<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

Someone sent me the following e-mail today, and I wanted to see if anyone
has heard of this before. Even if it is true, I would not recommend taking
selenium in order to cheat on one's diet because the damage would still be
done. However, it would be nice to be able to carry around a litte "accident
prevention" if it does work. Here it is:

>Subject: Selenium helps my celiac disease

>A chiropractor told me about the mineral Selenium two years ago.  I've been
>diagnosed with Celiac's disease for about 5 years.  When I make a mistake and
>accidentally ingest gluten, I can take 500 mg of sodium selenite (yeast free
>from the health food store) and I will not have a reaction!  I would like to
>know if anyone else has ever heard of this and if anyone wants to test this.
>I have made mistakes numerous times, and it has worked everytime.

>However, I must take it the second I suspect that my food wasn't gluten free.
>Sometimes I don't react to gluten until the middle of the night, and by then
>it is too late, the selenium will not stop the reaction.  My reactions
>consist of diahrea, swelling, SEVERE headache, joint pain, asthma, etc. etc.
>I have even eaten pizza safely.

>There is a downside though.  Selenium in high levels ( > 75 mg) will cause
>hair loss.  It's not real bad because I have a lot of hair, and the hair
>grows back in.  The chiropractor told me I could keep taking the selenium
>everyday, but since I know that my body doesn't like gluten, nowadays I only
>take the selenium when I make a mistake.


Scott Adams - San Francisco, USA
Celiac Disease Website:
http://www.hooked.net/users/sadams/