Solving bone problems in dogs is easy with Silicon for dogs. Read more about this natural product.
Silicon: solution for bone problems in dogs
Wear and tear of the joints is caused by a degeneration of the articular cartilage. The balance between the construction and breakdown of the cartilage is disturbed. This is a result of a combination of damage to the joints and normal wear and tear. Sometimes the cartilage wear is so strong that the bone is also affected. The older a person or animal gets, the greater the risk of wear and tear on the joints. The elasticity of the cartilage is essential because it protects the bones from the slight shocks caused by your movements and it facilitates the movement of one bone (end) over the other. The development of osteoarthritis can be attributed to aging, a recurrent injury and diet.
To continuously renew cartilage, one element is essential: silicon. The older people and/or animals get, the more difficult it becomes to absorb silicon in the body and what’s more, the modern diet contains little absorbable silicon. Silicon is essential for the production of collagen fibers that help form the cartilage. A shortage of silicon therefore also means a shortage of collagen, which is precisely the glue that has to keep the molecules of our cartilage together.
The build-up of more connective tissue (more collagen) results in stronger ligaments, capsules and tendons, as well as stronger bone (greater bone density). In addition, connective tissue protein is essential for bone flexibility.
The mineral Silicon
Silicon (chemical symbol: Si; English term: silicon) is the most common element on earth after oxygen. The earth’s crust consists of 27.7% silicon. This is considerably more than carbon, which is only 0.0018% of the Earth’s crust. The most common silicon compound is SiO2 (silicon dioxide or silicic acid). The salts of silicic acid are silicates. Silicates hydrolyze in an aqueous environment to oligomeric forms of silicic acid.
Only the small molecular forms of silicic acid are biologically absorbable. This applies to plants, humans and animals. Especially the mono-, di- and tri-silicic acid is biologically well absorbable. In the remainder of this informative piece about silicon, silicon refers to the combination of mono-, di- and tri-silicic acid.
Plankton as an example
A convincing example of the importance of silicon for the plant kingdom is plankton. For example, 40% of the phytoplankton is dependent on the oligomeric silicic acid. The unicellular organisms need an active silicon metabolism to stay alive. And without silicon, much of the phytoplankton would be lost, with the entire food chain in the ocean lost.
The phytoplankton is also responsible for 40% of the oxygen production on earth, so that the conclusion must be that without silicon life on earth is not possible anyway.
Silicon and the body
The first signs of a silicon deficiency are usually found in the skin, hair (read fur in horses) and nails (read hooves in horses). The skin and hair lose their strength and elasticity, and nails become crumbly and brittle. These symptoms are common in the elderly because the silicon concentration in the blood decreases with age.
The supplementation of silicon-containing food negates this effect and her skin and nails will visibly improve.
A more serious phenomenon that is also mainly the result of a silicon deficiency and that is also associated with aging is osteoarthritis.
Osteoarthritis and joints
Wear and tear of the joints is caused by a degeneration of the articular cartilage. The balance between the construction and breakdown of the cartilage is disturbed.
This is a result of a combination of damage to the joints and normal wear and tear. Sometimes the cartilage wear is so strong that the bone is also affected. The older a person or animal gets, the greater the risk of wear and tear on the joints.
Tight and stiff
Older people and animals are often stiff and stiff in the joints, especially when standing up. One of the causes is that the soft cartilage at the end of a bone is affected.
Cartilage is the soft elastic layer in the joints that is found when eating chicken, for example. It is a rubbery, slightly translucent substance.
The body is always in motion. The musculoskeletal system and thus the joint function largely determine the freedom of movement. Problems with the musculoskeletal system can severely limit this functioning.
The elasticity
The elasticity of the cartilage is essential, because it protects the bones from the slight shocks that are always caused by your movements and it facilitates the movement of one bone (end) over the other.
Cartilage is a unique tissue in the body in that it does not contain blood vessels and nerves. As a result, the supply of nutrients is often insufficient.
When cartilage is put under a microscope, it is reminiscent of a sponge. But when the joint is at rest, the cartilage is filled with fluid. The moment the joint receives a shock or is subjected to pressure, the fluid disappears from the cartilage, just as if a sponge filled with water is squeezed.
In a healthy process, the fluid returns to the cartilage when the pressure decreases, but chronic overload can lead to a strong production of free radicals. These free radicals oxidize the large cartilage molecules in the synovial fluid, reducing the sponge effect; the liquid disappears little by little.
