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Do Additives in Health Food Supplement and Pharmaceutical Tablets Make us Ill?
Taken from Issue 33 of The Truth Campaign Magazine
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Silicon-Induced Contracture Syndrome by Ivan Fraser
The following article explores the theory that silicon dioxide - a chemical excipient in most nutritional supplement pills and many pharmaceutical drug tablets – may be the cause of a range of symptoms, including forms of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. This article documents the author’s findings and his observations of how his own Chronic Fatigue and Fibromyalgia symptoms directly correlated with his intake of supplements and pharmaceuticals containing silicon dioxide. The appendix is a detailed account of the progression of his symptoms. Whilst the case history is lengthy, it is necessary in order to illustrate many symptoms and events which would have been easily attributed to other causes, had the link not been realised, and the case history reassessed with this in mind. He has also made the simple, but perhaps important observation that, if the symptoms that he has experienced correlate closely with those women who became ill after their silicone breast implants leaked, then silicon dioxide – one of the main problematic substances that these implants contain - may have caused similar symptoms when eaten in a large enough quantity over a long enough period. Having experienced evidence that silicon dioxide was being released from his muscles and from the skin, and that it must have been there for a considerable length of time, he then began to investigate how and why it could possibly have gotten there in the first place. Although the author has experienced a specific set of symptoms - essentially those of fibromyalgia - others may well suffer similar or different symptoms with entirely different diagnoses; ranging from simple frequent headaches and migraines to arthritis, mood swings to neuroses, allergies and immune disorders that may all be either caused or exacerbated by the presence of silicon dioxide in their bodies. Silicon dioxide could well turn out to be a major iatrogenic cause of ill-health in the Western world, and anywhere else that tablets are taken regularly. Whilst the author himself believes that this may be the case, he is not a scientist – he is a former nurse with a general interest in health: conventional, alternative and complimentary - and has no direct scientific data to prove his case. He welcomes criticism from those in a position to test his theory. The following paper is a theory, and not to be taken as proven fact. Nor is it to be taken as medical advice. Any decision by the reader to alter their own medication is not endorsed by the author. Stopping certain medications can be disastrous, so the reader should always consult their medical practitioner rather than alter their own prescribed medication.
The Theory Over-exposure to mineral silicon dioxide can occur via ingestion of excipients found in common drugs in tablet form, health food supplement tablets, foods and the environment, as well as via the lungs. Mineral silicon dioxide is indigestible and is not bio-available, therefore will not be metabolised. Instead, tiny particles that are not excreted will be trapped in the tissues. Excess accumulated silicon dioxide in the body causes localised reactions: granulomas, fibroids etc. and overproduction of collagen, causing thickening and hardening of connective tissue. The body reacts against the presence of the silicon dioxide further by contracting connective tissue: fascia, muscle, tendons, ligaments etc., thereby causing either localised or widespread contraction of the fascia/muscle matrix over the skeletal frame. The consequences of this are many and varied; all of which can be intermittent, temporary or chronic. Pressure on connective tissue, nerves and ganglia interrupts neurological function, inhibits blood flow, inhibits proper metabolism, inhibits proper muscle function and inhibits proper and adequate healing responses, inhibits proper nutrition absorption and toxin elimination in tissues and can causes or exacerbate most disorders caused by such factors. Key factors include:
mechanical constriction of ganglia in the spine: sympathetic and parasympathetic disruption leading to excess acidity, metabolic disorders, fatigue, circulation problems, stomach problems, sleep disorders, anxiety states, depression, allergy, immune disorders etc.
mechanical constriction of blood vessels: reduced blood flow to the head causes headaches, earaches, dizziness, memory impairment, cognitive impairment, fatigue, depression, neurological disorders of various sorts, eye disorders, blood pressure problems, ultimately dementia in extreme cases etc. in CFS there can be reduced blood volume and shrinkage of pre-frontal cortex of the brain.
reduced blood flow to muscles and connective tissues causes pain, contracture, general deterioration, inflexibility, stiffness, joint disorders, excess free radical damage, irritable bowel syndrome, Raynaud’s syndrome, tendonitis, impaired healing of injuries etc., general reduced blood volume in CFS exacerbates these symptoms in chronic states.
Silicon dioxide may be transported through the tissues in blood, lymph, fats and trans-fats, possibly exacerbated by the presence of magnesium stearate that binds the insoluble and indigestible porous silicon and the water it contains with other bodily fluids. The effects of silicon dioxide on body tissues have been investigated following incidences of illnesses caused by silicone breast implant leakage. Many of the same disorders suffered by the women whose implants leaked or ruptured correlate with a myriad of symptoms experienced by sufferers of disorders generally not linked to silicone implants, nor noticed to be linked to ingestion or exposure to silicon dioxide. Chronic fatigue disorders are increasingly common and categorised according to sets of symptoms. Many non-CFS disorders share many commonalities with common diseases that are not classified as CFS disorders. A range of CFS disorders may be simply diagnostic subsets of the same disease caused by silicon dioxide, differentiated only by the defining markers of a specific list of symptoms in each case. Furthermore, many common ailments, from general back pain to arthritis, simple allergies to severe immunological disorders, benign cysts to tumours, could be exacerbated or even caused by the consequences of excess silicon dioxide in the body. This Silicon-Induced Contracture Syndrome (a term coined by the author) can go entirely unnoticed. The effects of silicon dioxide accumulation are gradual and can take from days to years before symptoms become apparent. It also mimics many aspects of the ageing process – musculoskeletal deterioration and brain-related deterioration such as memory problems, fatigue etc. The contraction of muscle and fascia around the rigid skeleton can also easily go unnoticed, despite a considerable generalised pressure being exerted upon it. Its progress can be so gradual that the individual becomes accustomed to many of the symptoms. Pain may be absent or so slight that it is attributed to general ‘everyday aches and pains’. Even where symptoms are obvious they are attributed to any number of a myriad of recognised disorders. The syndrome is exacerbated by the treatments for such disorders, as the usual therapies tend to include pharmaceutical pills and/or an increased consumption of health-food supplements in tablet form. Many - and in a great number of cases, most – of the tablets the individual consumes will simply add to the quantity of ingested silicon dioxide and thereby exacerbate the problem. The condition will be assumed to have progressed but the link with the medication or supplements may easily go unnoticed because the illness will gradually display an increase in severity of the same symptoms, whichever tablets are taken. Even if certain substances in the tablets are found to help the symptoms, they may contain silicon dioxide which prolongs recovery and does not allow the body sufficient time to detoxify and heal itself. Therefore cure is prevented and treatment remains symptom-based. This ‘revolving door’ syndrome may then continue for the remainder of the individual’s life. Whilst silicon dioxide is a relatively inert and non-toxic substance, and is therefore unlikely to cause fatal issues (except in the case of silicosis in the lungs), it can cause or exacerbate an enormous range of common and uncommon illnesses – some of which can be fatal – as a consequence of the way the body‘s defences deal with this irritant.
