For millions of healthy Americans and Canadians the term superbug stirs up few emotions. For years there has been talk about viruses that are becoming more and more drug resistant, and HIV infections which drugs cannot cure. Many people face the growing threat with a growing indifference. It won’t effect me, is the prevalent excuse. The indifference appears to reflect the hopelessness of facing a threat against which there exists no defense.

Indeed, if mutated strains become drug resistant, or in the case of AIDS are incurable, what hope is there? Statistics tend to confirm the hopelessness when they tell us that 20,000 people die each year of nothing more than the flu and 110,000 are hospitalized. They also tell us that we already face app. 120 different varieties of the flu; vaccines can’t cover them all.

To add to the feeling of discouragement, people may realize that it is almost impossible not to become infected in our modern world. We live closer together in massed dwellings, expanding social relationships, and spend a good part of our day at work in closed off environments, shared by many coworkers. And then, there are those 80,000 unfortunate people who die each year from infections received in the most dangerous of the world’s closed in environments, the hospitals.

Since there is apparently little that one can do to protect oneself in those environments, especially against the more dangerous superbugs that are, or have become, immune to the traditional defenses, it is a natural reaction to simply hope for the best. Except this reaction is akin to playing a game of Russian Roulette, a game that people regard themselves forced into by their modern lifestyle. Vacations can add to this dimension, especially when the destination lies in exotic places that might also be rich in exotic bugs. 

Against this gloomy background one might wonder how serious the threat really is.

As a researcher I have come to realize that there is no simple answer. In this modern age we face two intersecting developments. One of the developments brings us into an era of superbugs and deadly infectious diseases. If we look at similar trends in history we find frightening answers to the posed question. However, the gloomy development intersects with new developments in countermeasures that promise an almost sure fire protection at the individual level against a vast array of viruses and bacteria, including drug resistant strains. One can even see justified hope for an effective treatment of AIDS in the new developments that have recently come to the surface. The final answer, naturally, will be determined by which development becomes dominant in the years ahead.

The negative development that takes us into the era of superbugs has the undeniable potential to become dominant, and this dominance could unfold as quickly as it has on previous occasions in history. The 1918 flu epidemic comes to mind as a real life example of the type of development that we could face in the unfolding era of superbugs. The 1918 epidemic is a real life example of an outbreak of a 'bad' virus. It occurred at the end of World War I. At this point the European populations were weakened by the destruction of their economies, their food resources and other infrastructures. Somewhere in this war ravished environment a flu epidemic erupted that quickly spread across the entire northern hemisphere. In a single month the flu virus killed several times as many people than were killed during all the years of that war itself.

The timing of the epidemic suggests that the massive sweep of death occurred as a biological aftermath of the war when the defenses in human beings had become severely weakened by the destruction of some of the key elements that had defined their civilization. We should ask ourselves, in this context, whether we are moving towards a similar position in today's world.

We face a situation in which the traditional defenses that we had developed against viral and bacterial diseases are being bypassed by the modern strains. Many drugs that had been highly effective in destroying pathogens, no longer work. Indeed, the drugs themselves have created the problem. They were effective when they were first introduced, but not totally effective. A few viruses and bacteria had somehow managed to get past the protective shields. Since the drugs could not touch them, the exceptional strains were able to develop in the background almost unhindered, to become the kind of devastating force that erupts when no defensive counter forces exist. The development AIDS fits this pattern.

The 1918 flu virus, also has a similar history. The virus is believed to have existed in hogs before the outbreak began. The species jump occurred when this particular new strain was able to take root in the war weakened environment of human beings where it began to develop without resistance. Evidently there existed no defenses in the human environment against a virus that had never been encountered before.

We are at a similar stage with the emergence of superbugs, some of them trending towards becoming the dominant strains. Such a trend should be alarming, especially since it occurs at the same time that many traditional health care infrastructures are gradually being dismantled under imposed budgetary restraints. In many nations around the world hospitals are being shut down while new ones are not being build.

Fortunately, one can detect a silver lining around the storm cloud brewing on the horizon. New approaches for dealing with the unfolding problem have been pursued and are yielding results. To some researchers taking a new approach has meant looking back into the past. Such an approach typically involves asking the obvious question: How did society protect itself in the more distant ages?

