Silica (silicon dioxide) is used in some powdered foods to ensure that they are free flowing. It is also used heavily in the manufacture of steel, thermal insulation, electronic circuit boards, semiconductors, and optical fibers. While its industrial uses are many, its health benefits appear to be nil.
Silica is a compound that is found in soil. There are people who have made the asinine assumption that it must be beneficial to health based on this. Another basis for the assumption about silica's benefits is the fact that trace amounts of it are found inside fruits and vegetables, which could produce some minor contributions to good health, but mostly to the health of those fruits and vegetables. Supplementing with silica has not been shown to provide any health benefits to humans, and all silica supplements contain far more silica than anyone could consume naturally.
Silica dust is a known carcinogen, lung irritant, and a central nervous system toxin. Although, it has been shown to be relatively neutralized when filtered through the human digestive system. This somewhat makes the point about how stupid silica supplementation really is. Since it is destroyed by the human digestive system, injections would be the only way to actually supplement with it. The website owners who profit from the fraud of silica supplements claim that it does all of the following:
Fraudulent Silica Claims
- Prevents Alzheimer's disease
- Prevents atherosclerosis (hardening of arteries)
- Strengthens bones
- Makes the skin "glow"
- Prevents hair thinning
- Increases mucosa during dehydration
- Improves circulation
- Prevents cancer
- And everything else...
The list of supposed silica benefits goes on practically forever, so this is not a full listing of claims. It would be much simpler to list what its sales people do not make any claims about. The latter would be a very short list. Those who have a health condition, could search the Internet for their ailment alongside the word "silica", and they would undoubtedly find accolades about it being the very "miracle" that they had been seeking. Some companies have appeared on the market being dedicated to selling only silica, at prices which exceed those of real supplements. They are essentially selling sand as a high-priced dietary supplement, but it does not actually supplement any nutrient.
When silica is obtained from the horsetail plant (the standard process), it can actually cause a thiamine (vitamin B-1) deficiency. Thiamine is a real nutrient with real benefits. On the other hand, a silica (dirt) supplement simply is not going to be of much use to anyone, except the salesmen. A wise person should instead eat a balanced diet of natural foods, avoid refined sugars, and avoid chemicals. Sure enough, he will get trace amounts of silica in his diet too. Likewise, he will get trace amounts of other unnecessary elements which we would also never recommend supplementing with, like arsenic.
"Studies in mice suggest that horsetail [source of silica supplements] may change the activity of the kidneys, causing abnormal control of the amount of water and potassium release. Low potassium, which in theory may occur with horsetail, can have negative effects on the heart."
-- National Institutes of Health
The above quote cites the only known effect of silica supplementation. Eventual heart attacks are hardly a desirable effect of any supplement. We do not know the effect of supplementing with silica over an extended period of time. No one knows. All we know with certainty is that silica supplementation has never been proven to have any benefits for humans whatsoever, and we also know that it so thoroughly destroys the kidneys of laboratory animals that they become prone to having heart attacks.
Regular vitamins and supplements, which contain small amounts of silica are not harmful; but the presence of silica will not present any therapeutic effect, either.
Related Articles
Common Frauds of Alternative Medicine
The Legend of Mike Adams and the Reality
Quackery: Foot Cleanses, Detox Foot Pads, and Ionic Foot Baths
Alternative Medicine Fraud: Magnet Therapy
Another Fraud Of Alternative Medicine: M.M.S.
The Debate between HealthWyze.org and Jim Humble about whether M.M.S. is a Fraud
A Dangerous Pharmaceutical Espoused as 'Alternative Medicine': Dichloroacetic Acid (DCA)
Doctor Andrew Weil: Whose Side Is He Really On?
Comments
I have rheumatoid arthritis. I was taking the generic version of Plaquenil for 3 years with no noticeable difference in my joints. I was always stiff and the days I was without pain were few and far between. It also didn't seem to halt the progress of the disease at all either.
I found silica quite by accident while researching something completely different. I decided it couldn't hurt to try. So I bought a bottle. I started taking 10-20 mg daily.
Within 1 week I noticed a marked difference in not only my pain level but also by flexibility. I was not doing anything different such as diet, exercise, or stretching to explain this. I can only think it was the silica and plan on buying another bottle.
I'm going to be frank and honest here. The fact that silica seems to be helping you is an indication that there is something terrible about your diet -- not that silica is curing you. We know this because the only known biological use for silica is as a filtration agent (cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=13471694). In fact, it is used to filter food and aid digestion in birds for that reason. You can even make your beer more pure (www.fuji-silysia.co.jp/english/product/micronized_silica/sylopute.html) with it!
The question is, what exactly is the silica filtering out? In any case, the silica is merely temporarily helping shield you from whatever garbage is going into your body, so it is hardly the best option. The better option is for you to discover and eliminate whatever is aggravating your problems.
Read those labels carefully. They're meant to deceive.
My only experience with silica is eating bread in Africa. I was near the Sahara and there was quite a bit of sand in the food. It served as a pretty good colon scrub....not sure of any other benefits.
From Wikipedia: Equisetum (play /ˌɛkwɨˈsiːtəm/; horsetail, snake grass, puzzlegrass) is the only living genus in the Equisetaceae, a family of vascular plants that reproduce by spores rather than seeds. [2]
Equisetum is a "living fossil", as it is the only living genus of the entire class Equisetopsida, which for over one hundred million years was much more diverse and dominated the understory of late Paleozoic forests. Some Equisetopsida were large trees reaching to 100 feet tall.
It is possible that you have hypothyroidism, and you should be able to determine that from reading our article on the topic: How To Cure Hypothyroidism Naturally (https://healthwyze.org/reports/211-how-to-cure-hypothyroidism-naturally)
It could also be caused by your diet. You may find these articles helpful:
The Relationship Between Body pH and Disease (and other facts you're not supposed to know) (https://healthwyze.org/reports/361-the-relationship-between-body-ph-and-disease-and-other-facts-youre-not-supposed-to-know)
God's Nutrition: From The Big Guy Himself (https://healthwyze.org/reports/335-gods-nutrition-from-the-big-guy-himself)
Just wanted to mention that magnesium could be helpful for thicker hair. I was taking it for psoriasis and found it also made my hair thicker and have more life, which I was not expecting. It took about a month to notice a difference if I remember rightly.
doi: 10.3233/JAD-2012-121231
PMID: 22976072
Is Keele University even a real school? Regardless, this will hardly merit mention in the annals of great medical research, and it is something they should be academically ashamed of.
Perhaps you should push the silica supplements over at Cure Zone. You'll have better luck with your "science" over there.
RSS feed for comments to this post