A nutrient to help prevent cancer

The nutrient is selenium: an essential mineral. You may have never heard of it.

Not only are most people deficient in selenium, it can go a long way to help to prevent cancer. And yet, most people do not get adequate amounts of selenium, even in a multi-vitamin. Your body needs selenium to stay healthy.

Selenium becomes more effective when taken with vitamin E. Working synergistically, selenium and vitamin E are powerhouses of nutrition and also help to fight free radicals, which can cause, or contribute to, many diseases. Your body needs these nutrients—vitamin E and selenium—every day.

“Selenium is a powerful mineral. Needed only in very small amounts, it plays a crucial role in your cells’ defenses against cancer. It is a central part of the enzymes that knock out free radicals, the unstable molecules which can attack your cells and ultimately lead to cancer. It also plays a role in recycling antioxidants through the body. These antioxidants, such as vitamin E, then lower the risk of cancer by preventing free radicals from damaging cells.” (Source: PCRM.org—Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine)

Selenium and vitamin E are inexpensive and may be found at most large grocery stores and vitamin shops around the island.

However, selenium has another little-known use: it can both prevent and cure muscular dystrophy. I mention this because Labor Day is just around the corner.

You may remember the famous Labor Day telethons, which Jerry Lewis hosted for 45 years. His sponsor was the Muscular Dystrophy Association, and they raised $1.6 billion for research over the decades. The telethon was a great show.

On stage with Jerry Lewis were his “kids”—children in wheelchairs who could not walk or function normally. It was heartbreaking to see them.

A true story…
There was a young man from an agricultural Amish community in Pennsylvania. He enlisted in the Marine Corps and later went on a number of overseas missions.

When he returned to his home community—some 10 years later—the marine found that many of the children had muscular dystrophy. This saddened and frustrated him, because he was unable to help the kids.

Fortunately, this Marine had met a naturopathic doctor, Joel Wallach, N.D., and called him up. The Marine told Dr. Wallach that his community had a number of dystrophic children, and asked if there was anything the doctor could do.

Dr. Wallach and his team soon visited the Amish community and took blood samples from the children. They also examined the soil where vegetables were grown.

They discovered that the children had no selenium in their bloodstreams; nor was there any selenium in the soil in which their vegetables grew. This meant that these children were chronically deficient in selenium.

Dr. Wallach and his team began to administer selenium to the children. The younger ones got well almost immediately. Those in their teens and 20s were also cured, but it took longer for the selenium to work. In the end, all were cured of muscular dystrophy.

Dr. Wallach exclaimed, “These kids went from wheelchairs to playing basketball!”

Excited by the results (which were meticulously recorded) they contacted Jerry Lewis’ office and told his secretary that they had found the cure for muscular dystrophy. Dr. Wallach later emailed the woman his research findings; he also sent hard copies by regular mail.

When Jerry Lewis examined the data, he was dumbfounded. At last a cure had been found for muscular dystrophy: a simple selenium deficiency!

Lewis then went to the board of the Muscular Dystrophy Association and happily announced that, according to the data, there was, at long last, a cure for MD.

The board of the Muscular Dystrophy Association promptly fired Jerry Lewis, and canceled his appearance in any future telethons. And, because Lewis had signed a non-disclosure agreement, he was forbidden to discuss anything having to do with muscular dystrophy; and he was prohibited from talking about a cure. Jerry Lewis, who started the telethon decades earlier, was now finished. The MDA gave him a severance package and sent him on a cruise.

The MDA continues its fundraising and research initiatives, even though it’s unnecessary. If they were to suddenly stop, many scientists would be out of a job, and the MDA would have egg on its face.

This is, unfortunately, typical of corporate medicine: they prefer that kids remain dystrophic than to get well with selenium. And, unfortunately, modern medical science rarely considers nutritional deficiencies as a cause of illness; they were busy looking for a germ, or a problem with the patients’ DNA.

“We’re on the verge of a cure,” the MDA doctors said. They lied.

To this day, Jerry Lewis has honored his non-disclosure agreement, and refuses to talk about his “retirement” from the telethon.

However, Dr. Joel Wallach had no such agreement with the Muscular Dystrophy Association and you can watch him tell the above story in a variety of YouTube videos.

In other YouTube videos, there are dozens of presentations on how selenium can both prevent and treat cancer. All you need to do is to visit YouTube and type “selenium cancer” into the search box. You will be presented with many video offerings, all which say the same thing: selenium has definite anti-cancer properties, especially when combined with vitamin E.

In the Marianas, most people don’t give much thought to trace minerals, but it’s a good time to learn some new things, especially if 200mcg (micrograms) of selenium can help keep you cancer-free.

Even easier, many people take a multi-vitamin. The better ones have 200mcg of selenium as part of the formulation. Taking a multi-vitamin is an easy way to get not only selenium, but other essential nutrients your body needs every day. However, before you buy a multi-vitamin, read the label and look for selenium, 200mcg.

A good multi-vitamin may cost a few dollars. But, in the long run, it’s far more sensible and cost-effective than risking a life-threatening disease.