RSS
Home
Selenium for preventing cancer
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
You hear a lot about antioxidants, because there are many of them and because medical research has consistently found numerous health benefits of them. One is selenium, a trace mineral that many diets will not provide a sufficient quantity of.
Dietary selenium comes from nuts, cereals, fish, and eggs. Brazil nuts are the richest ordinary dietary source, but who eats a lot of Brazil nuts? In descending order of concentration, high levels are also found in tuna, crab, and lobster. Meats, turkey, chicken, pasta and bread are other common sources of dietary selenium.
Consider these bits of pro-selenium health information:
In March 2009, a study from the Department of Cancer Biology at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center reported that Vitamin E (400 IU) and selenium (200 micrograms) supplements affect gene expression and can act as a tumor suppressor.
Taking 200 micrograms of selenium daily for about seven years was found to reduce the occurrence of all cancers in a group of 1,300 older people by 42 percent and cancer deaths by nearly 50 percent compared with those on a sugar pill or placebo. Selenium had the greatest impact on prostate cancer, slashing occurrence by 69 percent. Selenium also decreased rates of colorectal cancer 64 percent and lung cancer 39 percent.
Low soil levels of selenium (probably associated with low dietary intake), have been associated with increased cancer incidence in humans. For example, the incidence of non-melanoma skin cancer is significantly higher in areas of the United States with low soil selenium content.
Blood levels of selenium have been reported to be low in patients with many cancers, including lung cancer.
People with the lowest blood levels of selenium had between 3.8 and 5.8 times the risk of dying from cancer compared with those who had the highest selenium levels.
Supplemental selenium could reduce cancer death rates by as much as 50 percent, according to one study. 1,312 patients were given 200 mcg. of selenium daily, producing an increase of 67 percent in their blood selenium level. The patients receiving selenium had a 67 percent decrease in cancer of the prostate, a 58 percent decrease in colon or rectal cancer and a 45 percent decrease in lung cancer.
Research suggests that selenium affects cancer risk in two ways. As an anti-oxidant, selenium can help protect the body from damaging effects of free radicals. It may also prevent or slow tumor growth. Certain breakdown products of selenium are believed to prevent tumor growth by enhancing immune cell activity and suppressing development of blood vessels to the tumor.
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