The search for new answers, surprisingly, has led to the rediscovery of silver as a protective agent. According to the Journal of Longevity (2000 - Vol.1/#10), the protective value of silver had already been recognized in ancient Egypt when silver plates were surgically implanted into people's skulls to ward off diseases. The journal also reports that the Phoenicians used silver containers to store water for long voyages to prevent the growth of bacteria. Even NASA is reported to recognize the value of silver for this purpose. After testing 23 other substances, silver was selected to purify the astronaut's water in space. In earlier periods, too, as the great plagues ravaged Europe, the wealthy utilized silver in a similar way as they placed silver spoons in the mouth of their babies as a protective measure. Apparently the practice was so common among the upper classes that it became symbolic. It is still said of people born wealthy, that "they are born with a silver spoon in their mouth."

In the 1970s, at the University of Washington’s Department of Surgery, researchers rediscovered, perhaps to their surprise, the protective properties of silver. They discovered that out of 22 antiseptic compounds that were tested, silver was found to be the only one that had any effect on pathogens. It appears that the rediscovery started a whole new trend in that direction. In 1973 scientists in the Soviet Union found ionized silver 100% effective against microorganism in their research work for spacecraft water recycling systems. It proved to be more effective than Ultra-violet rays and ultra-high-frequency sound.*1

In today's world silver compounds are routinely used in burn centers where large wounds, dangerously exposed to opportunistic infections, are treated. Another startling discovery about silver was made when treating large wounds with exposed and infected bone that would not respond to conventional treatment. Electrolytically generated silver ions were utilized. It was noticed that these silver ions were doing something more than just killing bacteria. They turned on a process of primitive regeneration. They changed the human fibroblast cells in the wound into primitive embryonic cells, which in turn changed into whatever types of cells were needed to heal the wound.*2

Silver products have come into wide spread use as a food additive to fight infections, with positive results being reported. The silver food additives are made of colloidal silver which consists of finely dispersed metallic silver particles.

At one point it became recognized that the active ingredient in these products is not the metallic silver itself, but a type of by-product. It was found that the substance that inhibits and destroys the disease causing microbes in human systems contains silver in a dissolved or ionized state. Ionization occurs when metallic silver is transformed into a liquid in the shape of silver ions. These ions are understood to possess a unique electric property or electric charge that reduces the electric potential to zero of any pathogen's cell membrane that it comes in contact with, thereby destroying the pathogen.

The effect of this type of interaction has been experimentally verified.*3 An amoeba (a single cell organism) was observed that had the electrical potential of its cell membrane artificially reduced to zero. As soon as this was done the amoeba’s normal movement stopped. Its shape became spherical, the cell membrane began to rupture and granules could be observed floating out of it into the surrounding fluids.

Before the rupture became too large the experiment was reversed. The cell membrane's electrical potential was restored to its previous value. Almost as if powered by magic the entire process reversed itself. In the end the ‘mortally injured’ amoeba became a viable living organism again.

This experiment demonstrates one of the vital functions that electrical potentials perform in living cells. It also illustrates the catastrophic effects that disruptions of this function incur, to the point of causing the death of the entire organism.

It is believed that ionized silver with its unique electric properties has the observed kind of disruptive effect on virtually all pathogen cells. It is further believed that this effect also explains why no cases have been observed of virulent pathogens mutating into strains that have become resistant to ionized silver.

Since ionized silver is confirmed to be the essential key element in this radical defense against pathogens, it becomes important to determine what quantities of ionized silver can be found in the various commercial products. This consideration yields a useful yard stick for measuring the effectiveness of a product.

We get into something rather interesting, here, because until recently, the most promising of all silver based anti-infection products was colloidal silver. The average product of this type contains app. 15 parts per million in silver, however, only one in 5000 is ionized silver. The rest is metallic silver that cannot be utilized for anything by the human body.

Simple arithmetic tells us that until recently the best defensive agent against pathogens contains a mere 0.003 parts per million of the active ingredient that kills the pathogens for which the product exists. The rest of the silver becomes stored away into the body's tissues where it causes a darkening of the skin after prolonged use of the product a condition known as Argeria.