The Symptoms Having been a previously healthy person, fairly well-educated in health – a former nurse with an interest in alternative and complimentary health care - I was surprised to develop a range of symptoms over a period of six years that ultimately became debilitating. Not until fairly recently did I realise that I was suffering from Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS), one of the recognised syndromes under the broad banner of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). This condition affects far more women than men but some of the symptoms are also experienced intermittently and in isolation from the others by both sexes, whether or not they are attributed to any form of ‘syndrome’. Recent experiences and observations have suggested to me that there may be a common factor linking these fatigue syndromes, as well as numerous other common and uncommon ailments, that may or may not include fatigue, chronic or otherwise. Many such syndromes may be found to be mere subsets of the same chemically-induced disease. The main symptoms of FMS are as follows: Pain - The pain of FMS has no
boundaries. People describe the pain as deep muscular aching, throbbing,
shooting, and stabbing. Intense burning may also be present. Quite often, the
pain and stiffness are worse in the morning and you may hurt more in muscle
groups that are used repetitively. Chronic headaches - Recurrent migraine
or tension-type headaches are seen in about 50% of FMS patients and can pose a
major problem in coping for this patient group. (List taken from the website of the Fibromyalgia Website at http://www.fmnetnews.com )
The symptoms developed so slowly, and mimicked normal everyday aches and pains, that I had initially put the symptoms down to a wide variety of convenient causes. I became accustomed to aches and tense muscles which lingered longer than usual, but could manage them by simply resting more often and stretching them. It was only when the fatigue and mood swings began to become evident in conjunction with the backaches, shoulder and neck aches and tensions that I began to realise that a syndrome was developing. Increasingly, the odd ‘off day’ would turn into ‘off days’ and ‘off weeks’. I had enjoyed a month or so of total remission in mid-2003 by employing a Scenar device (a biofeedback device with a strong record of curing musculoskeletal disorders), which had lifted the symptoms entirely. But the symptoms crept back throughout 2004. By the beginning of 2005, there were no more normal days to enjoy. I was constantly fatigued and unable to think with the kind of clarity I had enjoyed. This affected my work as a researcher and writer and ultimately led to a need to avoid work altogether when repetitive strain injury, caused by over work at the computer, led to muscle spasms and contractures that simply would not heal. A mild flu/heavy cold in March-April 2005 aggravated all of my symptoms and left me with an extended period of CFS, from which I am only now beginning to recover, seven months later. In addition to the classic fibromyalgia symptoms, I also noticed numerous small lumps under the skin and in many muscles in my upper body. Some of these were akin to ‘trigger points’ – areas of muscle spasm that can be released by direct pressure – and others were either hard and fibrous, or firm fatty/gel-like deposits. The more I looked for them, the more I found, and they could easily have gone unnoticed – especially the very small ones. Muscles across the shoulders, round the neck and throat and round my torso were so thickened and contracted that it pulled strongly on my neck and noticeably reduced the blood flow to my head. But it all had happened so gradually that I had barely noticed anything more than the sensations of tightness, aches and fatigue. This had become a norm that I had grown accustomed to over several years. When I realised that my thought processes had been severely affected, that my memory was erratic and a new symptom had appeared – a numbness in one of my toes – I began to take serious stock of my symptoms and examine myself very closely. (See Appendix for a detailed case history). At this point something had to be done. I could not continue like this and a radical change was required or I would soon be seriously ill. I didn’t realise then that I already was severely ill.
