How Bad Science Can Make You Sick…

Dear Member,

Have you heard all the talk about selenium? The newspapers are saying it won’t prevent prostate cancer. But those reports are misleading.

Today I’ll give you the real story on selenium—and real advice on how to get the full cancer-fighting benefit.

Here’s what happened. The National Cancer Institute cut short a study of prostate cancer prevention with selenium.1 One of the reasons the NCI study’s directors gave for ending the study was that a percentage of the men who were taking selenium developed health problems.

The problem wasn’t selenium. The problem was bad science.

Selenium’s an essential, naturally occurring mineral and a powerful antioxidant. Your body needs it to:

  • Maintain healthy thyroid function

  • Ward off arthritis2

  • Slow the aging process

  • Fight cancer

In spite of what the newspapers are saying, there’s a mountain of evidence proving selenium helps the body to stop cancer of all kinds in both men and women.

Geographic studies have found that in parts of the world where soil and diet are low in selenium, rates of colon, liver, lung and prostate cancer are all significantly higher.3 In fact, one of the risks of selenium deficiency is called “Keshan’s disease.” It’s named after a province in China where people weren’t getting enough selenium.

Men should be especially careful about getting enough selenium. It’s your prostate’s best defense.

This has been proven in numerous clinical trials. One study took 1,300 men and split them in two groups. The first took 200 mcg of selenium a day, the second a sugar pill. The authors called the results “striking”: the overall risk of prostate cancer was almost 50 percent lower in the selenium group.4

Another eight-year clinical trial of over 5,000 men found similar results: those who took selenium with normal PSA levels at the beginning of

the study saw their risk for prostate cancer drop more than fifty percent.5

Here’s something else about the canceled NCI study: they were looking into whether selenium combined with vitamin E provides even more protection against prostate cancer.

My research suggests it does.

Two separate studies published in the prestigious journal Cancer Research reported that the combination of vitamin E and selenium proved more powerful at slowing prostate cancer cell growth than either on their own.6

Another trial published this year in the journal Prostate found the same thing: vitamin E and selenium have a noticeable limiting effect on the growth rate of prostate cancer cells. But when used in tandem the increase in their ability to limit cancer cell growth was “dramatic.”7

Make sure you get enough selenium and vitamin E every day—200 mcg of selenium and at least 200 IU of vitamin E (look for “mixed tocopherols and tocotrienols” on the label). You can find high-quality supplements for both in most health food stores or online.

Of course you can also get more of both into your diet. Organ meats, garlic, fish and nuts are all rich in selenium. (A single Brazil nut contains 100 micrograms of selenium.) Olive oil, almonds, peanuts, spinach and avocado are great sources of vitamin E.

To Your Good Health,

Al Sears, MD

1. National Cancer Institute’s Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial homepage. See http://www.crab.org/select. Announced October 28, 2008.
2. Stone et al. “Inadequate calcium, folic acid, vitamin E, zinc, and selenium intake in rheumatoid arthritis patients: Results of a dietary survey.” Seminars in Arthritis and Rheumatism. 1997. 27:180-5; Kose et al. “Plasma selenium levels in rheumatoid arthritis.” Biological Trace Element Research 1996. 53:51-6; and Heliovaara et al. “Serum antioxidants and risk of rheumatoid arthritis.” Annals of Rheumatism Disease. 1994. 53:51-3.
3. Greenwood-Robins, Maggie Ph.D. Foods That Combat Cancer, Avon Books, 2004. p 29- 31.
4. Combs et al. “Reduction of cancer risk with an oral supplement of selenium.” Biomedical and Environmental Sciences. 1997. 10(2-3):227-34.
5. Meyer et al. “Antioxidant vitamin and mineral supplementation and prostate cancer prevention in the SU.VI.MAX trial.” International Journal of Cancer. 2005. 116(2):182-6.
6. Zu K, Ip C. “Synergy between selenium and vitamin E in apoptosis induction is associated with activation of distinctive initiator caspases in human prostate cancer cells.” Cancer Research. 2003. 63(20):6988-95; and Dong et al. “Carcinogenesis: Delineation of the Molecular Basis for Selenium-induced Growth Arrest in Human Prostate Cancer Cells by Oligonucleotide Array.” Cancer Research. 2003. 63(1):52-59.
7. Reagan-Shaw et al. “Combination of vitamin E and selenium causes an induction of apoptosis of human prostate cancer cells by enhancing Bax/Bcl-2 ratio.” Prostate. 2008. 68(15):1624-34.