History of Silver

• Silver Facts: History of Silver
• Silver Historical Background
• Facts and History of Silver
• Silver History for kids!
• Silver in the Beehive State
• History of the Element Silver

Gold is more expensive than silver monetarily, but silver may be more valuable than gold healthwise.

Silver has been used for thousands of years as a healing and preventive health product and also to prevent spoiling. Back in the 1800's, settlers in the west used silver dollars in their storage vessels to keep milk from spoiling. A cowboy would keep his silver in his canteen to freshen the water. Doctors would administer intramuscular injections of the compound silver arsphenamine against a variety of pathogens in the bodies of their patients. For years, these silver compounds were the first line of defense  in fighting infectious disease. From the 1800s to the mid-1900s, when the use of antibiotics took precedence in the medical field, silver was widely used and very common place in treating wounds.

Despite the effectiveness of these measures, the use of silver compounds waned. The rising acceptance of pharmaceutical antibiotics coupled with extreme manufacturing expenses, drove silver products from the marketplace. In recent years however, silver has regained popularity and modern production methods have experienced a reduction in costs.

Today, NASA's choice to purify drinking water in the space shuttle is silver. Silver is still utilized in many medical circumstances. Newborn infants’ eyes are treated with silver to prevent infection. Hospitals use a silver treatment to dress scars and wounds, especially wounds that resist healing and wounds resulting from burns. Catheters are lined with silver to prevent infection and water is purified with silver lined filters.

Although scientists and health professionals have warned about the rise of 'supergerms'  or 'superbugs', microbes that have become resistant to antibiotic treatments, bacteria seems unable to build up a resistance to silver. Silver interferes with the bacteria in at least three ways: 

Bacterium- a single
celled organism



1. by interacting with the cell membrane
2. by binding to the DNA of cells
3. by blocking the metabolism of the bacteria

It reduces the growth of hundreds of different types of bacteria, including some that do not normally react to pharmaceutical antibacterial agents. Because silver blocks the growth and spread of germs through multiple mechanisms, it is hard for bacteria to build up resistance.

Unlike some other metals, silver is not poisonous to the body—only to harmful microbes. It is also not addictive, and is very difficult to overdose on. In addition to hundreds of years of practical use, recent scientific studies on humans and animals have shown that wounds treated with silver heal at a faster rate than those treated without silver.

We, the manufacturer of Silverpure, recognize the properties that make silver a powerful germ fighter, naturally.  And we value the safety of an anti-microbial agent that has never been associated with the emerging problem of drug-resistant bacteria.