The Treatment I decided to focus all of my time and energy on getting well again. Weeks went by of 10-15 hours per day of stretches, nutritional supplements, two or three entirely ineffective chiropractic sessions, hot baths, and for the first time in my life anti-inflammatory drugs were taken on a full-dose regular basis - lasting for a month. The knots were not shifting in my shoulders and shoulder blade. I began to feel like I had been vacuum-wrapped from the waist up. Days and weeks rolled into one long continuous cycle of getting up, sitting in the lounge, exercising and stretching, staring at the tv. I had even lost my passion for listening to music. Initially, most of my symptoms got noticeably worse. After a couple of months my back started to feel a little easier. I started stretching the muscles of my torso by deep breathing exercises – repeating these throughout the day. The constant claustrophobic sensation of being enclosed in a straight-jacket or tight corset was driving me nuts. Eventually, enough tension had released to make breathing slightly less laboured. I thought I was having significant releases as there was a lot of movement under the skin. I thought that adhesions were breaking down and the chest muscles starting to get back to normal. Unfortunately, this was not the case. As I breathed in and the chest wall pressure eased, all that was happening was the entire fascia and muscle layer over my ribs was sliding up my chest and relieving the pressure somewhat from my lower ribs. It was as if there was a layer of lubrication between the skin and the ribs. If I breathed out they would just slide back down and tighten again over the same area as before. The task of stretching those muscles became much more difficult. How do you stretch chest muscles when they are sliding around? General stretches and yogic positions were fine for most of the muscles, but some of them could only be stretched by deep breathing. I began to notice more small lumps and clumps of muscles (like trigger points) in the spaces between my ribs and on various parts of my body which would not ease off with acupressure, as most of my muscular tensions used to in the past. The knot in my shoulder blade was not alone; there were knots all over my back and chest. The muscles from my hands to my neck were tight, hard and inflexible. If I bent my head forward I would start to faint because of the pressure on my blood vessels. My hands and feet were often cold and it was clear that either something seriously neurological was going on or it was simply a mechanical fault causing restriction of blood flow to my extremities. I was very aware that smoking is detrimental. I was also aware that smoking must also be associated with the symptoms I was experiencing. Smoking is detrimental for fibromyalgia patients for several reasons. Smoking reduces blood-oxygen content and impairs the already compromised muscle oxygenation further. Nicotine is a potent muscle contractor and causes aggravation of muscle tension and spasm, leading to increased pain. Nicotine is also a stimulant and increases the mental tension, which in turn intensifies pre-existing muscular tension. I was also aware that I started smoking only five years ago – around the same time that the first minor symptoms were developing (for reasons too involved to go into here). Research has revealed that there is no correlation between smoking and the extreme fatigue associated with fibromyalgia. I had been taking minerals and oxygen drops for many years, as well as vitamin C to help against the effects of smoking and had not noticed any significant health problems that I could directly associate with my smoking. In 2003, when I experienced the first bout of worsening symptoms, I had been a smoker for a few years. When I had successfully treated the condition, I actually felt more alert and clear-headed than at any other time in my life. I had great vitality and felt ‘fit as a flea’. I felt so good that I had given up smoking within a few weeks of my recovery. However, one belated side-effect of giving up cigarettes was that I had started to feel slightly fatigued again but with an increased inability to concentrate on my work. In fact, on hindsight, this was the time when the symptoms of my CFS started to reappear. I blamed the recurring symptoms on having stopped smoking. I was feeling no desire to smoke, and still physically felt quite good, but I needed to work on my book and my creative mind was being impaired. So, reluctantly, I started again, with the intention of quitting once my book was complete. But it made absolutely no difference. By the time I realized this, I was addicted again. The enormous stress of being drawn into a lawsuit in 2004 left no space for going through a week’s ‘cold turkey’ again, and I have not yet had the determination to quit – although it is high on the list of ‘things to do’ when I am feeling better. I do believe that the smoking is detrimental and must be exacerbating some of the symptoms, but I am also convinced that it is not the cause. As you read on you will appreciate that significant symptoms became apparent that would appear to have nothing at all to do with smoking. People suffer the same symptoms, such as fibromyalgia, whether they smoke or not; sometimes they are amongst some of the most health-conscious people you can find and would never dream of smoking. Moreover, as I am currently undergoing a period of recovery I have not stopped smoking; in fact, I have smoked more heavily during the past few months because I have not had the distractions of work and have spent most of my time sitting in the lounge, watching tv and stretching.
I was confident enough to believe that I understood the mechanics of what was happening to me, and the symptoms were logically extensions of the mechanical imbalances. I was not yet prepared to admit defeat and consult my GP. If it only took five days to clear a less severe version of this the last time, I thought, then this shouldn’t take much more than a few weeks. The drugs were not effective at all. In fact, they seemed to make things feel tighter. I realised then that inflammation was not the cause of the aches. I tried muscle relaxant drugs which helped quell the general sense of tension, but there were stretches of muscle and knots of muscle that no matter how much I stretched, they remained inflexible, like wire or rope. Throughout the day the straight-jacket sensation would vary: sometimes extremely tight, sometimes quite tight, but always tight. Sometimes my torso was riddled with bruises after my attempts to use pressure to relax the knotty muscle areas. Direct pressure on these areas was often applied by lying on hard objects, or having my partner bear her weight down on an area with a glass ball for half to one hour without any significant effect on some of the most prominent areas. Interestingly, it was only at this stage, when I was spending time stretching and irritating the muscles so much that they were aching, did I realise that these muscles had been in this state for a long time. I had noticed, but not comprehended why, the muscles in my arms and legs remained ‘well-toned’, despite my lack of exercise. Other muscles such as my pectorals looked odd. They were flat near the top, and flabby at the bottom. Eventually, I was to see a dramatic change in shape, as I managed to release the tension in these areas. But they had been this way for years! Other minor symptoms, such as a click behind one ear when I moved my head had also been there years, and were becoming more noticeable. Had I not started to work on these muscles and begin to release them I may never have noticed just how contracted and tight they were. The body is a closed interconnected system. Put strain on any musculoskeletal area and there is a domino-effect to the rest of the body. Any muscle injury or weakness or spasm causes an antagonistic muscle to ‘take up the strain’, and that causes another muscle to do the same, and so it goes on until all the muscles in the body will readjust to compensate for the problem. One might notice an ache in one side of the body, and never realise that it is being caused by a spasm in the other side of the body. Over time, a whole series of minor aches may be all that one perceives, whilst underlying these aches is a major readjustment and realignment of the musculoskeletal system. This puts strain and pressure on the whole system. Joints begin to prematurely wear out, blood flow is impeded, tendons and ligaments are strained and cause pain unexpectedly, perhaps even snap during sporting activities. And still the person has no comprehension as to why they are prone to these injuries and