Silver News
Silver Helps Regrow Tissues in Hundreds
of Patients - Destroyed Cells Regenerate With Silver-Based
Procedure
By Samuel Etris, Senior Technical Consultant to The Silver
Institute
Silver can help regenerate human cells that have been destroyed
by disease or damaged in accidents.
The silver-based procedure has been so successful in clinical
tests, that one patient who had sustained three crushed fingers
in an accident grew new tissue immediately. Within 2-1/2 months,
skin coverage was complete and there was normal, full sensation,
good blood supply and all joints had a normal range of motion.
If left untreated, the 3~year-old electrician's fingers would
have fallen off after turning black with gangrene, and he
would have been left with a totally useless hand. In fact,
his orthopedic surgeon recommended amputation of al1 three
fingers, but the patient requested silver-ion therapy that
was successful.
The mechanism by which silver ions help rebuild tissue has
been studied for more than a decade by Robert O. Becker, M.
D., Becker Biomagnetics, Lowville, New York. Becker first
reported his findings at the First International Conference
on Silver and Gold in Medicine, cosponsored by The Silver
Institute in 1987.
In the decade since, this technique has been used in a clinical
setting at Mountain Medical Specialties in Lakemont, Georgia,
where hundreds of patients with various wounds have recovered.
In addition, a laboratory study conducted by the U.S. Army
Institute for Surgical Research in Fort Sam Houston, Texas,
showed that laboratory animals with burn wounds treated under
controlled conditions experienced shortened time for reconstruction
with silver-nylon dressings. Recovery of skin function was
faster when electric current was applied compared to no application
of electric current.
Becker discovered that when positively charged silver ions
are electrically introduced into wounds with a proprietary
silver-coated nylon fabric used as the positive electrode,
large amounts of primitive embryonic stem cells are produced.
These stem cells are responsible for the reconstruction of
destroyed tissue at a pace considerably faster than if the
wound had been left to heal by itself. In other cases, the
wound might not heal at all without the introduction of these
stem cells
"The advantages of this technique," says Becker,
"are the ease of use, use of the patient's own cells,
no immune reaction, no need to use human fetusus as a source
of stem cells, no need for anti-rejection drugs and it is
economic."
On September 29, 1998, Becker received a U.S. patent (5,814,094)
for the devices, materials and techniques involved in regeneration
of tissue using silver ions.
After several hundred cases, Becker believes that the technique
works in three stages. The first stage is the chemical combination
of the highly active free silver ions with all bacteria or
fungi present in the wound that are inactivated within 20
to 30 minutes. The second stage occurs over the next few days.
Silver acts on fibroblast cells (the cells that normally cause
wound healing by scar formation) to cause them to revert to
their embryonic state, becoming stem cells. These cells are
universal building blocks whose role is to reconstruct new
tissue regenerating the original structure rather than simply
to form scar tissue only.
In the final stage, silver ions form a complex with the living
cells in the wound area to produce immediately convertible
stem cells. As stem cells flood the wound, they are rapidly
converted into new, mature normal tissues of the types present
before the wound occurred. The end result of this conversion
is complete restoration of all anatomical structures including
nerves and blood supply with no scar formation. In all cases
treated, no evidence of argyria (discoloration of skin) or
any other side effect was noted.
No other known treatment provides sufficient numbers of the
embryonic or stem cells required for true regeneration of
damaged or destroyed tissue in humans and animals. This success
indicates that there is the potential not only for the healing
of near-surface wounds, but for regenerative repair of internal
organs such as the heart, liver, brain and the spinal cord.
Silver News - June/July 1999
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