Strep Throat (and respiratory infections)

One of the most common reasons that I hear of people going to the doctor, especially in the fall and spring, is strep throat.  We take the kids to the doc, they run a culture, and if the test shows up positive, the doc prescribes antibiotics that we then give our kids for the next 2 weeks.

Not only is the doc visit expensive, but the anti-biotics are expensive as well.  But even if you've got a great health plan that pays for practically everything there's still the time out of your day to go to the doc and sit in the waiting room, then drive to the pharmacy... easily half a day wasted for something that most of us can fairly easily identify after we've had it a time or two.  Besides the time and the money, there are the increasing potentials for allergic reactions to antibiotics, resistent strains of bacteria, and the havoc that antibiotics wreck on our digestive system.  Broad spectrum antibiotics will kill any kind of bacteria in your body.  Unfortunately, we need many kinds of bacteria in our body to maintain good health.  Those "good" bacteria help us squeeze the nutrients out of our food and aid in digestion. Indescriminate antibiotic use has led to an increasing amount of allergic reactions to foods.  While i would take an antibiotic if I was dying of an infection and had no other alternative, thankfully I do have an alternative that is effective, inexpensive, and much less damaging to my body.  Interestingly enough, even though I have been talking about writing this blog for about a week, all day I have felt the beginning of a throat infection coming on.  I will quite literally be taking "my own medicine" tonight.

I have been using colloidal silver for the past fifteen years.  You might be interested to know that prior to the 1940s, it was widely used as an antibacterial agent in medicine.  Unfortunately, when the pharma companies discovered penicillin they began to demonize their "competition" - which was cheap and easy to make at home.  Eventually with enough pressure from the drug makers, the FDA said it is useless and has no medical merit.  I will be using this useless material tonight to rid me of this sore throat.

As an aside, my daughter did a science experiment a few years ago to demonstrate the effectiveness of colloidal silver.  It was by far the most effective of all the methods that we tried to kill the bacterial cultures we had grown.  I have also successfully used it on pear trees that had the fungal disease called fire blight (for which there is no known cure).

So how do you use it?  The best way is to gargle about an ounce of it - focusing on the sore areas of your throat - for about 30 seconds.  When you are done, don't spit it out, swallow it.  Do this about four or five times a day for about two days, and wait about 30 minutes to drink anything after you've gargled.  Get some rest.  You're done, and so is your strep.

Sometimes bacterial infections of the throat (like strep) spread into the lungs and can cause respiratory infections.  If you feel this is happening, take about 2 ml of colloidal silver and put it in a nebulizer.  Inhale it for about fifteen minute, three or four times a day for about three days.  Accompany this with the gargling/swallowing of the colloidal silver and you are done.  Of course any time you are sick, avoid sugars, drink lots of fluids, and get plenty of rest. Also note that the farther along you are in the illness before you begin to treat it, the longer you will need to treat it.  While colloidal silver kills bacteria, it doesn't fix chronic cough due to chemical poisoning or smoker's cough.  Know what you are trying to fix.

Overdosing
You almost have to be drop dead stupid to overdose on colloidal silver.  I'm not gonna say it can't be done, but you won't do it.  I know people who drink a quart a day of the stuff to stay healthy.  Now, I personally think they are idiots.  But the point is that they are not poisoned by it and in history, no one has ever died of Colloidal Silver poisoning (although wikipedia does claim one person - in history - that an author of a journal article might have had silver contribute to his death.)  Contrast that with people who routinely die from antibiotic allergies.  You are far safer with CS than your pharma pills.
Bear in mind that colloidal silver kills bacteria, so that would also include some of the good bacteria in your intestinal track.  If you ingest it, make sure you eat sauerkraut or yogurt or some other probiotic to replenish the beneficial bacteria in your digestive system.

You can buy Colloidal Silver at a health food store for anywhere from $10 - $30 an ounce.  Or you can make your own at home for about $1 a gallon.  That's what I do.  If you don't want to learn how to make your own, I would encourage you to learn to trust yourself more and the so-called experts less.  I will give you some if you want it.  It takes me about 30 minutes to make a quart of it.

Argyria
The pharma industry, in an effort to save their multi-billion dollar yearly income from antibiotics, has teamed up with the FDA to tell you that if you use colloidal silver that you will turn a Smurfish blue-gray in color as a side effect.  I will first of all say...this is pretty funny.  I will second of all say, this is hogwash.  It doesn't happen.  It has been documented less than 100 times in more that 100 years. But even with those few people who did see a change in skin color, the condition is reversable. The people whom it has happened to are (as referenced above) drop dead stupid.  They drink the stuff in large quantities like it's a daily milkshake, whether they are sick or in good health.  Dumb.  Folks, it's a medicine, not a daily elixir.  The other few that have claimed to get it have been taking a citrus silver mixture or have been using contaminated ingredients.  The proteins in that mixture are not colloidal silver and should not even be marketed as such (and if you make it at home you wouldn't be that silly).  Bottom line, you won't turn blue.

If you want to know how to make it at home, the initial cost is about $30 and the parts are easily available at radio shack or on ebay.  I've attached a link below to the instructions that I used to make the one I've been using for the past ten years.

There are other ways to treat an infected throat if you do not have CS in your house but with things that you might have in your pantry (or by using essential oils).  I won't go into those here, but if you have questions, ask them.

How to make your own colloidal silver.