{"id":755,"date":"2017-10-03T12:01:20","date_gmt":"2017-10-03T12:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seleniumfacts.com\/?p=755"},"modified":"2017-10-03T20:58:27","modified_gmt":"2017-10-03T20:58:27","slug":"serum-selenium-level-heart-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seleniumfacts.com\/index.php\/serum-selenium-level-heart-disease","title":{"rendered":"Serum selenium level and heart disease"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Dietary selenium intakes in the Nordic countries are generally quite low.\u00a0 In Finland, the situation is different because, there, the government implemented a policy of selenium fertilization of the soil.\u00a0 As a result, Finns have a much higher selenium intake than their Nordic neighbors. Unfortunately, there is not enough selenium available for every selenium-poor region in the world to use soil fertilization as a solution. Supplementation is the more efficient option.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Daily supplementation for four years with a high-selenium yeast tablet and two Coenzyme Q10 capsules reduced the risk of death from heart disease in elderly men and women aged 70-80 years at the time of enrollment into the KiSel-10 randomized controlled trial.\u00a0 The effective dosages were 200 micrograms of selenium and 200 milligrams of Coenzyme Q10 (100 milligrams twice a day) [Alehagen 2013].<\/strong><\/p>\n

The daily supplementation also maintained good heart function as documented on echocardiograms and reduced the concentrations of bio-markers for oxidative damage and low-grade inflammation.\u00a0 Best of all, the beneficial health effects of the selenium and Coenzyme Q10 persisted for up to ten years after the four-year supplementation [Alehagen 2015].<\/strong><\/p>\n

The KiSel-10 study results document the effect of the combined action of selenium and Coenzyme Q10 to protect heart muscle cells against the damage caused by harmful free radicals [Xia 2003].<\/strong><\/p>\n

Protection against heart disease and selenium status<\/strong>
\nProfessor Urban Alehagen and a team of researchers at Link\u00f6ping University in Sweden designed and carried out the KiSel-10 study<\/a>.\u00a0 More recently, they have gone back to do a secondary analysis of the study data.<\/p>\n

Specifically, they have asked the question: are the beneficial heart health outcomes of the study dependent on the baseline selenium status of the elderly participants in the study?<\/em><\/strong> [Alehagen 2016]<\/p>\n

What the Swedish researchers\u2019 secondary analysis<\/a> has revealed is interesting.<\/p>\n

First: Documenting the generally low selenium status of the elderly people<\/strong>
\nFirst of all, the researchers documented that the selenium status in elderly Swedish citizens is generally low.\u00a0 Selenium status sufficient to optimize the activity of the important selenoprotein SEPP1 is regarded as a good measure of sufficient selenium status.<\/p>\n

In their study of healthy British men and women aged 50 \u2013 64 years, Dr. Hurst et al documented that plasma selenoprotein SEPP1 concentrations start to plateau in the range 110 \u2013 118 micrograms per liter<\/a> [Hurst 2010].<\/p>\n

By contrast, 90% of the KiSel-10 study participants had serum selenium levels below 85 micrograms per liter.\u00a0 Nearly half, 45%, of the study participants had serum selenium levels below 65 micrograms per liter.<\/p>\n

Only 1.6% of the participants in the KiSel-10 study had serum selenium concentrations adequate enough to optimize the activity of the SEPP1 selenoproteins [Alehagen 2016].<\/p>\n

Remember: sufficient concentrations of selenium are needed not only to optimize the activity of the antioxidant selenoproteins glutathione peroxidase, thioredoxin reductase, and SEPP1.\u00a0 Sufficient concentrations of selenium are also required to reduce the ubiquinone form of Coenzyme Q10 and to regenerate the ubiquinol form of Coenzyme Q10, thereby providing protection against the peroxidation of lipids and proteins<\/em> [Xia 2003]<\/strong>.\u00a0 Coenzyme Q10 supplementation improved symptoms and survival of chronic heart failure patients in the Q-Symbio study<\/a>.<\/strong>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Second: Classifying the baseline selenium levels in the KiSel-10 study<\/strong>
\nProfessor Alehagen and the Swedish researchers divided the data from the supplemented group into three sub-groups based on the serum selenium concentrations of the participants at the start of the study:<\/p>\n