Month: June 2021

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Selenium Status and Risk of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Data from an observational study done in the United States have shown the following relationships [Reja 2020]:

Upper right abdomen pain
Liver pain is usually felt as a dull, throbbing pain in the upper right abdomen. NAFLD is the most common form of liver disease. It is characterized by the storing of too much fat in liver tissues, by inflammation, and by fibrosis. Liver fibrosis is a degenerative disease in which liver tissue is damaged and replaced by scar tissue.

Higher serum selenium status is correlated with lower risk of advanced liver fibrosis.

  • This correlation is especially strong in liver disease patients who are elderly, who are non-Hispanic white, or who are female.
  • The patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) who had higher serum selenium levels also had a 28% lower hazard ratio of death from all causes compared to the NAFLD patients with the lowest serum selenium levels.
    • Serum Selenium Levels and the Risk of Advanced Liver Fibrosis and All-Cause Mortality in NAFLD Patients
    What was the study based on?

    The data analyzed in the study came from 33,944 NAFLD patients identified in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). read more

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    Serum Selenium Status and Cancer Risk

    On its Selenium: Fact Sheet for Health Professionals website, the US Office of Dietary Supplements, an agency of the National Institutes of Health, writes that selenium might play a role in the prevention of cancer for the following reasons:

    • selenium’s role in DNA repair
    • selenium’s role in apoptosis
    • selenium’s role in the endocrine and immune systems
    • the antioxidant properties of certain selenoproteins
    Cancer prevention ribbons
    It is not possible to draw any conclusions regarding a causal link between selenium exposure/status and the prevention of cancer. However, numerous observational studies show an inverse relationship between serum selenium status and the risk of cancer.
    Different Selenium Compounds Have Different Effects on Cancer

    The evidence from scientific research into the effect of selenium on cancer prevention can be confusing. Two observations about selenium supplementation may help to explain the confusing results from existing selenium and cancer studies:

    1. Different selenium containing compounds differ widely in their ability to prevent cancer. Study results may vary according to the form of the selenium supplement tested.

    2. Selenium supplementation may be more effective at cancer prevention in study participants with low baseline selenium status (below 100 mcg/L) and less effective in study participants with high baseline selenium status (above 135 mcg/L). read more