In 2000, with regard to supplements for human consumption, the SCF (Scientific Committee on Food, dissolved and incorporated into the EFSA European Food Safety Authority in 2001), had expresse ...

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In 2000, with regard to supplements for human consumption, the SCF (Scientific Committee on Food, dissolved and incorporated into the EFSA European Food Safety Authority in 2001), had expressed an opinion on the maximum tolerable intake level (referred to as the upper level) of Selenium, establishing proportionately, lower levels of intake for children, based on the differences in body weight compared to adults. Based on the results in humans, the SCF noted that a Selenium intake of approximately 850μg/day could be considered as NOAEL for clinical selenosis. Using an uncertainty factor of 3 to consider the remaining uncertainties of the studies, the SCF calculated a higher level for Selenium than 300μg/day (1). The SELECT study (Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial) started in 2001 on 35,533 men, and provided the following results (2):

2008: In September 2008, researchers found that Selenium (200μg/day) and Vitamin E, taken alone or together for an average of five and a half years, did not prevent prostate cancer.

2011: data from updated studies showed that, in men taking Vitamin E, there was a 17 percent increase in the risk of prostate cancer compared to men taking placebo.

2014: analysis showed that the men who started the process with high levels of Selenium doubled the risk of developing high-grade prostate cancer by taking Selenium supplements, and those who had low Selenium levels at the beginning of the process, doubled the risk of high-grade prostate cancer by taking Vitamin E.

Scientists do not understand how these supplements really work and, above all, the interaction that these supplements have with each other or with foods, drugs or other supplements. There are no clinical studies that show an advantage by taking Vitamin E or Selenium to reduce the risk of prostate cancer or any other cancer or heart disease (3).

References______________________________________________

(1) EFSA-Q-2005-103, EFSA-Q-2006-195, EFSA-Q-2006-196,EFSA-Q-2006-304

(2) http://www.cancer.gov/newscenter/qa/2008/selectqa

(3) http://www.cancer.gov/newscenter/qa/2008/selectqa 
Question 14.

 

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