AO Bone Builder

AO Bone Builder

The Untold Story of Silicon,
its vital role in "building" calcium
in the body & "Kervran's" theories on
Biological Transmutation

Code 502 -- Price: $14.95
8 fl. oz. (240 ml.)  Availability | Presently Not Available

{xtypo_dropcap}M{/xtypo_dropcap}uch ado has been made in recent years about our society's systemic increase in mineral deficiencies, rooted in our repeated use of mineral-depleted agricultural topsoils. (We touch on this subject in both our articles on Lugol's iodine and coral calcium.)

That silicon would be largely overlooked as a vital trace mineral (despite niche markets where silica products are promoted to strenthen nails) is not surprising. The average human body only contains about 7 grams -- most of it bonded to glycoproteins (i.e. cartilage). (Silicon found in the blood is found as free orthosilicic acid or is linked to smaller compounds.) In fact, the entire subject of "silicon nutrition" has largely remained a subject of agricultural and horticulture, where studies have shown that certain crops, notably rice, sugar cane, corn, wheat, and barley suffer substantially from inadequate levels of silicon uptake -- (a problem for which potassium silicate is a commonly recommended soil remedy and interest in silicon fertization has been initiated).

This is not to say that silicon deficiency has not been proven to be an issue in animal (and human) dietary habits. Studies in the early 70's using rats and chickens fed silicon-deficient diets resulted in skeletal deformities, abnormal skulls and long bone structures, and poorly-formed joints with decreased cartilage content. (1) More recent research involving biochemical analysis showed that silicon is a vital nutrient for the structural integrity and development of connective tissue (2), which is composed of cells producing fibrous protein matrixes of collagen and elastin, in addition to glycosaminoglycans (GAG). (3) Silicon is thought to stabilize this matrix. (11)
But the role of silicon goes well beyond its contribution to creating and sustaining vital connective tissue. Silicon is a major ion in osteogenic cells -- the bone-forming cells in young, uncalcified bone. As bone ages, silicon concentration decreases, while calcium and phosphorus are created in its stead. Researchers have concluded that silicon is a regulating factor for the deposition of calcium and phosphorus in bone tissue (4). But just as important is that fact that silicon has a vital role in maintaining bones after formation. In fact, silicon supplementation reduces the number of osteoclast cells, which are responsible for bone reabsorption and bone loss (5) -- (osteoclast cells "digest" bone as part of a recycling process, and an excess of osteoclast activity in the absence of bone formation gives rise to osteoporosis). Another study has shown that silicon supplementation actually prevents bone loss, (6) while another clinical report of 53 osteoporotic women using silicon supplementation shows a substantial increase in mineral bone density in the femur. (7)

Dietary Silicon

Dietary silicon comes primarily from plants, which absorb orthosilicic acid from the soil and convert it to polymerized silicon. (8) Oats, wheat bran, and vegetables have a relatively high silicon concentration relative to other natural foods -- these help deliver the 20 to 50 mg. in average daily dietary intake of silicon. (9)

The bigger problem, of course, is bioavailability. These natural silicon dietary sources are insoluble and cannot be directly digested in the GI tract. Dietary silicon is broken down into orthosilicic acid by stomachic hydrochloric acid, so that it can be absorbed in the stomach and small intestines. As we age, stomach acids diminish in strength (i.e. pH increases), which means that the actual amount of silicon absorbed from food experiences a gradual decline. (This is why stabilized hydronium is an active ingredient in AO Bone Builder -- it provides the acidified environment necessary for the body to make orthosilicic acid. One supporting note: the function of the stomach is metabolizing silicon is so important, that stomach surgery is a recognized in woman as an etiological risk factor for osteoporosis.) (10)

"Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its appearance like that of bdellium. And the people would go about and gather it and grind it between two millstones or beat it in the mortar, and boil it in the pot and make cakes with it; and its taste was as the taste of cakes baked with oil." ---- Numbers 11 : 7 - 8 Osteoporosis & Steel-Ground Grains Flour milling is reported to be the first fully automated manufacturing process of the Industrial Age. American inventor and millwright Oliver Evans is credited with implementing the automation of the flour milling in 1785. In fact, Evans reportedly granted a license to Thomas Jefferson in 1808 to use his mill improvements and modifications. By 1870, flour mills required less than 3 employees; water powered 70% of all mills; steam, the balance. In 1878 a fateful development arose that wrought an increase in milling efficiency and product uniformity, but initiated a gradual, but dramatic, increase in a fairly uncommon bone disease: osteoporosis. That development was the replacement of millstones with corrugated cylindrical steel rollers. In an age before the emergence of dietary and nutritional sciences, no one knew that the silicon from the millstone leached into the flour. No one knew that by eliminating the millstone and replacing it with steel rollers, a valuable source of this vital nutrient would be eliminated. Although there is currently an alarming increase in the incidence of osteoporosis in the West (about one in three women will suffer from a osteoporotic fracture), the cause is (we believe) inaccurately attributed to insufficient calcium. In time, the true role of silicon will be recognized -- and what we lost in abandoning an ancient method of grinding grain, one that managed to make osteoporosis a rare disease (now one quite common).

Other modern developments in food production have worked to reduce available dietary silicon. Both topsoil nutrient depletion and the emergence of aquacultures diminish orthosilicic acid product in plants -- making crops that are less rigid in structure due to reduced biosynthesis of phytolytic fibers and specific epidermal cells containing silica structures. Such crops have lower silicon concentration, thus providing less dietary silicon than those foods grown on mineral rich soil that has not been depleted through overuse.

Silicon Supplementation

There are, in addition to AO Bone Builder (tm), a number of silicon supplementation products on the market -- sufficient to warrant commentary. Currently, nearly all silicon supplemental products fall into one of three categories: (1) Colloidal silica gel, (2) Horsetail or similar animal silica source, and (3) Concentrated orthosilicic acid. The last category boasts a higher silicon absorption rate -- in other words, better silicon bioavailability or "biologically active" silicon.
We have no doubt that a concentrated orthosilicic acid will result in rapid silicon absorption -- and the clinical tests behind approach appear to be in good order. Our own belief, based on empirical evidence we see in end users, is that a focus on blood silicon levels, in and of itself, misses a much bigger picture. After all, remember that the entire human body contains only 7 grams of silicon. That is well under two-hundredths of a pound. To put this in perspective, this equals the mass of about ten standard supplement capsules ("double O's").

So is it the sheer quantity of silicon that makes a difference in optimal human nutrition as it pertains to this trace mineral? Or an emphasis in its bioavailability in a form that will allow it to transmute into calcium?
The very suggestion is heretical to doctors, nutritionists, dietitians, and biochemists in the orthodox community, but not to those who are familiar to the principles of biological transmutations as expounded by Professor C. Louis Kervran -- whose work is widely respected in Japan and much of Europe. (Read the sidebar to the right of this column.) To those who understand the relationship between nutrient quantity, true bioavailability, and optimal utilization, more is not always better.
The AO Bone Builder formula is built around an understanding of creating stomachic conditions that allow rapid update of silicon which the body can use to fulfill its ultimate functions.