Joint wear and osteoarthritis become more common as a dog gets older. Silicon is a mineral the body needs to produce collagen in cartilage and bone.
The mineral Silicon
Silicon (chemical symbol: Si) is the most common element on earth after oxygen. The earth’s crust consists of 27.7% silicon. 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. Mono-, di- and tri-silicic acid in particular are well absorbed. From here on, silicon refers to the combination of mono-, di-, and tri-silicic acid.
Silicon and the body
The first signs of a silicon deficiency are usually found in the skin, the hair or coat, and the nails. The skin and hair lose their strength and elasticity, and nails become crumbly and brittle. These symptoms are common in older people because the silicon concentration in the blood decreases as the years increase.
A more serious condition that comes with aging is osteoarthritis.
Osteoarthritis and joints
Joint wear is caused by a degeneration of the joint cartilage. The balance between the building up and breaking down of the cartilage is disturbed.
This is a result of a combination of joint damage and normal wear and tear. Sometimes the cartilage wear is so severe that the bone is also affected. The older a person or animal gets, the greater the chance of joint wear.
Stiff and rigid
Older people and animals are often stiff and rigid in the joints, especially when getting up. One of the causes is that the soft cartilage located at the end of a bone is affected.
Cartilage is the soft elastic layer in the joints that can be found, for example, when eating chicken. It is a rubbery, somewhat translucent substance.
The body is constantly 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 against the slight shocks caused by your movements and facilitates the movement of one bone (end) over the other.
Cartilage is a unique tissue in the body because it contains no blood vessels and nerves. As a result, the supply of nutrients is often insufficient.
When cartilage is placed under a microscope, it resembles a sponge. But when the joint is at rest, the cartilage is filled with fluid. When the joint experiences 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 in chronic overload, there can be a strong production of free radicals. These free radicals oxidize the large cartilage molecules in the joint fluid, reducing the sponge effect; the fluid disappears little by little.
The spongy tissue becomes dry and brittle and loses its elasticity. The recurring shocks and frictions increasingly damage 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 cause less and less physical activity to be performed, and that physical activity is precisely necessary to keep the joints flexible.
This creates a downward spiral of degeneration (aging and wear).
Other symptoms or phenomena may occur, such as inflammation, deformities, etc.
The usual medical approach is then to prescribe painkillers and/or anti-inflammatories. Such medications can have side effects.
The common medical opinion is that osteoarthritis is irreversible (thus incurable) and that all that can be done is to slow down its development.
What cartilage is made of
The main component of cartilage is water. The rest consists of the connective tissue fiber collagen (adhesive) and glycoproteins (sugar proteins) that are mainly composed of polysaccharides (multiple sugars).
These are large molecules composed of sugars and proteins that 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 of collagen and glycoproteins that have become too old.
The onset of osteoarthritis
The onset of osteoarthritis can be attributed to aging, recurring injury, and nutrition.
Silicon (silica) also plays a role in renewing cartilage.
The older the person and/or animal gets, the more difficult it becomes to absorb silicon in the body, and what adds to this is that modern nutrition contains little absorbable silicon.
This is because, as the person and/or animal gets older, less of a certain acid is produced, which is necessary to absorb silicon in the body. This results in a silicon deficiency.
Production of collagen fibers
However, silicon is essential for the production of collagen fibers that form the cartilage. A lack of silicon also means a lack of collagen, which is precisely the adhesive that must hold the molecules of our cartilage together.
The formation of more connective tissue (more collagen) results in stronger ligaments, capsules, and tendons, as well as stronger bones (greater bone density). Moreover, connective tissue protein is essential for the flexibility of the bone.
Bone decay
Osteoporosis is a bone disease. In osteoporosis, the amount of bone tissue and usually also its cohesion is reduced. So much so that even with a slight load, skeletal deformation occurs. An important factor is the maximum bone mass. This determines whether someone will experience osteoporosis fractures in old age. This bone mass is reached between the ages of twenty and thirty. After reaching the maximum bone mass, the bone mass remains stable for a few years, after which a period of bone loss begins. Most of the prevention of osteoporosis should therefore take place in the first thirty years of life.
In addition to genetic (inherited) 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.
For the absorption of calcium, silicon plays a major role. Silicon functions as a transport medium in the body, allowing calcium to be better absorbed and penetrate throughout the body. A similar effect is seen when administering a silicon-containing foliar fertilizer, for example, in apple cultivation. The effect of this is that more calcium ends up in the apple.
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 come from animal studies.
Emmerick et al. (1990) showed that the administration of extra silicon led to an increase in copper and copper-related effects.
Najda et al. (1992) saw similar results regarding copper. They also saw a higher iron concentration due to the administration of extra silicon, while the zinc content decreased. A year later, they found that the administration of extra meta-silicate led to a decrease in magnesium content and an increase in calcium levels in the serum.
In an article by Calcomme et al. (1997), it appears that the administration of biologically absorbable (stabilized) silicic acid leads to a moderate increase in phosphorus (P) and magnesium (Mg). More importantly, the increase in calcium: this was proportional to the increased silicon concentration in the serum.
Seaborn and Nielsen showed in rats that silicon-deficient nutrition 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 the calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium concentrations in the vertebrae and skull.
Silicon in the environment
Silicon is the most common element on earth after oxygen. It is an important basic substance of sand. The silicon dioxide in the quartz crystals of sand is not bio-absorbable: a dog cannot take it up, so it is useless as food.
Plants
Plants use silicon to strengthen their cell walls. Through the plants in their diet, animals receive small amounts of this mineral.
Despite its presence in nature, surprisingly little is known about the nutritional importance of silicon in the diet of mammals. Some time ago, the American Institute of Nutrition revised its published formulas for purified diets in rodent experiments and added silicon as a necessary nutrient.
This change followed research showing that silicon interacts with other nutrients.
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 are part of the bone than just these two elements. To begin with, the bone is constantly in motion 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 calcification process. In the early stage of calcification, the amounts of silicon and calcium are low, but they increase as the mineralization process progresses. As the bone gets older 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 animal, where the skeleton is still subject to rapid change. This theory, in which silicon is involved in an early stage of bone formation, is supported by studies conducted on chickens. The chickens in those studies were given a silicon-deficient diet. This led to an abnormal bone structure.
While the role of silicon in the mineralization process of bones is emphasized, silicon also plays 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 lack of silicon in the diet, the formation of the matrix is limited; the consequences of this are even greater than those resulting from the absence of silicon in the mineralization process. In the connective tissue structures of bones and blood vessels, it appears that the formation and growth of the bone supported by silicon is mainly a result of 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, it was found that the amount of collagen in the bones was reduced. The amount of cartilage in the joints was also reduced compared to the chickens that received extra silicon through the feed.
At the molecular level, it has been shown that silicon is present in the mucopolysaccharides and is partly responsible for the formation of cartilage in the joints and connective tissue.
Thus, it is an integral part of the mucopolysaccharide protein complex, and the formation of collagen and connective tissue is stimulated by silicon.
Bone problems in dogs: silicon
SilicaDogs is a complementary animal feed with silicon. It is good for flexible joints and strong bones. It also ensures the overall condition of your dog.
Silicon ensures that your dog’s balance improves. This mineral is of great importance for your dog’s health. Your dog also remains in good condition naturally.
