Colloidal Silver drops cleared up my pink eye (conjunctivitis) in 4 days flat. Can your antibiotic eye drops do that?
Note from Ed Jones, Owner of Nutrition World: Homemade silver is totally not an acceptable or safe product as the silver molecules clump together and produce large chunks of silver rather than staying in solution. Keeping silver in low PPM (parts per million) is how it stays effective and safe. High parts per million in homemade or even some manufactured brands is not recommended. That’s why here at Nutrition World, we stock products from trusted manufacturers like Sovreign Silver mentioned in this article.
Here’s the story…
I was visiting my niece. Two weeks earlier she had been diagnosed with the adinovirus. As part of her malady, she had pink eye. By the time I went to see her, her eyes were clear.
But somewhere in that house, the virus must have been waiting for me.
As a child, if anyone even mentioned “pink eye” my mom said I got it. So, maybe I’m more susceptible to it than others.
Because my niece’s pink eye was caused by a virus, the doctors said it would need to clear up on its own. AND they still gave her antibiotic eye drops.
I went to sleep the night I had visited her house. Everything felt fine.
I woke up at 1:30 in the morning with extreme pain in my left eye. It was swollen shut. Here’s what I saw when I looked in the mirror and slowly worked to open my eye.
Please pardon my bed head and general morning disarray. As a matter of fact, please scroll to the bottom of this article to see that I usually look pretty normal. 😂
Why not go to the doctor?
I recently moved to Chattanooga and don’t have a primary care doctor here. So, what to do while I figured out what medical professional might see me immediately…
I did NOT want to go to an urgent care facility.
My little sister said, get some colloidal silver drops.
So, I did some quick research online with my one good eye, and then went right away to Nutrition World to find what I needed.
Finding what I needed
First, I tried to look my best so I didn’t scare people in public.
But I think people were still a bit scared. A few backed away after they looked at my face.
Make up on one eye and a swollen, red eye for the other. That looks normal, right? (Hey, you should see the other guy.)
My brother-in-law sent me two memes to make fun of me and cheer me up at the same time.
Only half vampire he said. (So sweet! 😂)
I picked up some silver hydrosol and some immune boosters.
Recommended Use for Colloidal Silver
The Sovereign Silver website recommended 2 drops every hour for use in the eyes.
I put two drops in the corner of my left eye immediately when I got home. I blinked to allow the liquid in my eye.
OUCH! It burned!
Maybe that was the silver. Maybe it was the infection. But I continued with the drops every hour as recommended.
Note: I used a tissue to dab any runoff and then immediately washed my hands. I was determined not to contaminate my other eye or to make the infection worse. I imagine this kind of hyper vigilance would be difficult even with the most compliant child.
Pink Eye Medicine
In the meantime, I called an old PCP from my previous residential location. I told them I was out of town to see if they would prescribe some eye drops. And they called a prescription in for me to the local Chattanooga pharmacy.
I continued administering the silver drops every hour as recommended.
I didn’t get to the pharmacy until day 2.
However, day 2, I woke up without my eye swollen shut. I was shocked that it didn’t hurt, and there was no sign of eye drainage. There was still a little swelling and redness, but my eye was already so much better!
I did go pick up the prescription just in case, but I didn’t use the eye drops at all.
I continued with 2 drops of silver hydrosol (a type of colloidal silver) every hour.
Day 3 of Conjunctivitis
By the beginning of day 3, I saw significant improvement in the swelling!
Still red, but the swelling was almost completely gone.
I was a little more busy on day three, so I only added drops about 5 times instead of every hour.
Looking at these pictures again makes me want to itch my eyes!
Day 4 started like this…
No swelling, and the red was almost completely gone at this point.
I didn’t wear make up on my left eye because I still didn’t want to contaminate my products.
I continued using the silver drops all of day 4. Again, that day was busy, so I probably only used the drops 5 or 6 times.
Here’s how I looked at the beginning of day 5.
So clear! I was delighted!
And I went a full day with a clear eye before I started using makeup again on day 6. Headed out of town to meet up with my boyfriend, so thank goodness the half-vampire was put away. He wouldn’t have minded, but I felt better that things were looking normal again.
Some possible contributing factors both to acquiring pink eye and getting rid of it in record time.
I had a different infection for a week and a half before the pink eye began, and I had to see a specialist. They had prescribed a week of antibiotics. And my last dose was on the morning where I woke up with pink eye.
Did that compromise my microbiome and make it easier to contract pink eye? Did it help me get over it faster? No idea. BUT I had picked up some probiotics as soon as I started the antibiotics. And I was taking those 3 hrs after each antibiotic pill to help keep my microflora as healthy as possible.
As I mentioned, I also picked up some immune boosters with the colloidal silver drops. They were Nature’s biotics, found in the kids’ section. And I added 30 drops to my water 3 times a day.
