Evidence of the Benefits of Silicon for Human Health

Silicon is not generally recognized as essential for humans because it has not been found to be required for growth, reproduction, or sustenance for life. However, nutritional amounts of silicon prevent bone, hexosamine, and collagen abnormalities in experimental animals fed silicon-deprived diets. In vitro studies have shown that silicon promotes bone formation and maintenance. Epidemiological and supplementation studies indicate that nutritional intakes of silicon are beneficial for bone growth and maintenance and normal connective tissue properties in humans. Support for being beneficial for human health is that the absorption, tissue uptake, distribution, transport, and excretion of silicon have the characteristics of essential mineral elements. Silicon moves through the body mainly as orthosilicic acid. A likely mechanism of action of silicon in bone development is that in the bone formation or remodeling front, orthosilicic acid is transformed into the silicate ion, which is substituted by phosphate. This substitution promotes amorphous bone to become crystalline hydroxyapatite bone. The mechanism of action in connective tissue may be through the ability of silicon to form complexes with the polyols hexosamine and ascorbate. These polyols are used to form glycosaminoglycans, mucopolysaccharides, and collagen, which are involved in connective tissue formation and stabilization.