CS : Magnesium Stearate / Silicon Dioxide / Silica

Often these are found in supplements. What is the possible harm that these can cause? there are dire warnings for these all over the internet, just run a search on google. Does it make a difference if Magnesium Stearate is from a vegetable source as the popular "NOW Foods" company claims.

Thankx in advance for the input.

Glacier - In my opinion and it's only an opinion, Magnesium stearate is safe because of the insignificant amount used. Mercola is the site that has drawn the most attention to this issue, however I have noticed that Mercola tends to go a little over board (fanatical) about safety sometimes, often ignoring fundamental data such as dosages, specific to toxicology. I suppose you can never be too careful, but if the claim were true about Magnesium sterate then I would be quite a mess by now with taking so many supplements for so long. To the contrary, I can't imagine how horrible of a state of health I would be in, had I not taken supplements.

Interestingly, Swansons has addressed this issue and state something rather interesting, their key point is, and I quote, "Recently, claims have been made that magnesium stearate causes formation of biofilms. According to the independent toxicology report: “Claims that magensium stearate can facilitate or form biofilms have no basis in the scientific literature and in fact, current scientific data indicate that stearic acid actually inhibits biofilm formation.”"

http://swansonvitamins.blogs.com/swanson_weblog/2009/08/is-magnesium-stearate-safe-independent-toxicology-report-says-yes.html

Here is another source of information on MS: http://ezinearticles.com/?Magnesium-Stearate&id=200360

What about Silicon Dioxide? I'm not too concerned about and here is what Now brand says:

Silicon dioxide is a common excipient used in many encapsulated products, though some companies may not list it on their labels. An excipient is a safe, hypoallergenic substance added during encapsulation to prevent the powder from hardening during normal shelf life, due to exposure to moisture.

My opinion,,, they may be safe they maybe harmful; either way we have the ability to buy supplements without stearates, i will take my chances and get the supplements without stearates..

CS, i guess this topic started up again. any more insight?

blackjack, what supplements do not have mag. stearate?

thanks guys!

these sources have no magnesium stearates.

mercola products
drrons.com
Pure Encapsulation (organicpharmacy.org)
Thornes (iherb.com)