syndromes. Most people will put it down to old age, being unlucky, or ‘just one of life’s little mysteries’. They then embark on treatment that focuses only on the observable symptoms, whilst the root cause is ignored. No doubt, I would have eventually been diagnosed with M.E., or some degenerative syndrome, had I taken the conventional medical route, and had I not been fairly well-educated about these kinds of disease processes in the first place. I gradually started releasing tension slowly - still stretching and using supplements of antioxidants, msm, organic Noni juice, organic hemp oil, kombucha tea, drinking plenty water with oxygen drops and broad spectrum ionic minerals etc. I had given up coffee and was eating mainly fresh fruit, salads, veg soups etc., keeping my system alkalised and generally doing all I could (except for stopping smoking) and all I could afford, to optimise my body’s healing environment. My cheap ultrasound massager burnt itself out with overuse, because I was using it for so long without getting any relief. I took only the occasional pain killers or muscle relaxants when things worsened, and had stopped taking ibuprofen pills, but used ibuprofen gel occasionally. Eventually, I stopped taking painkillers and anti-inflammatories altogether, even when the pain was excruciating and immobilising. It was in the period following cessation of drugs that the most significant improvements occurred. My appetite had not only severely reduced but also changed. I had never before desired lots of fruit, as I often had stomach acid problems when eating certain fruit such as apples. But by now, I had eased off a great deal of the tension in my back and was amazed to find that I had no acid indigestion. This tallies perfectly with the mechanism defined by Dr Paul Sherwood in his book The Back and Beyond, whereby tension round certain nerves in the spine causes over-secretion of acid, leading to food intolerance, poor food absorption, even allergy. My appetite had also declined and I lost one and a half stone in a few months. It took 6 months for the tension around my neck to release sufficiently to get slowly back to work, to think and feel in a more normal and balanced fashion, and to read again for the first time. My brain had been on starvation rations for months, and it was amazing to get it back. I had not taken any painkillers for about a week at this stage, and had already drastically reduced the amount I was taking by then. I had also begun to take serrapeptase, a natural proteolytic enzyme that helps dissolve granulous tissue, fibrin and plaques etc. that develop in damaged tissue and from disease and old age. It helps increase blood flow and dissolve adhesions. I had been riddled with adhesions and small squidgy fibrous lumps. Muscle that I thought was bone – aspects of my ribs, sternum and clavicle – began to fill out into hard gelatinous lumps and ultimately expanded to about ten times the size they had been. Gradually, day by day, overall tension has receded slowly. The muscles in the chest and shoulder blade, being the most stubborn, have filled out and are becoming more manageable. It is only at this stage of muscle recovery that the severe pain associated with fibromyalgia occurred. As well as concurrent major bouts of fatigue, the worst symptoms and the excruciating pain at times have been present intermittently through the recovery stages, whereas they were largely absent during the formative stages. I understand now how easily many people may become increasingly ill with these fibromyalgia-type conditions, even the gradual decline of old age, without recognising it is happening to them. People are also expected to lose mobility and lose mental and physical agility as they get older. How much of this process, however, is natural, and how much is caused by unrecognised pathologies? Perhaps the most effective therapy that I employed, starting around month three or four, was the use of a TENS machine. It is mainly used for blocking nerve signals and thereby stopping pain signals. I was using mine as an electrical muscle stimulator to both exercise and relax specific areas. This helped increase blood flow in the muscles and would sometimes release a knot after a few sessions. It was certainly the most effective direct method of releasing the muscles that had contracted to the hardness of bone. Over weeks and months these muscles would first start to expand into hard strips, then a second stage would emerge in which the muscle expanded into a squidgy lump that was moveable under pressure, then eventually, virtually in one moment, the lump would flatten out and feel like entirely normal long muscle tissue. It wasn’t until very late in the proceedings that I realised that not all of these lumps were muscles. The stretched and contracted areas included the fascia, a layer between the skin and the muscles or bones. In areas, these two layers were sticking together and were fibrous, and in other areas they seemed to be quite separate, as though they had a layer of lubrication between them. A released muscle or knot would immediately be followed by a readjustment of the fascia, as it would slide into a new position, setting up a new matrix of tensions between the remaining adhesions and knots, pulling in slightly different directions than before. Sometimes, the new configuration would feel less tense, and other times the added pressure on the remaining trigger points would feel as though the whole thing had tightened up again. Usually, what felt initially like a huge release (and my mind always was optimistically hoping that ‘this is the big one’) would settle down within a short time and feel only minutely less tense than before. Week by week it steadily improved, but day by day it could be frustratingly cruel - one step forward and two steps back. For six months I struggled every hour of every day to release the tension. I knew that if the spasms and contractures were not released soon, I could well suffer long term brain damage. I also knew that if I released the neck too soon, a sudden rush of blood to the brain could cause a brain haemorrhage and kill or disable me. All the while, I could not work at the computer at all, I could not spend time on the telephone, or anything else that involved a repetitive action with my shoulders. Holding the same position for more than a few minutes was enough to initiate a tightening. Another spasm could be very serious indeed – even ultimately fatal. Stress of this and the fact that I could not communicate with my clients, or reply by email, phone or letter, update my website even, all increased my predisposition to muscle tension, spasm and contraction. Money was short, debts mounted, household chores neglected, I forgot to pay bills and ended up being charged by the bank etc. etc. Fortunately, the contractions in the neck eased off at a slow rate, rather than suddenly. I effectively ‘woke up’ enough to stop being concerned about brain haemorrhages. Only time will tell if any long-term effects will remain in my brain.
The Cause? As I have been gradually improving, as muscles release, I have had a taste of peppermint that appears in my mouth. Although this was happening early on in the recovery period, it was far more tangible when a major knot released in the latter stages. I had been taking peppermint tablets daily for years and throughout the months of my recent recovery. The taste was more tangible at this later stage though because I had stopped buying the peppermint tablets to save money and hadn’t taken any for a few weeks. I had also been having far less nausea, almost no acid indigestion, and had stopped taking the calcium carbonate indigestion tablets altogether. That set me thinking! I used to take a lot of peppermint in tablet form - to help indigestion and for other claimed benefits of peppermint oil - but hadn't for several weeks when I noticed the most tangible taste in my mouth following a good release. I wondered why my muscles were holding onto mint. Some of the muscles releasing the peppermint at this stage were muscles that I knew had been tight for a long time, at least going back to the beginning of 2004. I had eaten mint and taken peppermint oil most of my life, but had abandoned the oil for the convenience of the tablets. I took them almost every day for about six years. I took them in the morning, in the afternoon and last thing before bed. But I also took them in between times if I felt a twinge of indigestion, as well as a general breath freshener and ‘pick me up’. Now I was carrying four or five peppermint tablets around with me in my wallet (most mint sweets are made from gelatine, so are not vegetarian, hence my use of the tablets).
