COULD A SPOONFUL OF SILVER
MANY would put her age-defying agility and enviable figure down to her professional ballet training and regular Pilates. But Debbie McGee, one of the favourites for the Strictly Come Dancing crown this year — making her possibly the oldest winner in the show’s history — has credited something much more bizarre. The 59-year-old widow of magician Paul Daniels starts each day with a spoonful of finely ground silver particles.
The supplement she swears by is called Active Silver and contains what’s known as ‘colloidal’ silver — microscopic particles suspended in water, which many believe helps ward off infection, boosts the immune system and can be used to treat everything from acne to eye infections.
Hollywood actress Gwyneth Paltrow is also a fan and uses hers as a spray when she goes on flights to ward off germs, she revealed on her lifestyle website, Goop recently.
And now, thanks to the ‘Debbie effect’, it’s finding its way into more of our bathroom cabinets. Sales have increased 30-fold since she revealed her ‘secret’. So should we all we going heavy with the metal this winter? SADIE NICHOLAS has the answers.
WHAT IS IT?
MICROSCOPIC silver particles are produced from silver bars in a process known as electrolysis and then suspended in ultra-pure or distilled water.
It’s marketed as a mineral supplement to support the body’s natural immune system as an effective antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal and skin-healing solution.
Debbie McGee buys hers for €17 a bottle from Active Silver, which was launched two years ago by former communications worker Lucy Roberts and her father Dick Goodall. He has been involved in the water treatment industry for 40 years and has been making colloidal silver for over 20 years, including installing water purification systems into hospitals and airports using silver electrolysis technology.
‘ We m a n u f a c t u r e A c t i v e S i l v e r u n d e r strict controls in our own premises, using the purest silver available which we buy in 1oz bars, and an advanced electrolysis technique,’ explains Lucy.
Now for the science bit. Each brand differs wildly, but Active Silver is made from 99.99 per cent pure silver and water that has been through a nine-stage purification system.
It has a concentration of less than 10ppm (parts per million), with a tiny particle size between 0.0005 to 0.005 microns. (A micron is 10,000th of a centimetre.)
Dick explains: ‘The smaller the particle size, the greater the number of active particles per bottle, and the easier it is for the body or skin to absorb, process and eliminate them.
‘Once the concentration of colloidal silver goes above around 10ppm, typically the particle sizes become bigger and less effective.’
But should we really be ingesting what is essentially a metal, albeit in tiny concentrations? Val EdwardsJones is emeritus professor of microbiology and says it’s safe to take orally in low concentrations. More than 10ppm, and it could cause a build-up in toxicity.
‘You can excrete silver from the body as long as it’s not in high doses,’ she says.
‘So, there are preparations of colloidal silver that you can buy which are safe to take, and I know people who say they are wonderful.
‘I personally don’t take them because I haven’t seen any evidence that demonstrates that they work internally.’
DOES IT WORK?
SILVER is a ‘cation’, meaning it is a positively charged ion which seeks out negative ions and bacteria, and neutralises them.
But the big caveat here, explains Prof Edwards-Jones, is that although experts and the medical profession condone colloidal silver because of its proven record of treating wounds, what’s needed — and currently lacking — is strong evidence to prove its efficacy as an oral supplement.’
Author and GP Dr Matt Piccaver urges extreme caution: ‘I rely on large-scale trials of a compound before I can recommend a treatment,’ he says.
‘Using a product on the basis of someone on the TV advocating it does not make good science. If drinking colloidal silver was of proven benefit we’d be advocating it. We don’t.
‘Silver is contained in certain dressings, but I can find no compelling evidence that drinking it is of benefit to human health, and given the uncertainties surrounding this compound, I couldn’t advise doing so.’
Lucy Roberts stresses that she does not advocate swapping traditional medicine for a spoonful of silver.
‘We’re not saying don’t go to the GP. We’re saying keep this in your cabinet as your go-to product for common ailments such as cuts, burns, bites and eczema, and give it a try if you feel a cough or cold coming on.’
WHAT’S THE PROOF?
