Dear Drs: Can't thank you enough for all your wonderful, humanitarian work. I've recently discovered the dietary supplement, Liquid Colloidal Silver. After some bad bleach-induced chemical burns, a friend of mine recommended it as a topical application. She also indicated that it can be an immune booster, as well. I'm wondering how this will interact with my immune system...is there any documented evidence? Are there potentials for this 'miracle cure' to be utilized in immune-deficient subjects? Have you heard anything about this? Thanks!

This one has been around for a few years -- but I have never seen any evidence at any of the HIV meetings about how it would work, why it should help here, and no evidence about what happened when some people tried it. And while there might even be some test tube evidence somewhere about "immune boosting" this doesn't always translate into benefits here.

And while you might hear that it is great stuff but the HIV machine is suppressing any studies of it -- this is NOT enough to say it works. And every once in a while, when there was some promise to alternatives, there has been some research done. We in Boston did some research with an herb called curcumin. Acupuncture was studied as well as other approaches. And this research has been presented at meetings -- our community is open to hearing about evidence about what has been tested, and whether it worked or not. That is the only way we move forward...

So while you are welcome to try it -- there is nothing I know of to suggest it is worth your dollar... It may help -- but as far as I know, we have no useful info to guide us...

good luck.

Cal Cohen, M.D., M.S.