Silica Health Benefits – Use Silica to Detox, Prevent Autoimmune Diseases, and More
The mineral silica (Si) is getting more notice for its important functions. Sometimes called the “beauty mineral” because it improves skin elasticity and hair and nail growth, a few other more important aspects have been explored lately revolving around silica health benefits.
Silica helps ensure collagen elasticity of all connecting tissues in the body, including tendons and cartilage. This reduces aches and pains and maintains your body’s flexibility. It has also been determined lately that high levels of blood serum silica keep arterial plaque from building and clogging blood vessels.
The main culprit for that plaque has recently shifted from cholesterol buildup to calcification from calcium in the blood that is not absorbed as bone matter. It has been known that silica is an important part of building bone matter. Without it, calcium goes elsewhere to potentially calcify in the soft tissue of inner artery walls and the heart.
Silica is vital for keeping strong bones and a healthy cardiovascular system. This qualifies silica as an essential anti-aging mineral that is much more than skin deep.
Silica for Detoxing Heavy Metals – Especially Aluminum
Showcasing some of the silica health benefits, even PubMed acknowledges silicic acid as an antidote for aluminum poisoning and silica as a detox agent for heavy metals. Both brain tissue calcification and aluminum toxicity are linked to Alzheimer’s disease.
Now it’s been discovered that silica can be supplemented to help prevent yet another aspect of aging – dementia. Obviously it can also be used as an adjunct with any other Alzheimer’s treatment – coconut oil and Alzheimer’s treatment is just one found link.
Aluminum (Al) is passed out through the urine when one supplements silica. It seems there’s little danger of taking too much, as long as adequate water is consumed and vitamin B1 and potassium levels are maintained.
There is no shortage of aluminum toxicity in our environment. It’s in cookware, beverage containers, foil, second hand cigarette smoke, cosmetics, sunscreen, and more. Aluminum is in nearly all vaccines. Injecting aluminum bypasses the normal route of eliminating it.
Aluminum accumulates in tissue that doesn’t have a rapid cellular turnover. The slow turnover tissues are contained in bone matter, the heart and the brain. The brain and its associated nervous system is where diseases such as Parkinson’s, MS, chronic fatigue and other neurological or auto-immune diseases manifest.
Dr. Chris Exley, PhD, has dedicated almost two decades of his scientific life to researching aluminum toxicity. He calls the period of time from the early 20th Century to now the “Age of Aluminum.” Before then, aluminum remained in the ground and hadn’t yet been mined. Exley claims mining aluminum and using it in so many ways corresponds to the marked increase of neurological diseases.
He recommended a couple of pricey mineral waters high in silica that better health food stores might carry.
But there are other good and less pricey silica sources as well.
Silica Sources to Attain the Silica Health Benefits
Horsetail is an excellent and inexpensive herbal source of silica. Horsetail has been around for centuries, and mostly forgotten until recent research attention uncovered more attributes. Until then, horsetail was used mostly as a diuretic or treatment for kidney stones.
Anything for which silica is useful will benefit from horsetail. And there are supplements that are formulated for silica intake that you may want to look into. Foods that help keep your silica levels high are: Unrefined whole grains such as rye, barley, oats, and wheat. Alfalfa sprouts nuts, and other seeds will boost your silica levels and let you experience silica health benefits.
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A very well presented article on a very important mineral. I like to get silica from bamboo, since you rightly pointed out that B-vitamin supplementation is needed to prevent chronic use of horsetail from depleting them.