The spongy tissue becomes dry and brittle and loses its elasticity. The recurrent shocks and rubbing increasingly affect the dry cartilage and over time it disappears. The bone ends are then no longer protected and the bone itself is affected and begins to deform.
Pain
The result is pain, which can be the cause of less and less physical activity, and that physical activity is precisely necessary to keep the joints flexible.
This creates a downward spiral of degeneration (aging and wear).
There may be other symptoms or signs such as inflammation, deformation, etc.
The usual medical approach is then to prescribe all kinds of painkillers and/or anti-inflammatories and, partly as a result of all kinds of side effects of these drugs, a kind of “roller coaster” of medicines arises. Good for the pharmaceutical industry, but not good for humans and/or animals.
The current medical view is that osteoarthritis is irreversible (i.e. cannot be cured) and that all one can do is slow its development.
That osteoarthritis is irreversible is a misconception!
The main component of cartilage is water. The rest consists of it
connective tissue fiber collagen (glue) and glycoproteins (sugar proteins) that
mainly composed of polysaccharides (multiple sugars).
These are large molecules composed of sugars and proteins, which form the tissue in which the fluid circulates.
Cartilage is formed by the chondrocytes (cartilage cells) that must ensure that there is enough cartilage present and that must purify the cartilage from collagen and glycoproteins that have aged too much.
The onset of osteoarthritis
The development of osteoarthritis can be attributed to aging, a recurrent injury and nutrition.
To continuously renew cartilage, one element is essential: silicon (pebble).
The older people and/or animals get, the more difficult it becomes to absorb silicon in the body and what’s more, the modern diet contains little absorbable silicon.
This is because as people and/or animals get older, less and less of a certain acid is produced, which is necessary to be able to absorb silicon in the body. This creates a silicon deficiency.
Production of collagen fibers
However, silicon is essential for the production of collagen fibers that help form the cartilage. A shortage of silicon therefore also means a shortage of collagen, which is precisely the glue that has to keep the molecules of our cartilage together.
Silicon stimulates the production of new bone cells and slows down bone disintegration. In addition, silicon boosts calcium and vitamin D metabolism.
This also means that fractures heal better and faster.
The build-up of more connective tissue (more collagen) results in stronger ligaments, capsules and tendons, as well as stronger bone (greater bone density). In addition, connective tissue protein is essential for bone flexibility.
Bone decalcification
Osteoporosis is a bone disease. In osteoporosis, the amount of bone tissue and usually also its cohesion is reduced. Such that skeletal deformation already occurs at a low load. An important factor is the maximum bone mass. This determines whether someone will have to deal with osteoporosis fractures at an older age. This bone mass is reached between the ages of 20 and 30. After reaching maximum bone mass, bone mass remains stable for several years, after which a period of bone loss begins. The largest part of the prevention of osteoporosis should therefore take place in the first thirty years of life (in horses the first 7 years).
In addition to genetic (congenital) factors, bone mass is determined by physical activity and nutrition. In addition to calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, boron, manganese, zinc, copper and silicon also play an important role. Sufficient calcium in the diet is very important.
Silicon plays a major role in the absorption of calcium. Silicon functions as a transport medium in the body, so that the calcium is better absorbed and penetrates everywhere in the body. We see a similar effect when applying a siliceous foliar fertilizer in, for example, apple cultivation. The effect of this is that more calcium ends up in the apple, with all the positive consequences that entails.
The relationship between silicic acid and other minerals
Silicon interacts with various other minerals, such as calcium, magnesium, boron, phosphate, zinc and copper. Almost all data comes from animal studies.
Emmerick et al. (1990) showed that the administration of extra silicon led to an increase in copper and the copper-related effects.
Najda et al. (1992) saw similar results with copper. They also saw a higher iron concentration due to the addition of extra silicon, while the zinc content fell. A year later, they found that the administration of extra metasilicate led to a decrease in magnesium levels and an increase in serum calcium levels.
An article by Calcomme et al. (1997) shows that the administration of biologically absorbable (stabilised) silicic acid leads to a moderate increase in phosphorus (P) and magnesium (Mg). More important is the increase in calcium: it was proportional to the increased silicon concentration in the serum.
Seaborn and Nielsen showed in rats that a silicon-deficient diet led to a decrease in minerals in bone tissue, such as calcium, copper, zinc, potassium and phosphorus.
