False headlines & the truth about vitamins and minerals, Selenium....

Today's Post:  Thursday, 5-10-2012

Most doctors know little about supplements including vitamins and minerals and are too busy to find out more unless they somehow get updated by their patients or other doctors who know more. 

Some doctors have studied supplements and find they can get superior results with patients by using the indicated supplements.  Since the supplements cost less than drugs and have virtually no side effects that harm quality of life, far more of their patients actually take the supplements than take many drugs.

The drug companies don’t like the competition from those supplements that do work but have none of the side effects most of their drugs do and the supplements cost less.

 (Some drugs do important things and do them fast that supplements cannot do.  And, for some things the drugs are the better choice. Then too some supplements may not be that effective.

But the drug companies appear to be deliberately misinforming doctors and the media and thus many of the rest of us about supplements that do work.)

So you may have seen headlines like “Vitamins are a waste of money or dangerous” AND “Vitamin E causes Prostate Cancer.”

But the truth is far different.  Very different!

1.  Most vitamins and minerals are beneficial and some are spectacularly beneficial. 

There a few vitamins and minerals that do have side effects in doses that are too large.  But if you know what level is safe on those few, those same vitamins and minerals can benefit you.

This makes the headline, “Vitamins are a waste of money or dangerous” false & I think deliberately misleading.

2.  We know 4 things about vitamin E and prostate cancer.  The headline as quoted, “Vitamin E causes Prostate Cancer" is completely false.  And the other 3 things help prevent prostate cancer!  (The study did not test real vitamin E but a poor artificial copy that was not real vitamin E!)

We covered vitamin E the first week in this series, on Tuesday, 3-13-2012.

We covered vitamin D3, on Tuesday, 3-20-2012.

We covered vitamin B3, niacin, on Tuesday, 3-27-2012.

We covered the other B complex vitamins last week on Tuesday, 4-3-2012.

We covered vitamin C on Thursday, 4-12

On Tuesday, 4-17 we covered vitamin A & carotenes and related compounds.

On Tuesday, 4-24 we covered calcium.

Last week, on Tuesday, 5-1 we covered chromium.

This week we cover Selenium.

Wikipedia has this:

“Selenium is a trace mineral that is essential to good health but required only in small amounts. Selenium is incorporated into proteins to make selenoproteins, which are important antioxidant enzymes. The antioxidant properties of selenoproteins help prevent cellular damage from free radicals. Free radicals are natural by-products of oxygen metabolism that may contribute to the development of chronic diseases such as cancer and heart disease. Other selenoproteins help regulate thyroid function and play a role in the immune system.

Selenium salts are toxic in large amounts, but trace amounts are necessary for cellular function in many organisms. It is a component of the enzymes glutathione peroxidase and thioredoxin reductase (which indirectly reduce certain oxidized molecules in animals and some plants). It is also found in three deiodinase enzymes, which convert one thyroid hormone to another.”

Glutathione helps prevent many forms of mental decline and supports good health generally.  And, having adequate thyroid is important to having enough energy and in fat loss and avoiding fat gain.

The mislabeled vitamin E study did NOT find that vitamin E increased the number of men who got prostate cancer.  Instead of natural alpha tocopherol or mixed tocopherols that are in nuts and extra virgin olive oil and wheat germ and other foods, that study tested an inaccurate synthetic attempt to copy alpha tocopherol and in a large dose, 400 iu a day.  The cheap and not quite accurate synthetic cannot properly be called vitamin E; but taking that much of it did increase the incidence of prostate cancer.

However, when that cheap and not quite accurate synthetic vitamin E was tested in men who also took 200 mcg a day of selenium, the extra prostate cancer effect disappeared.

In addition, many people who have extra problems with gaining too much fat or with difficulty removing excess fat, have low metabolism because of low or slightly low thyroid hormones.  Along with iodine and the amino acid tyrosine, enough selenium is apparently needed to minimize this problem.

So, it looks reasonable to take 200 mcg a day of selenium to ensure these positive effects.  (That is the daily dose in almost all stand alone selenium supplements.)

And, taking that much plus eating foods with up to another 200 mcg a day of selenium is thought to be safe.

HOWEVER, selenium is a supplement that MUST NOT be taken in much larger doses.

Over 400 mcg a day, or worse over 800 mcg a day, of selenium begins to build up toxic effects and well over that begins to be a neurotoxin.

So the good news that taking 200 mcg a day of selenium does tend to protect you from cancer and supports good health in general and thyroid health in particular.

The bad news is that lots more selenium is NOT better, it’s actually bad for you.

And, the good effects of selenium are not super large but a nice extra to add when you do the more effective things right.

Some of those include:

In preventing cancer for example those include using no tobacco products and keeping completely away from tobacco smoke virtually al the time; taking at least 3,000 iu a day of vitamin D3, eating raw cruciferous vegetables every week, getting regular exercise most days of every week, and taking or eating curcumin or turmeric with black pepper daily or most days.

In fat loss or avoiding excess fat gain the more effective strategies include, eating lots of nonstarchy vegetables and health OK protein foods while drinking NO soft drinks and high fructose corn syrup and eating almost no refined grain foods and very little sugar, AND getting regular, vigorous exercise most days of every week.  A half hour a day of moderate exercise in addition is also helpful.

Since my own style is to try to do as many things right as possible, I take 200 mcg a day of selenium.

To me, even one case of cancer is too many.  And even one or two or five extra pounds of excess fat are worth avoiding.

But those two sets of things are more important and effective if you had to choose between doing those things or taking selenium.

So it’s up to you if you want to add selenium yourself.