Treating water with silver drops?

[LuckyMan]

On a recent long section hike on the pct I met a young couple who said they treated their water with Nutrasilver colloidal silver drops. They said this was a great method, a mere drop treated a whole bottle of water, they never got sick from their drinking water, etc. Aquamira has worked well for me but now I'm wondering.
Have any other hikers had positive or negative experiences treating water with silver? I am leery of using supplements because they are so poorly regulated with many wild claims being made and no way of knowing what you're really buying. Also colloidal silver has gotten a bad rap over the years, including reports of people who have permanently turned blue from overuse.

[egilbe]

Snake oil. Buyer beware. There's enough evidence saying colloidal silver does nothing to risk my GI health on it.

[Odd Man Out]

From the Mayo Clinic:

"No sound scientific studies to evaluate these health claims have been published in reputable medical journals."
"Colloidal silver isn't considered safe or effective for any of the health claims manufacturers make."

and from the NIH:

"Scientific evidence doesn’t support the use of colloidal silver dietary supplements for any disease or condition."
"but we do have good evidence of its dangers."


I have a love-hate relationship with "health food" stores. They are a great place to get healthy food that is otherwise unavailable. But every time I go there I get sick of the bogus information used to sell products. The last time I was there, a guy was giving out free samples of soap with colloidal silver. He said it contained 80% silver. The chemistry professor in me just about jumped on this, but then I remembered that arguing with these people is an exercise in futility. It's best just to buy your oatmeal and run.