Silver & Medicine?

Silver has been known to have anti bacterial properties for some time. The use of silver in medicine is another promising area of growth heading into the future. The Silver Institute has brief summary you can find here on some medicinal uses for silver. They also have a more detailed dive into the topic called Silver in Medicine - Past, Present. and Future.  Here is an excerpt:

"But what of the future? 

Silver continues to be the subject of intense R&D efforts, particularly with  respect  to  limiting  and  preventing  infection.  As mentioned  above,  infections  associated  with  implantable  medical  devices  adversely  affect  patient  health  and  quality  of  life,  and  the  overall healthcare costs. The emergence of antibiotic-resistant pathogens has made the search for both new  antibiotics  and  non‐antibiotic  alternatives  even  more  critical.  As discussed,  silver is one such alternative and significant efforts are being made to improve the actual ionization of the metal which  is  central  to  its  effectiveness  as  a  tool  to  tackle  infection.  Recent  research  has  focused  on nanomaterials, chemical and electrical activation-based strategies to enhance ionization."

That silver is an amazingly versatile metal is something you come to understand when you take time to research it. The same metal that we find in almost every electronic device on the planet also shows up in skin cream used to treat serious burns and wounds. The WebMD article on Silver Sulfadiazine says this:

"This medication is used with other treatments to help prevent and treat wound infections in patients with serious burns. Silver sulfadiazine works by stopping the growth of bacteria that may infect an open wound. This helps to decrease the risk of the bacteria spreading to surrounding skin, or to the blood where it can cause a serious blood infection (sepsis)."

Silver was also used in X ray film. How do I know this? Well, it seems there is an entire industry devoted to learning how to recover the silver from the used film. ECS Cares is one company the specializes in silver recovery. They recover silver from all the following according to their web site.

• MRI Film
• Radiographs
• Lithographic Film
• CT Scans

The use of silver nanoparticles in medicine is the subject of ongoing research and debate. In the video below, one medical doctor describes what she feels were positive results using various forms of silver nanoparticles. While this is an area that will continue to be researched over time, it does illustrate some of creative ways people are thinking about fur using silver in the future. The point here is that silver use in medicine is likely to increase in the future. Any new uses discovered will add to the demand for physical silver even as supplies may be leveling out or heading into a future decline curve. 

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