%0 Journal Article
%T Absorption of silicon from artesian aquifer water and its impact on bone health in postmenopausal women: a 12 week pilot study
%A Zhaoping Li
%A Hannah Karp
%A Alona Zerlin
%A Tsz Lee
%A Catherine Carpenter
%A David Heber
%J Nutrition Journal
%D 2010
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1475-2891-9-44
%X Seventeen postmenopausal women with low bone mass, but without osteopenia or osteoporosis as determined by dual x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) were randomized to drink one liter daily of either purified water of low-silicon content (PW) or silicon-rich artesian aquifer water (SW) (86 mg/L silica) for 12 weeks. Urinary silicon and serum markers of bone metabolism were measured at baseline and after 12 weeks and analyzed with two-sided t-tests with p < 0.05 defined as significant.The urinary silicon level increased significantly from 0.016 ¡À 0.010 mg/mg creatinine at baseline to 0.037 ¡À 0.014 mg/mg creatinine at week 12 in the SW group (p = 0.003), but there was no change for the PW group (0.010 ¡À 0.004 mg/mg creatinine at baseline vs. 0.009 ¡À 0.006 mg/mg creatinine at week 12, p = 0.679). The urinary silicon for the SW group was significantly higher in the silicon-rich water group compared to the purified water group (p < 0.01). NTx, a urinary marker of bone resorption did not change during the study and was not affected by the silicon water supplementation. No significant change was observed in the serum markers of bone formation compared to baseline measurements for either group.These findings indicate that bottled water from artesian aquifers is a safe and effective way of providing easily absorbed dietary silicon to the body. Although the silicon did not affect bone turnover markers in the short-term, the mineral's potential as an alternative prevention or treatment to drug therapy for osteoporosis warrants further longer-term investigation in the future.ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01067508Osteoporosis is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the elderly [1]. In the U.S., an estimated 4-6 million women aged >50 years have osteoporosis, and another 13-17 million (37%-50%) have osteopenia (or low bone density) based on femoral bone mineral density (BMD) tests using dual x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) when osteoporosis is defined by a T-score of less than -2
%U http://www.nutritionj.com/content/9/1/44