After hearing from tens of thousands of people with VF and their families, the topic of colloidal silver has come up from time to time. If we believed it were effective we would be shouting about it from the rooftops.
While there is even scientific information to show that silver has antifungal properties against candida or other fungi, remember that Valley Fever has been regulated as a biological weapon because it is so much more serious and difficult to treat. Besides that, silver nanoparticles are used in the stains that help to microscopically identify and photograph Coccidioides fungi in petri dishes. If silver had a chance of killing VF, it would happen when a high concentration of silver was bathing the fungus in a lab’s tiny sealed containers, not when the silver is being spread across the entire body’s circulatory system. If a high dose doesn’t kill the fungus in a lab a low won’t kill the fungus in your body.
There known antibacterial effects of colloidal silver. It could potentially attack the important gut bacteria within the stomach and intestines when ingested. It could provide the same harm to the human microbiome that pharmaceutical antibiotics can cause.
Perhaps colloidal silver has helped with other fungal or bacterial ailments that might have been going on at the same time, since simply having one disease like Valley Fever is not protection against having other infections. That could explain its benefits when people have Valley Fever.
Also there is a concern about colloidal silver that it could reduce the absorption of other medications, including antifungals, which would obviously do more harm than good. The development of Tolsura was motivated by the poor absorption of the original itraconazole formulation, Absorption matters.
Beyond that, as statisticians sometimes say, “the plural of anecdote is not data.” The disease can wax and wane for many reasons so you have to know exactly what is going on physiologically before you can say something is working and not a coincidence.
But if someone takes colloidal silver and feels better in a few days, then removes it and feels worse, it means the colloidal silver is not improving the Valley Fever infection. It is just masking the symptoms to allow you to feel more comfortable while the infection is unchecked. It also suggests Valley Fever has continued to damage the body while potentially effective treatments were being ignored.