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silver bandages

Yaotl

Critical Thinker
Y
Joined
Aug 10, 2004
Messages
429
So I was looking through a catalog here at work and saw Curad Silver bandages. Supposedly antibacterial and such without messy ointments and the like. I thought it was a little odd, so I look it up and the only places I could find silver being used as an antibiotic or to help with anything are "natural" remedy websites and places that are trying to sell something. I look a little further and find a few sites that explain in very specific terms that silver is in fact toxic and does very bad things to skin on a wound. Anyone ever hear about this?
 
Yes, have heard of this. I believe toxicity would depend on what form of silver is involved. Silver nitrate, used to cauterize, is meant to be somewhat toxic destroying bad tissue in the process of closing the wound.

There is an alternative medicine or woo side to the silver thing, them claiming that colloidal silver works but the tried and conventionally tested silver chloride, for example, is useless and dangerous. So the woos, as usual, have taken a perfectly straightforward field of findings and has turned them into a big bone of contention.

No idea about the bandages you mention. Silver chloride has been studied in wound healing dressing applications. Are these band aids having the AgCl in the dressing touching the skin or are they were made of a silverized outer protetive layer?
 
materia3 said:
Yes, have heard of this.

You might want to google terms such as "antibacterial properties of silver nitrate..." or silver chloride."

There is an alternative medicine or woo side to the silver thing, them claiming that colloidal silver works but the tried and conventionally tested silver chloride, for example, is useless and dangerous. So the woos, as usual, have taken a perfectly straightforward field of findings and has turned them into a big bone of contention.

No idea about the bandages you mention.
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Curad's site is actually down at the moment.
 
Stan Jones, Montana's Libertarian Party candidate for the U.S. Senate, who reportedly started taking colloidal silver in 1999 for fear that Y2K disruptions might lead to a shortage of antibiotics. He made his own concoction by electrically [sic] two silver wires in a glass of water
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:dl:

I remember this clown, he was as blue as Papa Smurf!
 
Anathema said:
:dl:

I remember this clown, he was as blue as Papa Smurf!
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I was a little embarrassed I voted Libertarian this time around when I read that.
 
Yaotl,
Just because a person believes in one woo-woo idea doesn't mean that everthing they believe is kooky. If that were true then no candiate would get my vote.
 
Dr. Popalot said:
Yaotl,
Just because a person believes in one woo-woo idea doesn't mean that everthing they believe is kooky. If that were true then no candiate would get my vote.
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Oh, I know. It's more just the initial reaction was embarrassment that I voted that way.


Huntsman said:
Well, some are in the dressing and some in the pad.

Looking at a sales site, the regular Silver pads have silver woven into the pad itself (see ingredients list here).

The extended wear pads have a silver oxide gel, see ingredients here.

Warning: both links appear to have popups...my Googlebar blocked them easily, however.
Click to expand...

So the Silver pads could be rather harmful. Is silver oxide just as bad? Can't seem to find an objective paper or anything.
 
Interesting forum, however seems to be very negative toward anything out of the mainstream if you will.

Ignorance abounds here about silver. It is true there are shysters out there, however it does not detract from the fact there are very legitimate uses for colloidal silver (actually silver solution) despite what some here are saying.

Then some even believe quackwatch is a consumer advocacy group, the repository of fact and honesty. Yikes!! Stephen Barrett? LOL....wow you guys haven't a clue. How about doing a bit of 'Googling' on him?

Please do some real research into the many medical uses of silver. If you've ever had burns, guess what the salve is they put on you? In due time silver will be used more and more as abx are rendered useless against emerging abx resistant bacteria.

There are other non-pharmaceutical substances that have very powerful anti-microbial properties as well.

Properly made colloidal silver is harmless.
 
Checking my Woo Woo non-allopathic medical books I find that honey is an excellent antibiotic to treat wounds. Checking in with the real world I find refined sugar works just as well.

As far as the usefulness of colloidal silver for any medical usage except Smurfification, even NCCAM, the US Government's official Medical Woo organization, says: "Claims made about the effectiveness of colloidal silver products for numerous diseases are unsupported". See: http://nccam.nih.gov/health/alerts/silver/index.htm

:boggled:
 
David Rodale said:
Interesting forum, however seems to be very negative toward anything out of the mainstream if you will.

