Silicon îs an essential nutrient. In horsetail, for instance, it will not be particulate but, like other essential minerals, bound to whatever other molecule it serves.
Challenging issue. Silica is also used in our body to bind and remove aluminium ( aluminosilicate) and is used in our bone and connective tissue for strength. I have been doing dermal tissue spectroscopy for some 4 years ( hundreds) and low silica is very common, tending to correlate with aluminium; supplementing silica demonstrably improves the tissue levels of silica and reduces the aluminium.
Do you have any opinion on if silica supplements like horsetail and bamboo extracts yield nanoparticles? I have a suggestion: Use bamboo spatulas as cookware. The leached silica would hopefully be soluble and therefore safe. Would be interesting to see if it affects your measurements.
Naturally sourced silica should be larger particles and I doubt will create these issues. Be a slower process i suspect in terms of removing heavy metals. There is a new silica based detox formula that is supposed to remain in the gut.
Titanium dioxide and silicon dioxide negatively affect the gut and the gut microbiome.
Diatomaceous earth (DE) is another issue. It is silica and aluminum and people supplement it on purpose. One distributor wrote how his hair analysis showed increased elimination of aluminum, suggested silica detoxes the body of aluminum. More likely, the DE provided that aluminum. Though I suppose "stirring things up" with the silica portion could in theory lead to a net reduction of aluminum burden once the smoke as cleared. I suppose DE is only reasonable for short-term parasite treatment.
Silica may have health benefits which include aluminum detox. I do not know if the horsetail and bamboo extract supplements yield nanoparticles. The approach I think may be the best bet is to cook with bamboo spatulas. This may leech some soluble silica which could be a safe way to supplement.
Salt is a problem. I don't like the unrefined salts because many of the dozens of minerals they contain are technically toxic. My vote is still for Morton's iodized salt even if there is silica, because it lacks the questionable minerals (including fluoride) and it has the iodine. Ideally, a refined salt that uses one of the safe anti-caking agents would be my choice. Please let us know if you come across one.
I was particularly taken with this one concerning silica and its dangers to the human body.
I would like clarification on the list provided.
I understand that the items with a question mark ? indicates that they are questionably harmful to ingest into the body.
It is also my understanding that the author feels the ones with an asteric* are probably OK to ingest into the body.
Are all of the other items on the list considered harmful?
After reading your report and the letter from you esteemed collegue I went through my supplements and saw silica and silicon dioxide listed on a few of them.
My first impulse is to throw them away and find brands that do not list either of the the ingredients silica and silicon dioxide.
I would not throw away anything. The issue with silica is the size of the particle. The smaller, the more dangerous. Silicon is not poison. it is an essential element and required for us. However, we don't get it in rock or pulverized rock form. We intake organic silicon from plants.
Dr. Hesselink thinks those with * are likely OK. I tend to agree.
I would, in the future, find products that do not have silica on the ingredients. I still have some supplements at home with silica. I don't plan to replace them with the same product unless the company decides to remove it.
Thank you. I have decided, for now, to finish what I have that contain silicon dioxide, then move on to better replacements which I have found in other brands that do not contain silicon dioxide. It sounds like I should also find replacement supplements for the ones that contain silica, correct? When I look up the difference between silica and silicon dioxide I found that Silica is a common oxide form of silicon. In ceramic chemistry we mix silica and alumina to make glazes which are forms of glass (sand).
Silicon îs an essential nutrient. In horsetail, for instance, it will not be particulate but, like other essential minerals, bound to whatever other molecule it serves.
Challenging issue. Silica is also used in our body to bind and remove aluminium ( aluminosilicate) and is used in our bone and connective tissue for strength. I have been doing dermal tissue spectroscopy for some 4 years ( hundreds) and low silica is very common, tending to correlate with aluminium; supplementing silica demonstrably improves the tissue levels of silica and reduces the aluminium.
Do you have any opinion on if silica supplements like horsetail and bamboo extracts yield nanoparticles? I have a suggestion: Use bamboo spatulas as cookware. The leached silica would hopefully be soluble and therefore safe. Would be interesting to see if it affects your measurements.
Naturally sourced silica should be larger particles and I doubt will create these issues. Be a slower process i suspect in terms of removing heavy metals. There is a new silica based detox formula that is supposed to remain in the gut.
I'm using choline stabilized orthosilicic acid. My understanding is that this is a very good bioavailable way of getting silica
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3921/12/2/431
Titanium dioxide and silicon dioxide negatively affect the gut and the gut microbiome.
Diatomaceous earth (DE) is another issue. It is silica and aluminum and people supplement it on purpose. One distributor wrote how his hair analysis showed increased elimination of aluminum, suggested silica detoxes the body of aluminum. More likely, the DE provided that aluminum. Though I suppose "stirring things up" with the silica portion could in theory lead to a net reduction of aluminum burden once the smoke as cleared. I suppose DE is only reasonable for short-term parasite treatment.
Silica may have health benefits which include aluminum detox. I do not know if the horsetail and bamboo extract supplements yield nanoparticles. The approach I think may be the best bet is to cook with bamboo spatulas. This may leech some soluble silica which could be a safe way to supplement.
Salt is a problem. I don't like the unrefined salts because many of the dozens of minerals they contain are technically toxic. My vote is still for Morton's iodized salt even if there is silica, because it lacks the questionable minerals (including fluoride) and it has the iodine. Ideally, a refined salt that uses one of the safe anti-caking agents would be my choice. Please let us know if you come across one.
Dr. Rowen,
Thank you so much for your insightful reports.
I was particularly taken with this one concerning silica and its dangers to the human body.
I would like clarification on the list provided.
I understand that the items with a question mark ? indicates that they are questionably harmful to ingest into the body.
It is also my understanding that the author feels the ones with an asteric* are probably OK to ingest into the body.
Are all of the other items on the list considered harmful?
After reading your report and the letter from you esteemed collegue I went through my supplements and saw silica and silicon dioxide listed on a few of them.
My first impulse is to throw them away and find brands that do not list either of the the ingredients silica and silicon dioxide.
Can you please comment?
I would not throw away anything. The issue with silica is the size of the particle. The smaller, the more dangerous. Silicon is not poison. it is an essential element and required for us. However, we don't get it in rock or pulverized rock form. We intake organic silicon from plants.
Dr. Hesselink thinks those with * are likely OK. I tend to agree.
I would, in the future, find products that do not have silica on the ingredients. I still have some supplements at home with silica. I don't plan to replace them with the same product unless the company decides to remove it.
Thank you. I have decided, for now, to finish what I have that contain silicon dioxide, then move on to better replacements which I have found in other brands that do not contain silicon dioxide. It sounds like I should also find replacement supplements for the ones that contain silica, correct? When I look up the difference between silica and silicon dioxide I found that Silica is a common oxide form of silicon. In ceramic chemistry we mix silica and alumina to make glazes which are forms of glass (sand).
Isn't Silica naturally occurring in Fiji water? Isn't it a chelator?