It occurred to me that my condition correlated roughly with the period of time that I have been taking these supplements in tablet form. So I looked at the ingredients of the tablets: Mint, dextrose, SILICON DIOXIDE (SiO2 also known as silica), TALC (Mg3Si4O10(OH)2 – magnesium silicate hydroxide) and MAGNESIUM STEARATE. I did quite a lot of web searching on the subject of these excipients that are put in most supplements and pharmaceutical tablets and consulted my own well-stocked library. There isn't much information available on the internet to indicate dangers of such excipients. But what I found generally was fascinating. Talc is a known irritant and if contaminated with asbestos is a carcinogen. Magnesium stearate is another rather bio-unavailable substance, being essentially a plasticised oil - and there is plenty info on the dangers of trans-fatty acids interfering with cell metabolism and causing arterial plaques etc. It is a waxy powder used in tablets as a lubricant – its waxy nature makes it suitable for binding substances that do not mix well, e.g. oil and water. It can interfere with the dissolution of active ingredients in supplements. It is used most heavily for the purposes of ‘timed-release’ vitamins. Basically, the larger your pills, (timed-release pills tend to be larger), then generally the more of this kind of additive you are consuming. But I had been taking this in vitamin C tablets for years before the serious syndrome occurred. It was, however, information on silicon dioxide that I found most illuminating. The hazardous material data indicates that it can cause fibrosis of the lungs if inhaled - silicosis is a serious condition that can be fatal. Well if it causes these things when applied directly to lung tissue, I thought, what on earth does it do when we eat the stuff? Will it get to the lungs through the blood, but also every other part of the body and presumably have an effect on soft tissue and connective tissue there, perhaps in organs too? But I could find no toxicological data on long-term ingestion except some rat studies that had concluded that silicon dioxide is non-toxic. Some hazardous materials data sheets had silicon dioxide classified as a carcinogen, also based on rat studies. Such animal experiments are essentially misleading. Showing that a rat does not die if it consumes a certain amount of a substance tells us nothing certain about what effects that substance may have on a human being. I also could not find long-term exposure studies on magnesium stearate. When sensible tests are actually performed using humans, the results show that the body does generate an immunological response to silicon dioxide. The most significant studies of the effects of silicon dioxide that I could find were in relation to investigations carried out into silicone breast implant leakage. Here is an extract from a scientific study of hundreds of women with breast implants tested against women without.
'The data demonstrates clearly that women with silicone mammary implants develop a cell-mediated immunopathic response to silica…The present study confirmed that lymphocytes from women exposed to silicone gel mammary implants can be antigenically stimulated by silicon dioxide. Accordingly, human tissue reactions to substances in or from the implants follow the expected immunopathic sequence of processing by macrophages, sometimes leading to granuloma formation and presentation to lymphoid centers for specific T cell production. This study shows a T lymphocyte response to silicon dioxide (silica), which likely contributes to tissue changes seen pathologically and to the spectrum of clinical silicone-associated disease.' (Immunologic stimulation of T lymphocytes by silica after use of silicone mammary implants - David L. Smalley, Douglas R. Shanklin, Mary F. Hall, Michael V. Stevens, and Aram Hanissian (Baptist Memoorial Health Care System, Memphis, TN 38105, USA; Departments of Pathology and Obstetrics and Gynecology, university of Tennessee, Memphis, TN 38163, USA; and Department of medicine, Baptist Memorial Hospital, Memphis, Tn 38120, USA.)
This kind of data proves that silica is not as benign as we are led to believe. There are limitations to extrapolating such data of course, as it does not prove if silica is toxic in people without silicone implants. But it does put to rest the idea that silicon dioxide is benign. The fact is that silicon dioxide is detected in the tissues of people without silicone implants. It is assumed to be natural. Undoubtedly there will always be a quantity of silicon dioxide ingested, because it is the most common compound in the Earth’s crust. It is the compound of numerous natural and artificial substances including quartz, sand and glass. It is found naturally in many vegetables such as potatoes, it is in milk and water. It is also in dried powdered foodstuffs (including sugars which are filtered with diatomaceous earth), jelly sweets (used as a dusting agent – as is talc), sliced cheese, chewing gum, sausages, a clarifier for beer, fruit juices, wines, syrups, cider, water etc. But it is also in supplements and pharmaceutical pills and cosmetics. It is important to note that in scientific studies, nobody seems to be taking note of how much silicon dioxide their controls are already exposed to via natural and artificial means – at least I have not seen any yet. Who knows for sure what the control levels actually are? Has anybody studied people who have had no artificial exposure to mineral silicon dioxide to find out what normal silica levels actually are and what normal immunological responses are? I have not been able to determine how much of these excipients are absorbed by the body. The petro/pharma industry controls the data we receive about these kinds of chemicals. The same organisations, and their mouthpieces such as The World Health Organisation, the FDA, and ultimately the healthcare delivery workers etc. have declared as ‘safe’ any number of chemicals and drugs found later to be toxic. Most drugs are withdrawn in clinical trials because they have affected the patients badly, having passed the woeful animal tests successfully. If you believe that the big businesses that control these studies are in purely it for altruistic reasons and the pursuit of truth, then you are extremely naïve and ill-educated. If you want to prove something safe, so you can sell it, test it on animals that don’t show toxicity to it, whether or not a human may. You can then massage the data until it fits. If a substance is so dangerous