the war, no one was looking to research colloidal silver, a non-patentable product. There was too much against it for the pharmaceutical industry. So, new generations of researchers and medical professionals came and went with no mention of colloidal silver. By the 1970's, colloidal silver had all but been forgotten. Some prestigious research articles of the '70's even lamented there seemed to be no simple form of silver in water. In fact, it wasn't until the last decade of the Twentieth Century, colloidal silver again began to come to the public's consciousness. Today colloidal silver is widely researched again, but we still face the same contradictions as to its effectiveness and safety vs being useless and having many side effects.

During the 90's decade, much of what happened before 1938 happened all over again. Colloidal silvers of every description began to be introduced on the market. The claims for what colloidal silver could do were as varied as the products themselves. However, unlike before 1938 where many experts were very knowledgeable about metal sols such as colloidal silver, during the 90's, very few experts were available. Of those few self-styled "experts", most barely knew about the Tyndall effect, let alone the vast body of research on colloidal silver which was, by then, 60, 70, or 80 years old.

So today, this go round, it would be nice if some research could be conducted on colloidal silver for its own health benefits rather than so much for its economic value. It would be nice if Super Tyndall Effect colloidal silver became a common standard, all at a reasonable price. Clearly, researching colloidal silver's past suggests we've only viewed the tip of the proverbial iceberg as far as the potential health value colloidal silver could have in our everyday lives.

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