Ionic and Colloidal

The most common and historically familiar terms in the alternative medicine filed is "colloidal" silver. Recently the term "ionic silver" (or "ionic silver complex") has also been introduced.

There are many claims about what is good and bad about the two forms of silver, very little based on fact.

First and foremost, there are simply limits on what we know in modern science about just how these substances behave in and affect the human body and pathogens. Therefore, when presenting claims or facts, we must be diligent in being honest with others and with ourselves as to what we know, what we suspect, and what we just don't have a clue about.

The term colloidal silver is itself a bit vague, or nondescript. It is often used to refer to any form of silver that is suspended or in solution in a water base and can be ingested or applied topically. A common definition of a colloidal suspension is that is is very different from a substance being dissolved in solution, though the definition of a "colloidal suspension" is, even in well respected scientific texts, not consistently agreed upon. A quick search through reference sources will show this to be the case. Occasionally, the terms mild silver protein and strong silver protein are also used, which may or may not be represented as being "colloidal" silver. Whether or not mild or strong silver protein qualifies as being colloidal silver is open to debate, though usually colloidal silver is not mild or strong silver protein. The more recently introduced "ionic silver complex" is distinctly not a colloidal suspension, but lay people still often use the very familiar term "colloidal silver" to refer to it as well.

The questions of safety and efficacy are frequently argued with respect to ionic silver versus colloidal silver, and also with respect to colloidal silver that is partly ionic versus all or mostly silver particles or metal (atom, not ions).

The bottom lines are:

Ionic silver is the new standard in medicine and industry

Essentially every bit of the rapid growth in medical and industrial application of silver in recent years has been dealing strictly with silver ions. It is very well established in the scientific and medical community that silver ions, or ionic silver, is the form of silver that is a powerful antimicrobial agent. You virtually never hear the term colloidal silver used any more within the medical field, even though it was used many decades ago as a common medicine.

Silver ions probably require delivery for systemic use

It is generally maintained that introducing silver ions into the system without a delivery mechanism is not going to work very well for systemic use, since ions don't last very long in the system and tend to bind up with substances in the mouth and gut before reaching the blood. Therefore, what is needed, it is maintained, is a way to carry stabilized silver ions into the system (actually, they're not technically ions but are part of a deliberate complex or compound in that state) and then to release them, as ions, when in the system.

Colloidal silver probably works by releasing silver ions

There is every reason to presume that, to the extent that colloidal silver is effective at killing germs systemically on internal ingestion, it is because it is releasing silver ions in the body that this is taking place. It has even been stated by one leading pioneer in the alternative medicine field that it's at the precise moment when a silver ion gains or releases an electron that it has this antimicrobial affect.

Nobody knows for sure

It is entirely beyond the realm of modern science at present, and certainly outside the scope of anything that has been documented as reliable scientific data to date, for anyone to state for sure whether colloidal silver, indeed, works by releasing silver ions, whether the germ-killing occurs when an ion gains or releases an electron, or whether the introduction of silver ions into the system through a complex for delivery is going to work better than just free silver ions. It seems that a lot of feedback from users is the best indicator at present.