![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](http://www.kitconet.com/images/sp_en_6.gif)
Selenium: A cancer knockout
A breakthrough study shows unprecedented power in the obscure mineral
SUPER SOURCES
* Brazil nuts: For a super source of selenium, you can't beat Brazil nuts, especially those bought in the shell. One unshelled Brazil nut, which you crack yourself, averages 100mcg, says Cornell's Donald J. Lisk. A shelled nut, found in health food stores, averages 12-25 mcg.
* Garlic: Some researchers suspect a prime reason garlic blocks cancer in animals is its high selenium content. Cornell's Lisk finds that high-selenium garlic (grown in selenium-rich soil) is 60 percent more effective against cancer in animals than low-selenium garlic.
4 ways selenium may protect you
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.
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.
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.
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.
http://longevitylibrary.com/article/182.htm
.gif "spear")
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by johnlvs2run
