Silver Deficiency and Your Health
Silver, like other essential minerals, plays an important role in the body. When the levels we need aren't met, there can be consequences over the long term.
It's becoming increasingly difficult to get all the essential nutrients we need through food alone. Soils across New Zealand and the rest of the world have been depleted by decades of intensive farming, monoculture, and increased population demand. Food grown in mineral-depleted soil simply contains less of what our bodies once relied on. Modern, processed, and convenience foods only compound the problem.
What the early studies show
One of the earliest studies on silver content in food was conducted by R.A. Kehoe of UCLA back in 1940. It showed that an average daily intake of fruit and vegetables would provide between 50 and 100 mcg of silver as a trace element.
By 1975, the amount of silver found in our diet had dropped so far that researchers needed to use picograms (one trillionth of a gram) as the unit of measurement, instead of micrograms. According to Snyder, W.S., the average daily intake of silver had fallen to just 70 picograms per day.
What this means for immunity
Many researchers believe this immense drop in silver content from our food has health implications. Silver appears to play a role in supporting the immune system, and a deficiency may impair our natural defences.
Robert O. Becker, MD and medical researcher, observed a correlation between low silver levels and slower recovery. People with low silver levels were unwell more frequently, and their conditions lasted longer than people with higher silver levels. Other researchers, including Dr. Gary Smith and Dr. Bjorn Nordstrom of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, have also explored the connection between silver levels and immune function.
What this means for New Zealanders
The same patterns of soil depletion that affect global food production also affect NZ. Our soils have been working hard for generations, and the trace minerals once held in them, including silver, are no longer at the levels they were even fifty years ago.
Supplementation with a high-quality, NZ-made ionic colloidal silver is one practical way to add this trace mineral back into your daily routine.