Selenium boosted in cancer war

By ANGELA GREGORY

Medical experts worried that the shortage of selenium in New Zealand soils increases the risk of cancer are taking supplements.

The country's volcanic soils are notoriously low in the mineral, which is needed for almost all organ function.

Overseas research has linked low selenium intake with higher rates of cancer and other chronic health conditions, and New Zealand studies have previously suggested a correlation with asthma.

Auckland Medical School researchers are now studying the relationship between selenium and prostate cancer rates among men.

Professor Lynne Ferguson, who heads the research, says early results show the health of the population may be suffering from low blood selenium levels.

Professor Ferguson said that in the trial of 50 Auckland men it appeared those getting selenium were benefiting. But there were many variables to be excluded from the data, such as eating habits, as 40 per cent of cancers could be related to diet. Good sources of selenium include meat, fish, eggs, and sunflower seeds. Unfortunately, fruit and vegetables grown in local soils might not have taken up selenium.

Professor Ferguson has been taking selenium supplements since 1999 in the recommended form of selenomethionine. She said other colleagues were raising their selenium intake to at least the recommended dose of between 55mcg to 60mcg per day.

Leading international selenium researcher Professor Gerhard Schrauzer, who also supplements his diet, told the Herald he had not had a chronic disease.

Professor Schrauzer, 70, said selenium-rich countries such as Japan had little prostate cancer, but in New Zealand prostate, lung and breast cancer rates were high.

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