evipedia.ai
← Back

Silica for Health & Longevity

Evidence Review created on 09/25/2026 using AI4L / Opus 5.5

Also known as: Silicon, Silicon Dioxide, SiO₂, Silicic Acid, Orthosilicic Acid, OSA, Choline-Stabilized Orthosilicic Acid, ch-OSA, Monomethylsilanetriol, MMST, BioSil

Motivation

Silica (silicon dioxide) is the common mineral form of silicon, the second most abundant element in the Earth’s crust. Food and drinking water deliver silicon mainly in a dissolved form that the gut absorbs well, while sand-like silica and most plant silica pass through largely unused. Silicon appears to help the body build collagen, the protein scaffold of bone and skin, which has made silica supplements popular with people seeking stronger bones and healthier-looking skin, hair and nails.

Interest grew after animals deprived of silicon developed malformed bones and joints, and after large population studies linked higher dietary silicon with denser hip bones. Silicon-rich mineral waters have drawn separate attention because dissolved silicon binds aluminium, a metal whose suspected role in dementia is still debated.

This review examines what human studies show about silica supplements, silicon-rich waters and dietary silicon for bone, connective tissue and brain aging, which risks attach to the different forms, and how much confidence the evidence supports for adults pursuing a longer healthy life.

Benefits - Risks - Protocol - Conclusion

This section lists overview articles and expert commentary on silica and silicon for health.

Peter Attia, Andrew Huberman and Lifespan.io have published no dedicated content on silica or silicon supplementation; site and web searches returned only unrelated topics such as mineral sunscreens and silicone.

Grokipedia

Silicon dioxide

A broad chemistry article on silica whose “Health Effects and Safety” section covers ingestion, inhaled crystalline silica and debates over nanoparticle food additives; it says little about supplementation for health.

Examine

Silica

Examine’s dedicated silica page defines the compound and lists its research feed; the detailed study summaries sit behind the Examine+ subscription, and its older research breakdown has been archived.

ConsumerLab

Does silica have health benefits? What is BioSil, and can it really increase collagen production and strengthen hair, skin, nails and bones?

Tod Cooperman’s answer notes weaknesses in the evidence behind BioSil’s claims and a possible safety concern with one of its compounds; the full analysis is members-only.

Systematic Reviews

This section lists systematic reviews and meta-analyses (statistical pooling of results from several studies) relevant to silicon and health.

No systematic review or meta-analysis of harms from oral silicon supplements was found; the risk side of the trade-off is unrepresented.

Mechanism of Action

Silica itself is largely insoluble. The body absorbs silicon as orthosilicic acid (OSA, single dissolved silicon molecules), which forms when silica dissolves in water or is released from plant foods. Roughly 40–50% of ingested OSA is absorbed, apparently through aquaporins (water-channel proteins in cell membranes) (Garneau et al., 2015), then filtered out by the kidneys within hours (Reffitt et al., 1999). Polymerized silica, such as diatomaceous earth (fossilized algae powder), is barely absorbed (Vaquero et al., 2025).

Proposed mechanisms:

  • Collagen and bone formation: in cell cultures, OSA increased type 1 collagen synthesis and maturation of osteoblasts (bone-building cells) (Reffitt et al., 2003) and suppressed human osteoclasts (bone-dissolving cells) (Magnusson & Ransjö, 2024).
  • Connective-tissue structure: silicon may cross-link glycosaminoglycans (water-binding sugar chains in cartilage, skin and artery walls).
  • Aluminium binding: oligomeric silica (short chains of silica molecules) binds aluminium and reduced its gut uptake in volunteers, whereas monomeric OSA did not (Jugdaohsingh et al., 2000).

Competing view: no enzyme or protein that requires silicon has been identified, essentiality in humans is unproven, and high intake may simply mark diets rich in whole grains. Animal bone benefits appear only at doses far above human intake (Pritchard & Nielsen, 2024).

Pharmacology: OSA is not protein-bound, is not metabolized by CYP (cytochrome P450, the main drug-processing liver enzymes) enzymes, distributes to bone, skin, hair, nails and the aorta, and has an estimated half-life of a few hours. Monomethylsilanetriol (MMST, a synthetic organic silicon supplement) is partly converted to OSA.

