Selenium Reduces Prostate, Other Cancers
 (VRP Newsletter, Mar 2003)

According to a report in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, selenium may block cellular changes that lead to prostate cancer. In a study involving 49 old male dogs, researchers randomly supplemented some of the animals' diets with selenium. After 7 months, the prostates of dogs receiving the selenium showed less DNA damage and had undergone twice as much apoptosis, a biological process that removes damaged cells. In another study reported by the National Academy of Sciences, researchers investigating human lung cells found that a type of selenium called selenomethionine can trigger a tumor-blocking gene.