It should seem like a miracle that such a minuscule amount of ionized silver is already having a noticeable effect against pathogens. Can you image what protection a product would provide that has all of its silver converted to ionized silver? Such a product would evidently be 5000 times more concentrated and effective against pathogens.

A recent technological breakthrough has made the production of pure ionized silver a reality. In other words, we have a product available to us now with a concentration as high as 225 parts per million of silver that is up to 70,000 times more concentrated and effective than the best previously used product. One could say that such a remarkable product wraps the dark clouds of superbugs that are brewing on the horizon, with a silver lining that renders the whole phenomenon potentially harmless.

This new product offers a sure defense against all sorts of pathogens, not just the 120 types of flu that we now face. It is believed that ionized silver can destroy over 600 harmful pathogens in the human environment, including drug resistant varieties. The effectiveness of silver for eradicating drug resistant bacteria was recognized as far back as 1973. The discovery was made in the burn unit at Columbia University of New York where 23 strains that had resisted antibiotics were successfully destroyed with silver.

It has been further reported in 1994 by a researcher, Michael Biamonte, D.N. that AIDS has been successfully treated with a simple process of parasitic cleansing and treatment with a colloidal silver product. The one year program resulted in a 90% success rate.*4 

The treatment was in part based on a discovery by Dr. Hulda Clark, Ph.D., N.D. that the HIV virus is not primarily a human virus, but is that of a parasite called the human intestinal fluke.*5

Dr. Clark noticed that everyone of the hundreds of HIV patients she had examined had the eggs of this parasite in their system. The egg of this parasite is a single cell organism that apparently carries the HIV virus. Dr. Clark's treatment focused on destroying the parasite.

Since Dr. Clark's treatment was partially successful, although not totally as it evidently did not eradicate the virus that the parasite had already introduced into the human body, Michael Biamonte added colloidal silver to the treatment plan. The simple addition resulted in the remarkably high success rate of 90% that he achieved.

Michael Biamonte is not alone in reporting the curative effects of colloidal silver against AIDS. One finds a number of similar reports on the Internet. Here is what one patient reports from his personal experience: "I stopped all my meds Feb. 2000 & went 6 months without meds before starting on C.S...just got my blood work results back the other day which was done in Mar 2001... everything came back much better than I had expected… I have a very close friend that is a registered nurse & she was amazed at my blood work...she said that most healthy people that she deals with don't have blood results as good as mine were... There are a lot of people that have gotten on Colloidal Silver after they saw the change it made in me & my health & my life. The HIV meds were rapidly stealing my life away from me.....Colloidal Silver has given me back my life!!" (http://utopiasilver.com/CSvsHIV.htm )

It should be noted that these reports were from a period before the modern ionized silver product existed in which the active ingredient is up to 70,000 times more concentrated. This new type of silver product, evidently opens up a new horizon in humanity’s warfare against viral and bacterial diseases. It could even hold the key to the long searched for high success treatment and prevention of AIDS.

It is unfortunate that the advanced product cannot yet be found on super market shelves. It appears that it may not be found there for a long time. Most advanced products tend to be produced mainly by proprietary processes. A leading edge product of ionized silver water, that had been introduced in the 1980s, is still being produced by the original proprietary process that remains a trade secret. Usually, only the main characteristics are publicized.

The modern product of highly concentrated ionized silver has its individual silver ions dissolved in a solution of mineral rich fulvic acids, nature’s foremost electrolyte. Creating a richly organic solution assures the natural assimilation of the silver ions into the human system to where the pathogen can be found. Fulvic acids are fundamental to human life as they convert inorganic minerals into complex organic structures that are required by the body’s thousands of enzyme system that support its organization of living cells.

It appears that products of this type are difficult to protect with patents since they are made up exclusively of naturally occurring substances. Nevertheless, the product is readily available from the manufacturer as a consumer product. It is presented to society by a network marketing process.

In a sense the network marketing process matches the nature of the product. The product appears to have been created to help people live a richer life. The network marketing approach is for the same general goal. It enables the average person to earn a living by enriching the life of other people. I would like to suggest that this is the light in which the new product should be regarded.

