Selenium

[Cynthia Eyler <eyler@mindspring.com>]

A little while back, Susan advised me to find out the selenium levels here
in central Maryland.  I contacted the county extension service, the Soil
Lab at the Univ. of MD, the state dept of agriculture, the USDA -- no one
had any data.

Finally I was referred to a soil chemist at the Univ. of MD, who told me
that selenium is not tested for here, probably because there's no demand
for it by the  agricultural industry here.  But he did remember a US
Geological Survey report about selenium levels in various regions; he
looked it up and called me back with the info.

The USGS report had Maryland in the lowest category (I *think* he said it
was less than 10 parts per million).  He also said that humid areas tend to
be low in selenium.

So now I'm supplementing.  I will have a couple of tubes of whole blood
drawn for testing at the Univ. of Michigan, but there's no rush to do that
since Jack and I are very early in our conditioning program.

Cindy Eyler