Historical Context & Evolution

Silicon-rich plants such as horsetail (Equisetum arvense) have long been used in European folk medicine as diuretics (agents that increase urine output) and for brittle nails, wounds and bones. Scientific interest began in 1972, when Edith Carlisle found that chicks fed silicon-depleted diets grew poorly with abnormal bones (Carlisle, 1972) and Klaus Schwarz found that silicon promoted growth in rats (Schwarz & Milne, 1972); later deficiency studies described deformed skulls and joints with less cartilage and collagen (Carlisle, 1976; Carlisle, 1980).

Schwarz then proposed that the loss of silicon from refined, low-fibre diets contributes to atherosclerosis, noting that arterial silicon content falls with age and plaque (Schwarz, 1977). Later work in mice genetically prone to arterial plaque found that a silicon-deficient diet did not worsen lesions (Jugdaohsingh et al., 2015), weakening that hypothesis without testing it in humans.

From the late 1980s, researchers proposed that dissolved silicon protects against aluminium toxicity, and French cohorts linked water silica with lower dementia risk (Rondeau et al., 2009). In the 1990s, Belgian researchers developed choline-stabilized orthosilicic acid to keep silicon in its absorbable form; trials in skin, hair, bone and joints followed, most co-authored by the manufacturer.

In the 2000s, the London and Cambridge group of Ravin Jugdaohsingh and Jonathan Powell mapped dietary intake and absorption and linked intake to bone density in large cohorts (Jugdaohsingh et al., 2004). Bone data have grown, but no trial has measured fractures, and silicon is still not officially classified as an essential nutrient.

Expected Benefits

High 🟩 🟩 🟩

No benefit reaches High: each clinical outcome rests on a single small randomized trial, on observational cohorts or on subgroup findings, and none has been replicated in a second independent trial.

Medium 🟩 🟩

Higher Bone Mineral Density

Higher dietary silicon tracks with higher hip bone mineral density (BMD) in men and premenopausal women in Framingham (Jugdaohsingh et al., 2004) and in women with normal oestrogen in Aberdeen (Macdonald et al., 2012). In a 12-month randomized controlled trial (RCT, supplement or placebo assigned by chance) of 136 women with low bone density, ch-OSA plus calcium and vitamin D raised a bone-formation marker but not spine BMD (Spector et al., 2008); BioSil maker Bio Minerals NV co-authored it.

Magnitude: Hip BMD up to 10% higher in the top fifth (>40 mg/day) versus bottom fifth (<14 mg/day) of silicon intake in Framingham; femoral-neck BMD 2% higher in the top versus bottom quarter in Aberdeen; no significant spine BMD change with ch-OSA over 12 months.

Skin, Hair and Nail Quality ⭕️ Not Central to Health & Longevity

In a 20-week RCT of 50 women with sun-damaged skin, 10 mg silicon daily as ch-OSA reduced skin roughness and self-rated hair and nail brittleness (Barel et al., 2005). A 9-month RCT in 48 women with fine hair found less loss of tensile strength and thicker hair strands (Wickett et al., 2007). Both trials were small, used instrument-measured or self-rated endpoints, and were co-authored by Bio Minerals NV staff. These outcomes bear on appearance rather than on disease risk or lifespan.

Magnitude: Skin roughness fell 16% with ch-OSA versus an 8% rise with placebo over 20 weeks; hair break load fell 2.2% with ch-OSA versus 10.8% with placebo over 9 months.

Preserved Bone Around Dental Implants

In a 1-year RCT of 21 patients after surgery for peri-implantitis (inflammation that destroys bone around a dental implant), twice-daily ch-OSA kept bone level stable while bone loss progressed with placebo (Teughels et al., 2021). Only 18 patients were analysed, the trial was registered retrospectively, and Bio Minerals NV staff were co-authors.

Magnitude: Between-group difference in bone-level change of −0.72 mm (95% confidence interval, the range likely to contain the true value, −1.34 to −0.10) over 12 months.