that humans clearly become ill and die, you withdraw it, but if it gets through (sometimes clinical trials are fraudulent) then you have a real money-spinner on your hands. Even if the drug is later withdrawn for safety reasons, you will still have earned a huge amount of money. Let’s look at some data on silicon dioxide as an example of how data can be selectively interpreted. One paper – the deliberations of a Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives which met in Rome, 27 May - 4 June 1969 – which assesses the safety levels of this substance and other food additives. This committee assessed the studies done on animals and humans. The animal experiments involved giving small animals such as cats, rabbits and rats various silicon substances and found next to no toxicity and very little of it in the tissues. Sounds great, doesn’t it? They seem to be refuting the suggestion that these things are getting into our tissues on this kind of data. But do the animals process and digest the same as us? No. These animals also have very quick gastrointestinal processes and short tracts, so probably excrete a lot of the substance. Are their gastrointestinal tracts and metabolic processes the same as ours? No. Do they also eat all the other foods and chemicals that we do? No. They assessed the animal data alongside the human data. I have trouble understanding the following logic:
'A single dose of 50 mg of monomeric silicic acid in 50 cm3 liquid was tolerated by two volunteers. Higher doses should be taken either with more liquid or at intervals of about 20 mins. in order to avoid polymerization of silicic acid in the urine (Baumann 1960). A single dose of 2.5 g of amorphous polymeric silicon dioxide to volunteers did not significantly raise the SiO2 excretion in the urine thus suggesting poor absorption of the compound (Langendorf 1966)'
This is a great fudge isn’t it? There’s not much silicon dioxide detected in the urine, so there mustn’t be much absorption! Despite being illogical in itself, what it is suggesting is that it is being excreted via other means, i.e. through faeces. If it had all come out through the urine, it must have been absorbed and processed by the kidney filtration process. But if it isn’t coming out through the urine, where on earth is it? I see no data saying they found it elsewhere and explained the deficit. But they had to use the urine test because it can ‘show’ lack of absorption, because if they tested it in the faeces, there is no knowing whether it had been absorbed or simply passed straight through. Although not stated overtly, the last sentence seems to admit to some silicon dioxide being excreted in the urine, showing that the body does absorb it from somewhere. If so, these subjects must have been exposed to it and were excreting it anyway, before they took the samples given in the lab. If silicon dioxide is indigestible and is within the body of the control subject, this study shows no data to dismiss the possibility that tiny amounts of silicon dioxide might be absorbed and accumulate in the tissues of the body over a long period. Another equally valid interpretation of the above data is simply that some, or even the majority, of the silicon dioxide was absorbed, and a little of it found its way out of the body via the kidneys - not all being excreted until a long period afterwards – possibly far longer than period of urine analysis. Of course, we have the animal tests to show that it isn’t absorbed and found in the tissues – because you can legally cut animals up and test their tissues. Then you can tell people they are safe. ‘No known side-effects.’ But they don’t seem to cut up the people to see if the silicon dioxide is actually there, they just extrapolate the illogically and selectively interpreted data above to back up the claim that there’s nothing to worry about. But where are the analyses, and long-term analyses of such substances given in common combinations. For example, in drug and supplement tablets, silicon dioxide is almost always found in combination with magnesium stearate and other excipients. Never mind all of the other chemicals that we are regularly exposed to, such as fluoride. Although silicon dioxide is a fairly inert substance, it does react with halogens. Fluoride, however, is the only halogen which reacts with silicon at room temperature. See how easy it is to interpret this kind of data several ways, and to make it potentially say whatever you want? Of course, I am not a scientist and have not got access to all the data, and have not seen all of the papers, but I do find what I have seen contradictory, inadequate and at times illogical. How many times have we heard or read the phrase ‘no known side-effects’ given by ‘experts’. This is not the same as ‘no side-effects’. If they haven’t been looking or testing for them, or have conveniently ignored or failed to report the side-effects, there are ‘no known side-effects’ as far as everyone else is concerned. If you ask a doctor or ‘expert’ if silicon dioxide is safe to eat they will tell you, ‘Oh yes, they’ve tested it thoroughly and found no known toxicity or side-effects.’ But at the same time, the same substance is showing toxicity and causing an immunological response in women who have it in their systems. The fact is, there are known side effects, you just have to know how to phrase your question properly. The conversation would probably go something like this:
Dear doctor: Are there known side-effects to having silicon dioxide in body tissue? Answer: yes, most certainly. Tests on silicone implant patients have shown this. They banned silicone implants in the USA because of it. Are there known side effects of ingested silicon dioxide? Answer: no. Did the tests actually determine whether or not human beings had silicon dioxide deposited in their tissues after ingesting it? Answer: no In other tests outside of such food additive safety studies, has silicon dioxide been found in the tissues of people who do not have breast implants? Answer: yes. How does it get there? Answer: Obviously through their diet. It’s a naturally occurring compound in people so it must have been through diet. So, to recap: silicon dioxide is toxic in the tissues and causes an immune response, granulation etc. It definitely is in the tissues, and the only way it can get there is through diet. But it has no known side-effects and is non-toxic and isn’t ingested through food? Answer: err, you stumped me there. But don’t worry, there are no known side effects. They’ve tested it you see.