I took olive leaf supplements, also an extra immune booster.
And I purchased Buried Treasure’s ACF Fast Relief Rapid Immune Recovery at Nutrition World. I took this 3 times each day as well. It doesn’t taste great, and maybe that’s why it feels like it’s working! 😂
And finally, as I previously mentioned, I was fastidious in my cleaning regimen. I washed my pillow cases and sheets every morning. I never used a towel more than once. I dabbed any eye run off with a tissue and flushed it down the toilet. And I washed my hands any time I did almost anything, avoiding touching my eye except to take photos or add drops.
Conclusion
My story is an anecdote of my personal use of silver hydrosol. This is not a recommendation or medical guidance of any sort. As a matter of fact, I did not consult a physician before, during, or after my use use of colloidal silver to ask about the efficacy or any associated risks.
I did my own research online and made a personal decision to use this product.
While I feel that I effectively treated my pink eye with silver hydrosol, it is always possible the infection would have cleared by itself in the same amount of time. It feels unlikely that I would go from an eye that was swollen shut one day to no drainage and minimal swelling the next on my own, but who knows for sure. This was an experiment with an n of one. Me. So, no control group, no placebo.
According to Tim Ferris, this counts as anecdata and is still useful for informing correlation and possible causation. More research would be great. Funding needed!
I won’t continue taking silver hydrosol on a regular basis. But if I get another eye infection, I’ll definitely use it again!
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Other frequently asked questions about colloidal silver and silver hydrosol.
Is silver hydrosol the same as colloidal silver?
Colloidal silver solutions provide tiny droplets of silver (yes! The same as the metal in jewelry.) in a liquid base.
Silver hydrosol uses nano particles of silver so the silver is evenly distributed in the solution. The particles are suspended in purified water, so the solution is water soluble. And making it bioactive means using positively charged ions for the highest efficacy.
What is silver used for in the field of health?
Back in the day, they used silver for treatment of wounds before antibiotics became available. As of 2018, hospitals used silver on hard surfaces to reduce nosocomial disease. Due to drug resistance, pharma companies are testing silver as a combination ingredient to enhance the effectiveness of antibiotics. And silver nano particles are widely used in commercial products in medicine, bactericides, and electrical products. See this study citing the uses for silver.
Is silver effective for health uses?
Oddly, there are not many conclusive studies on the effectiveness of colloidal silver or silver hydrosol for specific health purposes. However, take another look at the study published by the National Library of Medicine. It shows how silver was an effective antibacterial substance and that it can enhance the effectiveness of antibiotics.
So, why the bad press around colloidal silver?
Unfortunately, there have been a few bad agents when it comes to making and marketing silver. In one case, a man manufactured his own colloidal silver in the wrong way and overused it for DECADES. And now his skin has a permanently blue tone. Three notes on this highly referenced anecdote…
- It took DECADES of overuse for this man to show signs of blue tones in his skin.
- He manufactured his own silver product.
- Learning: Use supplements as recommended and only produced by reputable manufacturers.
Bad actors strike again…
At the beginning of the COVID epidemic, some people promoted colloidal silver as a cure for the virus, without any proof of their claims. Many in the medical community have seen this as opportunistically using fear to make money.
That one’s tricky.
I’m no proponent of using fear to make money or in making claims we can’t prove. And yet, if it’s big pharma claiming people were using fear to make money, that kind of feels like the pot calling the kettle black, no?
In the end, I’m a fan of transparency and advocate that manufacturers of drugs and supplements alike only make claims they can back with research.
Otherwise, it just sets us all back for years in terms of public trust.
Are there any contraindications for using silver?
And here’s where things get weird. I’ve provided a link to the study published by the National Library of Medicine showing how silver makes antibiotics more effective. Yet when I do online research about supplementing with silver, I see many mentions where silver can lower the effectiveness of antibiotics. No references to studies showing data related to this claim. So, I’m not sure how those claims make sense. But they’re even on the NIH’s website!
Colloidal Silver: What You Need To Know
It does seem that a government institute should have to back up its claims with some evidence vs making blanket statements. If I’m generous, I would have to believe they are trying to protect people who are making home remedies themselves or thinking there’s no such thing as too much of a good thing, causing overuse. But this does seem odd for a science-based national institution.
p.s. they are also the ones who published the silver study referenced above showing efficacious uses of silver. and that study had data (with research links) to back up its claims.
My final thoughts around silver hydrosol and other supplemental health products lead me to do the following:
- Do my own research. Here’s a great podcast with Dr. Peter Attia about how to read and understand scientific studies.
- Look for supporting studies for any claims made, even by national health institutes.
- Find reputable manufacturers I can trust to provide clean products with reasonable recommendations for uses.
- Talk to a functional health advisor like Dr. Bryan Johnson if I have any concerns before I use a product.
- Trust that I know what’s best for my body and my health.
