SELENIUM AND CANCER

 

Selenium is a trace mineral and a powerful antioxidant, providing key support to the immune system in preventing and fighting numerous diseases. It has many other important functions in the body, such as protecting DNA from being damaged. In particular, Selenium plays its most important role as a crucial element of the powerful antioxidant, Glutathione. which will be covered in a future article.

Selenium stimulates white blood cells and the thymus, which is a lymphoid organ located in the neck that produces T cells for the immune system. As an antioxidant, Selenium is most effective when taken with other antioxidants, particularly Vitamin E, or eating a diet rich in these antioxidants.. 

Selenium can help lower the risk of cancer by inhibiting free radicals from damaging the DNA in normal cells. It also protects the body from being damaged by heavy metals such as mercury, silver and cadmium.

A number of large-scale epidemiologic studies have clearly shown that populations of certain cultures that have low selenium levels are at much greater risk for developing multiple types of cancer, compared to populations that have adequate or high levels of selenium. Before I entered cancer treatment, my blood was extensively tested and the doctor discovered I was low in Selenium and Zinc. 

In fact, Selenium is associated with a 50 percent reduced risk of dying from numerous types of cancer.1

In a number of clinical studies, Selenium has proven to offer significant protection against cancer, especially, lung, colon, prostate, stomach, esophagus and liver cancer.

Moreover, alternative and naturopathic doctors use selenium as another natural supplement to not only build the immune system but to attack cancer. For example, the NORI Protocol is an alternative cancer protocol that highlights nutritional therapy along with the use of selenium, or in its more concentrated form, sodium selenite. The selenium can be taken orally but is much more effective in an anticancer role if delivered through Intravenous therapy. NORI stands for Nutritional Oncology Research Institute and can be found at: https://noriprotocol.com/