http://www.emineral.info/MineralDocs/Selenium.pdf


Selenium & Tumor-
Suppressing Genes

by Charles Walters
We used to believe that only Wall
Street types made one word a basic
vocabulary entry — more! But the eco-
farmers of our toxic era also want more
— not money, but knowledge — and in
the wake of our Minerals for the Genetic
Code publication, they want more on
Number 50 in Dr. Olree’s Standard Ge-
netic Code, namely selenium.
Selenium started making its way into
the veterinary literature in the 1960s,
and bumped its way into human nutri-
tion and healing in the early 1970s. Two
researchers named Schwartz and Foltz
first recognized the essential role of sele-
nium in 1957. In the esoteric style of that
hour, they served up a factor 3, a dietary
necrotic liver disease.
Once the door was kicked open, se-
lenium lost its status as a toxin that
stubbornly resisted the government of
homeostasis, that natural propensity of
the body to dispose of unwanted miner-
als and compounds. Suddenly the medi-
cal and veterinary professions learned
about the capacity of dietary selenium
to prevent the development of exudative
diathesis, a condition characterized by a
leakage of plasma into the subcutaneous
spaces of the abdomen and breasts of
test chickens.
Selenium was a hot topic when I
handled an editorial pencil at Veterinary
Medicine in the late 1950s and early
1960s. It should have been a headline
in the Wall Street Journal! White muscle
disease was the first nemesis to be con-
quered, and then the door flew open. It
wasn’t closed by the recent publication
of Minerals for the Genetic Code, it was
lifted off its hinges.
THE NEW ENCOMIUM
Before the 1970s, selenium was gener-
ally considered in the same toxic category
as arsenic, lead, mercury or other heavy
metals. The problem was and remains,
selenium is not selenium when it comes
to nutrition. The right selenium is sele-
nomethionine. Its essential status arises
from the fact that it is protein based.
The other biological form of selenium is
called selenocysteine, an enzyme catalyst
of biochemical events. This distinction
came to the fore the day investigators
started dealing with Keshan’s disease, a
human condition characterized by di-
lated cardiomyopathy.
These observations may seem a coun-
try mile removed from the human clinic
or the feedlot, but since these few find-
ings were made, selenium has climbed
the ladder to a position of 50 out of 64
on the Olree chart that backbones Min-
erals for the Genetic Code.
Cancer is probably the one condition
that brings on Cheney-Stokes palpita-
tions the minute it is mentioned and is
probably the reason many people ask for
“more” explanation of that Number 50
position on the Olree chart.
Many geneticists hold that the life,
comfort and death of the human being
are all programmed by the genetic pack-
age gifted the infant via its XX and/or XY
chromosomes. This is not the position
Richard Olree holds in Minerals for the
Genetic Code. There are tumor-suppress-
ing genes that can offset the inheritance
bestowed by a cancer-prone gene. Olree
has consulted an abundance of literature
that says the tumor-suppressing genes
often fail for want of a suitable mineral
load, or because of chemical toxicities.
Here it may be well to pause for a
statement that layman and professionals
all can understand.
In the cell — plant, animal, or human
— there are chromosomes that carry all
the information needed to direct the
cell’s growth, division, and production
of chemicals such as proteins. These
chromosomes are composed of informa-
tion-bearing genes.Radiomimetic chem-
icals (chemicals that ape the character of
radiation), radiation itself, and many of
the chemicals used in agriculture and
the environment can injure the chro-
mosomes either by altering the chem-
istry of a single gene so that the gene
conveys improper information (called
point mutation), or by actually breaking
the chromosomes (called deletion). The
cell may be killed, or it may continue to
live, sometimes reproducing the induced
error. Some types of cell damage cause
genetic misinformation leading to un-
controlled cellular growth — cancer.
Toxicity generally locates itself in the
fatty tissues. That is why so many weight-
reduction schemes result in the expression
of cancer. As fat departs, toxins are re-
leased to perform their mischief. As Rich-
ard Olree puts it,“Obesity is just as bad as
the cancer factor.”It warehouses the inven-
tory of toxins that “better living through
chemistry”has accounted for. In a manner
of speaking, one can point out that the
average American carries so much toxicity
that he or she, based on FDA guidelines,
would be unfit for human consumption in
a cannibalistic society.
BREAST CANCER
It can be said that we have a near-
pandemic of breast cancer in the United
States. A precancerous condition —
which may or may not be genetic — sets
up a series of bio-events. Unregulated by
tumor-suppressing genes, these result in
every form of cancer.
The human breast is a repository for a
measure of fat. That fat is a catchpan for
toxicity. If the proper kind of selenium is
missing from the diet, activation of the
tumor-suppressing genes — notably, P-
52 — is stalled out.
