Silicon and Silicon Supplements

Silicon

Silicon (Si) is a fairly distributed mineral in tissues but whose biological functions are not precisely known; it has binding capacities quite similar to those of carbon (C), which is why silicon, in some living beings, can become part of the basic molecular structures.

It is also present in inorganic form as SILICATE (SiO2 ₃ ).

The researchers suppose that it is a very important constituent of the mucopolysaccharides (fundamental constituents of the connective tissue, elastin, hyaluronic acid etc.), in fact, most of the body silicon is found in correspondence with the structures having a large content of connective, such as: arteries, trachea, tendons, bone and skin; silicon also seems to be involved in bone formation, but its actual role remains a point to be clarified.

Due to the lack of fundamental data, the nutritional requirement of silicon was NOT specified but some researchers already define it as an ESSENTIAL NUTRIENT.

On the other hand, the nutritional deficiency of silicon has been imposed and observed in animals; on the chicken and on the rat a chronic silicon deficiency causes real aberrations in the synthesis of connective tissue and bone; on the contrary, no data are available to describe the effects related to the excess of food grade silicon.

Silicon supplements

Silicon-based supplements, thanks to their supposed function in the constitution of connective tissue and bone, are used as anti-aging products.

The most widespread application of natural silicon based supplements is aesthetic; more precisely they are used to improve the trophism of the hair, nails and connective tissue of the skin (tagumentary apparatus).

Only recently, some researchers are focusing on the biological importance of silicon in ossification; it is possible that this mineral can be used in preventive and curative therapies related to joints and skeletons, for example in osteoarthritis and menopausal osteoporosis. Some studies have shown that:

the use of Equisetum extract (Osteosil Ghimas) compared to a placebo, showed a rapid decrease in bone loss, ie from 3.3% to 2.1% with a reduction of 64%. In the long term it is also possible to observe (through densitometry of the spine) an increase in bone mass, normalized, equal to 2.3% per year.

Unfortunately, at the moment there are not yet enough data to investigate the correlation between the use of silicon and osteoporotic fractures, however, assisting the integration of silicon with calcium and estrogen-like isoflavonoids of soy could be an excellent preventive therapy against osteoporosis complications menopausal.

NB . There are no (or at least no one knows) contraindications to the use of silicon-based supplements.

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