Selenium

A key partner for vitamin E and C in the anti-aging battle.. 

Selenium is another essential nutrient that prevents free radical damage to the cells in the body.  Working with vitamin E and C, selenium helps regulate the activity of oxygen molecules in the body preventing overactivity and cell damage. 

You don't need much..

The amount of selenium needed from your diet is actually measured in micrograms, and daily requirements are betwen 100-200 micrograms. A microgram is a tiny unit of measurement.  One microgram is one thousandth of a milligram, and in one ounce, there are about 30 million micrograms.

Two brazil nuts contains all your daily requirements..

Excellent sources of selenium include button mushrooms shiitake mushrooms, cod, shrimp, snapper, tuna, halibut calf's liver and salmon.  Brazil nuts are a very concentrated source - one brazil nut contains about 120 micrograms or the equivalent of the minimum recommended adequate intake level.

Essential role in repairing cells and preventing cancer..

There is a large body of evidence from studies that selenium is a cancer preventing nutrient - stimulating DNA repair in damaged cells - and it is this function that makes it important in anti-aging.  Low levels of selenium are linked to heart disease and rheumotoid arthritis.

So what can selenium do for you?

• Protect cells from free-radical damage
  
• Enable your thyroid to produce thyroid hormone
  
• Help lower your risk of joint inflammation

Over-dosing on selenium.. 

The body doesn't need huge amounts and so selenium can be toxic to the body at high levels.  With the exception of brazil nuts, most foods that are rich in selenium contain extremely low levels of selenium so toxicity is unlikely to occur from your diet.  Over dosing is only really likely to occur with excessive intake - usually from taking too much as a supplement. 

In 2000, the National Academy of Sciences set a tolerable upper limit (UL) for selenium of 400 micrograms per day for men and women aged 19 years and older.

The NAS also recommend a daily adequate intake level of 55 micrograms for men and women aged 14 and over. 

Geography matters for selenium-deficiency.. 

Diet is the most common cause of selenium deficiency. You may be eating the right things but if the soil they were grown in was deficient in selenium, your food will be too.   Researchers have been able to identify different areas of the world where selenium deficiency is particularly common.

In the United States - if you live in parts of the Pacific Northwest, parts of the Great Lakes region moving eastward toward the New England states, and parts of the Atlantic Coast you may be living in a selenium-deficient region.   Several areas of Africa, Russia, New Zealand, and China have also been identified as high-risk selenium deficiency areas.

Living in these regions and eating foods grown within them could mean you aren't getting the selenium you need.  Watch out for symptoms of deficiency like: weak or painful muscles and whitening of the fingernail beds. 

How to take selenium as a supplement.. 

Selenium can be purchased as a dietary supplement in one of two basic forms: chelated or non-chelated. "Chelated" means connected with
another molecule. In the case of selenium, the most common chelates fall into the category of amino acid chelates.

Supplemental selenium is also available in non-chelated form.  There is a food like form of selenium available as a supplement called selenized yeast.  All forms of selenium supplement are fairly well absorbed by the body.