Thursday Oct 20, 2016 (foodconsumer.org) -- Naomi E. Allen at University of Oxford in Oxford, UK and colleagues conducted a study and found that long term high intake of selenium may help prevent prostate cancer, particularly aggressive prostate cancer.

Observational studies have linked higher selenium levels in the blood to lower risk of prostate cancer.   The current study found an inverse association between selenium in nails and risk of prostate cancer.
 
The data for the study came from 15 prospective studies which provided participant records on serum or toenail selenium concentrations and prostate cancer status.

Overall, blood selenium was not correlated with risk of total prostate cancer. However, high levels of blood selenium were linked to lower risk of aggressive disease with which patients were more likely to die from prostate cancer.  The risk could be reduced by 57%.

Nail selenium, which was linked to long term intake of selenium, was found associated with significantly reduced risk for total prostate cancer.  The reduction in the risk could be as much as 71%.  The risk reduction was more significant for aggressive disease than non-aggressive disease.

The study suggested that long term high selenium intake may help prevent aggressive prostate cancer, which is the major concern for the disease.

Note that it is possible that patients with aggressive prostate cancer were more likely than others with non-aggressive disease to take selenium supplements.  In any case, the association between selenium levels and risk of prostate cancer may or may not be a cause-effect relation, meaning that intake of selenium may or may not be beneficial.

Selenium is available as a dietary supplement and often used as an antioxidant.  High selenium foods include Brazil nuts, tuna, shrimp, sardines, salmon, cod, mushrooms, asparagus, and mustard.  (David Liu)

Photo credit: wikipedia


More reports

Selenium may protect against advanced prostate ...

www.foodconsumer.org/.../selenium_advanced_prostate_cancer_072613...
Jul 27, 2013 - During 17.3 years of follow-up, 898 cases of advanced prostate cancer and 1176 subcohort members provided toenail samples for selenium ...