How much colloidal silver should we take and is it different for ionic silver? How do I know if I have taken enough or too much? These are typical questions surrounding colloidal silver which are often answered with “it depends”. This article will provide some prospective in proper dosing for colloidal silver for different uses and different people along with my own personal dosing as an example.

MEDICAL WARNING: The following content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.

First for anyone that is unaware, COLLOIDAL SILVER is a suspension of Nano-sized silver partials in water where IONIC SILVER is the suspension of silver ions in water. The strength of either is measured in parts per million (PPM), typically displayed prominently on the bottle, to express the concentration of silver partials or ions suspended in the water. The higher the PPM, the higher the concentration of silver partials and or ions. For the remainder of this section, I will refer to both colloidal silver and ionic silver as colloidal silver for simplicity. 

Useful PPM Strengths

Most silver research uses colloidal strengths in the effective range of 5 to 30 PPM. There has never been a case I could find that a higher concentration was needed to effectively act as an antimicrobial agent to eliminate the pathogens which were being studied. For example, most of the university funded E.coli experiments found that a simple 5 PPM solution sprayed on a surface containing E.coli was enough to destroy it within 5 to 10 minutes. This 5 to 30 PPM range seems to be the consistent range used in all the research that I could find so I will use that as my measure. 

Higher PPM Strengths

I would consider any colloidal silver product strength over 30 PPM to be a concentration that is meant to be diluted. For example, a 500 PPM strength can be diluted 20 times to get it down to a useful 25 PPM. That means if you have a 10 ounce bottle of 500 PPM colloidal silver, you would need to dilute it in 200 ounces of water and blend it well. 

So why would anyone want to do that? Well, if you have limited space to store your colloidal silver I suppose and are willing to do the extra work. A second reason if if you find there to be an economy in the pricing given the concentration. However, buyer beware!

The Problem with Higher PPM Products

Higher PPM products require additional additives such as gelatins and different methods including longer process times to achieve those PPM levels so you are not likely consuming pure colloidal silver and the more complex methods may lead to inconsistent results. 

Stability is another issue with longer and more complex methods as the resulting colloidal silver tends to agglomerate into larger particle size that continues post production. This can be seen as darker resulting liquids in these higher PPM products. The larger particles are not bio-usable rendering the product inert and ineffective as colloidal silver. Lower PPM products with shorter batch times are not subject to this problem.

Colloidal Silver Particle Size vs. Bioavailability

As can be seen in the above graphic on bioavailability, the particle size plays a key role on the effectiveness of colloidal silver. As it only requires a single ion to defeat a pathogen, it is best to have 1000s of small particles than one large one. Smaller particle size provides a significantly higher surface area of attack. In studies, it has been found that silver particles loose their effectiveness over 20 NM in size. The most effective sizing is under 10 NM. The ions in ionic silver are nano-sized by nature, but can quickly agglomerate into silver particles in sizes greater than 20 NM in the right environment. 

The reason that BioSILVER and TruSILVER were both formulated in the 20 PPM strength is for optimal stability, effectiveness, and bioavailability. The stability element gives our products the greatest shelf-life. Be aware that higher PPM products may have had an effectiveness at time of production, but the instability may not offer the shelf-life to justify the economical justification unless you intend on using it quickly.

Again, I am not a medical expert, just an avid user with practical experience and who spends a significant amount of time reviewing medical silver research. Therefore, take my findings for what they are, my opinion. That being said, here is what I have found.

2000 Years of Medical Use

The medical use of silver goes back 2000 years and is still being actively used in hospitals today. There is a significant body of evidence that silver has strong antimicrobial capabilities that have been safely and successfully used for medical purposes. 

No Recorded Medical Silver Related Deaths

I have yet to find a single death caused by the medical use of silver in this 2000 years of history. This is a stark contrast to modern pharmaceuticals which typically have an annual death rate in the hundreds or thousands due to their use. While this doesn’t prove that there has never been a death, if colloidal silver was unsafe in any measurable way it would be much easier to find evidence of such an occurrence. That is a remarkable record in comparison to modern medicine for an effective treatment for anything.

The Blue Guy

It always comes back to the blue guy as the symbol for why you should stay away from colloidal silver. The pharmaceutical anti-natural remedy advertising shouts at the top of their lungs, don’t take colloidal silver as it will turn you blue. The funny thing is that they are taking about a crazy guy that for over 30 years has consumed a litter to a gallon of homemade high PPM colloidal silver daily and painted himself with the substance. This is 1000s of times over the FDA’s maximum recommended daily allowance. How many pharmaceuticals can you consume in quantities of 1000x the recommended dosage and still live? While we don’t recommend anything like that dosage and nobody wants to be blue, the blue guy is a testament to the safety of colloidal silver.

Typically, when someone asks about dosing for colloidal silver, they are asking about taking it internally and for the purpose of dealing with a cold or the flu which is the key use case for colloidal silver. So this will be the focus of this article.

However, there are other goals people have in mind when asking about dosing that I will deal with first in this section. These range from topical application to inhalation, to usage as a daily supplement.

