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Silica - silicon application and effect
contents
- Silica as a wellness product
- How does the body of silicon?
- How much silicon does the body tolerate??
- silicon preparations
- consumer deception?
- Is silicon safe??
- What to do?
- A presenter case
- kidney damage?
- silicon shortage?
- No valid studies
- Closing remarks
Silica as a wellness product
Today, silica is used primarily as a wellness product. The vendors praise it as a "panacea" against brittle nails, spiky hair, and to tighten the connective tissue.
Silica as a remedy and wellness product? Picture: Picture-Factory - fotolia Why should silica act on nails, hair or connective tissue? The plausible idea: Our body contains silicon - especially in cartilage, bone and connective tissue, in the skin and in the teeth. In addition, the body does not produce silicon itself. It is therefore essential to supply the substance from the outside, to strengthen the structure of the bones, and to tighten the connective tissue.
This is done via food: barley, oats, potatoes, carrots and turnips or beer contain, for example, silicon. Is additional silicon useful as a silica preparation? It's necessary? Or it even harms the organism?
How does the body of silicon?
We can process silicon well in low doses and feed ourselves the necessary quantities through "normal" foods. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found that Americans consume 55% of their added silicon through beverages such as coffee, tea and beer, 14% on cereal products and 8% on vegetables. In animal products, however, the substance is hardly included.
English scientists found the highest concentrations of silicon in low-processed grain and oat-based products. Beans, spinach, dried dates, bananas, pineapple and mango also contain lots of silicon, and tap water (in GB) still contains 2.5 mg / liter. Red beets, potatoes and onions also supply silicon.
For foods with silicon content git: The closer they are to the raw state, the better. The more they are processed, the less silicon there is.
Our body usually contains about 20 mg of silicon per kilogram of body weight.
How much silicon does the body tolerate??
Previous studies are inadequate to determine the tolerable levels of silicon that healthy people can deliver to the body without damaging it, according to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).
Food taken up by silicon obviously does not cause problems. The situation is different when inhaled: Highly concentrated silicon compounds in the breathing air over a long period of time can cause silicosis - commonly known as pneumoconiosis.
silicon preparations
Silica, ie preparations containing silicon, are in various variants on the market. They should make the hair shine in full luster, strengthen the nails and harden the bones.
Silicon - Contained in silica. Image: Sport Moments - fotolia However, the European Food Safety Authority considers these effects to be "insufficiently assured". Who sells silica as a food supplement, must therefore not advertise the medical promise.
The only exception is silica, which is sold as a traditional medicine. They are given the inscription: "Traditionally used for the prevention of brittle fingernails and hair, for strengthening the connective tissue. This information is based solely on tradition and many years of experience."
In 2007, the Federal Institute for Materials Research found that nine out of ten dietary supplements containing "silica" contained crystalline silicon oxides, ie quartz and cristobalite. These are classified as fines in the industry to dangerous substances.
If we swallow quartz as a dietary supplement, we could also eat sand. Quartz sand consists mainly of quartz.
The physician Wolfgang Becker-Brüser sees the preparations critically. He says, "Silica is a waste product. It is launched with many promises that can not be kept. It can potentially damage the kidney after prolonged use. In this respect, there is no reason to swallow silica and spend a lot of money for it. "
The critics are opposed to the advocates. According to them, silicon is not harmful because it occurs in the body.
Today it is proven that too much silicon in dietary supplements can lead to urinary and kidney stones in the long run.
consumer deception?
Öko-Test tested 18 dietary supplements and two traditional medicines with silica. The promise was always the same: Taut skin and shiny hair, beautiful nails and firm connective tissue.
The result was sobering: all tested preparations received a poor or insufficient. The medicines scored the examiner by four grades because they had no therapeutically proven effect and are therefore not medicinal products. Is silicon necessary?
Essential substances are chemical elements and compounds that our body needs to live and can not produce itself. These include amino acids such as fatty acids, vitamins, minerals and trace elements.
The essential minerals are calcium, chlorine, potassium, magnesium, sodium, phosphorus and sulfur, the indispensable trace elements cobalt, iron, iodine, copper, manganese, molybdenum, selenium and zinc. Whether silicon is among the essential trace elements is controversial.
Silicon is present in all connective tissues, in the blood vessels, the skin and hair as well as in the bones.
Animal experiments indicate that added silicon has a positive effect on animal bone structure. There are no relevant studies in humans.
An American study of 2847 subjects suggests that daily intake of more than 40 mg of silicon has a positive effect on bone density and may protect against osteoporosis.
Similarly, a study in Alzheimer's patients suggests that mineral water with a high proportion of silicon could positively influence the course of the disease. 3 out of 15 subjects improved their cognitive performance.
