Selenium and Vitamin E

omarisan
omarisan Member Posts: 27
edited March 2014 in Prostate Cancer #1
As many of you know, about a year or so ago, the government started a clinical study called SELECT to determine if Selenium and Vitamin E can be effective in preventing PC. The study involves 32,000 men residing at 400 different sites and have never been diagnoses with PC. The study will run from 7 to 12 years. I think this idea, along with cooked tomatoes, has been kicking around for years. At my age, 70, I ain't got time to wait out a clinical study. I recently completed my first four months of homone therapy (Eligard) and my followup PSA test showed a reduction in PSA from 31 to 0.4. I had my second implant and plan to do the Selenium and Vitamin E thing and eat lots of canned, cooked tomatos. My urologist says to go for it and he is as interested as I am in seeing if it has any positive effect. I also read somewhere that Selenium and Vit E may help in preventing reoccurrences of PC and/or becoming hormone resistent. What the hell, I have always liked tomatoes but usually ate them raw which they say doesn't work as well.

Comments

  • Benji48
    Benji48 Member Posts: 117
    Hi Omar,
    Say, you're not that Iraqi guy that took off on his motorcycle are you? Just a joke son, to liven things up! Anyway I can tell you from personal experience that the Selenium/VitaminE thing didn't work for me and a fellow in our support who raved about tomatoes ain't here no more. BUTTT with that said, have at it man! The drugs aren't very expensive and yeh, stewed tomatoes taste great!Can't hurt, & besides you'll enjoy the treatment.
    Hang in there, Benji
  • Benji48
    Benji48 Member Posts: 117
    Me again,
    By the way if anyone is interested in the Sel./VitE trials (they need volunteers)here's the web site for info: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct/show/NCT00076128
    Good luck everyone, Benji
  • nutt
    nutt Member Posts: 140
    Omarisan,
    I too believe if it won't hurt, why not try it?
    Has your doctor or you sat down and defined "what results you expect to see"? With a psa of 0.4 already and a second round of implant starting, what results are you looking for that can be established separate from the Eligard treatment?

    Eitherway, I too take selenium/E in limited amounts regularly for two years now. psa has remained lower than 0.1 (0.01 if in fact they can measure this small of an amount) but not sure what to attribute it to?

    Hopefully, when they are done with the study it will show a correlation between A & B or no effect or some side effect not anticipated?

    Are stewed tomatoes as acidic as raw? Do you have ulcer problems? Just thoughts that came to mind.
    Let us know if you see a difference.

    Good luck and stay in touch.
    Joe
  • omarisan
    omarisan Member Posts: 27
    Its my understanding that any vitamin/mineral supplements should be taken concurrently with any medicinal treatments and ONLY if your doctor says its OK. Most likely, those who choose this route who experience consistently low PSA levels will probably never know if the supplements actually contributed. As to Nutt's comment on raw vs cooked tomatoes, I believe that, contrary to past beliefs, cooking the tomatoes release the lypocene in greater amounts and that using highly concentated tomatoe products such as paste is even better. One thing for sure, I ain't bitting on any of the snake oil PC remedies that you see all over the internet. I'll keep ya'll posted.