Robert,  I'm *so* glad that you posted your Biological Alchemy discussion.  I've  been compared to the famous Robert McElwaine by some readers of Sci. Med. I didn't know how to respond since I had not seen one of your posts(just  like I haven't read "The Yeast Connection").  Let me just start by stating that the authors of the "Cold Fusion" papers of  recent years are now in scientific exile(I believe that one has actually  left the country).  Scientific fraud is rare.  I'm still not sure that if a  review of the research notes of the "cold fusion scientists" actually  proved fraud or just very shoddy experimentation.  Your sources do not seem to be research articles.  They are more like lay  texts designed to pique human interest in a subject area(just like the food  combining and life extension texts).  Robert, I try to keep an open mind. But some things I just can't buy(one is taking SOD orally to prevent  oxidative damage in the body).  Your experiment, if conducted by readers of this news group, would prove  that you are right(more ash after seed sprouting than before).  Unless you  use a muffle furnance and obtain a very high temperature(above 600 degrees  I believe), you will get organic residue in the ash.  Even the residue in  commercial incinerators contains organic residue.  I remember doing this  kind of experiment in my organic chemistry couurse in College but I  couldn't find a temperature for mineral ash formation so I'm really  guessing at 600 degrees F, it may actually be much higher.  The point is  that no one in their home could ever get a high enough temperature to  produce *only* a mineral ash.  They also could not measure the minerals so  they could only weigh the ash and find out that you appear to be correct.   Chemical reactions abound in our body, in our atmosphere, in our water and  in our soil.  Are these fusion reactions?  Yes many of them do involve  fusing oxygen, nitrogen and sulfur to both organics and inorganics.  Do we  really have the transformation of silicone to calcium if carbon is fused with  silicon?  Not in my book Robert.  Silicon is the most abundant mineral on our planet.  I've seen speculation  that man could have evolved to be a silicon based rather than a carbon  based life-form.  I like reading science fiction, as many people do.  But I  know enough about biochemistry(and nutrition) to be able(in most cases) to  separate the fiction from the fact.  Silicon may be one of the trace elements that turns out to be essential in  humans.  We have several grams of the stuff in our body.  What's it doing  there?  Only the Lord knows right now.  But I will tell you what I do know  about silicon and why, as you state, it helps bone healing(and it is not  because silicon is transformed into calcium).  Almost all of the silicon in the human body is found in the connective  tissue(collagen and elastin).  There have been studies published which show  that the very high silicon content in elastin may be an important protective  factor against atherosclerosis(the higher the silicon content in elastin,  the more resistant the elastin is to a an age-related loss of elasticity  which may play a role in the increase in blood pressure that is often seen as  part of the ageing process in humans).  For bone fracture healing, the first step is a collagen matrix into which  calcium and phosphate are pumped by osteoblasts.  A high level of silicon  in the diet seems to speed up this matrix formation.  This first step in the  bone healing process seems to be the hardest for some people to get going. Electriacl currents have been used in an attempt to get the matrix forming  cells oriented in the right direction so that the matrix can be formed in  the gap(or gaps) between the ends of the broken bone.  A vitamin C deficiency (by slowing collagen formation as well as causing the prodcution of  defective collagen) does slow down both bone and wound healing.  Zinc is also  another big player in bone and wound healing.  And so is silicon(in an   undetermined role that most likely involes matrix formation and not  transformation of silicon to calcium).  For you to take this bone healing  observation and use it as proof that silicon is transformed into  calcium is an interesting little trick.  But Robert, I have the same problem myself when I read the lay press(and  yes even some scientific papers).  Is the explanation reasonable?  Without  a very good science knowledge base, you and most readers of this news group  are flying blind(you have to take it on faith because you don't know any  better).  If the explanation seems to make sense to me based on my knowledge base,  I'm inclined to consider it(this usually means trying to find other sources  that come to the same conclusion).  If the idea(like a candida bloom) seems  to make sense to me, I tend to pursue it as long as any advice that I'm  going to give isn't going to really mess somebody up.  If this makes us  kindred souls Robert, then I guess I'll have to live with that label.  For the physicians who have decided to read my response to Robert's  interesting post, I hope that you saw the segment on the pediatric  neurosurgeon last night on U.S. TV.  I can't remember the network or his  name(like many nights, I was on my computer and my wife was watching TV in  our Den where I have my computer setup).  This neurosurgeon takes kids with  brain tumors that everyone else has given up on and he uses"unconventional" treatments(his own words).  He says that he has a 70% success rate.  The one  case that I heard him discussing would normally use radiation(conventional  treatment).  He was going to go in and cut.  You guys complain about the  cost of the anti-fungals.  What do you think the cost difference between  radiation treatment and surgery is guys?   I'm going to ask you guys one more time, why blast a physician who takes the  chronic sinus sufferer(like Jon) and the chronic GI sufferer(like Elaine) and tries to help them using unconventional treatments?  Treatments which  do not result in death(like those that the neurosurgeon uses?).  Is it  because candida blooms are not life-threatening while brain tumors are? How about quality of life guys?  May the candida demon never cross your  sinus cavity or gut(if it does, you may feel differently about the issue).