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water. As a result, calcium phosphates now mined for use in fer- trace element to the feed of domestic livestock and to table salt. tilisers are one of Senegal's chief mineral products. They are To illustrate, in Sichuan Province® the use of selenium-fortified derived from phosphorite, a rock type that is always selenium- table salt was able to reduce the incidence of Keshan disease in enriched.” children from 7.1 to 0.12 per thousand during the period 1974 to It appears to be no coincidence that HIV-1 has had great diffi- 1983. Everywhere in the great Chinese selenium deficiency belt, culty diffusing in Senegal, a country which also has the world's as the level of this trace element has risen in local diets lowest incidence of cancer.” Numerous clinical trials, of course, Coxsackievirus infection has fallen and, with it, Keshan disease have demonstrated that individuals eating a high-selenium diet are incidence and mortality.” relatively unlikely to develop a wide variety of cancers.*! The Chinese also have provided evidence that increased dietary Conversely, a link between elevated AIDS mortality and selenium can reduce the rates of infection by two more pathogens depressed environmental selenium has been shown to occur in the that encode for glutathione peroxidase: the hepatitis B and C United States. Cowgill,” for example, used analysis of variance viruses. In Qidong County, Jiangsu Province," 20,847 residents to compare selenium in local alfalfa with AIDS mortality for of one town were given table salt fortified with 15 ppm of anhy- 1990. Where selenium levels were drous sodium selenite. Those in the six sur- depressed, AIDS mortality was elevated. rounding townships continued to use normal This relationship was particularly evident table salt. Prior to and during the first year amongst Afro-Americans, who Cowgill of the study, there was no statistically signifi- believed were less mobile and therefore cant difference in hepatitis infection between more likely to eat locally grown foods. This the selenium supplementation and control inverse relationship between dietary The liver damage populations. However, by the third year, a selenium intake and risk of infection does ays drop in the incidence of hepatitis had not seem limited to HIV-1, but also appears caused by hepatitis C occurred in the selenium-supplied township to be true of other viruses that encode for can be reversed by a (4.52 per 1,000) compared with those com- glutathione peroxidase. . . munities using normal salt (10.48 per 1,000; Beyond that, Beck and her co-workers, * combination of 56.8% reduction, p<0.002). A similar study for example, have shown that a normally alpha-lipoic acid, in the same county, also conducted by Yu benign Coxsackievirus can mutate to cause significant heart damage in selenium- deficient mice. Such new viral strains differed significantly from the original virus and were also then able to cause heart problems in selenium-adequate animals. This relationship between the viru- lence of the Coxsackievirus and heart disease in mice is of more than just academic concern. A frequently fatal cardiomyopathy called Keshan disease is widespread and endemic in the sele- nium-deficient areas of China.** It and colleagues, *? further established that daily selenium-yeast (200 micrograms of selenium) supplementation could significantly reduce the primary liver cancer often associated with hepatitis B and C infection. Interestingly, Berkson*’ has demonstrated that the liver damage caused by hepatitis C can be reversed by a combination of alpha- lipoic acid, silymarin and selenium, often negating the need for expensive liver transplantation. In summary, infection from HIV-1, Coxsackievirus B and the hepatitis B occurs in those who are both selenium and C viruses occurs far more frequent- deficient and infected by the ly in regions and populations that are Coxsackievirus. It is therefore a disease caused by a virus that selenium deficient. It has been established further that rates of encodes for glutathione peroxidase, but only infects those who are infection by and death from Coxsackievirus B and hepatitis B and eating a diet containing inadequate selenium. C viruses can be greatly reduced by increasing dietary selenium This problem may not be limited only to regions of extreme intake. It seems extremely likely, therefore, that the same strategy selenium-deficiency. Nicholls and Thomas, ** for example, would be just as effective in slowing the diffusion of HIV-1 and silymarin and selenium, often negating the need for expensive liver transplantation. showed that 10 out of 38 patients suffering acute myocardial so lowering the AIDS death rate. infarction (heart attack), admitted to the King Edward VII Unfortunately, the reverse seems to be occurring. During the Hospital in Midhurst, Sussex, England, during a two-month peri- latter half of the 20th century, precipitation became increasingly od, had serological evidence of very recent Coxsackievirus B acidic, soil pH fell, and heavy metal and fertiliser contamination infection. That is, approximately 25 per cent of these British increased. As a consequence, selenium bioavailability declined heart attack patients had suffered from an influenza-like illness and levels of this element in the food chain fell,“ making it much caused by the Coxsackievirus B within seven days prior to admis- easier for viruses that encode for glutathione peroxidase to dif- sion. Even more interesting is the fact that heart attack patients fuse. This is why we are now experiencing pandemics caused by who subsequently took selenium supplements suffered far fewer HIV-1, the Coxsackievirus and the hepatitis B and C viruses.*“° secondary episodes of myocardial infarction.**” Together they have infected more than one third of the global Further evidence that selenium supplementation can greatly human population and show no sign of halting their rapid spread. reduce infection by the Coxsackievirus has been provided from Their devastation, of course, is most obvious in those regions of China, where the incidence and mortality rates for Keshan disease the planet where, for geological reasons, the soil levels of seleni- are in decline.* This is because of the widespread use of more um are naturally very low. These include most of sub-Saharan grain grown outside the selenium deficiency belt, spraying Africa and the "disease belt" that crosses China from northeast to selenium-enriched fertilisers onto soils and crops, and adding this southwest. The liver damage caused by hepatitis C can be reversed bya combination of alpha-lipoic acid, silymarin and selenium, often negating the need for expensive liver transplantation. NEXUS 29 DECEMBER 2003 — JANUARY 2004 www.nexusmagazine.com