Colloidal Silver Dosage

With the popularity of colloidal silver generators and homemade colloidal silver growing, it's becoming more difficult to know the colloidal silver dosage that's best to take. Colloidal silver is a solution of silver particles ionized and suspended in pure water. Most solutions of colloidal silver are made by stripping down colloidal silver with electric currents until the silver particle ions are all suspended in water. When taking silver, you need to know the answers to a few questions. How strong is the solution, or rather, how concentrated is the silver in the water? What parts per million, or ppm, is the silver in relation to the water? How big is the average particle size of each silver ion? You should also know what concentration has been shown to be most effective so you can use that as a guide when making your own colloidal silver. And finally, you should know what colloidal silver dosage is best to take once you have a nicely concentrated liquid.

One of the benefits of buying pre-made colloidal silver is that because of their standardized process, you can know the answers to the questions above, which makes it easier to use the right colloidal silver dosage. The type of silver matters more than the brand. Ionic silver is different than colloidal silver, and ionic silver particles are smaller and more easily absorbed and used by the body, making it more effective. Larger particles of silver can cause a coloration change in the skin, a condition known as argyria.  But we'll get more into all that below.

According to EPA, a safe colloidal silver dosage is about 350 mcg of silver daily. That's where the parts per million comes in. One can safely consume 7 teaspoons daily of a 10 ppm colloidal silver solution. If your solution is stronger, you have to tone down the amount taken. 20 ppm solutions are twice as strong and therefore the dosage should be half as much, 3.5 teaspoons. That's about as strong a dosage as you should take. Some silver products even boast a 100 ppm strength, so beware.

There is a method for testing the colloidal silver concentration in water. Utilizing a laser light after colloidal silver production gives off a particular effect called the tyndall effect. This effect doesn't tell you the ppm of the colloidal silver solution, but it does help to distinguish between the different components of the solution.  As I mentioned in the section above, when electricity is used to ionize the silver in water, not all of the silver particles are the same.  If the solution is made correctly, about 85% of the silver should be ionic silver, whereas the other 15% will be made up of regular silver particles, which are not generally good and can result in a condition known as argyria. 

The short story on why not all of the silver is ionized properly is that the voltage needs to be very carefully monitored and controlled while making the solution of colloidal silver.  What generally happens is that when the voltage process happens, the low rate of electrical flow causes the silver particles to strip away and ionize correctly.  But as it continues, the conductivity of the water increases more and more, causing larger particles of silver to strip away which do not ionize or stay suspended in the liquid.  These particles can be seen with a laser light.  This condition is called the tyndall effect.

Another little known process about how to make the right solution of colloidal silver is to use a small amount of food grade hydrogen peroxide.  Food grade hydrogen peroxide is 35% strength, as opposed to grocery store hydrogen peroxide, which is 3% strength.  Adding hydrogen peroxide to a finished batch of colloidal silver causes further ionization of silver particles in the solution, converting any metallic silver particles remaining in the solution. You need to be careful however, not to just add a bunch of food grade hydrogen peroxide to your solution.  Hydrogen peroxide is an acid, and doesn't react well with the stomach in large quantities.  According to studies, a 1:1000 solution of colloidal silver to hydrogen peroxide can increase the efficacy of colloidal silver by up to 100.  That's pretty good!