Super Colloidal Silica

With silica, the label matters more than the ingredient, because the four forms don't share the same evidence. These are the questions our naturopaths ask in store.

A good fit if

• Hair and nails are your reason, and you want the form that was tested
• You know the trials only cover ch-OSA, and you still prefer the plant version
• Capsules are a struggle and a gel or liquid suits you better

Check with us first if

• You take any prescription medicine. We haven't found an interaction study for mineral silica or ch-OSA, so it's worth a chat rather than a list.
• You take a diuretic, or a heart or kidney medicine, and the product is horsetail. Its one trial caused fluid loss broadly similar to a low-dose thiazide diuretic.
• You plan to take it for months. Traditional horsetail use is recorded for two to four weeks, and silicates have been linked to digestive problems over the long term.
• The product is raw, unheated horsetail powder rather than an extract, because it contains an enzyme called thiaminase that heat destroys.
• You're buying it for your bones, where the evidence is weaker than the shelf suggests.

• Choline-stabilised orthosilicic acid (ch-OSA). Best known for: Hair strength and thickness, and rated nail and hair brittleness. Absorption: Urinary silicon rose alongside the hair changes, used as an indirect uptake marker. Typical use: A proprietary beadlet or pellet, taken daily over 20 weeks to nine months.
• Mineral and colloidal silica (silicon dioxide, colloidal anhydrous silica, hydrated silica). Best known for: The plain, general-purpose silica behind most gels, liquids and tablets. Absorption: No bioavailability trial for this form is held, so nothing is claimed for it. Typical use: The everyday hair, skin and nail product, with no trials of its own.
• Horsetail-derived silica (Equisetum arvense). Best known for: A traditional European herb for fluid balance, not for its silicon. Absorption: None measured; the one trial tracked fluid balance rather than silicon. Typical use: Whole herb, tea or extract, traditionally two to four weeks and no longer.
• Bamboo silica (Bambusa species). Best known for: Marketed as the plant with the highest natural silica content. Absorption: Not found in any source we hold. Typical use: A stem or leaf extract, usually the vegan pick, and untrialled.

Reference values. There's no Nutrient Reference Value for silicon in Australia or New Zealand. Silicon isn't one of the nutrients the NHMRC covers, so there's no Recommended Dietary Intake, Adequate Intake or Upper Level. That's a real regulatory fact rather than a gap in research, and it means no one can tell you that you're short of it.

Typical supplemental range. Both ch-OSA trials used 10 mg of silicon a day, one for 20 weeks and the other for nine months. The one horsetail trial used 900 mg a day of dried extract over four days, and traditional European use is 3 to 12 g a day as tea. We haven't found established Australian label doses for mineral and colloidal silica, so read the product you're holding rather than assuming it matches a trial.

Upper level. We haven't found an upper level for silicon in our sources, and no silica ingredient in Australia's permitted ingredients list has a daily dose cap. That doesn't mean it's fine to take more. Silicates have been linked to digestive problems with long-term use, so more and longer isn't the plan.

Worth knowing. Which dose matters depends on which form you've bought, because only one of the four has been tested at a stated dose. What you need depends on your age, diet and health, so talk to one of our naturopaths.

Food first, where the diet allows it.

• Horsetail and bamboo, as herbs rather than everyday foods: both concentrate silica out of the soil they grow in, which is why they're used as supplement sources
• Everyday foods: no verified Australian per-serve silicon figures are held, so no numbers are stated here

This list is the part of the page we will not shorten. If any of it applies to you, talk to one of our naturopaths or your doctor before starting.

• Pregnancy and breastfeeding. Horsetail has no safety data and European guidance is that its use isn't recommended.
• Children under 12. Horsetail isn't recommended by mouth or on the skin; from 12 up, adult dosing applies.
• Severe cardiac or renal disease. Horsetail is contraindicated where fluid restriction is medically required.
• Impaired renal potassium handling. Horsetail is contraindicated because of hyperkalaemia risk.
• Known hypersensitivity to horsetail. Case reports of rash, hand or face swelling, and one of cough, breathing difficulty and itching.
• Raw horsetail powder. It carries a thiaminase inactivated at 80°C, with no measurable activity in standard extracts and no deficiency reported in traditional European use.
• Long-term use. Silicates have been reported to produce digestive problems, especially long-term.
• Duration. Horsetail's documented traditional use runs two to four weeks, with medical advice if symptoms persist beyond one week.
• Medicine interactions. No interaction study for mineral silica or ch-OSA is held, so no interaction list is stated here.
• Inhalation. The three mineral silica items are permitted in Australian listed medicines only by routes other than inhalation.
• If you take prescription medicines, check with your doctor, pharmacist or our naturopaths before starting.