McCrady (2003) showed in rats that silicon supplementation increases calcium, phosphorus and magnesium concentrations in the vertebrae and skull.
Silicon and Alzheimer’s
A high silicon supplement can reduce the risk of getting Alzheimer’s disease (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition). Although silicon is not known to have a direct effect on brain function, it appears that silicon binds aluminum and ensures that aluminum is expelled through the urine. Aluminum is a highly toxic metal that plays a role in the development of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. Silicon counteracts the accumulation of aluminum.
Interesting is the participation of more than 7500 French women aged 75 and older in a study. At the start of this study, an estimate was made of the amount of silicon dioxide consumed per day. In other words, the amount to which each participant in the study was exposed per day via drinking water. Women who consumed less siliceous water performed worse. This in the context of their cognitive function. All this compared to women who took a higher dose of drinking water.
A subgroup of the population was followed over a period of 7 years. In addition, the intake of the amount of silicon was found to determine the degree of risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
Security aspects
In the years 2005 to 2009, the European Food & Safety Authority (EFSA) examined the safety, toxicity and permissible amounts of silicon in human applications. From this study it became clear that silicon in the form of silicates and silicic acid can be fully assessed as safe. It was also examined whether silicon was on any doping list. This turned out not to be the case for humans. It can therefore be assumed that this also applies to horses.
Silicon in the environment
Silicon is, as mentioned above, the most common element on earth after oxygen. It is an important raw material for sand. Silicon dioxide, present in the quartz crystals of sand, cannot be consumed by horses, it is not bioabsorbable, making it useless as a food.
Plants
However, plants use silicon to create strength in their cell walls. Horses receive small amounts of this necessary mineral through these plants and through their normal diet, but it seems that the feed that reaches the horse through commercial channels is less and less available of this bio-absorbable silicon.
Despite its natural presence, surprisingly little is known of the nutritional importance of silicon in the mammalian diet. That said, the American Institute of Nutrition some time ago reformulated their published formulas for doing pure diet rodent experiments by making the decision to add silicon as a necessary nutrient.
This change was the result of a study that showed that silicon interacted with other nutrients with all the possible positive consequences.
Silicon in bone and connective tissue
Most people think that a bone is primarily formed by the minerals calcium and phosphorus. Of course, there are many more components that make up the bone than just these two elements. To begin with, the bone is constantly moving in the sense that old or damaged parts are replaced by new healthy parts.
Silicon plays a role in the formation of new bone and the process of calcium formation. Interestingly, in the early stage of lime formation, the amounts of silicon and lime are low, but they increase as the mineralization process progresses. However, as the bone ages and reaches full maturity, the concentration of silicon decreases, while the amount of calcium remains the same.
The exact role has yet to be determined .
However, it seems that silicon is especially important in the young, still developing horse, where the skeleton is still subject to rapid changes. This theory involving silicon in an early stage of bone formation is supported by studies done on chickens. The chickens in those studies were subjected to a low silicon diet. This led to an abnormal bone structure.
While the role of silicon in the bone mineralization process has been emphasized, silicon also appears to play an important role in the formation of the collagen matrix of bones and blood vessels. The formation of this matrix is necessary to prevent the connective tissue from becoming brittle and susceptible to damage.
When there is a shortage of silicon in the diet, the formation of the matrix appears to be limited; the consequences of this are even greater than those resulting from the lack of silicon in the mineralization process. In the connective tissue structures of bones and blood vessels, it appears that the formation and growth of bone supported by silicon is mainly due to the increase in the concentration of collagen.
The formation of glycosaminoglycans, the main polymeric molecule of the bone matrix, also requires silicon. Again, when chickens were fed a silicon-deficient diet, the amount of collagen in the bones was reduced. The amount of cartilage in the joints was also reduced compared to the chickens that had received extra silicon through the feed.
At the molecular level, it has been found that silicon is present in the mucopolysaccharide and is partly responsible for the formation of cartilage in the joints and connective tissue.
It is therefore an integral part of the mucopolysaccharide protein complex and the formation of collagen and connective tissue is stimulated by silicon.
SilicaDogs is a supplementary animal feed with silicon. It is good for flexible joints and strong bones. It also takes care of your dog’s overall condition.
Silicon improves your dog’s balance. This mineral is very important for your dog’s health. Your dog also stays in good condition naturally.