Topical Application

As discussed in the previous sections, the effective format used in research has been in the range of 5 to 30 PPM. This means that you can dilute our 20 PPM BioSILVER product – which is optimized for external use – up to 4 times and still have an expectation of effectiveness. In other words, you can add the 4 ounce size BioSILVER to a 16 ounce spray bottle, mix with water, and still get good effect when spraying onto a wound. My personal use is at the full 20 PPM strength, and I wouldn’t recommend more than a 50/50 mixture, but theoretically, 4 to 1 mixtures will still be effective. We are currently working on a 50/50 Aloe Vera gel mixture to provide an optimal way to apply as well as a 4 ounce stray bottle at full strength.

Inhalation

While I have not found good colloidal silver inhalation dosage research, I can make common sense suggestions from personal experience. Sinus and lung infections can be hard to reach, and inhalation creates condensation that can become uncomfortable at a certain point, especially when it comes streaming from your nose, so we have to consider the practicality of the application.

Sinus application may take the form of a vertical sprayer to squirt into the main nasal cavity, or truly inhaled using a nebulizer such as our upcoming SilverINHALER. The vertical sprayer – yes we will be offering a nasal sprayer format soon as well – should be used at full 20 PPM strength leave a lingering silver particle layer for long-lasting effect. Like our typical silver application instructions, it should be applied every 6 hours until feeling better. If it is a shallow infection you are dealing with, that may be enough. However, if it is a deeper sinus infection, you will need a nebulizer for full application.

Using a nebulizer for reach into the lungs and/or the sinuses if a much more difficult application. Blocked sinuses may require repeated use to deal with outer layers first while gaining access deeper into the blocked sinus cavity. You have to win many battles first before you can reach all the way in to win the war. You may want to keep going even when feeling better as any enemy that you leave to linger will rebuild and start over again. The same goes for the lungs as the original infection may be trapped deep inside. However, the lungs may have more of an accumulative effect and work its way in unless it is coming out in flehm that may be coughed up. So again, be patient and go longer term.

Daily Supplementation

Colloidal silver is not meant to be taken as a daily supplement and does not boost your immunities. It complements them and supports them fighting a common enemy using a different attack mechanism. Think of it as Army ground forces being overwhelmed by advancing enemy ground forces calling in an airstrike to easily defeat them or to at least reduce them to a manageable size.

That being said, there are those that are dealing with longer term illness that can use colloidal silver over a longer period to assist the immune system in cleaning up a lingering issue. In this case, an acceptable dosage would be a percentage of your internal dosage strategy that will be defined in the later sections. This is outside the dosage recommendations here and may require medical advice to develop a scaling strategy to determine an optimal amount.

Since colloidal silver is a natural substance and is unpatentable, there is no paid research on dosing colloidal silver for internal use. Therefore, we can only use, common sense, 2000 years of historical data, and testimonial suggestions. This section will provide some prospective to these suggestions by laying some groundwork into how dosing accumulates into your blood serum.

Goals for Dosing

According to one of the experts that I follow, their research has lead to the conclusion that the effective silver concentration in the blood is in the 2 PPM range. This is at the higher end of the suggestions I have read so it provides a good upper limit. My personal effective dosing is less than a quarter to a maximum of about half of this amount to put it into perspective. Let’s see what it takes to reach this 2 PPM blood concentration and work backwards to your desired dose.

Blood Concentrations Considerations

The average adult has about 5 liters of blood depending on various factors. For example, a pregnant woman may have up to 50 percent more blood. The average man has more blood than the average woman and people that weigh more or are taller have more blood on average. It is also interesting to note that a person can die from losing 2.5 to 4 liters of blood.

Obviously children have less blood than adults. The average 80-pound child is at the mid point with 2.6 liters of blood on average. Therefore, an easy rule of thumb calculation is to half the dosage for an 80-pound child vs. an adult and half it again for a 40-pound child. 

Getting to a 2 PPM Blood Concentration

So for the average adult with 5 liters of blood, to reach a 2 PPM concentration, they would have to consume a half a liter of colloidal silver or close to 17 ounces. This is far in excess of what I recommend in all but the most extreme cases. I have never required this amount myself to reach my desired effect.

My Personal Dosing Strategy

My standard dosage is to take 1 ounces per serving every 6 hours until I get the desired affect. If I was to feel particularly bad due to starting late, I may double my intake to two 2 ounces every 6 hours until I reach the desired affect. Once feeling better, there is no reason to continue usage. To be practical, this means that I am likely only taking 3 doses a day morning, early afternoon, and night for a total of no more than 3 to 6 ounces. Usually a couple doses early is all I ever need. The maximum I have ever taken is a couple days of dosing but have never gone over 6 ounces to get the desired affect. I would suggest that if you are still dosing after a couple of days without a noticeable positive affect, that there may be cause to seek medical attention.

Your Personal Dosing Strategy

So my opinion on the higher dosage suggested by my peers is only for dealing with the most extreme needs. Going back to the military metaphor, the airstrike doesn’t have to be devastating for your ground forces to take back command of the battlefield with the exception of the most extreme cases. Regardless of the implied safety of colloidal silver, it is always best to start dosing conservatively and build until you reach your desired affect.

Again, the purpose of this dosing article is not to provide a perfect dosing strategy for you – that is for a medical professional – it is to provide you with some practical insights to understand the reasonable dosing ranges. Hopefully, this information was able to assist you in making your own determinations.