With reference also to an interview given by him and Dr. Mario Calomme to Dr. Passwater in the December 1998 issue of WHOLE FOODS magazine.

Perhaps it is inevitable that , now we have untangled the complex roles of the major minerals in the health and functioning of our bodies, our attention would turn to the trace minerals. Even though the amounts in which they are present are relatively tiny, the complex effects they have are impressive.

The importance of silicon for structural strength in plants has been fairly well known, researched and demonstrated, and indeed one of the first supplementary forms of silicon was from the horsetail plant. Silicon forms app. 28% of the earth?????s surface, and it is present in clay, sand, rocks, sea water, and as mentioned, in the fibers of plants. This latter, however, assumes the presence of silicon in the soil which grew the plants.

In the 1970s, some interesting research with animals brought to light a possible connection between inferior development, structural abnormalities, and poor cartilage and bone structure in animals receiving a diet deficient in silicon. Drs. Carlisle & Schwarz found that chicks and rats on a silicon deficient diet were smaller and developed severe skeletal malformations which were preventable with silicon supplementation . That this would also be relevant to humans was hinted at by a discovery of Mourkazel in 1992 that pediatric patients fed parenterally showed a decreased serum silicon concentration coincident with decreased bone mineral content.

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