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Of interest?

Recently watched a TV show that mentioned the mineral "selenium" (sp.?), a mineral the body needs to maintain good muscle condition. Being 70 years old, I am always interested in something that might help aging muscles so I did a little research. While researching, I found mention that there has also been studies done on the possibility that it also might help prevent prostate cancer. The word was "prevent" not "cure" but prostate cancer was specifically mentioned. I didn't see anything that claimed any conclusions so this is probably just another "snake oil" fantasy. Has anyone else heard or read of such a theory? Jon.

Re: Of interest?

So, selenium has a long history of potential efficacious impact on the disease-multiple studies I have seen neither confirm or deny its ability to help the man with cancer--but for a long while, at least in the US, it was thought to improve chances either way and recommenced as a supplement vitamin pill form. I take a vitamin that has 200mc or some measurement in it and who knows it it helps, but, as always, I would like to direct all men on this site to my story for possible thoughts about the disease.

Thanks,

Allen Z

Re: Of interest?

Beware!!!! Google Selenium for Prostate Cancer and you'll find plenty of recent evidence for avoiding selenium supplements for PCa, not least from Harvard research.

OC in England.

Re: Of interest?

O.C. I Agree. Again it appears the old ad saying, "It is not nice to mess with mother nature." holds true. Our bodies are their own chemical factories and smart as we think we are these days, modern medicine still does not fully understand how it all works. Our artificial intervention seems to always bring on some sort of complication. Best to leave nature and God's perfect design do its thing alone. Too bad we humans messed up that perfection in the beginning! None of us would be in this position now. Jon.

Re: Of interest?

Don't take selenium. There was a study about 2003 called the SELECT study. It was to find out if taking selenium and vitamin E lowered PC rates. After spending about 100 millions they had to stop it because the men taking Selenium were dying at a far higher rate. A presenter (a top person in the field of nutrition and health) at a conference I was at was shocked that the study ever got approval since he thought Selenium supplementation was known by everybody in his field to cause other health problems like early death.

This is the only recent paper I can find about it:

Selenium and vitamin E for prostate cancer--justifications for the SELECT study.
Ramamoorthy V1, Rubens M, Saxena A, Shehadeh N.
Author information
Abstract
There are several studies that relate oxidative damage as possible mechanism for many cancers. Many studies have also shown that anti-oxidants like selenium and vitamin E decrease the risk for prostate cancer. The main objective of the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT) study was to look for the benefits of selenium and vitamin E supplementation on prostate cancer. The study had a large sample size, stringent experimental conditions, very long duration, standardized laboratories for biochemical analyses and other factors that contribute to high external validity. The SELECT study failed to show any significant risk reduction for prostate cancers ascribable to selenium and vitamin E supplementations. Because of these conflicting results, many researchers argue about the methods used, supplementations administered (selenium and vitamin E) and indicators used for assessing levels of supplementations. We reviewed many epidemiological studies, clinical trials, and pre-clinical studies. With corroborative evidences we justify that SELECT study has a sound methodology and rationale. In lieu of the contrary results of the select study, researchers should focus on the probable mechanisms for these contrary findings and continue their search for newer and effective agents for prevention of prostate cancer.

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