Silica is a fascinating trace element. One of the most abundant of the earth’s solid components, silica, comes from rocks worn down by weather into dust. This dust is absorbed by plants and becomes the supportive element, or “grit,” in the plants, just as it is the supporting element in our connective tissues.
When the skin is not perspiring enough for toxic materials to be eliminated, a dose of silica is perhaps the answer. On the other hand, someone who perspires too much and produces an offensive smell should also take a silica tablet. The person should find in a few days that they will never again have to worry about the problem.
Body Odor
The effect that silica has on perspiration is a fascinating one. Usually, if a person needs this cell salt, the bottom part of their body does not sweat at all. And the smell is unpleasant-especially on the feet. At the same time, this person sweats too much on the upper part of the body. Silica will help with this kind of perspiration problem.
Infection
Silica is called for in more serious matters, too, such as when the body is trying to expel white pus in wounds. It is also a potent remedy for many kinds of headache, rheumatism, cataracts, certain types of asthma, diseased and cracked skin, and constipation, as well as the resulting fistulas and diarrhea. It is beneficial for older adults.
A German study of twenty-six patients showed that over three months of using silica, most patients avoided having surgery to remove cysts. The cysts went away totally in eighteen cases. In two cases, the silica did not affect, so surgery was necessary. In six cases, the remedy helped but was not completely successful.
Silica is the recommended remedy for boils and abscesses. It is also indicated for many different psychological problems because a lack of this essential nutrient directly affects the brain and nerve tissues.
Heat usually makes the ailments requiring silica treatment better. The cold makes them worse. If the weather has been dry and is becoming damp, expect the worst. The periods before and during thunderstorms are usually the worst for patients whose symptoms call for silica. Such patients will usually feel better when they lie down and apply heat. Pressure makes the patient feel worse. Interestingly enough, new and full moons seem to bring out the symptoms requiring silica.
Is Silica for You?
Silica is sometimes called the “homeopathic surgeon.” Before developing potent anti-infection drugs, doctors of the last century often relied entirely on silica in dangerous cases. We are not suggesting that your doctor abandon the antibiotic tools at his disposal, but this shows that silica is not a remedy to take lightly.
Why is silica such a good remedy for the skin?
It helps the epidermis eliminate wastes. Because silica hastens the bursting or popping of wounds and abscesses, it has been called the “biochemical lancet.” It was recognized long ago that this remedy sometimes eliminated the need for surgery.
Thus, it is not surprising that silica is helpful in many skin problems, from acne and itchy skin to dandruff and splitting fingernails and toenails. When your skin is dry and brittle, and your hands are always chapped, silica is indicated. Be sure that you give this remedy a reasonable amount of time to work. Take a dose two or three times a week for several weeks. Stop the use of the remedy when you see results. Try silica any time you have unhealthy skin with inflammations tending to generate pus.
Arthritis
Silica can dissolve the urate of soda found as deposits in arthritic joints and cases of gout. The urate of soda is flushed away through the lymphatic system (lymphatic vessels being the intermediary vessels between blood and tissues). When homeopathic silica is taken from seabeds, it is especially valuable for arthritis.
During the centuries spent on the bottom of the sea, the silica becomes impregnated with valuable trace elements. In some cases, people with arthritis who had so much pain that they were bedridden suddenly felt better after taking silica.
Indigestion and Alcohol
If you have a lot of trouble with indigestion, silica will probably prove a helpful remedy. While indigestion responds well to a homeopathic dose of silica, many of the other salts are also very helpful in solving indigestion problems. As with any condition that cell salts can help, of remedies or which single remedy is appropriate.
The essential function of silica indigestion is to prevent malabsorption of nutritional elements and consequent malnutrition and frailty. When, for whatever reason, the connective tissue is affected, it is liable to become inflamed and damage the trophic nerves, the ones that influence nutrition.
