Vitamins C and E are well known for their antioxidant powers, but selenium is the driving force behind them. Selenium works to enhance this antioxidant power and increase the protection that these vitamins have to offer.

As well as its great impact on antioxidants, selenium also helps with the proper functioning of the thyroid gland, which is responsible for normal growth and development, and maintaining our metabolism. Selenium also helps to increase our immune response to better fight off infection, and it also forms a part of many enzymes in our body that do anything from building muscles, to metabolizing the food we eat, and maintaining prostate health in men.

Selenium ignites the power of antioxidants. So if we’re lacking in this trace mineral, we’re forfeiting this valuable increase in antioxidant power that selenium has to offer. A lack of dietary selenium can make us more susceptible to physiological stresses and leave the gates open to greater oxidative damage.

A lack of selenium can also effect our immune system. This can leave us with a decreased immune response and an increase in infections. If our immune system can’t put up its strongest fight, then this may also increase our chance of certain types of cancer. A selenium deficiency can also effect thyroid function and its essential role in growth, development and metabolism.

A selenium deficiency is rare in developed countries, so supplementation is not often recommended.

There’s a fine line between not enough and too much selenium, and while a deficiency poses its problems, toxicity faces us with a whole other set of troubles. Higher doses of selenium over time can cause chronic selenium toxicity, or selenosis. This is why unmonitored selenium supplements are not ideal and should only be taken as recommended by a healthcare practitioner.

Symptoms of selenium toxicity include garlic odor breathe, brittle hair and nails, loss of hair and nails, fatigue and irritability, gastrointestinal problems and skin rashes. More severe untreated cases, or megadoses of selenium, can cause cirrhosis of the liver, fluid build up in the lungs and even death.