Low 🟩

Lower Dementia Risk ⚠️ Conflicted

PAQUID linked higher individual water silica intake with fewer dementia cases (Rondeau et al., 2009); EPIDOS linked low water silica to Alzheimer’s disease (Gillette-Guyonnet et al., 2005). A meta-analysis found no pooled association (Zhao et al., 2021), plausibly because area-level exposure estimates dilute individual intake. Net reading: weak, unconfirmed signal.

Magnitude: Adjusted relative risk (risk compared with a reference group) of dementia 0.89 per additional 10 mg/day of silica from drinking water in PAQUID; no significant pooled association for silicon in the 2021 meta-analysis.

Knee Osteoarthritis Symptoms ⚠️ Conflicted

A 12-week RCT of 211 patients found no overall effect of ch-OSA, but men improved on the WOMAC (a validated osteoarthritis symptom questionnaire) (Geusens et al., 2017), possibly reflecting low oestrogen in postmenopausal women. Bio Minerals NV co-authored it. Net reading: no overall benefit; the male signal is unconfirmed.

Magnitude: Overall WOMAC total difference 0.8 mm on a 100-mm scale (not significant); in 46 men, 11.0 mm (95% confidence interval 0.1 to 21.9) greater improvement than placebo.

Lower Arterial Stiffness and Blood Pressure

In a 6-month RCT of 120 healthy adults aged 60–75, silicon-enriched spirulina (an edible algae) did not change blood pressure or arterial stiffness overall; a subgroup with high-normal blood pressure improved (Virsolvy et al., 2025). Spirulina itself may contribute.

Magnitude: No change in the full sample; in the high-normal subgroup, blood pressure fell 8% and aortic pulse wave velocity (speed of the pressure wave along the aorta, a stiffness measure) fell 13.5%.

Lower Blood Cholesterol

In an uncontrolled 8-week study of 19 adults with raised cholesterol, 250 mg diatomaceous earth three times daily lowered cholesterol (Wachter et al., 1998). No placebo trial has followed, and this silica form is barely absorbed.

Magnitude: Total cholesterol fell 13.2% from baseline at week 6.

Speculative 🟨

Aluminium Removal

Drinking up to 1.5 L/day of silicon-rich water raised urinary aluminium in 15 people with multiple sclerosis (Jones et al., 2017). The basis is an uncontrolled study of an unvalidated marker only.

Arterial Wall Protection

Schwarz’s atherosclerosis hypothesis rests on tissue measurements and animal work; silicon-deficient plaque-prone mice fared no worse (Jugdaohsingh et al., 2015). No human outcome data exist.

Benefit-Modifying Factors

  • Genetic factors: No human genetic variants are known to modify silicon benefits; variation in aquaporin genes (which encode the channels that carry silicon into cells) is plausible but unstudied.
  • Baseline dietary intake: Framingham participants eating under 14 mg/day had the lowest bone density (Jugdaohsingh et al., 2004), so people with low whole-grain and plant intake may gain most; serum silicon is not a validated deficiency marker.
  • Sex and oestrogen status: The bone association appears in men and in women with normal oestrogen, but not in postmenopausal women without hormone therapy; in the knee trial, only men improved (Geusens et al., 2017).
  • Pre-existing conditions: Women with low bone density saw marker gains only alongside calcium and vitamin D. Stomach removal (gastrectomy) may lower blood silicon, and kidney disease raises it, changing expected response.
  • Age: Dietary silicon intake falls with age, and postmenopausal women showed no bone association, so benefits for those at the older end of the target range are least certain.

Potential Risks & Side Effects

High 🟥 🟥 🟥

No risk reaches High: no trial or cohort has recorded a harm from oral silicon supplements, and the documented harms come from case reports or from other forms of silica.

Medium 🟥 🟥

No risk reaches Medium: the evidence for each harm consists of case reports, uncontrolled observations in kidney failure or indirect occupational data rather than controlled studies of supplement users.

Low 🟥

Silica Urinary Stones

Silica stones (urolithiasis, stones in the urinary tract) are extraordinarily rare and mostly follow years of magnesium trisilicate antacid use, which delivers far more silica than supplements (Caliskan et al., 2022). A few cases occurred without known intake.

Magnitude: Occurs mainly with long-term high-dose silicate antacid use; the literature reports only case reports and no incidence figure.

