A MICROMINERAL that functions in concert with VITAMIN E and is essential to good health. It helps detox cell-scavenging free radicals as well as heavy metals like ARSENIC, CADMIUM, mercury and silver. Some researchers also now believe that selenium reduces the risk of certain cancers (although a new Harvard study questions whether this is true). Selenium may even slow the progress of AIDS. Although selenium deficiencies crop up in remote corners of the world (notably the Keshan Province of China, where young boys and pregnant women were felled by heart-muscle disorders), they are rare in the United States. Overdoses of selenium are more likely because health-food stores push selenium supplements (some of them nearly five times the RDA for women) as the key to sturdier immune systems, stronger hearts, healthier pancreatic function, greater skin and muscle tone. In fact, high doses of selenium (1 milligram or more a day) are extremely toxic, causing hair and nail loss, nerve damage, skin lesions, irritability, fatigue, diarrhea, nausea and abdominal cramps.

Dry and scaly facial skin, cracks at the corners of the mouth, oral inflammation.

Many cattle and poultry feeds are FORTIFIED with selenium because the soil in some areas (and thus the grains and grass grown on them) lack this important mineral.

Brazil nuts, eggs, lean meats, seafood, legumes and whole grains.

Cataplex E, Immuplex