It appears that we can basically be sold anything, from snake oil to thalidomide, from aspartame to fluoride. It’s always initially described as ‘safe’ and ‘tested’. But unless the side-effects are so drastically obvious - such as was the case with thalidomide - and the connections between the substances and the diseases they cause are unnoticed, nobody will do anything about it. Even when the side-effects are realised, you can always find more imaginative tests and contradictory data to show that the chemicals couldn’t possibly be the proven cause. Or perhaps you can fluff the data long enough to wring more millions of pounds out of the product before finally giving in and saying, ‘okay, we admit it, we’ll withdraw it.’ With so much contradictory scientific data, it seems easy enough just to quote the ones that support your own vested interests and deny the accuracy of the others. Very recently, having completed this paper, on discussing it with a friend, she told me a very interesting and revealing tale:
'In 1983, I developed a painful lump on my scalp. I was referred to a neurologist at The Hospital for Neurological Diseases in London, who diagnosed ‘rheumatism of the scalp’. I was then basically discharged. After 9 weeks of headaches and losing my balance, I dropped into the Royal Free Hospital and asked to be investigated. After 5 days of tests I was operated on under a professor of neurosurgery who diagnosed Eosinophilic Granuloma As far as we were aware, I was the only person in Europe to be diagnosed with this at the time. It is usually associated with young boys and girls below the age of ten in Eastern nations. I was even the subject of a medical conference and was visited by various doctors. The lump was full of what looked like lime green jelly that had caused a localised immunological response that had attacked the tissues of the skin and had eaten away through the skull. He was so intrigued by this that he did a thorough series of tests on the fluid. He found that the green jelly was full of excipients from the many health-food supplements that I used to take. His advice was to stop taking tablets altogether. He told me, "If we were meant to eat talcum powder we would have developed taste buds for the purpose." He excised the circular lump and there was no further treatment apart from check ups, and advice to eat a high protein diet. He also tried to initiate a research programme on this disease and approached several pharmaceutical companies to be involved, but they all declined. Since that time, it would appear that the matter went no further and has been ignored or forgotten.'
So it would appear that excipients do indeed end up in the body’s tissues from tablets! And they can cause serious disease. The Eosinophilic Granulation that occurred was caused by these excipients. And granulation, with immunological activity, is the hallmark of mineral silicon in the body, be it silicon dioxide or talc (magnesium silicate) or both.
It was when I stumbled upon a few websites relating to cosmetic breast implants that the pieces really started to fit together. Not only are women with breast implants being exposed to silicon dioxide in their cosmetic surgery, but many millions of people are consuming silicon dioxide compounds on a regular basis in varying amounts through supplements, pharmaceutical pills and food! If you ingest tiny silicon dioxide powder particles in pills, what is to stop it being absorbed into the body through the gastrointestinal system? If silicon dioxide can get into the body, it can cause problems. Some people may be far more sensitive than others. The more gets in there, the greater the likelihood of problems. Silicone implants cause problems because the silicon is held in a slippery fluid that moves through the tissues. However, if silicon dioxide and magnesium stearate are used together, when exposed to water in the stomach it turns into a slippery fluid that may be absorbed and move through the tissues. Is it possible that magnesium stearate is acting as a binding agent to cause hydrous silicon dioxide to stick to oils, making them indigestible, thus mimicking the actions and therefore the symptoms of silicone implant leaks? Perhaps it is simpler than that? I don’t know, as I am not a scientist, but I experienced interesting symptoms that I will describe later that indicates that silicon dioxide is carried in a sticky, oily medium. It amazed me to find that despite there being plenty of information on the effects of silicon in the body released by ruptured or leaky breast implants, I could not find a single article pointing out the simple fact that if side-effects of silicon from breast implants are severe enough for the US to have banned them, then the same diseases are highly likely to be caused by ingestion of silicon. The major symptoms that caused the US to ban silicone implants were very similar to those I had experienced increasingly over the past six years. In fact, despite having researched the symptomology of numerous diseases that I considered I might have, none of them had fitted exactly. I certainly had most of the symptoms of fibromyalgia, but I had more obscure symptoms too: granulomas in both muscle and skin, the contracted muscles that felt like bone, that I could not find described in the fibromyalgia literature. The general lack of pain during the formative stages confused me, because pain is the main symptom of fibromyalgia. But seeing the range of symptoms suffered by silicone implant patients, for the first time all of the pieces fitted. Silicone implants are composed of around 20% silicon dioxide. The body does not metabolise mineral silicon dioxide. Instead it attacks it. Leaks cause the body to react by creating granulomas. That is, the body encapsulates the leaked silicon dioxide and fibrous tissues contract around it. This process is more easily recognised in a woman with breast implants because the leaks are local and near to the implant site. It’s easy to diagnose granulomas from lumpy breasts when presented with a woman who has breast implants. But silicone (a plastic of silicon) and silicon dioxide can leak and travel to any soft tissue or organ in the body and begin to cause trouble. The following is a list of recognised complications resulting from leakage from breast implants:
breast
pain or tenderness (http://www.usenet-replayer.com/faq/alt.support.breast-implant.html - this list was provided by Ilena Rose of the Humantics Foundation, who runs a website dedicated to the problem of silicone leakage at http://www.humanticsfoundation.com )
