Selenium offers protection against cancer - Official

It is not just the alternative medicine advocates but such august journals as The Lancet and the British Medical Journal which endorse the efficacy of selenium as a food supplement which protects against cancer.  A recent double blind trial in the US involving 1,312 people showed that among those who took 200 micro grams of selenium per day there was a near 50% reduction in the likelihood of malignant disease and a 40% reduction in cancers of any kind.  A much larger study has now been set up involving 52,000 people in seven countries to try to confirm these findings across a much larger population.  The good news for men is that we do not have to wait for the findings of this study and the slow process of licensing a new drug.  Selenium is available as a food supplement at your chemist right now.

Why is selenium important?

Selenium is a key component in some anti oxidant enzymes which act to maintain membrane structure and inhibit blood clotting disturbances.  It plays an important role in maintaining growth rates through its effects upon the thyroid.

Selenium is an essential trace element, related to sulphur, found in grains, nuts, fish and some meats.  It enters the food chain through plants at variable rates dependent on selenium concentrations in the soil.  In the UK this concentration is low, as it is in other parts of Northern Europe where glaciers washed it out of the top soil in the last ice age.

Our intake of selenium is falling.  Some 24 years ago selenium intakes in Britain averaged 60 micro grams per day.  In a survey conducted by the Ministry of Agriculture in 1994 the figure was found to be 34.  This fall can largely be explained by two facts - that imports of selenium rich wheat from the US have been replaced by selenium poor wheat from Europe since the advent of the Common Market, so that the flour used for bread making now contains less selenium than it used to - and secondly, that as a Nation, our consumption of bread has itself fallen.

Is it not time to address the issue of low selenium intakes.  Our farm animals have been receiving mineral supplements which have included selenium since 1978.  In Finland it has been a fertiliser additive since 1984.  Addition of selenium to bread flour along with the statutory mineral additives, calcium and iron, might be a possibility.  Without Government action improvement of the selenium status for large segments of the population would seem to be impossible.  Until it becomes a part of public health policy, the only recourse is to start taking the tablets and to encourage your friends to do the same.