Nov 08
10
Men and Vitamin E, Selenium
An ongoing study that was commissioned by the government has recently been halted because it wasn’t shown to be doing any sort of benefit to the parties involved, which were all men taking vitamin E and selenium supplements in the hopes that the study would confirm what science had hypothesized about the two supplements, which was that they could help to prevent prostate cancer in men.
The other reason it was stopped, beside the fact that it had not shown any benefits as far as prostate cancer prevention, was that the men who were taking just vitamin E were getting slightly higher instances of diabetes, and the men who were taking selenium only supplements were getting slightly higher instances of prostate cancer.
I’m wondering if this study was strictly controlled though. We all know how variable men’s diets can be, and what of genetic factors and other things like environment and lifestyle that weigh in often times in ways we don’t even know when it comes to cancers, degenerative nerve disorders and other diseases that are lifestyle related. Could it not have been some confounding factor (something outside of the study that the scientists studying the factors had no control over or knowledge of), or was it a flawed experiment to begin with?
Those are of course answers we as the general public never know about these studies and I guess that’s the only thing that irks me about studies on herbal or natural alternatives to men’s health, and women’s health for that matter. The authors of the study did say though that the small differences in the diabetes and the increased risk of prostate cancer were small and not statistically significant, so at least they added that disclaimer in there.
As far as selenium, this mineral is only needed in trace amount in the body, and I’d almost wonder how much of this they were giving to the men who were on the selenium and vitamin e both, versus the men that were just on the selenium. If I’m not mistaken, this is the mineral that was found in abundance in the batches of a certain supplement that was recently recalled which was making people’s hair fall out because it contained much more than is needed by the human body. It was also making people’s fingernails fall out.
