Bone health support

Magnesium Trisilicate

Magnesium trisilicate is a compound of magnesium oxide and silicon dioxide with varying proportions of water. It occurs in nature as meerschaum, pararepiolite, and repiolite. It is used mostly as a gastric antacid. This is a good form for the body to accept this combination in, as it is helpful and most absorbable to the digestive system, and more easily used by the body, taking it into the bloodstream to the skelaton where it is needed.

Greater magnesium intake is significantly related to higher bone mineral density (BMD) in men and women, and silicon is a well known essential mineral of good bone health.

Clinical Studies
Magnesium and Silicon

Journal of the American Geriatrics Society in Journal of the American Geriatrics 
Society

A higher intake of magnesium from food and supplements may keep bones healthy as people age, according to results of a study in Journal of the American Geriatrics Society which suggests that greater magnesium intake is significantly related to higher bone mineral density (BMD) in white men and women.

According to the paper, there was an approximate 2 percent increase in whole-body BMD for every 100 milligram per day increase in magnesium.

"Higher magnesium intake through dietary change or supplementation may provide an additional strategy for the prevention of osteoporosis," researchers conclude.

Osteoporotic fractures are a significant health problem in aging adults, Dr. Kathryn M. Ryder, of the University of Tennessee, Memphis, and colleagues note in their report.

Magnesium is a "lesser-studied" component of bone that may play a role in calcium metabolism and bone strength, they add.

Ryder's group examined magnesium intake from supplemental and dietary sources in relation to BMD in a total of 2038 black and white subjects between the ages of 70 and 79 years enrolled in the cross-sectional Health, Aging, and Body Composition Study.

They used a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire to assess dietary intake of magnesium and standard tests to measure BMD.

Less than 26 percent of the study sample met the RDA for magnesium, the investigators report.

White and black women reported a similar intake of food magnesium, but because of more frequent magnesium-containing supplement use, white women had a higher total mean intake.

After multivariate adjustment, magnesium intake was positively associated with BMD in white, but not black, men and women.

The lack of an association in black men and women may be due to differences in calcium regulation or in nutrient reporting, the researchers suggest.



Dietary silicon intake is positively associated with bone mineral density in men and premenopausal women of the Framingham Offspring cohort

Jugdaohsingh R, Tucker KL, Qiao N, Cupples LA, Kiel DP, Powell JJ.
Gastrointestinal Laboratory, The Rayne Institute, St Thomas' Hospital, London, United Kingdom

The role of dietary silicon in bone health in humans is not known. In a cross-sectional, population-based study (2847 participants), associations between dietary silicon intake and BMD were investigated. Dietary silicon correlated positively and significantly with BMD at all hip sites in men and premenopausal women, but not in postmenopausal women, suggesting that increased silicon intake is associated with increased cortical BMD in these populations. INTRODUCTION: Osteoporosis is a burgeoning health and economic issue. Agents that promote bone formation are widely sought. Animal and cellular data suggest that the orthosilicate anion (i.e., dietary silicon) is involved in bone formation. The intake of silicon (Si, approximately 30 mg/day) is among the highest for trace elements in humans, but its contribution to bone health is not known. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In a cross-sectional, population-based study, we examined the association between silicon intake and bone mineral density (BMD) in 1251 men and 1596 pre- and postmenopausal women in the Framingham Offspring cohort (age, 30-87 years) at four hip sites and lumbar spine, adjusting for all potential confounding factors known to influence BMD and nutrient intake. RESULTS: Silicon intake correlated positively with adjusted BMD at four hip sites in men and premenopausal women, but not in postmenopausal women. No significant association was observed at the lumbar spine in any group. Categorical analysis by Si intake, or energy-adjusted Si intake, supported these findings, and showed large differences in BMD (up to 10%) between the highest (> 40 mg Si/day) and lowest (< 14 mg Si/day) quintiles of silicon intake. A significant association at the lumbar spine in men was also observed. Further analyses indicated that some of the effects seen for moderate consumption of alcoholic beverages on BMD might be attributed to Si intake. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that higher dietary silicon intake in men and younger women may have salutary effects on skeletal health, especially cortical bone health, that has not been previously recognized. Confirmation of these results is being sought in a longitudinal study and by assessment of the influence of silicon intake on bone markers in this cohort.

PMID: 14969400 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]


Silicon May Play Important Role in Bone Health: Presented at ASBMR
By Mike Fillon

NASHVILLE, TN -- September 27, 2005 -- Silicon, taken as choline-stabilized orthosilicic acid (ch-OSA) supplementation, might help improve bone health and type I collagen synthesis, according to study results presented here on September 24th in a poster at the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) 27th Annual Meeting.

Researchers investigated the effect of low dose silicon delivered as ch-OSA on markers of bone turnover and bone mineral density (BMD) during a 12-month, randomized, placebo-controlled trial. A total of 114 women with a mean age of 61 years and either osteopenia or osteoporosis completed the study.

The subjects were divided into four groups all of which supplemented their diet with 1000 mg of elemental calcium (CA) and 800 IU of vitamin D3 daily, which, according to lead researcher, Tim D. Spector, MD, FRCP, is the standard recommended dosages for osteopenia and osteoporosis. This was the only medication taken by the subjects in the placebo group. The three other groups also supplemented with either 3, 6, or 12 mg of elemental silicon as ch-OSA.

The researchers found that in all groups, there was wide variation in the changes to bone markers at six and 12 months compared to baseline so covariate analysis was used to adjust for baseline values. Specifically, Dr. Spector, who is a consultant rheumatologist and director of the Twin and Genetic Epidemiology Unit, at St. Thomas' Hospital In London, UK, said there was an overall trend for ch-OSA to confer some additional benefit to Ca/Vit D3 supplementation based onb improvements towel-established markers of bone formation such as Procollagen Type I N-terminal Propeptide (PINP), Bone Specific Alkaline Phosphatase (BAP), and Osteocalcin. Dr. Spector said the benefits were especially apparent when evaluating changes in PINP, the most sensitive bone formation marker, and resulted in significant improvements after 12 months amongst the subjects in the six and 12 mg silicon groups.

The researchers found that spinal BMD did not change significantly. However, subgroup analysis showed that subjects taking six mg of silicon per day, and whose femur T score was less than –1 at the start of the study, showed significant femoral neck BMD improvements.

"This study suggests that combined therapy of ch-OSA plus Ca/VIT D3 is a safe, well tolerated treatment that has a potentially beneficial effect on bone turnover, especially bone collagen, and possibly femoral BMD, compared to CA/Vit D3 alone," said Dr. Spector