Copyright (c) W. G. Peters, 2015
The effectiveness of silver nanoparticles (colloidal silver) has been proven many times in the laboratory, and a rich history of use. But how it works has mostly remained a mystery. Researchers tend to look at specific aspects of the action that silver nanoparticles have on pathogens, but don’t take a step back and look at the broader picture. This is colloquially known as not being able to see the forest for the trees.
An example is the in-vitro research using ionic silver solutions to kill ecoli bacteria. The effect of the silver solution is quite good at killing the ecoli in the test medium. However, other researchers have proven that ionic silver is very susceptible to being reduced to metallic silver simply by the respiration byproducts (exudate) of ecoli bacteria. IE: The ionic silver is converted to metallic silver nanoparticles before it actually contacts the bacteria. So while it is true that the ionic silver killed the ecoli, it was converted to metallic silver beforehand by the very bacteria which it killed.
So this is an attempt to see the forest without being blinded by the trees.