Dennis N. Crouse – June 2023
My background is the art of synthetic chemistry as taught by Nobel Prize winners at Harvard University (e.g., E.J. Corey and R.B. Woodward). When I confirmed that by drinking Fiji water my mother’s short-term memory improved in spite of her Alzheimer’s diagnosis, I realized there was not enough Fiji water in the world for everyone with AD. In addition, shipping bottled water half-way around the world is unsustainable. Therefore, I developed an easy way to make Silicade, that has the same concentration of ortho silicic acid (i.e., OSA) as Fiji water, by neutralizing a special type of sodium silicate.
Some researchers make OSA rich water in their laboratory. Chris Exley said in his recent book “In my laboratory we prepare water that is high in dissolved silicon – silicic acid – for research purposes”. I prepared OSA using a liquid source of sodium silicate as described in the chemical literature and found it to “require sophisticated laboratory equipment” as mentioned by Chris Exley in his recent book.
Unlike liquids, powders can be measured with measuring spoons and therefore, sophisticated laboratory equipment is not required. I am lucky to live in the U.S. and not the U.K., as in the U.S. we have the PQ Corporation as a source of powdered sodium silicate. Powdered sodium silicate comes in several types, such as sodium orthosilicate and sodium metasilicate. I obtained various types of powdered sodium silicate made by the PQ Corporation, dissolved them in water, neutralized them with sodium bisulfate, and tested the resulting solution for the concentration of OSA using an OSA specific test. I found a way of using just two measuring spoons to make Silicade from one of PQ Corporation’s powdered sodium silicates. Silicade made only from this special powder has an OSA concentration that is identical to Fiji water. Other types of powdered sodium silicate, such as sodium metasilicate, do not result in sufficient OSA.
People who live in countries outside the U.S. can find companies, such as https://www.myus.com/ , that provide a temporary U.S. address through which this special type of sodium silicate powder can be forwarded to foreign addresses.