The lack of silica in these nerves, caused by the damaged cells (which can be the result of alcohol or disease), can quickly produce a condition called chronic sepsis, where poisons enter the bloodstream due to the absorption of pathogenic bacteria in the infected area.
If you are drinking alcohol with any regularity, you will probably have to learn to take silica all of the time. Do not count on getting much help from aspirin. Aspirin will provide some relief, but it is harsh on your stomach walls—where damage can be done to the digestion process. Cell salts should be able to help overcome basic chemical imbalances that are caused by the physical damage done by alcohol.
Of course, one must face the fact that the damaging effects of alcohol will result in chronic indigestion even if you take silica and other cell salts. The essential theory behind biochemistry is that the organic parts of the cell are based on inorganic salts.
When the body is fixing old cells or building new ones, the presence of the cell salts is necessary. But alcohol destroys the cells so fast that even with the proper cell salts—you cannot hope to overcome the damage it does. Sores may develop at the corners of your mouth. Sometimes you feel as if there is hair lying on the front of your tongue.
Cell salt therapy, by its very nature, calls for the most natural methods of health. Take silica and the other cell salts you need to have successful fecal elimination, but remember that high-fiber food consumption and good toilet habits are also necessary.
Earlier civilizations also had constipation problems. The ancient Egyptians had concoctions to cure constipation, and Hippocrates, in early Greece, warned against using anything too strong to empty the bowels-harsh laxatives were then considered a universal cure, as the bleeding was in the Middle Ages. But the problem has reached truly epidemic proportions today because of the kinds of foods we eat and the stresses of modern life.
Processed foods have little relationship to the vegetable materials from which they came. If we increased our intake of foods with real bulk and fiber, constipation would stop being a problem. We should simply eat more fruits and vegetables: raw vegetables, salads, whole-grain cereals, and bran help. Honey, molasses, and olive oil or flaxseed oil—are also good. In the normal diet, silica can be found in the outer part of whole wheat grain products.
Most constipation problems are due to the modern, refined diet and a lack of exercise. You would do well to double your daily intake of fluids if you suffer from constipation. Laxatives will cause an evacuation, but they will only postpone the next evacuation. The idea is to achieve a smooth and orderly elimination of wastes at whatever is your body’s natural speed.
Laxatives and Constipation
Laxatives cause more constipation than they cure. The worst laxatives are those that stimulate peristalsis—the wave-like muscle contractions that eliminate waste. The problem with stimulating your natural action is that your bowel muscles begin to need more and more laxatives to get the same effect. After a while, the muscles do not even respond naturally without laxatives. If this happens, you have become a laxative addict–with a worse constipation problem than ever.
The first step is kicking the laxative habit. Next, start taking silica. If you keep purging yourself with laxatives, the bowel’s lining becomes irritated and inflamed, and then it is excruciating to visit the toilet. Because of this, you put it off. And, again, your constipation becomes worse.
Diarrhea
Silica is also a remedy for diarrhea. It became known as one of the greatest remedies for chronic diarrhea during the American Civil War. When soldiers became sick from sleeping on the damp ground and eating all sorts of unlikely things that affected their stomachs and bowels, and they had to face long marches from the cold North into the warm South, silica was used to cure a number of their diarrhea problems.
Menstrual Discharge Problems
Most suppressed menstruation can be helped by silica. One of the indications of a lack of silica is the tendency to abort or even become sterile. If women have vaginal discharges that are creamy in color, silica will help clear them up, especially when the flow is thick or comes in gushes.
You have probably heard stories of women eating sand during their pregnancies. Their bodies were trying to tell them something. Maybe when you were a child, you ate sand at the seashore or even in your own backyard. That could have been due to a silica deficiency. A lack of “grit” can be felt both psychologically and physically. Silica is a significant element on this earth, and in biochemistry, silica is recognized as an essential health element.
Check out our other posts in our Cell Salt Series:
Homeopathic Cell Salt Remedies
Calcium Phosphate (Calc. phos.)
Calcium sulphate (calc. sulph.)