Selenium prevents cancer

Selenium, which is present in trace amounts within the body, has been shown to be an antioxidant. As an antioxidant, selenium is a cancer-fighting substance. Nutritional supplements that contain selenium can slow or prevent the growth of cancer. Selenium adopts three methods for going after or holding-back the cancer cells. Selenium adds power to the actions of the immune system. Selenium provides assistance to the thyroid gland, a gland with important functions related to the growth of healthy cells. Selenium encourages the activation of certain enzymes.

Research suggests that selenium’s ability to activate certain enzymes is responsible for its ability to reduce cancer risk. One can get selenium by eating foods rich in selenium. One can also get selenium by taking any of the nutritional supplements that contain that cancer-fighting mineral.

Why Taking Selenium Helps To Prevent Breast Cancer?

The antioxidant selenium support your immune system, trials have shown that by taking selenium supplements, you can reduce the chances of developing certain cancers. In one study, women who took selenium supplements reduced their breast cancer by fifty per cent.

How Much Selenium To Take to Prevent Breast Cancer?

To help prevent breast cancer, you need to take 200mcg per day of selenium in a supplement form.

This was a daily dose in the breast cancer study previously mentioned.

Warning: Taking selenium doses over 800 mcg can cause:

- Dizziness
- Nausea
- Hair Loss
- Skin Rash
- Nervous System Problems

So, to sum up...

To help prevent breast cancer, you can include foods which are rich in selenium within your diet or supplement your diet with selenium supplements.

Clinical trials have shown that the antioxidant selenium can help to protect you from certain cancers.

Selenium May Help to Prevent Prostate Cancer

According to a federally sponsored study, published by a Stanford University urologist, men with abnormally low levels of Selenium in their blood are four to five times more likely to develop prostate cancer. Selenium is a trace element that is supplied in certain foods and supplements.

The study suggests that making a point of eating Selenium-rich foods, such as Brazil nuts and tuna, or taking a Selenium supplement, may help reduce the risk of prostate cancer. Supplementation is especially useful for older men, as Selenium blood content has been found to decrease with patient age.

Although there are no solid statistics regarding exactly how greatly levels of Selenium in the blood are improved by supplementation, the head researcher of this study, James D. Brooks, MD is decidedly optimistic about the subject. He believes that supplementation has the potential to be of great benefit in preventing prostate cancer, but goes on to comment that more precise research is needed in order to discern exact statistics on the extent of those benefits.

Overall, the researchers who conducted this study believe that they have made some very interesting discoveries, and that increasing levels of Selenium in the blood can significantly reduce a patient's risk of developing the most common form of cancer affecting men.