Silica has become known as a powerful beautifying mineral, but it also carried many health benefits, including some amazing benefits for hair care. Let take a look at what exactly Silica is, how it works in your body, and how it can help to promote healthy hair.
Silica is defined as “a hard, nonreactive, colorless compound that occurs as the mineral quartz and as a principal constituent of sandstone and other rocks.”
This basically means that silica is a mineral found in certain rock formations. But, hold on…how can a mineral that is basically a rock be beneficial to hair care?
Silica In The Body
Silica is the natural form of silicon, the second most available element found in the earth’s crust. Silica is responsible for collagen creation in the body. Collagen is the most abundant protein in the human body. It’s what holds your whole body together. The human body’s mass is made up of about 20% protein, and about 30% of that protein is collagen. This means that silica essential to your daily life.
Silica forms in the bones, muscles, skin, and tendons to provide strength and structure. Collagen is responsible for connective tissue and skin, which includes your hair follicles. Silica is surprisingly one of the most over looked minerals for health benefits, even though research on this mineral dates back to the 17th century.
Through the centuries of study on this mineral, it has been confirmed that its connectivity to collagen makes it the secret to what children have and so many of us desire as we get older: supple skin, radiant hair, and flawless nails. This trace mineral that’s been over looked for so long is what regulates calcium and magnesium, which are the basic elements that form bones and teeth. Calcium needs Vitamin D3 for proper absorption into the body and silica to convert that calcium into the building blocks of your bones and teeth.
All of these minerals are also factors in the treatment of hair loss. Silica helps with the balancing and absorption of important minerals. Having unbalanced levels of these minerals can lead to osteoporosis.
Silica can counter an acidic environment found in the bodies of people with poor diets. It controls the pH in the body and helps keep it safe against attacks to the immune system. An acidic scalp is just an invitation to getting an infection, damaging the fragile hair follicles and causing hair breakage.
Silica’s ability to balance hormones is outstanding. If the silica in your body is out of whack, it can cause hormonal mood swings and seriously damage your hair.
Silica supplements work from the inside out to restore the vitality of your hair. It is also more effective than taking other herbs with hormone-mimicking contents. As Silica bonds with other minerals in the body, you will achieve an improved level of health and can look forward to long, lustrous and thick hair. Now that you know what silica actually is and why it’s so important to your body, now is the time to consider whether or not you may want to take a supplement to aid in your hair care routine.
Should You Take a Supplement?
Silica supplements are recognized for their ability to boost health and fight chronic diseases which hamper longevity. Silica being the vital mineral that it is, when you are shedding your hair excessively and dealing with noticeable hair loss, it could greatly help both women and men with thinning hair. Before choosing whether or not to take a supplement, understanding how silica works for hair is important.
Silica works in a two-fold manner when it comes to your hair. It helps with hormonal balance, as we’ve already mentioned. One of the biggest factors for hair loss and thinning in women is an imbalance in the sex hormones. Balancing the hormones properly is a huge help for those with cell mutation associated with excess Estrogen. In addition, silica takes many nutrients to the peripherals of the body. Silica is used throughout the entire body, so it ensures that hair follicles are supplied with all the vital minerals necessary for hair growth and vitality.
What’s Inside These Supplements?
Most silica supplements are created using extracts from an herb known as Horse Tail, which surprisingly only supply between 5-8% of the organic silica dependent on the brand. Supplements that contain Bamboo Extract have the highest source of silica, containing between 70% of the organic silica which is ten times more potent for healthy hair care. An important note to make is that a silica supplement with bamboo extract should not be taken by the very young who as we mentioned before have an abundance of silica in the body already. If you are in your forties or older, then it is very likely that taking a supplement rich in silica will definitely help you.
There are plenty of foods out there that contain silica as well, such as potatoes, oats, barley, leeks, strawberries, and mangos. Unfortunately, the chemicals used in agricultural practices and food refining strip silica from foods. The traces of this mineral naturally food in foods are being removed from our everyday life by these processes, meaning that our modern diet is getting more and more deficient in this essential mineral. The average person’s daily intake of silica from food runs anywhere from twenty to sixty milligrams, which is nowhere near adequate to meet the body’s daily requirements. Taking a supplement that contains around 200 mg or more per day would meet the full requirements of silica for your daily diet.
This means that choosing the right supplement is vital! While it is medically known that silica levels drop with age, taking a supplement might not be right for you. Remember to always consult a doctor before starting any supplement, including silica.
