The Natural Connection

“An apple a day keeps the doctor away”.  

I suspect that I was about five years old when I first heard that proverb. And like most children, I was very definitely interested in keeping the doctor away.  

Seems like whenever I saw ole’ Doc Pedley, he had a grape lollipop in one hand, and a three-inch needle headed straight for my bare behind in the other. I recall I asked him once why doctors hated apples so much, but he really didn’t have an answer that I could understand. 

In the years to come we may need to rephrase that proverb “An apple a day keeps asthma away”. A recent study published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine reported that eating certain foods seems to protect against asthma, or decrease its symptoms. The dietary habits of over 600 adults in the United Kingdom with asthma were compared to a group of 864 people who did not suffer from the disease. It was discovered that eating three or more apples a week was protective against the development of asthma. 

Besides apples, the ingestion of selenium supplements was also found to be associated with a decreased incidence of asthma. Of interest was the fact that drinking a small amount of red wine appeared to help decrease the severity of asthma in those patients who already suffered from the condition. Both apples and red wine possess high amounts of flavonoids, a group of antioxidants commonly found in red and purple colored foods, and increasingly recognized to have positive benefits on health. 

The inclusion of selenium in the list of anti-asthma foods is interesting for a number of reasons. Selenium is a trace mineral whose worldwide intake is decreasing due to depletion of soil mineral content for a number of reasons. Many parts of the United States, including much of the Eastern seaboard region extending into the southeast is known to have decreased soil levels of selenium. Much of China, Africa, and Northern Europe are known to be deficient as well. 

Selenium deficiency has been linked to the development of various cancers as well as coronary artery disease, for a number of years. It is noted that areas of low selenium also have increased rates of heart disease, lung cancer, prostate cancer, and gastrointestinal cancers. Patients with HIV infection and Hepatitis B who are selenium deficient have increased death rates, indicating that the mineral also plays a role in the function of the immune system. 

In 1996, the National Cancer Institute embarked on a study in the states of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Connecticut to see if there was a relationship to low selenium levels in these regions and the incidence of skin cancer, which is also high in those states. 

Over a period of five years, 1300 patients took a selenium supplement of 200 mcg a day and were observed by their dermatologists for signs of skin cancer. The patients were also followed to see if any other new cancers developed. At the end of the study period, the rate of skin cancer was not found to be affected by the intake of selenium. But surprisingly, many other cancers were! 

The over-all deaths from cancer were less than half in the selenium group compared to controls. Prostate cancer was decreased by 63%, colon and rectal cancer by 58%, and lung cancer decreased by 45%. The results were so significant that the study was discontinued two years early by the NCI, so that all patients could be switched to the selenium supplementation group. 

Based on these impressive findings and suggestions that selenium may decrease the incidence of these major common cancers, NIH has embarked on the largest trial to date to study the effects of selenium, along with Vitamin E, on the risk of prostate cancer in healthy men. Over 32,000 men are currently being recruited for this study, called SELECT (The Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial), which will be completed in 2013. 

I eventually got my revenge on ole’ Doc Pedley. One Friday night when I was about twelve, I called him at home while he was entertaining guests. I could hear over the telephone that he was at a party.  

“Can I talk to you?” I asked. “Of course” he said, “Is someone choking?” I guess he thought that maybe one of my sisters had gagged on one of those grape lollipops. 

“I think I want to be a doctor. Can you tell me what to study in school?” Looking back on the conversation now, he should have told me to come to the office for a shot of common sense, but the kindly soul just said, “Sure. Come by my office next week and I’ll try to help”. May he rest in peace. 

For further information about Selenium and its role in cancer prevention, write to The Natural Connection, c/o Pauline Bellecci MD, PO Box 777, Waycross, GA 31501 or visit our on-line Patient Library at www.swampdocs.com 

©2000-2003 Pauline M. Bellecci, MD