Mind you: It goes, very carefully, to assumptions and possibilities that can only be verified by further studies.
However, dietary supplements with silica did not play a role in these studies. In plain language this means that there are indications that an increased intake of silicon could have positive effects.
Nutritional supplements have not been tested, and to deliver over 40 mg of silicon, no preparations are needed: oats and millet each contain more than 400 mg of the substance per kilo. Two plates of oatmeal and a few glasses of silicon-rich mineral water easily exceed the amount of 40 mg.
In mixed diets, we consume about 20-50 mg of silicon per day, with vegetarian whole foods up to 150 mg. If you take potatoes, millet and wheat as a base, add parsley as a spice herb, add cauliflower or spinach, and treat yourself in between a plate of strawberries, grapes and pears, is well served with silicon.
Is silicon safe??
Silicon is widespread, 25% of the earth's crust consists of it, more often is only oxygen. Silicon is in quartz, sand, stones or silica. Silicates are silicon-oxygen compounds, which can be found in ceramics, concrete or glass. Silicon compounds are not always without danger: For example, asbestos is a silicate in very fine fibers. These insulate perfectly and withstand fire, but have the unpleasant side effect of being inhaled, causing lung disease and even lung cancer. Similarly, fine dust from silicates can lead to "black lung".
What to do?
If you have brittle hair or dry skin, discuss the causes with your doctor. If you want to adjust your diet to counteract brittle hair and cracked nails, you should pay attention not to silicon but to biotin, folic acid and zinc. A lack of these three substances proves that hair, skin and nails suffer. These elements are increasingly present in whole grain foods, legumes, eggs and nuts.
If you want to counteract brittle hair and cracked nails, you should pay attention not to silicon, but to biotin, folic acid and zinc. These elements are increasingly present in whole grain foods, legumes, eggs and nuts. (Image: ratmaner / fotolia.com) A presenter case
The Austrian administrative court ruled on 4 September 1995 that the following inscription should not be regarded as a health claim in the sense of § 9 LMG 1975: "Silicon, contained in silica and calcium are essential components of hair, teeth, nails, bones, skin and connective industries ".
The complainant had launched a product called "Kieselerde Forte-Kapseln" on the market.
The court also did not allow the following statement: "Siliceous earth is a pure natural product (diatomaceous rock = diatoms) that originated a long time ago. It consists essentially of silica and contains silicon. Silicon is an essential component of hair, teeth, nails, bones, skin and connective tissue. "
The official expert explained that an element is essential if a deficiency supply in the organism causes a deficiency, and this deficiency can be reversed by the addition of physiological concentrations of the element. Thus, silicon is not essential for the human organism, because there would be no proven deficiency symptoms.
"Silicon is an essential part of hair, teeth, nails, bones, skin and connective tissue" as a statement with the consumer protection against deception incompatible.
kidney damage?
The pharmacologist Gerd Glaeske even sees in such preparations a danger, because who permanently take quartz in high doses, could suffer kidney damage. Glaeske generally considers silica as a placebo, which is a consumer delusion drug and demands that it be taken off the market.
silicon shortage?
A lack of a substance can only exist in the body if it plays a role in the organism. In medical literature, there is not the phenomenon of silicon deficiency. Whether silicon has a function in the body or is useless remains unknown in medicine. That's why there are no scientific recommendations for a minimum quantity.
The fact that silicon is found in hair, nails and skin does not mean that we have to consume this trace element. Theoretically, it would be conceivable that the substance has a task. But it is more logical that we collect silicon without purpose in the body because we absorb it with food: silicon dissolves easily in the water and is abundantly contained in our staple foods. Incidentally, even if it had a biological function, we would not need supplementation, but would just have to drink plenty of water and eat bread.
No valid studies
So far, there are very few clinical studies on the effect of silicon on the bones, and they leave no room for wondering whether silicon affects bone density, hair structure or fingernails at all. Two randomized studies should show if silica improves bone density in older women. The scientists examined 184 postmenopausal women with low bone density. Three out of four took preparations containing choline-stabilized silica for one year, and every fourth received a pseudopreparation. The result: There was no difference in bone density between experimental and comparison groups.
The second study included only 17 participants who drank mineral water with little or no silica for three months. The study was too short and included too few subjects to make a statement about the change in bone density. You could have left her, too.
Closing remarks
Whether and how much silicon should be fed to humans is unclear. In order to maintain bodily functions, the substance is not necessary. How silicon affects bone formation and connective tissue is unclear.
Nor is there any indication that silicon is detrimental to health in food and drink, such as a serious assumption that silica may be beneficial to the body as a nutritional supplement. (Dr. Utz Anhalt, updated 10.07.2018)