Horsetail-Specific Effects

Horsetail extracts act as mild diuretics in humans (Mo et al., 2022). Raw horsetail contains thiaminase (an enzyme that destroys vitamin B1), and diuresis can lower potassium; these effects belong to the plant, not silica.

Magnitude: Not quantified in available studies. No controlled trial has measured electrolyte or vitamin B1 outcomes in horsetail supplement users.

Lung Exposure From Diatomaceous Earth Powder

Inhaled crystalline silica causes silicosis (scarring lung disease) in workers (Mundt et al., 2025). Food-grade diatomaceous earth is mostly non-crystalline, but repeated inhalation of powder while mixing it carries a theoretical lung risk.

Magnitude: Not quantified in available studies. No study has measured dust exposure or lung outcomes in people handling powdered silica supplements.

Speculative 🟨

Silicon Accumulation in Kidney Failure

Because the kidneys clear silicon, dialysis patients accumulate it from dialysis fluid and high-silicon water (Gitelman et al., 1992). No overt effects were seen; the basis is an unvalidated blood marker without human outcome data.

Nanosized Silica Particles

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) saw no concern for silicon dioxide additive E 551 but flagged uncertain nano-sized aggregates (EFSA Panel, 2024). The basis is animal and cell data only.

Unknown Long-Term MMST Safety

Rat toxicology funded by the maker found no adverse effects (Preece et al., 2020). Human data span only 4 weeks, and a researcher linked to rival ch-OSA disputed its safety (Vanden Berghe, 2013).

Risk-Modifying Factors

  • Genetic factors: No genetic variants are known to alter silicon handling or side effects; no studies have linked genes to silicon response.
  • Kidney function: Reduced estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR, a blood-test estimate of kidney filtering) slows silicon clearance; below 30 mL/min/1.73 m² accumulation becomes likely.
  • Sex differences: No sex-based differences in silicon side effects are known; pregnancy and breastfeeding lack safety data for supplemental doses.
  • Pre-existing conditions: Past kidney stones, long-term silicate antacid use, low potassium on diuretics, and alcohol-related vitamin B1 deficiency raise risk, the last two chiefly with horsetail products.
  • Age: Kidney function declines with age, so adults at the older end of the target range clear silicon more slowly and more often take interacting diuretics.
  • Form used: Loose diatomaceous earth powder adds inhalation risk; horsetail adds diuretic and thiaminase effects; stabilized liquids and capsules avoid both.

Key Interactions & Contraindications

  • Diuretics (furosemide, hydrochlorothiazide) with horsetail products: Caution. Additive fluid and potassium loss may cause hypokalemia (low blood potassium) and arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat). Mitigation: non-horsetail silicon forms, or a potassium check after 2–4 weeks.
  • Lithium with horsetail products: Caution. Diuretic herbs may alter lithium clearance and raise lithium levels toward toxicity. Mitigation: avoiding the combination, or lithium-level monitoring after starting.
  • Aluminium-containing medications (aluminium hydroxide antacids, sucralfate): Monitor. Oligomeric silica (short chains of silica molecules) reduces aluminium absorption and silicon-rich water raises aluminium excretion; clinical consequence is unclear. Mitigation: separating doses by 2 hours.
  • Silicate antacids (magnesium trisilicate): Caution. Additive silica load raises urinary silica stone risk with long-term use. Mitigation: avoiding chronic combined use.
  • Calcium and vitamin D supplements: Monitor. Additive, potentially beneficial effect on bone-formation markers; blood calcium checks only when calcium doses are high.
  • Collagen peptides and vitamin C: Monitor. Additive support for collagen formation; no harmful consequence known and no action required.
  • Other diuretic herbs (dandelion, juniper) with horsetail: Caution. Additive fluid and electrolyte loss. Mitigation: avoiding stacked diuretic herbs.
  • Vitamin B1 (thiamine) with horsetail: Minor, beneficial. Thiamine supplementation offsets thiaminase-related depletion from non-heat-treated horsetail; no harmful consequence.
  • Beer and alcohol: Monitor. Beer is a major silicon source, but alcohol harms bone and brain above moderate intake; counting beer as a silicon strategy is counterproductive.
  • Dialysis and high-silicon water: Caution. Silicon accumulates in dialysis patients, and high-silicon waters add further load. Mitigation: avoiding silicon-rich waters.

