Selenium and Hashimoto's - anyone taking it?

[micaela27]

I just came across info this afternoon about the effects of Selenium on autoimmune thyroid disease.  i'm amazed i hadn't read this info before now, but i'm very curious to see whether anyone else on here with Hashimoto's Thyroiditis has heard this info and/or is taking Selenium to combat the rising antibodies.  the article mentioned the study used 200mcg doses in trials and there was a measurable decrease in antibodies with the Selenium group.  thanks!!

[kitcurious]

Yes, I have heard about that study as it applied to a group of pregnant thyroid patients.  
Dr. Lupo has mentioned selenium as well.

Selenium had been proposed as something to help prevent type 2 diabetes too, but just this last month a large study found it doesn't help and it may actually increase the risk of getting diabetes.


My daily multi vitamin contains some selenium and certain foods contain a lot too.It's interesting, but I'll hover around the RDA amount for now, until I see more evidence.

Funnily enough, one sign of an overdose of selenium is hair loss.

[GravesLady]

I am hyper/Graves'/hypo and I take selenium with all the rest of vitamins and minerals.
However there is a lot more (vitamins/minerals) to good thyroid health then just selenium.  Hyper and hypos require different doesages.

Selenium has effects are on the T-3 (T-3 and T-4 conversion) and Selenium is also essential for healthy immune functioning.  In a placebo-controlled study, supplementation every day with   selenium for three months reduced anti-thyroid antibody levels (indicating a reduction in disease activity) in people with autoimmune thyroiditis (inflammation of the thyroid gland).

However, I believe that I read that there is on scientific or not enough data to support this theory.
Deficiency of selenium will cause "low T3 Syndrome" where T4 levels are normal but T3 is low. Selenium and/or iodine deficiencies cause goiter. Selenium is the most important mineral to counter the toxic effects of heavy metals. Selenium is essential for production of glutathione peroxidase which is one of the three most important antioxidant defenses of the body. Can be toxic at levels of over 1000 mcg per day. Goiter will result from a selenium deficiency (or iodine deficiency), and many hypers and hypos have goiter.

Mercury in silver amalgam fillings uses up selenium for detoxification. High amounts of amalgam fillings may require more selenium. Don't take over 600 mcg. per day unless you have an unusually large amount of amalgam fillings (more than 8).

CHROMIUM Involved in glucose metabolism and insulin production and works hand in hand with selenium. The conversion of T4 to T3 is influenced by insulin, which is probably the reason why diabetics have low thyroid function.  

[abdo_yassin]

My hair is sarting to become grey.I have seborrheic dermatitis and Iam used to use selsun blue shampoo (that contains selenium) but today I read that it increases the graying of hair when used as shampoo,but may improve the graying if used orally as antioxidant.
but i wonder that  
"Funnily enough, one sign of an overdose of seleniumSelenium - an antioxidant is hair loss."

I wish that more studies to be done concerning it.
I read that it has an antioxidant activity 50 times as vit.E.

[Christy1950]

Read this on a support site hope it helps...Quote...Selenium is crucial in both the production of T4 thyroid hormone(thyroxine) in the thyroid gland, was well as in the conversion of T4 to T3 thyroid hormone, the active form (thyronine) Zinc is needed both before and after these production and conversion processes. Zinc is necessary for the TRH hupothalamus hormone to stimulate the pituitary gland, which signals the thyroid gland to produce thyrroid hormone. unquote