Therapist Unlimited Blog

Those patients suffering from prostate cancer need to be careful since a recent study has shown that an intake of high levels of selenium could worsen their medical condition.
Selenium is a mineral found widely in rocks and dirt. Small amounts of selenium are essential for health: 40 to 70 micrograms is the recommended daily intake.
In recent years, supplemental selenium has been sold and promoted, as a means of preventing prostate cancer, largely based on observational studies that found higher risk of prostate cancer incidence and mortality in areas of the country that are naturally low in selenium.
Based on the research conducted by the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the University of California, San Francisco it was discovered that a higher risk of more-aggressive prostate cancer was seen in men with a certain genetic variant found in about 75 percent of the prostate cancer patients in the study.
The researchers said in those subjects, having a high level of selenium in the blood was associated with a two-fold greater risk of poorer outcomes than men with the lowest amounts of selenium were.
The researchers revealed by contrast, the 25 percent of men with a different variant of the same gene and who had high selenium levels were at 40 percent lower risk of aggressive disease.

Men suffering from prostate cancer need to be careful in using selenium since it could further worsen their medical condition.

The group added the variants are slightly different forms of a gene that instructs cells to make manganese superoxide dismutase (SOD2), an enzyme that protects the body against harmful oxygen compounds.
Philip Kantoff, MD, director of Dana-Farber’s Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology and senior author of the study said the research findings suggest that if you already have prostate cancer, it may be a bad thing to take selenium.
Kantoff explained the unexpected results are the first to raise concern about this potentially harmful consequence of taking supplemental selenium.
Kantoff added the findings are interesting particularly in light of the recent negative results from the SELECT prevention study, which asked if selenium could protect against prostate cancer.
He said the new study also reveals the strong interaction between selenium and SOD2 to influence the biology of prostate cancer, a finding that these investigators had shown in a previous study.
Furthermore, the researchers said the current research demonstrated that variations in the make up of the SOD2 gene dramatically alter the effects of selenium on the risk of aggressive prostate cancer.