Populations who should avoid Silica:

  • People with chronic kidney disease stage 4–5 (eGFR below 30 mL/min/1.73 m²) or on dialysis.
  • People with a history of silica urinary stones.
  • Pregnant or breastfeeding women, for supplemental doses above food intake (no safety data).
  • Children, for supplemental doses (no safety data).
  • For horsetail products specifically: people with potassium below 3.5 mmol/L, those on lithium, and those with alcohol use disorder or known vitamin B1 deficiency.

Risk Mitigation Strategies

  • Kidney check before starting: Measuring eGFR and creatinine first, and avoiding supplementation below 30 mL/min/1.73 m², prevents silicon accumulation in kidney failure.
  • Absorbable, low-residue forms: Stabilized OSA or MMST at 5–10 mg silicon daily delivers far less unabsorbed silica than silicate antacids, lowering silica stone risk.
  • Hydration: A fluid intake of at least 2 L daily dilutes urinary silica and lowers stone risk.
  • Heat-treated or thiaminase-free horsetail only: Products labeled thiaminase-free, combined with a B-complex, prevent vitamin B1 depletion.
  • Potassium monitoring with horsetail: A serum potassium check after 2–4 weeks in people also taking diuretics detects hypokalemia early.
  • Avoiding powder inhalation: Mixing diatomaceous earth gently into liquid, never ingesting the dry powder, and using food grade with under 1% crystalline silica limits lung exposure.
  • Capped supplemental dose: Supplemental silicon near trial doses (about 10 mg daily) keeps total intake within the 30–70 mg/day EFSA judged safe (EFSA ANS Panel et al., 2018), limiting unknown long-term risk.
  • Stopping at warning signs: Discontinuation at flank pain, blood in urine or muscle weakness catches stones or potassium loss early.

Therapeutic Protocol

  • Food-first approach (Jugdaohsingh and Powell research group): Targets more than 40 mg silicon daily, the top Framingham fifth (Jugdaohsingh et al., 2004), from oats, barley, whole grains, green beans and silicon-rich water; silicon from bananas is poorly absorbed.
  • Stabilized supplement approach (Bio Minerals NV, developers of BioSil): ch-OSA at 5–10 mg silicon daily; the bone trial tested 3–12 mg with 1,000 mg calcium and 20 µg vitamin D3 (Spector et al., 2008).
  • MMST approach (Living Silica and similar brands): 10.5 mg silicon daily, the maximum labeled dose, raised serum silicon without adverse events over 4 weeks (Jugdaohsingh et al., 2013).
  • Silicon-rich water approach (Christopher Exley, Keele University): Up to 1 L daily of mineral water containing over 30 mg/L silica, aimed mainly at aluminium removal (Exley, 2022).
  • Best time of day: No trial compared timing; OSA absorption is rapid, so timing can follow convenience, and silicon-rich water can be spread through the day.
  • Half-life: Serum silicon rises within about 1–2 hours of OSA intake and is cleared by the kidneys at 82–96 mL/min; the half-life is estimated at a few hours (Reffitt et al., 1999).
  • Single versus split dosing: Skin and hair trials used once-daily dosing; the implant trial used twice-daily capsules. Rapid clearance makes split dosing reasonable but unproven.
  • Genetic polymorphisms: No variants are known to guide dose; aquaporin genotype has not been studied.
  • Sex-based differences: Bone associations appear in men and women with normal oestrogen; the knee trial showed benefit only in men (Geusens et al., 2017); women after menopause may respond less without hormone therapy.
  • Age considerations: Intake falls with age while kidney clearance declines; eGFR is typically checked in older adults before higher doses or large volumes of silicon-rich water.
  • Baseline biomarkers: People eating under 14 mg/day have most room to gain; serum or urine silicon can confirm uptake but has no target value.
  • Pre-existing conditions: For low bone density, trials combined silicon with calcium and vitamin D; in advanced kidney disease, supplementation is avoided.

