Selenium: A cancer

knockout!
A breakthrough study shows unprecedented power in the obscure mineral, Selenium!

SUPER FOOD SOURCES

• Brazil nuts: For a super
• Garlic: Some researchers
source of selenium, you
suspect a prime reason
can't beat Brazil nuts,
garlic blocks cancer in
especially those bought in
animals is its high selenium
the shell. One unshelled
content. Cornell's Lisk finds
Brazil nut, which you crack
that high-selenium garlic
yourself, averages
(grown in selenium-rich soil)
100mcg, says Cornell's
is 60 percent more effective
Donald J. Lisk. A shelled
against cancer in animals
nut, found in health food
than low-selenium garlic.
stores, averages 12-25
mcg.
•
•

Table: List of foods high in selenium content.

Selenium content (µg/

Selenium food sources
100 g food)
Nuts, brazilnuts, dried, unblanched 1917.11
Nuts, mixed nuts, oil roasted, with
421.16
peanuts, with salt added
Fish, roughy, orange, cooked, dry
88.35
heat
Fish, tuna, light, canned in water,
80.35
drained solids

Data source:
USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, release 18.
Last Updated on Monday, 12 October 2009

And Curcumin:
Researchers from Ireland and Poland found that curcumin, a compound found in the popular Indian
spice turmeric that gives curry powder its distinct yellow colour, killed oesophageal cancer cells in the
lab via an unexpected cell-death mechanism that did not involve apoptosis or cell suicide. Moreover,
 they found that the compound started killing cancer cells within 24 hours and the cells began to digest
themselves.The study was the work of lead author Dr Sharon McKenna at the Cork Cancer Research
Centre, University College Cork (UCC) in Ireland, and colleagues, and appears in the 28 October issue of
the British Journal of Cancer.

4 ways selenium may protect you

1) Prevents cancer: After five years of tantalizing evidence that selenium might
prevent cancer, a groundbreaking new study seems to confirm it. Physician
Larry Clark, of the University of Arizona, found that a modest dose of a selenium
supplement reduced overall cancer incidence by 42 percent.

Further, taking selenium slashed cancer death rates in half. Clark's randomized double-blind
study (the "gold standard" in medical research) followed 1,312 older people with common skin
cancer an average of seven years. Half took 200 micrograms of selenium daily; the
others took a placebo (inactive pill). Clark had expected selenium to block the recurrence of
skin cancers. It did not. But he began to notice a striking drop in other cancers.

His final analysis shows that taking selenium slashed the occurrence of prostate
cancer by 69 percent; colorectal cancer, 64 percent; and lung cancer, 39 percent. The
finding is unprecedented - the first real scientific proof of any nutrient's power to
prevent cancer in humans.

Note: Clark saw no signs of toxicity from the selenium supplement, a type readily available in
drugstores and health food stores called selenomethionine, derived from yeast. The daily
dose of 200mcg is about five times what most Americans consume. Whether selenium is
effective
against women's cancers (breast or ovarian) is unknown, because few women were in the
study.

2) Polices viruses: A lack of selenium may allow viruses to run rampant in your body,
according to recent research at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In mice raised on diets
deficient in selenium, a normally harmless virus mutated into a virulent one, inflicting serious
damage on heart muscle. "It was a viral transformation from Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde," says the
USDA's Orville A. Levander. Selenium may help curb viruses, from colds to AIDS. Some
researchers believe a selenium deficiency helps trigger the spread of the AIDS virus in the
body.

3) Lift moods: A lack of selenium can sap your energy, feed your anxiety and put you out in
the doldrums, says USDA psychologist James G. Penland. He found that men who boosted
their intake of dietary selenium to 220mcg daily felt less anxious and more energetic,
confident and agreeable. Those with the most selenium in their red blood cells felt the best.
Men who initially felt the worst improved the most. Welsh researchers documented the same
mood lift in a double-blind study of men and women after taking 100mcg of a selenium
supplement daily.
Interestingly, Penland found selenium triggered dramatic improvement in men showing no
signs of selenium deficiency. He concluded many Americans aren't getting enough selenium
for peak well-being.

4) Boost immunity: In a double-blind study of elderly people, researchers at the

University of Brussels found taking 100mcg of selenium a day improved certain factors in
immune functioning by 79 percent. One reason: The body needs selenium to produce a
critical antioxidant enzyme. The enzyme, glutathione peroxidase, helps detoxify cellular fats
that otherwise lower immunity, foster cancer and destroy arteries.
Whether selenium helps prevent heart disease is unclear. Some studies suggest that it does,
but a recent Harvard University study found no link between blood levels of selenium and
heart attacks in men.

To get the most

At the supermarket: Foods high in selenium are garlic, whole grains, sunflower seeds, nuts,
meat and seafood, especially swordfish, tuna and oysters.

At health-food stores: To get the type of selenium used in the Arizona study, look for
"selenomethionine" on labels. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the
American Cancer Society and an initial grant from Nutrition 21, suppliers of the selenium.

Balance intake:
If selenium is consumed in overdose, it may have toxicity effect. The upper intake level
recommended for selenium (by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences)
is 45 micrograms for infants and 400 micrograms for adults.

Some of the symptoms of selenium toxicity are fatigue, hair loss, and white blotchy nails.