Hello and welcome to episode 102. Thanks for joining me. I have a couple of announcements before we get to today’s content.
First, on a personal note, someone close to me was scammed by one of those internet gift card scams. Because they used to work for the company that the scammers pretended to be, this person, an older person, believed them. It is a scam where they get you to sign in to your online bank account and they say they are refunding you say $299.00. As you are typing, they add an extra 9 to the account so it looks like you are getting a refund of $2,999.00 and then they say they will get in big trouble with their boss and the only way to remedy this is to buy gift cards and read them off the numbers. This person bought a total of $3500 in gift cards, $1000 of which was able to be frozen but they were out $2500. So please have a conversation with the older adults in your life. I never thought this person would have been able to be scammed like this in a million years and they were. There are a lot of great YouTubers getting back at these scammers if you want to check them out Kitboga is a good one as well as Scambaiter and Jim Browning.
Okay, the second thing I wanted to talk about is LifeTune - they sell emf-type devices and they sent me a couple for my phone. I muscle tested them and they seem to work for me. If you are interested in checking them out, they seem to have a sale going on all the time at up to 35% off. You can use the discount code GETCLEAR for 10% off at www.airestech.com.
You can also get 10% off Meizen skincare at myzenskincare.com using the code 10% off. That is the number 10, percent sign, space, off. I love their skincare, especially the edelweiss serum and the vitamin c spray. Dr. Martha also has some nice essential oil blends and awesome body oil that smells like cinnamon. Please support local small businesses if you can.
Okay, now on to the good stuff. I’m in a program called Practice UP from the good people at Metabolic Fitness Pro. They strive to give practitioners the latest information/science to help them put into clinical practice so they can be the best practitioners out there. That is my goal. To be the last stop for all of you fantastic Hashi’s patients out there. I am still learning and plan to continue to always be learning so I can serve my clients in the best way possible. Anyway, each month we learn about something clinically relevant and last month we learned about Selenium and the role it plays in thyroid health and in type 2 diabetes. I’ve got some great info for you guys.
What we know:
Autoimmune thyroid disease accounts for around 85% of people with hypothyroidism and the cause of Hashi’s has many factors involved. Our genetics and environmental triggers play a role but are not well understood. We have the highest selenium concentration per mass unit of tissue in our thyroid gland and has direct effects on the metabolism of thyroid hormone. Many of you have heard or been told to take selenium to help with reducing thyroid antibodies and many studies have shown that it is, in fact, effective at reducing TPO antibodies. There are several studies that show it has no effect as well. Many of the studies going either way here have a poor quality of evidence. That means the way the study was conducted had some problems that may have affected the outcome and results.
Those studies that showed an improvement in antibodies could have had people in the study that were deficient in selenium in the first place but baseline levels of selenium were not measured. When people were followed for 3,6,12 months and antibodies were measured, they didn’t see much change in antibody levels after 12 months which could suggest there was a deficiency in selenium that was fixed by supplementation and could also be why there was no clinical improvement in those subjects.
A study published in January of 2021 goes over many of these studies in detail. It is called Insufficient evidence to support the clinical efficacy of selenium supplementation for patients with chronic autoimmune thyroiditis with the lead author being a name I can’t pronounce but will have the reference in the “transcript” on this episode on my website. The bottom line is I have three studies I’ve read today that are suggesting that supplementation with selenium may not be needed.
As I said, it can improve or lower antibodies but it really doesn’t do anything for the course of the disease. In Graves’ disease, it might lead to faster remission of hyperthyroidism and improve upon the quality of life- so keep that in mind.
Other nutrients interact with Selenium which will affect you. For instance, Vitamin C is thought to increase the absorption of Se. If you are deficient, Vitamin E will make the selenium deficiency worse and if you are not deficient, having adequate vitamin E levels may help prevent toxicity from too much selenium. Large doses of Omega 3 fatty acids, potentially several grams of fish oil for example, my cause the need for more selenium. Large amounts of zinc and copper can cause a selenium deficiency so if you are deficient in those, you may also need selenium. Vitamin D supplementation can increase selenium.
What I am getting at is that you may have been told to take selenium because a few studies showed that it reduced antibodies but do you know if you really need it???
