Now here's the truly important distinction you need to understand:
It's the tiny, submicroscopic silver ions (i.e., positively charged atoms or molecules of silver) that give ALL forms of colloidal silver their infection-fighting properties.
In fact, ALL reputable experts agree that silver ions are the biologically active, infection-fighting "specie" of silver, while bare metal elemental silver particles have almost no infection-fighting qualities of their own except to the extent that they shed silver ions when they come into contact with acidic bodily fluids or highly-oxygenated body tissues.
For example, here's a quote from Britain's top expert on antimicrobial silver, Alan B.G. Lansdown, author of Silver In Healthcare: Its Antimicrobial Efficacy and Safety in Use, which is considered to be the definitive textbook for doctors on the medical use of silver:
"Metallic silver is inert in the presence of human tissues but ionizes in the presence of moisture, body fluids, and secretions to release the biologically active Ag+".
– Alan B.G. Lansdown,
A Pharmacological and Toxicological Profile of Silver as an Antimicrobial Agent in Medical Devices, Advances in Pharmacological Sciences, Vol. 2010, Article ID 910686
As you can see, Dr. Lansdown agrees that the silver ion (also known as Ag+) is the biologically active, infection-fighting form of silver, and that metallic silver is basically inert except to the extent it begins to shed silver ions in the body when it comes into contact with certain bodily fluids.
Here's another quote; this one from Microbe Wiki, the online encyclopedia of all things microbial:
"In order for silver to have any antimicrobial properties, it must be in its ionized form. Silver in its non-ionized form is inert, but contact with moisture leads to the release of silver ions."
– Microbe Wiki, Silver As An Antimicrobial Agent
That's pretty darned clear, I think you'll agree. Silver must be in the ionized (i.e., ionic) form in order to kill pathogens.
If silver is in its non-ionized form (i.e., metallic elemental silver) it can only kill pathogens to the extent it begins to shed silver ions when it comes into contact with acidic bodily fluids. This simple fact is recognized throughout both science and industry. For example, here's another quote, this one from an industry source:
"Metallic silver is relatively unreactive. However, when exposed to aqueous environments some ionic silver (Ag+) is released...
...the principle activity of silver is as a result of the production of silver ions within an aqueous matrix."
– Technical White Paper: Antimicrobial Activity of Silver, Industrial Microbiological Services Ltd., September 2005
And here's another expert quote, this one from top Rice University researchers who have studied the question of metallic versus ionic silver extensively:
"Scientists have long known that silver ions, which flow from nanoparticles when oxidized [i.e., when they lose an electron – ED] are deadly to bacteria.
But scientists have also suspected silver nanoparticles themselves may be toxic to bacteria, particularly the smallest of them at about 3 nanometers.
Not so, according to the Rice team that reported its results this month in the American Chemical Society journal Nano Letters.
In fact, when the possibility of ionization is taken away from silver, the nanoparticles are practically benign in the presence of microbes."
– Rice University News, "Ions, Not Particles, Make Silver Toxic to Bacteria", quoting Pedro Alvarez, George R. Brown Professor and chair of Rice's Civil and Environmental Engineering Department
And quoting directly from the Abstract of the actual Rice University study, titled "Negligible Particle-Specific Antibacterial Activity of Silver Nanoparticles", which was published in the July 5, 2012 issue of the journal Nano Letters:
"For nearly a decade, researchers have debated the mechanisms by which AgNPs [i.e., silver nanoparticles] exert toxicity to bacteria and other organisms.
The most elusive question has been whether the AgNPs exert direct "particle-specific" effects beyond the known antimicrobial activity of released silver ions (Ag+).
Here, we infer that Ag+ [i.e, silver ions – ED] is the definitive molecular toxicant.
We rule out direct particle-specific biological effects by showing the lack of toxicity of AgNPs [i.e., metallic silver – ED] when synthesized and tested under strictly anaerobic conditions that preclude Ag(0) oxidation and Ag+ release.
In other words, when the researchers took away the ability of the metallic nanosilver to shed silver ions, the metal particles were no longer toxic to bacteria. It is only when metallic silver (i.e., nanosilver) is able to shed silver ions that it can kill bacteria.
Again, that's brand new research by top clinical researchers from Rice University. But it's been known for over half a century that metallic silver is biologically inert – meaning it has no antimicrobial qualities of its own except to the extent it sheds biologically active silver ions.
But it's backed up by tons of previous research. In January 2009, in the journal Quanta, researcher S.M. Foran wrote in an article titled "Therapeutic Properties of Silver: An Historical and Technical Review":
"Neutral silver [i.e., metallic silver – ED] does not have the microcidal nature that silver does in the ionic state. The charge of the ion is necessary in facilitating electron displacement in microbes...
...Reduced or neutral silver [i.e., metallic silver – ED] have no known medical value. These include silver salts, silver compounds and colloids that are created without ions...
...These produces will still provide some benefits if there are silver ions present, but most of them have difficulty achieving biologically meaning concentrations of Ag+"
And in their technical white paper "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Use of Silver in Wound Therapy", Systagenix Wound Management (one of the world's largest providers of wound care products for hospitals and doctors) wrote:
"Silver can exist in 'elemental' or 'ionic' form. Silver ions are also referred to as 'Ag+' or 'silver cations'.
All silver-containing products, whether elemental or ionic, achieve their antimicrobial effect via the action of silver cations (i.e., silver ions)."
In other words, the silver can be in the elemental metal state, or it can be in the ionic state, but there's no way for it to kill pathogens except in the ionic state. The elemental metal form has to convert to the ionic form in order to work. It has to shed silver ions in the presence of pathogens, or it's otherwise benign.
If you'd like to learn more about this critical point, take a moment to read my extensively-documented article, "Experts: It's the Silver Ion that Gives Colloidal Silver Its Antimicrobial Power".
In that article, you'll find dozens of quotes from bona-fide clinical research and medical experts going back half a century or more and documenting the fact that the silver ion (i.e., ionic silver) is the biologically active, infection-fighting "specie" of silver, and that metallic (or elemental) silver, even in its nanoparticle form is biologically inert against pathogens except to the extent it sheds silver ions.
So here's the key to understanding the controversy over the ionic form of colloidal silver versus the metallic form of colloidal silver (which is erroneously referred to as "true colloidal silver"):
When you ingest the metallic form of colloidal silver, in order for these tiny particles of bare metal elemental silver to be effective in the human body they must first be converted by the body into the ionic form of silver.
In other words, they have to shed silver ions. They do this when they come into contact with acidic bodily fluids or highly-oxygenated tissues. This, in turn causes the metal particles to liberate silver ions into the surrounding area. It's a far slower and less effective process than simply ingesting silver ions.
In other words, for the metallic form of colloidal silver to work, it has to be broken down and converted inside of your body into the ionic form of silver, i.e., into those tiny components of silver we call silver ions.
But when you ingest the electrically-generated ionic form of colloidal silver, there's no conversion process needed. Your body does not need to break it down any further, because it's ALREADY in the biologically active, infection-fighting form – the same naturally bio-available form you'll find it in, in plants.
With the ionic form of colloidal silver, you're ingesting tiny, submicroscopic, electrically-charged atoms and molecules of silver, called silver ions. Silver ions are the "bioactive" form of silver that are so useful in the human body because they're so deadly to pathogens.