Does selenium prevent cancer? It may depend on which form people take

American Chemical Society ^ | March 16, 2011 | Unknown

[decimon]

Don't know what is the difference between SeMet and MeSeCys. Don't know if I'd know if I did know. Yeah, I was just reading the thread on LSD.

[decimon]

Ping

[sima_yi]

SeMet is methionine (an amino acid) with the sulfur replaced by a selenium. MeSeCys is cystine (another amino acid) with the sulfur replaced by a selenium.

[decimon]

SeMet is methionine (an amino acid) with the sulfur replaced by a selenium. MeSeCys is cystine (another amino acid) with the sulfur replaced by a selenium.

Thanks.

Just to be certain, neither occurs naturally, right?

[sima_yi]

The selenium versions may occur in trace amounts. The way selenium poisoning works is the sulfur in the body’s proteins (which contain methionine and cystine) gets replaced with selenium, and no longer function properly.

[dila813]

Reading another article, it says that MeSeCys can be fortified into normal plants by doping the soil or using a hydroponic system.

I couldn’t find MeSeCys in any natural occurring plants you can buy at the grocery store.

Maybe someone will pipe up that I am wrong.

I thought Kale has it, but couldn’t verify if my memory is correct using google.

[diamond6]

Looking forward to reading the comments on this thread.

[diamond6]

Can this be purchased by ordinary consumers?

[InterceptPoint]

Ping

[Marie]

I found a reference online that said it occurs in nuts, fish and dairy.

[dila813]

methylselenocysteine is what we are looking for.

Dates and Kale and many other foods have Sel, but I don’t know if it is methylselenocysteine.

[dila813]

yea, but does it say it is methylselenocysteine?

[Calvin Locke]

There's a tv movie, supposedly based on a true story, with husband
John Ritter killing a wife or three with selenium scraped off of old
radio components.

The last, played by Marg Helgenberger, came down with a fatal case
of chemical induced leukemia, iirc.

[dila813]

Nutrition stores have it under se-methylselenocysteine

[dila813]

you only need a few micro-grams, yes, if you take a big dose, it will kill you

[Deaf Smith]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_(film)
David Duchovny in the movie Evolution, discovered that the Selenium in Head & Shoulders shampoo will kill alien monsters.

[Roos_Girl]

I wonder what form of Vitamin E was used in the studies and if both studies used the same kind? Synthetic Vitamin E was used to try to reproduce some favorable studies that showed how Vitamin E could lower blood pressure. The original study used natural Vit E and showed lowered blood pressure. The subsequent study used synthetic Vit E and “proved” that the first study was false.

[sima_yi]

I don’t know if it can be purchased by regular, ordinary people. One would get it from a specialized chemical supply house.

[Marie]

http://www.vaxa.com/selenosteine-amino-acid.cfm

Here you can buy it:

http://www.lef.org/Vitamins-Supplements/Item00567/Se-Methyl-L-Selenocysteine-SeMC.html

[PeaceBeWithYou]

The Cystine is the naturally occuring form. Grape seed extract is the easiest way to supplement it.