Discontinuation & Cycling

  • Lifelong or short-term: Silicon behaves like a dietary nutrient, so food sources are lifelong; supplement trials lasted at most 12 months, and longer use is untested.
  • Withdrawal effects: None known; serum silicon returns to baseline within days of stopping.
  • Tapering: Not needed; supplements can be stopped abruptly.
  • Cycling: No evidence supports cycling for efficacy; horsetail products are generally labeled for short-term use because of diuretic effects.
  • When to stop: Declining kidney function, stone formation, or no change in the target outcome after 6–12 months are the usual reasons for discontinuation.

Sourcing and Quality

  • Form and bioavailability: Stabilized OSA (ch-OSA, OSA-vanillin complex) and MMST are well absorbed; horsetail, bamboo and diatomaceous earth deliver mostly polymerized silica that is poorly absorbed.
  • Elemental silicon versus silica: Labels may list silica (silicon dioxide), which is about 47% silicon; products are comparable only by elemental silicon milligrams.
  • Third-party testing: Verification by USP (United States Pharmacopeia), NSF or Informed Choice adds assurance; plant- or earth-derived products warrant testing for lead, arsenic and cadmium.
  • Reputable brands: BioSil (ch-OSA) has the most clinical data; Living Silica (MMST) has toxicology data; OSA-vanillin complex passed EFSA novel-food review (EFSA ANS Panel et al., 2018).
  • Diatomaceous earth grade: Food grade contains under 1% crystalline silica; pool-filter grade is calcined (heat-treated) and rich in crystalline silica.
  • Excipient silica: Silicon dioxide listed as a capsule flow agent supplies negligible, poorly absorbed silicon and is not a source.
  • Mineral waters: Only waters labeled above 30 mg/L silica meet Exley’s silicon-rich threshold (Exley, 2022); Fiji water is one widely available example.

Practical Considerations

  • Time to effect: Serum silicon rises within hours; skin changes appeared by 20 weeks (Barel et al., 2005), hair changes by 9 months (Wickett et al., 2007), and bone-marker changes by 12 months (Spector et al., 2008).
  • Common pitfalls: Confusing silica with silicone; counting capsule excipient silica as intake; buying horsetail or bamboo products expecting stabilized-OSA absorption; judging results within weeks.
  • Regulatory status: Sold as a dietary supplement in the United States without FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approval; no recommended intake or upper limit exists; EFSA cleared OSA-vanillin complex as a novel food (EFSA ANS Panel et al., 2018).
  • Research funding: Silicon is cheap and unpatentable, and insurers do not pay for supplements, so no well-funded party has an incentive to run fracture or dementia trials; supplement makers fund most trials.
  • Cost and access: Inexpensive and widely available; cost is not a barrier.

Interaction with Foundational Habits

  • Sleep: None known. No study links silicon intake to sleep quality or timing, and no mechanism suggests disruption; dosing can occur at any time without sleep effects.
  • Nutrition: Direct. Whole grains, oats, barley, green beans and silicon-rich water supply most absorbable silicon; highly refined diets supply little. Calcium, vitamin D, vitamin C and protein are required partners for collagen and bone formation.
  • Exercise: Indirect, potentiating. Mechanical loading is the main stimulus for bone formation; silicon may support the collagen matrix that loading builds. No study tested silicon with resistance training; timing around workouts is irrelevant.
  • Stress management: None known. No data link silicon to cortisol or the stress response; chronic stress-related bone loss has not been studied with silicon.

Monitoring Protocol & Defining Success

Before starting, baseline testing establishes kidney safety and a reference point for the target outcome: kidney function, electrolytes when horsetail is used, a bone density scan for bone goals, and optionally bone-turnover markers and urinary silicon to confirm that the chosen form is absorbed.

Ongoing monitoring follows this cadence: urinary silicon at 4–8 weeks to confirm uptake; potassium at 2–4 weeks for horsetail users on diuretics; kidney function every 6–12 months; bone-turnover markers at 6 and 12 months; and bone density every 12–24 months. Success means stable or rising bone density, improved skin, hair or nail quality within 6–9 months, and no decline in kidney function.