I would like to propose that the product be seen as a preventative agent that offers a continuous defense, affording the peace of mind that one wishes for, but is seldom able to obtain. The availability of such product should certainly come as a great relief to travelers whose destination lies in countries where infections are dangerous for unprepared visitors. It should also be welcomed by those who spend long hours in airplanes, or who work in closed office environments, or in hospitals where the danger of cross-infection is extremely high.

It is easy to think of many reasons why the now possible continuous protection against pathogens should become common place, and should be utilized against AIDS. Since the new product is vastly more concentrated and efficient than previous silver products that already proved effective, an advanced era in personal protection seems to have begun. It affords people a powerful defense in continuous use without any known side effects. The availability of this powerful anti-pathogen could in due course bring about the total eradication of diseases that have plagued humanity for many ages.

Whether or not such a result will be realized remains to be seen. Naturally, the product should be used with caution, though it is build on knowledge that can be traced all the way back to the ancient Egyptians. Every advanced product should be approached with caution, but neither should its enormous potential be ignored. One thing is certain, the pioneering new product offers humanity a weapon which it never had before in its fight against the superbugs and countless other bugs, including AIDS.

Ultimately, the convergence of the development of superbugs and the development of countermeasures will be controlled at the individual level. This trend has already begun. A person does no longer need to wait for the world to change since the means are available for obtaining individual protection against superbugs and numerous other viruses and bacteria.

Perhaps this now unfolding platform is the type of platform on which the world will be changed in the long run, by the force of individual initiatives. This interesting possibility leads to one final question: Will the technological breakthrough wrought by pioneers be followed by a corresponding humanist breakthrough? The potential exists for new and deadly pandemics to sweep across the earth as in historic and more recent times. The potential also exists for individual initiatives to utilize the best products and processes humanity has created to deny all pathogens a breeding ground, and so to eradicate a vast array of diseases including the HIV virus that causes AIDS.

References:

1. The scientists were, Drs.. S. V. Chizhov. S. P. Pak, N. N. Sitnikova and Y. U. Koloskova. Reported in THE SILVER INSTITUTE LETTER VOLUME III, Number 5, May 1973 – SILVER CLEARS UP POLLUTED WATER. In the tests the quantity of microorganisms was varied from 200 to 1,900 microbiological parts per milliliter. Tests of the water made 15 to 20 minutes after contact with the ionized silver showed in most cases that in this 15 to 20 minute period, full sterilization had occurred. In a few cases, complete purity was achieved only after 30 to 40 minutes of exposure. Study of controlled samples of the water after 24 to 72 hours showed the continued and complete absence of microorganisms.
   

2. The discovery is referred to in an article by Kenneth Westwood (1999): The Wonderful World of Silver, with quotations from the book Cross Currents, by Robert Becker, M.D. Publisher Jeremy Tarcher, LA Publishing Co. $12.95.

3. The experiment is referred to in an article by Kenneth Westwood (1999) as carried out by "Dr. Crile." Kenneth Westwood refers to the experiment as a basis for explaining the effect of ionized silver against pathogens. The referred to author of the experiment appears to be Dr. George W. Crile, born in 1864 in Ohio USA, chief surgeon and co-founder of the Cleaveland Clinic in 1921. The institute is known throughout the world for its first class research facilities. Dr. George Crile is famous for his lifelong research of the role of electrical potentials in the functioning of cell organism. He states in his book, The Phenomenon of Life, 1936, "Electricity is the energy that drives the organism."

4. The treatment of AIDS with colloidal silver is described on the internet at http://www.health-truth.com/Articles/HIV/HIV3.htm by Michael Biamonte, D.N. Michael Biamonte holds a Doctorate of Nutripathy, a Degree in Natural Healing, and a Master's in Clinical Nutrition. He is affiliated with the International Academy of Clinical Nutritionists and the International Academy of Nutrition and Preventive Medicine. He is listed in "The Directory of Distinguished Americans" for his research in Nutrition and Physiology. Office address, 139 Fulton Street, Suite 507, New York, NY 10038 – phone (212) 587-2330

5. Based on a book written by Dr. Hulda Clark, Ph.D., N.D..: The Cure For HIV and AIDS, with sixty case histories.