Category: Diabetes

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Selenium supplementation and insulin resistance: a clinical study

The latest clinical evidence shows that selenium supplementation of older adults with 200 micrograms of a high-selenium yeast preparation for up to three years does not adversely affect pancreatic beta-cell function or insulin sensitivity.

Results from a clinical trial comparing 200 micrograms of selenium supplementation with placebo supplementation show no effect of the selenium supplementation on measures of insulin secretion and insulin action [Jacobs]. 

These results can be regarded as important evidence that selenium supplementation for up to three years in older individuals has no diabetes causing effects in humans [Jacobs].

The researchers who conducted the selenium and insulin resistance study concluded that the results of the study do not show a causal role for selenium in the development of insulin resistance or in the development of type-2 diabetes [Jacobs].

Research design of the selenium and insulin resistance study

Background: In 2016, researchers at the Arizona Cancer Center in Tucson reported on the results of the Selenium Trial [Thompson]. read more

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Serum selenium status and gestational diabetes

The prevalence of gestational diabetes varies from region to region of the world from below 5% of pregnancies to below 10% to as high as 20%. Gestational diabetes increases the risk of type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome for the mother and increases the risk of acute and long-term adverse metabolic disorders in the offspring. A recent meta-analysis reveals that women with gestational diabetes typically have significantly lower serum selenium concentrations.

Typically, the serum selenium concentration levels are significantly lower in women with gestational diabetes than in healthy pregnant women.  The differences are especially remarkable in non-Caucasian pregnant women and in pregnant women in the third trimester.  That is the finding of a recent meta-analysis and systematic review of the relevant literature from observational studies [Kong 2016].

Selenium and gestational diabetes

Gestational diabetes is defined as any degree of glucose intolerance that occurs with the onset of pregnancy.  A physiological insulin resistance beginning in the second trimester and progressing through the third trimester is fairly typical of pregnancies.  Expecting mothers generally need increased insulin secretion to maintain normal blood glucose levels.  Impairment of the needed compensatory increases in insulin secretion leads to a diagnosis of gestational diabetes [Kong 2016]. read more

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Selenium and glucose metabolism

In our thinking about our diet and our fitness, scientific research must be our highest authority.  The results from randomized controlled studies are the best evidence for the possible existence of a cause-effect relationship between treatment with a selenium (or Coenzyme Q10) supplement and beneficial health outcomes.

Recently, I did a search of the Medline database on the subject of selenium supplementation and its effect or non-effect on glucose metabolism, insulin resistance, glycemic control, etc.  I limited my search to reports of data from randomized, controlled trials.

Altogether, the Medline search yielded 48 hits.  Reading through the abstracts of the 48 journal articles, I was able to eliminate 30 references from consideration.  These 30 eliminated studies were studies that included all of my search terms but did not actually measure the effect of an intervention with selenium on some aspect of glucose metabolism.

18 good selenium supplementation studies
I was left with 18 good intervention studies that met my search criteria.  I read these studies and separated them into three distinct categories related to the effect of selenium supplementation on glucose metabolism and insulin sensitivity: read more

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Selenium intakes and type-2 diabetes

In many regions of the world, it may not be possible to get an optimal amount of selenium from meals. The content of selenium in our food depends on the availability of selenium in the soil. Known selenium-poor areas are found in much of Europe and the Middle East, China, Korea, Japan, and New Zealand. In the United States, the coastal areas tend to have lower selenium content than the middle of the country does.

In 2013, Dr. Margaret Rayman, University of Surrey, United Kingdom, reviewed the published reports of randomized controlled trials in which a selenium supplement had been used as a single-agent treatment option and in which there had been a follow-up or sub-group analysis of the effect of the selenium supplementation on the risk of type-2 diabetes.

Dr. Rayman found 5 such studies.  I want to summarize Dr. Rayman’s review, and then I want to see what studies have been done since 2013.

Selenium and diabetes studies
Nutritional Prevention of Cancer (NPC) study
In 2007, Dr. Saverio Stranges published the results of a post hoc analysis of the data from the Nutritional Prevention of Cancer study.  In the NPC study, supplementation for an average of 4.5 years with 200 micrograms of a high selenium yeast preparation resulted in significant reductions in the risk of lung cancer, colon cancer, and prostate cancer [Clark 1996].  The age of most participants in the study was 63 years, plus or minus 10 years. read more

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The functions of selenium supplements

skin-cells antioxidant
Selenium is an important component of the antioxidant defense in the cells. It helps to protect against oxidative damage to both cells and DNA. It has been shown to have a protective effect against the damage to skin cells caused by ultraviolet radiation.

Why the interest in selenium facts?  Here, at the beginning of the seleniumfacts.com website, we want to review in broad terms what we know about the functions of selenium supplementation. We are especially interested in selenium’s antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects in the human body.

Selenium is an essential trace element in the human diet, and, in many regions of the world, it is an absolutely necessary nutritional supplement.  It has many and diverse functions in the human body.

One of the interesting things about selenium is that it does not perform its functions as an element or an ion.  Instead, it functions as a component of more complex compounds.  In particular, it is an essential component of the 21st amino acid, selenocysteine. read more