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       #Post#: 451--------------------------------------------------
       Selenium and vitamin E may increase prostate cancer risk instead
       of reducing it
   DIR By: agate
       Date: August 30, 2014, 3:45 pm
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       From the Berkeley Wellness Letter, August 28, 2014:
       --- Quote ---
       > Selenium and Vitamin E: Just Say "No"
       >
       > Over the years many men have taken the mineral selenium and/or
       vitamin E in the belief that these supplements may help prevent
       prostate cancer (especially when taken together), based largely
       on some early studies that suggested protective effects. More
       recent research has made it clear that this was a bad idea
       indeed.
       > To put the supplements to the test, the National Cancer
       Institute started the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention
       Trial (SELECT) in 2001. This large and important study gave men
       200 micrograms of selenium and/or 400 IU of synthetic vitamin E
       a day—or a placebo. It used forms of the nutrients that previous
       research suggested were beneficial. However, after an average of
       5.5 years, the study found that the supplements, taken
       individually or together, did not reduce the risk of prostate
       cancer— nor did they reduce the risk of lung or colorectal
       cancer or cardiovascular disease (these were other proposed
       benefits of the supplements).
       >
       > That was disappointing, but in a follow-up done 18 months
       after the study’s end and after the men had stopped taking the
       supplements, researchers found that those who had taken vitamin
       E had a 17 percent higher risk of prostate cancer than those who
       had taken the placebo. This indicates that long-term effects of
       supplements can sometimes show up years after the last pills are
       taken.
       >
       > The news gets worse
       >
       > Now comes further analysis of SELECT data, published in the
       Journal of the National Cancer Institute in February.
       Researchers wanted to test the hypothesis that selenium
       supplements might have reduced cancer risk in those men who had
       relatively low levels of the mineral in their body at baseline
       (as determined by standard analysis of toenail clippings). This
       proved not to be the case. What the researchers did find was
       that in men with high baseline levels of selenium, the
       supplement almost doubled the risk of high-grade prostate
       cancer.
       >
       > What’s more, while the vitamin E supplement did not affect
       cancer risk in men with high selenium status at baseline, it
       increased the risk of all prostate cancers by 63 percent (and
       more than doubled the risk of high-grade cancers) in men with
       lower initial selenium status.
       > These unexpected—and somewhat confusing—findings drive home
       the point that high-dose supplements can have complex and
       unpredictable effects and interactions, depending in part on how
       much of the nutrients people normally consume and have in their
       bodies.
       >
       > Bottom line: The study’s conclusion makes sense: “Given the
       risks and lacking evidence of benefit for other diseases of
       equal or greater public health importance than prostate cancer,
       men aged 55 and older should avoid supplementation with either
       vitamin E or selenium at doses that exceed recommended dietary
       intakes.”
       --- End Quote ---
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