Thanks for those links about silver dressings. Although you may be tempted to believe that they work because they exist, there is actually mounting evidence that these dressings have no effect on wound healing or infection rates. Here’s a review:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD006478.pub2/abstract
Not to dispute silver’s antimicrobial properties, of course.
I’m a biologist, so I can verify that this is supported by research. However, these experiments are performed in vitro. A test tube environment is not a proxy for testing in vivo effects—living bodies are too complex.
This was discovered in 1957. Suffice to say, science has caught up.
Actually, if someone wanted to perform a blind trial with a sufficient sample size and statistical testing, it would be wonderful. Science can be done by anyone (although the experiment should be ethical). Personal anecdotes are dismissed because they’re just that—anecdotes. They don’t control for confounding factors.
Zinc is an essential element for humans to stay alive, unlike silver. Even so, the evidence on whether zinc lozenges actually do anything is mixed.