Ignorance abounds here about silver. It is true there are shysters out there, however it does not detract from the fact there are very legitimate uses for colloidal silver (actually silver solution) despite what some here are saying.

Then some even believe quackwatch is a consumer advocacy group, the repository of fact and honesty. Yikes!! Stephen Barrett? LOL....wow you guys haven't a clue. How about doing a bit of 'Googling' on him?

Please do some real research into the many medical uses of silver. If you've ever had burns, guess what the salve is they put on you? In due time silver will be used more and more as abx are rendered useless against emerging abx resistant bacteria.

There are other non-pharmaceutical substances that have very powerful anti-microbial properties as well.

Properly made colloidal silver is harmless.
Click to expand...

This might be a dumb question, but if it has anti-microbial properties, isn't its harmlessness likely based on dosage?

If not, i.e. one can take as much as they want, how exactly does it deal with microbes?

Also, it might be nice to point out sites or preferably journal articles instead of just saying "go do research"

and as new antibiotics are developed (which they hopefully will be) they will replace the older ones
 
David Rodale said:
Interesting forum, however seems to be very negative toward anything out of the mainstream if you will.

Ignorance abounds here about silver. It is true there are shysters out there, however it does not detract from the fact there are very legitimate uses for colloidal silver (actually silver solution) despite what some here are saying.

Then some even believe quackwatch is a consumer advocacy group, the repository of fact and honesty. Yikes!! Stephen Barrett? LOL....wow you guys haven't a clue. How about doing a bit of 'Googling' on him?

Please do some real research into the many medical uses of silver. If you've ever had burns, guess what the salve is they put on you? In due time silver will be used more and more as abx are rendered useless against emerging abx resistant bacteria.

There are other non-pharmaceutical substances that have very powerful anti-microbial properties as well.

Properly made colloidal silver is harmless.
Click to expand...


Not negative, just skeptical. That's what this whole website is about. I'm sure someone is about to ask for studies and reputable documentation to back up your claims. I just wandered into this thread but saw your post and just thought I'd let you know. As for ignorant people, what's ignorant about seeking the truth?
 
Quick research on quackwatch ===============>

From wiki on QUACKWATCH: In 1998, Quackwatch was recognized by the Journal of the American Medical Association as one of nine "select sites that provide reliable health information and resources.
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many other positive things.

The main attacks seem to be saying that it is not impartial. This makes sence, its like saying StopSylviaBrown.com isn't impartial and only attacks Brown. The site is specifically targeting alternatives and "emerging" treatments. If it favors existing treatments, this would only make sence, as they are known to work.
 
I am a nurse on a burn unit, and we use several different topical silver treatments for our patients (topical only, no oral or IV use). The silver is used as an antimicrobial agent, and it is supposed to encourage wound healing. I have seen some really nasty looking, infected burns that have healed significantly with the use of silver products.
I can't post links yet, but if you're interested, a few products that we use often are silvadene, aquacel ag, acticoat, silver nitrate, & silverlon.
 
Silver's been used in a lot of antimicrobial agents and is quite effective. In terms of an antiseptic for topical treatments, as Jens said, it's been used for some time in a lot of dressings and creams, and is rather effective against a lot of bacterial infections.

David, welcome to the forums. It might initially seem like things are quickly rejected around here, but it's more that novel ideas require evidence to be acknowledged as worthy. Quackwatch is a rather good site in terms of its references for its claims, despite what your personal opinion of its author is.

If you feel a claim has merit, it's a simple case of proposing your views and supporting them with good evidence.

Again, welcome, and I hope you stick around.

Athon
 
Another hip new use for silver is in clothes-washing machines:

http://www.samsung.com/products/laundry/washingmachine/index.asp

SilverCare™ Technology Completes the Cycle

Samsung's SilverCare™ technology harnesses the antimicrobial properties of silver, releasing 100 quadrillion silver ions into your cold-water wash. Thanks to Samsung’s two-step drum design, that helps prevent noisy load imbalances, you’ll enjoy greater peace and quiet.
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I wash some things in hot water, but overall I don't lose a lot of sleep over germs in my laundry. Sheesh.
 
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