THOUGH it may sound like hokum, silver has been lauded for its antibacterial and health-boosting properties since Roman and Greek times, when a silver coin was dropped into a barrel of water to keep it fresh.
During the early 20th century, surgeons routinely used silver sutures to reduce the risk of infection, and in World War I soldiers used silver leaf to treat their wounds.
Although silver was sidelined when antibiotics were introduced in 1938, it’s still found in sticking plasters and dressings, plus the coating on hospital implements and catheters, to prevent infection, as well as the water systems in space shuttles. Many airlines also use it to curtail water-borne diseases.
In 2013, scientists at Boston University conducted a study on rats which showed that giving tiny amounts of silver at the same time as antibiotics made the drugs between ten and 1,000 times better at fighting infections. In some cases, bugs classed as antibiotic-resistant became treatable.
The research, detailed in the journal Science Translational Medicine, also worked out how silver helps kill bugs: the metal makes bacteria more ‘leaky’, allowing antibiotics to get inside them and kill them.
However, other studies suggest that if used alone it has to be given in such high amounts to be effective that it can be poisonous to the body.
YOU MAY GO BLUE!
MANUFACTURERS claim colloidal silver is non-toxic and safe for humans, animals, plants and all multi-celled living matter — but are yet to get the green light officially.
Although it is neither approved nor
banned by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in the Nineties the FDA ruled that ‘drug products containing colloidal silver ingredients or silver salts for internal or external use are not generally recognised as safe and effective’.
Anthony Hilton is professor of applied microbiology at Aston University and says scientific evidence doesn’t support the use of colloidal silver as an oral supplement. ‘I’m not aware that any credible study has ever been done on colloidal silver when taken orally as an antimicrobial medicine,’ he says.
‘It’s quite an old therapy and probably stems from times when doctors would prescribe mercury, silver and other heavy metals to treat diseases like syphilis at a time when there weren’t antibiotics. There are obvious side-effects to ingesting metals, including historical data which shows that exposure to mercury caused madness because it can be toxic to the brain and central nervous system.
‘My view is taking colloidal silver orally is best avoided until evidence exists to suggest otherwise.’
One possible side-effect of longterm or overuse of colloidal silver is the rare condition argyria, where the skin becomes a bluish-grey colour. It is caused by silver building up in the body’s tissue and, terrifyingly, is usually permanent.
The most extreme and famous example was an American called Paul Karason who was dubbed ‘Papa Smurf’ when his skin turned permanently blue, after self-medicating by drinking large amounts of colloidal silver for over a decade to treat dermatitis on his face. Another American, Rosemary Jacobs, 71, also developed argyria four years after she began taking nasal drops containing colloidal silver at the age of 11.
Four years later a skin biopsy revealed a multitude of silver particles embedded deep beneath the epidermis all over her body, most noticeably on her face and neck, turning her skin a disturbing — and permanent — blue grey.
CAN STOP SPOTS
ACCORDING to Lucy Roberts, colloidal silver can keep pimples away when it is mixed with the likes of aloe vera gel and used as a topical treatment or moisturiser.
Debbie McGee is also a fan of Active Silver’s Glow facial moisturising gel, as is Emmajane Hughes (see box above), who says: ‘It has helped to calm the redness on my face caused by rosacea and leaves my complexion with a subtle, natural sheen.’
Prof Edwards-Jones explains that although silver is proven as an antimicrobial within the medical profession, she isn’t aware of any proven cosmetic benefits when applied as a spray or cream.
‘Wound dressings contain silver suspended in hydrogel and are applied to the likes of ulcers and bed sores,’ she says.
‘The positive ions in the silver have the effect of drawing the microbes — bacteria — up from the wound into the gel within the dressing where they are then killed.
‘When commercial colloidal silver is added to a cream for topical use, it’s possible that there may be an aesthetic benefit because lots of the organisms we find on the skin are susceptible to silver at low concentrations.
‘This means that applying colloid silver in a cream or gel, for example, may help to get rid of bad bugs and allow good bugs to flourish.
‘But, yet again, we simply don’t have the trials or evidence to know this for certain.’