Silicon
A silicon rich diet protects against aging and degenerative
diseases including cancer, arthritis and osteoporosis.
Silicon (Si) is a non-metallic hexagonal shaped element, with atomic number
14 in the periodic table. The element Silicon rapidly oxidizes to form silica or
“sand.” SiO2 arranges itself into the highly ordered spiral configuration of quartz
crystal. By mass, silicon makes up 25.7% of the Earth’s crust and is the second most
abundant element on Earth, after oxygen. It is found as biogenic silica in plants,
animals and in most living organisms. It is present in the cell walls of various plants
(including edible ones) to strengthen their structural integrity. Bird feathers are
composed of 70% silicon. The silicon in tissues is usually bonded to glycoproteins
such as cartilage, whereas the silicon in the blood is almost entirely found as either
free orthosilicic acid or linked to small compounds.
This trace element really helps to bind protein molecules together in the blood
vessels and connective tissues. Collagen is the “body glue” that holds our skin and
muscle tissues together and silicon a component of collagen. Collagen protein
comprises the connective tissue of the trachea, the aorta, skin, bone, hair, nails,
cartilage and ligaments. Silicon is found in almost all body tissue and has numerous
functions, not all structural, including assisting removing mercury from the body.
Silicon is involved the water binding and protein swelling necessary for all plasma
life processes. aging involves dehydration of the cells and consequent desiccation
and denaturing of protein through disruption in osmotic exchanges. In that silicon
works to prevent dehydration it helps prevent aging.
Silicon is converted in the body to orologosilicate salt and incorporated into
the colloidal structure of the connective tissue. Silicon plays an essential role in the
synthesis of collagen, the most abundant protein found in the body. The bulk of
connective tissue in the body is greater than regular cellular substance, in all tissue
except fatty tissue. Because it has so much connective tissue 2% of muscle tissue
is composed of silicon. Collagen fibers are constructed from chains consisting
predominantly of the amino acids glycine and proline woven together to form
fibers. These strands are the primary structural proteins of the body, whether they
be thin layers forming the skin, rope-like tendons, or the collagen fibers shaped
into the scaffolding of the bones. Both carbon and silicon are semi-conductors,
readily either donating or sharing their four outer electrons. Silicon and carbon
have very similar bonding properties, as illustrated by the fact that they appear in
the same column of the periodic table. They both form 109.5 degree bonds in a
tetrahedral configuration. Silica may have played a part in the origins of life.
“A curious fact is that terrestrial life-forms utilize exclusively right-handed carbohydrates
and left-handed amino acids. One theory to account for this is that the first prebiotic
carbon compounds formed in a pool of “primordial soup” on a silica surface having a
certain handedness. This handedness of the silicon compound determined the preferred
handedness of the carbon compounds now found in terrestrial life.”
http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/S/siliconlife.html