CRN Questions Health Advocacy Group over Selenium Claims

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI; Washington, DC) issued a press release on June 29 alleging that selenium intake may increase several health risks. These claims have motivated an adverse response from the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN; Washington, DC).

CSPI alleges that selenium intake may pose health risks to men suffering from prostate cancer, and that selenium may cause increased risks of diabetes and hypertension. But CRN insisted in a July 7 press release that the studies referenced by CSPI do not support such claims.

“The fact is that the researchers involved in the SELECT trial have themselves been very careful to state that any increased risk of diabetes that might have been associated with the SELECT trial was not statistically significant and may have been due to chance,” says CRN.

Accor finds fault in CSPI’s reference to a study published in this June’s Journal of Clinical Oncology, where researchers admitted to certain limitations in the study.

“To state, as CSPI does, that “studies” suggest selenium leads to increased risk of aggressive prostate cancer is…inaccurate,” says CRN. “As with the SELECT trial, these researchers stated, ‘this finding may be a result of chance and warrants further confirmation in humans.’”

To read the CSPI press release, visit
www.cspinet.org/new/200906291.html

To read the CRN press release, visit www.crnusa.org/CRNPR09RespondstoCSPIAllegations070709.html

-Robby Gardner