<<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/