Medical uses of gold in the past

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    Gold was used as a medicine even before the 1^st century. In fact, use of gold as a medicine goes back to 3,000 BC, the time of the Ancient Egyptians. The form it was used in is called colloidal gold. Colloidal gold is a very fine powder of gold, in water.

     In medieval times, gold was used by the alchemists in Europe. They believed that gold, being an extremely rare and precious metal, must be healthy. They believed that gold could restore youth and cure many diseases. They also used colloidal gold to cure things such as sadness, sorrow, and depression.

     The type of gold that was in use by the alchemists is inert to anything it encounters in the body. So even though it is not poisonous, it could not really cure any diseases. However, the use of gold as a medicine continued into the 1900's, when doctors used to put a gold coin below the skin near an inflamed joint. Today, a radioactive isotope of gold is used to treat cancer.