The above list is a wide spectrum of symptoms and certainly not every symptom needs to be present to diagnose that they are rooted in silicon. Many of the symptoms can also be caused by other factors too. Furthermore, it must be remembered that silicon dioxide is not the only form of silicon used in breast implants, and various other symptoms may be due to the other silicones/silicons and trace materials, rather than the silicon dioxide. Some of these other silicons are converted into silicon dioxide when they leak into the body. Because I have not found any firm data on the correlation between the various ingredients of implants and their diseases, I cannot ascribe the one to the other with certainty. For example, autoimmune diseases and candida that are associated with implant leakage may or may not have anything to do with silicon dioxide, and this is not something that I recognise as part of my own set of symptoms. In my case though, everything fitted together logically. I had consumed a large amount of silica and theoretically, it had accumulated in my body. Where it had been deposited in small areas of muscle or fascia, I developed granulomas. Where it had been spread throughout the muscle, the muscle had hardened and contracted in long strips. The presence of silicon encouraged over-production of collagen, causing muscle thickening, tendon thickening and a matrix of elastic collagen in the fascia – all of which then contracted due to the effects of the body’s reaction to the presence of the silicon dioxide. The illness was not affecting entire muscles, only strips or localised areas. This wasn’t simple ‘muscle spasm’ but localised contractures where they had been attacked by the body’s defences. Tendons had shortened and thickened, pulling on the muscles and connected fascia and where these were connected to the skeleton; the contracted tissue matrix formed around the rigid base of the skeleton like a tight corset. The fact that small injury sites that had once healed easily were no longer healing at all, but contracting and hardening, that new areas were also thickening and hardening, indicated that the silicon tended to be laid down there, presumably because they are sites of increased inflammation. This also explained why the anti-inflammatory drugs were making no difference. Once the initial inflammation had subsided, the problem became due to silica and contraction – the very opposite of inflammation. These drugs were also topping up my silica levels with each dose. I remembered that during my previous bout of these symptoms, when I had cured it with the Scenar, I had developed a large 1cm lump on my wrist, just over the radial artery, which was causing pain in my thumb. When I had aspirated it myself with a needle, what came out was a few millilitres of clear (slightly yellowish) fluid, sticky but thick. It looked like jelly that felt very much like a medical lubricant when rubbed between the fingers. It intrigued me at the time, and I passed it off as ‘serous fluid’ or perhaps leaked synovial fluid from an old repetitive strain injury. (Note the similarity with the ‘lime green jelly’ found in the scalp of my friend who suffered from excipient-induced Eosinophilic Granuloma). The ‘cyst’ had developed at that site some while after I had damaged that area playing guitar for longer than was healthy, trying to learn a very fast and difficult guitar solo by maestro Yngwie Malmsteen. I had no idea why it should have suddenly appeared – there had been no lump at the time of the initial symptoms. The RSI had long gone by the time the lump appeared, but started to cause pain in the same area. I had already given up the guitar and hadn’t played at all for months to years. The lump returned a few times over the following few months in 2003 and needed a few aspirations. But a month or so of using the Scenar device had gotten rid of it entirely, and it never came back. Recently, I had the biggest release of tension yet. Muscles in my neck and shoulders suddenly eased off in bed, and immediately there was a domino effect on my back, sides and hips. Toes relaxed, ankles, thighs and calves. It felt as though skin was sliding on top of muscle all over my body. Of course, this repositioning and sliding was caused by the release of the same lubricant gel. For hours afterwards I could taste strong peppermint and had a thick saliva at the back of my throat. I then took a hot bath. My body was covered in a sticky oily substance that would not wash off readily with soap. Like I had been smeared with Vaseline or an oil that had partially plasticised. I now believe this to have been silica-containing ‘gel’ being excreted through the skin following the release of either a granuloma, or more likely, the release of muscles that had contracted because of the silica inside it. The ‘gel’ would then have lubricated the layer between the fascia and the skeleton in areas that had released then been absorbed and processed via the blood and lymph systems; some of it being re-deposited in other connective tissue, whilst some of it was transported to the skin and released as I sweated in the hot bath. That was the moment that I was sure I was right about the silicon dioxide being the cause of my CFS. To add to that confirmation, the very next day, the old lump in my wrist came up again for the first time in two years. Clearly some of that gel had found its way into the pouch created by the previous granuloma. It is theoretically possible that the effects of the silicon dioxide are made more severe by being trapped in the semi-plasticised oils (trans-fats) and stearates such as magnesium stearate and those we find in some margarines. I avoid trans fats and don’t eat margarines, but I used to before I became aware of the associated health risks in the 1990s. Perhaps it is the presence of the magnesium stearate that makes the difference. The mixture of the oily magnesium stearate and silicon dioxide powder may be the key to this syndrome. The sticky oily substance that I excreted could well have been a mixture of magnesium stearate, silicon dioxide and talc. I don’t know, this is mere speculation – an educated guess. What I do know is if you crush one of my peppermint tablets and add a few drops of water, what you get is a sticky, oily substance that is highly lubricant between the fingers. Whatever the exact process may be for getting this stuff into the connective tissue, I am sure that it does get there. I know because I tasted it weeks after I had taken my last peppermint pill. I tasted this within minutes of massaging a small lump in my chest until it had collapsed and relaxed, and within minutes of every subsequent release of similar lumps or relaxation of contracted muscle. Frequently, when this occurs, I also have a sneezing bout and runny nose and fatigue for up to an hour, as though I was coming down with a cold. This is probably why the TENS machine had been so effective. It had squeezed silica-containing gel/oil out of the muscles and helped to rupture the small granulomas. Once the gel had moved out, then blood and nutrients could come in and start the healing process. In the muscle cells, trapped calcium would have been able to efflux, thereby releasing the constant state of contracture. This was also probably why the Scenar device failed to heal my condition as it had the first time round. The Scenar is an amazing device. It detects damaged areas in the body and sends a signal through the nerves to the brain to awaken it to the fact that healing is needed in that area. The brain is then kicked into action to initiate whatever healing response is necessary. My first Scenar experience had been at an early stage of accumulating silicon. The muscles had begun to contract and hadn’t yet had time to fully contract and cause the domino effect to the other muscles and areas of fascia in my body. It makes sense that proper nervous peptide response would be massively hindered if the muscle had ‘dried out’ and contracted so tightly around the tissue that proper nerve function was unable to occur and was further impeded by a coating of sticky gel. Silica is a dielectric and does not conduct electricity, but is a good supporter of electrostatic fields. I had experienced a major relaxation of muscle tension and general feeling of being ‘congested’ when I removed my magnetic bracelet for the first time in a couple of years. The Scenar had certainly helped some areas of my back that were in the process of tightening, but unlike before had had no effect on the knotty areas or hardened tendons. Unfortunately, because of the cost of Scenar devices, I was able only to borrow the device that I used for short periods, and so have not been able to evaluate it during the majority of my recovery. |