May 2025 - Seleniumfacts.com

Selenium has beneficial effects on the prevention and treatment of heart failure. Higher serum selenium levels are associated with a lower risk of new-onset heart failure and with a lower risk of mortality. Now, data from a 2024 cohort study suggest that strengthened immune system function may be a mechanism that explains the positive effect of selenium [Al Mubarak 2024].

Depiction of human heart — Good heart health depends in part on adequate intake of selenium. Serum selenium status below 70 mcg/L connotes deficiency status. Selenium status below 100 mcg/L is sub-optimal status. The best estimate is that serum selenium status should be in the range of 125-135 mcg/L.

In the study, Al Mubarak et al analyzed the data from a cohort of 2,328 patients diagnosed with heart failure. Heart failure is the medical term to describe patients with a heart muscle that cannot pump as much blood out to the tissues and organs as it should. The heart is too weak or too stiff to fill up with blood and pump out blood optimally. Heart failure is frequently associated with a build-up of fluid in the lungs – causing shortness of breath – and in the lower extremities. The bottom line is that heart failure can be life-threatening [Mayo Clinic Staff 2025]. read more

Selenium is an essential trace element. For our bodies and our immune systems to function well, we need adequate intakes of selenium. Our bodies cannot produce selenium. We need to get it in our diets [Cleveland Clinic 2023].

Selenium properties — Selenium is a trace element that is essential to human health. It has key physiological roles in antioxidant defense, immune function, protection against heavy metal toxicity, reproductive health, and thyroid hormone metabolism.

Who might need a selenium supplement? The answer depends where one lives. It depends upon how selenium-rich or selenium-poor the soil and the foodstuffs are in the local region. In much of North America, for example, the inhabitants generally do not need a selenium supplement. The reason: the soil and the food grown in the soil in much of North America provide adequate amounts of selenium [Cleveland Clinic 2023].

Conversely, there is a greater likelihood that people living in much of Europe and in some Middle Eastern countries will need a selenium supplement. In a systematic review, Stoffaneller & Morse documented widespread sub-optimal selenium intake and status throughout Europe, the UK, and the Middle East [Stoffaneller & Morse 2015]. read more

Milestones in early selenium research

1817 Swedish chemist Jöns Jakob Berzelius discovers selenium

1957 Biochemist Klaus Schwarz shows that selenium in microscopic amounts has a vital importance for mammalian health

1969 Professor J.T. Rotruck discovers that selenium has a biochemical role as a component of the antioxidant enzyme glutathione peroxidase

1969 Professors R.J. Shamberger and D.V. Frost report a possible protective effect of selenium against cancer in humans

1973 Professor J.T. Rotruck identifies the enzyme glutathione peroxidase as a selenium-dependent protein

1977 Professor G.N. Schrauzer publishes cancer mortality correlation studies showing an inverse correlation between dietary intakes of selenium and cancer mortality in 27 countries

1988 Professor G.Q Yang summarizes the lessons learned about the selenium-related endemic diseases Keshan disease and Kashin-Beck disease and about the importance of adequate daily selenium intakes

1989 Professor G.G. Duthie publishes evidence for a role of selenium in the prevention of cardiovascular disease

1993 Researcher W.J. Blot publishes the results of the Nutrition Intervention Trials in Linxian, China, showing that supplementation with a combination of selenium and other antioxidants reduces the risk of cancer

1994 Professor G.N. Schrauzer publishes evidence that selenium is important in the maintenance and therapy of HIV-infected patients

1996 Professor Larry Clark publishes the results of a randomized controlled trial – the Nutritional Prevention of Cancer study -- that shows selenium's cancer-protective effects on colon cancer, lung cancer, and prostate cancer

1997 Professor G.F. Combs summarizes the evidence for the protective effects of selenium against cancer

1999 Professor J.E. Oldfield publishes his Selenium World Atlas, mapping areas of selenium deficiency around the world

2000 Researcher O.A. Levander publishes evidence showing an anti-viral effect of selenium

2002 Researcher R. Gärtner shows that supplementation with selenium reduces inflammation in patients with autoimmune thyroiditis

2002 Researcher Margaret Rayman presents the arguments for increasing selenium intakes to realize selenium’s antioxidant and anti-viral and anti-inflammatory effects as well as selenium’s enhancement of immune function and reproductive success.

Month: May 2025

Selenium and Heart Failure and Immune Function

Selenium Health Benefits