Research
Micronutrients & recovery
Selenium supplementation reduces liver cancer incidence by 35% in a community with low baseline selenium status, but may increase the risk of type 2 diabetes in individuals with high baseline plasma selenium levels.
In selenium-deficient populations, supplementation (e.g., 200 μg/day) can significantly reduce liver cancer risk. However, individuals with high baseline selenium levels should avoid supplementation due to an increased risk of type 2 diabetes.
ModerateQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
Similarly, an enriched selenite salt supplementation in a community of 21,000 persons in China reduced liver cancer by 35% [55]. A 200 μg of selenium per day intake during 7 years decreased prostate cancer among participants in a Nutritional Prevention of Cancer (NPC) trial [62]. However, it was noted that the results of the NPC test also showed an increased risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus among participants with plasma selenium concentration in the upper tertile at the beginning of the study.
Why this rating
Based on large community trials and NPC trial, but the diabetes risk is a secondary finding requiring caution.
Source
Selenium in the Environment, Metabolism and Involvement in Body Functions
Youcef Mehdi et al. · Molecules · 2013
DOI 10.3390/molecules18033292
narrative_reviewCited 733×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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