The average adult’s selenium levels are said to be optimal at around 80-120 mcg/mL and at that level are said to be good. It does act as an antioxidant at this level in the body but anything more than that can mess with insulin signaling and eventually causing insulin resistance. Too much selenium causes insulin resistance, higher HBA1C, and metabolic syndrome. Hashi’s patients are already at risk for developing these things and adding selenium supplements to your regimen could almost guarantee these things in your future.
There is also an association between serum selenium levels and all-cause mortality and cancer deaths when selenium in your blood is measured at over 150 ng/mL. Below 130 ng/mL is more protective. Another study showed a direct relationship between exposure to selenium and odds of type 2 diabetes with the higher plasma or serum levels of selenium at around 140 ng/mL.
Another study called Effects of Long Term Selenium Supplementation on the Incidence of Type 2 Diabetes that was almost 8 years long found that long term supplementation with selenium may increase the risk for type 2 diabetes. The group in this study with the most type 2 diabetes while supplementing with 200mcg per day was the group that had the highest Se levels at the beginning of the study which was around 121 ng/mL or higher. That is not a lot- that is within the normal range.
If you are deficient, you may need to supplement with it for a bit but it is likely once you are absorbing nutrients with some gut healing you will get enough from food. You can go to whofoods.com and type in selenium in the search bar, scroll down and click on selenium and it will tell you all about this mineral and which foods are highest in selenium. Here is a shortlist in order from the highest amount of selenium per serving to lower but all have good amounts:
tuna
Shrimp
Sardines
Salmon
Cod
Crimini & shiitake mushrooms
Asparagus
Mustard seeds
Turkey
Chicken
Lamb
Scallops
Beef
Tofu
Eggs
Brown rice
Sunflower and sesame seeds
Cows milk
Cabbage
Spinach
Garlic
Broccoli
The RDA for selenium is around 55 ug/mL day with the tolerable upper limit at 400 ug/mL but remember what I said earlier- at 121 ug/mL in the blood- long-term supplementation can cause type 2 diabetes.
Use an app like Cronometer to see what you are getting in nutrients, not just selenium but all nutrients.
Take out all your supplements. If you are really anal or organized, make a spreadsheet of all the nutrients in everything you are getting from supplements so you can see if you are getting not only too much selenium but maybe you are getting too much or not enough of something else. For this very reason, I don’t recommend just Willy Nilly taking a supplement because you read it was good for you!
Dr. Walsh in Practice Up gave the example of a supplement company which he didn’t mention that has a thyroid protocol. All the supplements in this protocol that would be given to a practitioner from the supplement rep because the bottles all say 1 cap per day because then the FDA doesn’t get involved in their business and then the practitioner passes the protocol on to the client—- The bottle of a thyroid conversion supplement says take one cap per day but the rep says to take 3, three times a day..... see what I’m doing here??
This protocol amounted to almost 1400 mcg/day of selenium and I just told you that 200mcg per day over 7 years caused type 2 diabetes. Granted, you would not be on this type of protocol for 7 years but maybe 3-6 months? Do you need that much selenium over even that time period??
This type of thing can happen with any nutrient- so go through all your supplements and really look at what you are getting in. In addition, you can ask your doctor to test selenium levels in your blood but if they won’t do it, you can order your own lab test from a direct to consumer lab company like Ulta Labs or Any Lab Test Now and it should be around 110ug/dL - 120 ug/dL
You may or may not need selenium, it may lower antibodies but it probably isn’t going to fix the problem, and remember there is plenty of selenium in food.
Where you live matters, some middle eastern countries are lower in selenium status than China which is really high. The US tends to have plenty of selenium in general. Remember to calculate your intake of food and in supplements. Are you deficient in any other nutrients? This is why I try to hammer home that you need to work with someone to figure this stuff out.
Okay, that is it for today. I hope you guys enjoyed this and that it wasn’t too much science or too technical. I get requests from people about 1x per month to be on the show that is really what feels like trying to promote their own business or programs. I try to only have people on that I feel have something to offer and are not just one big commercial for their business. I don’t want to do that so I hope you like what I’ve done here today. I think it is good stuff.
Remember you can get 10% off at AiresTech.com using the code GETCLEAR and 10% off at myzenskincare.com using the code 10% off. You can learn more about Practice Up here.
Until next time.