P-52 is not a fighter plane. It is the
guardian of the genetic code. It is the
most potent tumor-suppressing gene,
and it will not function in the absence
of selenium. The lady who allows herself
to run out of selenium is inherently a
target for the expression of the cancer-
producing gene. If the lactating woman
is selenium deficient, she will likely have
poor breast-feeding results.
SELENIUM FORMS
The cheapest form of selenium on the
market — animal or human — is sodi-
um selenite, a salt with no more than 15
percent utilization. On the other hand,
selenomethionine is upward to 80 per-
cent utilized. Selenocysteine can act as a
substitute for yttrium (see “The Yttrium
Paradox Explained,” January 2007) as a
terminal point in protein production.
This deficit is almost always present
when alien substitution takes place in
the bio scheme of things. The prospect
of picking up the proper form of seleni-
um from food or forage hovers hardly an
inch above absolute zero. This prospect
is exacerbated by near-total ignorance
about where our food is coming from.
Thus there is absolute ignorance of the
selenium load in almost all foods. Facto-
ry farms pay little attention to anything
except basic salt fertilizers and toxic res-
cue chemistry.
NATURE’S BALANCE
For every type of cancer discovered
so far, we have also discovered a tumor-
suppressing gene. And all tumor-sup-
pressing genes require the right chemical
activation. In sequencing these genes,
Richard Olree has found that all have a
high requirement for iodine. Iodine, in
turn, cannot be activated without seleni-
um. Therefore it is incumbent on people
to take charge of their selenium levels.
The highlight of any trip to a health food
store should be reading the label. If the
package does not say selenomethionine,
it should be shunned the way the devil is
said to shun holy water.
The farmer is not exempt from this
caution. The selenium in the feed mix
will likely determine whether the state
veterinarians ask for herd depopulation
and other futile measures to eradicate
the disease of the day. A recent spate of
pasture fertilization with ocean minerals
is a pragmatic answer to the errant epi-
demiology being practiced by the propo-
nents of pharmaceuticals or gunfire on
the range. Pasture managers are access-
ing, via ocean minerals, nutrients that
have vanished from American acres.
SOURCING ANIMAL SELENIUM
There are only a few suppliers of sele-
nomethionine. One is Diamond V out
of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Another source
is Lallemand’s High Selenium Yeast, also
called Alkosel. Excell Yeast is also an ex-
cellent product in this respect.
All selenomethionine products for
animals are forms of yeast, usually a
powder. The yeast species that converts
sodium-selenite salt to selenomethio-
nine is called Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
This is the fungus that will take inor-
ganic sodium selenite — now used in
99 percent of all animal feeds — into a
usable organic form.
FINALLY
A measure of any multivitamin should
be the source of its selenium. There are
providers of sodium selenite, selenium
molybdate, etc. Look for the salt form,
then do an about face and retreat. You’ll
have avoided the danger of selenium tox-
icity. The body, human or animal, simply
cannot convert the salt form to a usable
selenomethionine.
One of the benefits of expelling sele-
nomethionine via urine is that it will
remove lead, mercury, arsenic, all the
heavy metals.
The medical literature, an ever-pres-
ent source of research information
— even though practitioners are often
tardy finding out — tell us that selenium
protects against artery furring (athero-
sclerosis). It should reduce the risk of
heart disease by inhibiting the oxidation
of LDL (bad) cholesterol.
According to researcher John Connell,
the vitamin D requirement of mammal
life forms in a cloudy environment —
September 1 through May 1 — coupled
with selenium, could erase the perceived
mandate for government intervention and
herd depopulation in northern Michigan.
Admittedly, we extrapolate and think out
of the box, but proofs assembled so far
allow no other conclusion.
Vitamin D is a critical component in
the creation of a gene that presides over
the iodine-binding protein. It requires
vitamin D. Any chemical reaction re-
quiring iodine also requires selenium.
All of the above is a bit “more” for
those who have already read Minerals
for the Genetic Code. For those who have
still to read the book, it should serve as a
tantalus with its own reward.
Acres U.S.A. is the national journal of
sustainable agriculture, standing virtually
alone with a real track record — over 35
years of continuous publication. Eash
issue is packed full of information eco-
consultants regularly charge top dollar
for. You’ll be kept up-to-date on all of
the news that affects agriculture — regu-
lations, discoveries, research updates,
organic certification issues, and more.
To subscribe, call
1-800-355-5313
(toll-free in the U.S. & Canada)
512-892-4400 / fax 512-892-4448
P.O. Box 91299 / Austin, TX 78709
info@acresusa.com
Or subscribe online at:
http://www.acresusa.com