Selenium Protective Against Dysglycemia in French Men

Wanna bet?

In a French prospective observational study, older men with higher plasma selenium levels at baseline are less likely to have impaired fasting glucose levels or type 2 diabetes during the subsequent 9 years. However, no such protective effect of higher baseline selenium levels is seen in older women in the study.

The findings, reported online March 17 in the BioMed Central's open-access journal Nutrition & Metabolism, suggest "a sex-specific protective effect of higher selenium status at baseline on later occurrence of dysglycemia," write first author Tasnime N. Akbaraly, PhD, research fellow from the Hospital La Colombiere and University of Montpellier, in Montpellier, France, and colleagues.

In a telephone interview with Medscape Nutrition, Saverio Stranges, MD, PhD, of the Health Sciences Research Institute, Warwick Medical School, Coventry, United Kingdom, said the findings "showed a borderline significant effect of lower risk of dysglycemia in men with higher levels of selenium. However, this was an observational study and the findings from observational studies are always less convincing, less strong, than randomized clinical trials," he emphasized. Dr. Stranges was not involved in the study.

Research Mixed

Research on selenium as it relates to diabetes has been mixed. A preventive role of selenium on diabetes risk has been reported and ascribed to the "insulin-like" activity of this essential trace element and antioxidant properties of selenoenzymes. However, cross-sectional and clinical trial data have suggested that high selenium status and selenium supplementation may increase the risk for type 2 diabetes.

And see here, too.

They still have no idea what they are talking about.