Biomarker Optimal Functional Range Why Measure It? Context/Notes
eGFR and creatinine eGFR above 90 mL/min/1.73 m² Confirms silicon clearance eGFR is estimated glomerular filtration rate; conventional normal is above 60; supplements are avoided below 30; no fasting needed
Serum potassium 4.0–5.0 mmol/L Detects diuretic losses Horsetail users only; conventional range 3.5–5.1 mmol/L; best paired with magnesium
Urinary silicon (24-hour) No established target; track rise from own baseline Confirms absorption Typical diets excrete roughly 10–20 mg/day; requires a complete 24-hour collection
Bone mineral density (DEXA) T-score above −1.0 Tracks bone outcome DEXA is dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, a low-dose bone scan; T-score compares density with a young-adult average; conventional low bone density (osteopenia) is −1.0 to −2.5; repeat scans are most comparable on the same machine
PINP No established functional target; track change from own baseline Measures bone formation PINP is procollagen type 1 N-terminal propeptide, a new-bone collagen marker; lab-specific reference range; morning sample
CTX Lower half of premenopausal reference range Measures bone breakdown CTX is C-terminal telopeptide, a bone-breakdown marker; fasting morning sample; conventional range is lab-specific
Whole-blood vitamin B1 Upper half of lab reference range Detects thiaminase effect Horsetail users only; conventional range roughly 70–180 nmol/L
Urinalysis No blood or crystals Screens for stones Best paired with kidney ultrasound if flank pain appears

Qualitative markers:

  • Nail strength and breakage frequency
  • Hair shedding, thickness and texture
  • Skin smoothness, elasticity and hydration
  • Joint stiffness and ease of movement
  • Urinary symptoms such as flank pain or blood in urine

Emerging Research

  • Silicon supplements and aluminium excretion (SILIAL): Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of three silicon supplements, including MMST, on urinary aluminium excretion in 47 adults; completed in 2022 with no results posted (NCT05116982). Publication could strengthen or weaken the aluminium case.
  • Silicon-rich water and bone metabolism: A 12-week randomized trial enrolling 19 women found that 1 L daily of silicon-rich Fiji water raised urinary silicon but did not change bone-turnover markers (Li et al., 2010; NCT01067508), weakening the short-term bone case.
  • No recruiting trials: A ClinicalTrials.gov search in September 2026 found no active trials of oral silicon supplements; fracture and dementia outcomes remain untested.
  • Vascular aging: The high-normal blood pressure subgroup benefit reported by Virsolvy et al., 2025 needs confirmation in trials enrolling adults with stiff arteries, with silicon separated from spirulina.
  • Bone cell work: Orthosilicic acid suppressed human osteoclast formation in culture (Magnusson & Ransjö, 2024), supporting trials with bone density or fracture endpoints.
  • Evidence weakening the case: Diatomaceous earth silicon was not absorbed (Vaquero et al., 2025), and pooled dementia data showed no silicon association (Zhao et al., 2021).
  • Nanoparticle safety: EFSA called for studies of nano-sized silicon dioxide aggregates with proper dispersion (EFSA FAF Panel et al., 2024); results could shift views on silica additives.

Conclusion

Silica is the everyday mineral form of silicon, and the body uses silicon only in its dissolved form, found in whole grains, some vegetables, beer and certain mineral waters, or in supplements formulated to keep silicon dissolved. The strongest case concerns bone, skin and other supporting tissues: people who eat more silicon tend to have denser hips, and small trials of these supplements showed better skin texture, stronger hair, less bone loss around dental implants and a rise in a blood sign of bone building. None of these findings has been repeated independently, no study has examined fractures, and the effect on bone appears weaker in women after menopause.

Links to brain aging, joint pain, blood vessels and cholesterol rest on population data, results limited to some participants, or studies without comparison groups, and the dementia signal conflicts across analyses. Risks at food-like amounts appear low; problems arise mainly with kidney failure, heavy use of certain antacids, horsetail-based products and inhaled powders.

The evidence base is thin and partly conflicted. Most supplement trials were co-authored by the maker of the leading supplement brand. Because silicon is cheap and cannot be patented, no well-funded party has reason to run large trials. For health-focused adults, dietary silicon is a low-risk part of a whole-food pattern, while the benefits of supplements remain plausible but unproven.

Top - Benefits - Risks - Protocol