Silica Shards in Supplements and Drugs

#34 2023 The Rowen Report

Dear Subscriber,

One of my better long-term physician friends is Tom Hesselink, MD. He is an legendary figure in oxidation medicine and a class act in biochemistry. I got the following open message from him on the dangers of a very common additive in supplements and even food. The message is of great import, so I decided to simply forward it on to my readers and let you be the judge. Silica is added to many supplements to prevent “caking” and add in dispersion. However, silica is like asbestos, and vice versa. If nano particles of silica shards enter your body, I agree with Dr. Tom, the effects could be harmful, and the safest course it to reduce silica intake as much as reasonably possible.  

From Drugs.com: “In the pharmaceutical industry, silicon dioxide (also known as colloidal silicon dioxide) has many uses in tablet-making, including as an anti-caking agent, adsorbent, disintegrant, or glidant to allow powder to flow freely when tablets are processed. These compounds appear to be biologically inert.”

The issue is: inert. If shards enter your body, these inert structures cannot be broken down. The net effect could be cellular damage and uncontrolled inflammation, not dissimilar to asbestos.  

To Your Excellent Health,

Robert Jay Rowen, MD

From Dr. Hesselink:

Dear People, 
I want everyone to be aware of the problems with silica nanoparticles commonly added into our food, drugs and supplements. "Silica" is also known as "silicon dioxide" and abbreviated SiO2).

You may recognize this as the chemical formula for glass, quartz and sand. This is one of the most abundant compounds on the surface of the earth. In the cold or solid phase the silicon-oxygen bonds are so strong and so stable that this substance is extraordinarily nonreactive and chemically inert. This explains its utility in containers for most substances. Even when finely ground, silicon dioxide remains chemically speaking quite non-reactive, except that many other substances can loosely and reversibly bind to the surfaces. Because of this non-reactivity/inertness, finely ground silica would seem safe to add to any food, drug or supplement.

But one may ask, "Why then is this added to food?" The answer is that most dry food particles are somewhat sticky and tend to clump or cake. They become much more sticky, when water vapor is in the vicinity. 
Like putting dust on tape, food powders are rendered non-sticky when silica dust is mixed in. The ultra fine particles of silica coat the surfaces of the food particles and allow them to stay loose and flow past each other without clumping. There never was any reason to be concerned with safety, because silica is so non-reactive with food and with most other substances. It was logically considered also to be nonreactive with the body. But therein lies an innocent but tragic mistake. 
The larger silica particles are indeed safe as expected and most research proves this. However, the smallest particles (<100nm) damage live cells and cause a variety of diseases. A nanometer (abbreviated nm) is one billionth (1/1,000,000,000) of a meter. Finely ground silica particles as are added to foods, drugs, and supplements exist in multiple sizes. 

These can be loosely categorized as follows: 
1) ultra fine (<100nm), 
2) fine (100-1000nm), 
and 3) coarse (>1000nm). 

When ingested, the coarse or larger particles would tend not to be absorbed. These pass through the gut without causing any trouble as far as we know. The fine or medium sized particles have been shown to absorb and circulate in the blood and other bodily fluids. From there they can migrate randomly into the urine or bile and then be eliminated. These seem to cause relatively little harm at commonly applied dosages.

However, the ultra fine particles are toxic and caustic, because they penetrate cells and damage them internally by mechanical action. The affected cells suffer "death by a thousand cuts". In the process reactive oxygen species are generated, which further damage sensitive molecules. Dying cells also release inflammatory mediators, which cause chronic inflammation of the involved tissues. As fibroblasts are recruited to heal wounds, the affected tissues are eventually replaced by scar tissue. Such diseases are called "fibrosis". Those cells, tissues and organs, that have been shown most notably to absorb this silica, tend to be the same ones that suffer the most damage. These are the lungs, kidneys, liver, spleen and arteries. However, all cells are vulnerable to some degree, as the ultra fine particles distribute everywhere in the body. This includes the brain, where evidence suggests that this contributes to dementia. That is the bad news.

The good news is that these ultra fine silica particles can also migrate back out from the damaged cells and again circulate throughout the body. From there some of them will go on to damage other cells, while others are eliminated via the urine or bile. Therefore over time, if a patient avoids further intake of silica antiparticles, the remainder should eventually be cleared from the body.

Now one might reasonably ask, "What can I do to protect myself?" This is very difficult, as silica as added to most of our commercially available foods, supplements and drugs. To totally eliminate exposure is therefore virtually impossible. There is hope in the fact that many products dutifully list "silica" or "silicon dioxide" on their ingredient labels. If ingestion of such products is recognized and kept to a minimum, the body can probably well tolerate the reduced total of exposures. It would be unfortunate, if someone becomes so fearful and compulsive about this as to stop taking a necessary medicine or supplement just because it contains a little silica. 

Balanced discretion is the wisest practice here. For example, if someone seriously needs a drug that is only available with added silica, then one should take this drug anyway, while reducing the total intake of silica from other sources. Reading labels, however, is not perfectly reliable. Silica or silicone dioxide would only be included in the list of ingredients, if the manufacturer added this themselves. This would not be reportable, if it comes through other ingredients as added by their suppliers. For example: if salt is included in the recipe, this would dutifully be reported on the ingredients list on the label. However, if the supplier added silica to this salt, silica would appear on the labels of the bags from that supplier. 
Silica would not necessarily be repeated on the product label of the new product. In that case silica would be carried forth as a hidden contaminant. Maintenance of good hydration should also benefit everyone, since silica antiparticles of all sizes are flushed out through the urine and bile.

Besides flushing, there are antidotes of two types. Since a primary mechanism of damage to cells involves the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), "antioxidants" are theoretically advisable. Examples include: ascorbates, coveralls, poly phenols, thiols and inducers of antioxidant response elements such as backup. Since the other main mechanism of damage involves chronic inflammation, there are many options to reduce this. Examples include: omega-3 oils, culminates, boron, NS AIDS and low dose corticosteroids. Please consult a healthcare professional for specific advice in any case. For further details please study the attached bibliographies. 

Many other anti caking agents also exist (see attached list). 
To evaluate the safety of all these other agents is also important, but beyond the scope of this letter.

Stay well,

Doc H

Also from Dr. H:

The following is a list of most commonly

useful anticaking agents in food, drugs,

and supplements:

(I put an asterisk * by those,

that I opine to be probably safe.)

(I put a question ? by those that might

be contaminated with asbestos,

which causes mesothelioma.)

         aluminum calcium silicate

         aluminum silicate

         bentonite

*       bone phosphate

         calcium aluminosilicate

         calcium ferrocyanide

*       calcium phosphate

         calcium silicate

*       calcium stearate

*       cellulose

         iron ammonium citrate

*       magnesium carbonate

*       magnesium oxide

?        magnesium silicate

*       magnesium stearate

         magnesium trisilicate

         montmorillonite

         polydimethylsiloxane

         potassium aluminium silicate

         potassium ferrocyanide

         silica

         silicon dioxide

         sodium aluminum silicate

*       sodium bicarbonate

         sodium calcium silicoaluminate

         sodium ferrocyanide

         sodium silicate

*       stearic acid

         tricalcium silicate

?        talcum powder

*       tricalcium phosphate

         vermiculite