Selenium is a very important nutritional mineral to include in your diet and supplementation plan. It is toxic at reasonably low doses so unless under the supervision of a health professional it may be best to only take it as part of a well formulated supplement.
I would suggest that any multi-mineral supplement that does not include some selenium should probably be replaced by one that does. It is that important to you. While too much is bad, too little is far worse.
It is very unlikely that you would actually overdose on selenium but if you do there will be signs that warn of the problem. You can read what they are at Healthy Vitamin Choice on the selenium page. However, it may be far more serious to have long term selenium deficiency.
So being selenium safe is more about consuming enough to help avoid some serious health problems. In the unsuplemented diet this can prove quite difficult. The levels of selenium in foods reflects the selenium levels in the soils on which the foods were grown or raised. Poor soil levels of selenium means poor food levels of selenium.
The UK, Finland, other parts of Europe, New Zealand and China are known to have low soil selenium levels. In other parts of the world selenium levels are better but do vary. In those areas people would need to consume an excellent diet and prepare their foods without destroying the mineral content to have a chance at achieving good levels by food alone. It is much safer to supplement.
Selenium is important for:
- its antioxidant capacity,
- the repair of DNA,
- a healthy immune system,
- the prevention of many cancers,
- improving liver function,
- maintaining healthy eyes and eyesight,
- maintaining healthy skin and hair,
- protection against heart and circulatory diseases,
- impeding the aging process,
- detoxifying alcohol and many drugs, including smoke and some fats, and
- increasing male potency and sex drive.
That is a pretty impressive list isn’t it. Looking at it another way, deficiency of selenium is implicated in all of the following.
- cataracts,
- impaired growth,
- heart disease,
- reduced immunity and resistance to infections,
- inflammation of the muscles,
- reduced fertility in men,
- age spots,
- cancerous changes, and
- the reduced ability to detoxify.
The area that is receiving a lot of attention, including some long term studies that won’t be reported on for some years to come, is cancer prevention. Two particular cancers in which selenium appears to be especially important for prevention are prostate cancer and lung cancer. These are both very common cancers unfortunately.
The smart thing to do is the safe thing, and that is to ensure some selenium is included in a dietary supplement that you take every day. The nutraceutical I particularly recommend will provide far more than selenium but I would suggest that even for the selenium alone, it would be a very wise tool for building your health.