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benefits of selenium?

Posted , 4 users are following.

Pippa26
Pippa26

Hello, my daughter has hyperthyroidism and thyroid eye disease, her Ophthalmologist suggested she take selenium, along with her usual block and replace medication. Is anyone else taking this? Any comments would be welcome. 

0 likes, 7 replies

7 Replies

  • emmaj43
    emmaj43 Pippa26

    Posted

    Hi Pippa,  I was also told to take selenium and you have just reminded me to continue with it!

    There is lots on the internet.  http://health.usnews.com/health-news/managing-your-healthcare/treatment/articles/2011/05/18/selenium-might-help-treat-symptoms-in-graves-eye-disease

    http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/777483_5 http://chriskresser.com/selenium-the-missing-link-for-treating-hypothyroidism

    It is great she was told to take it.  Hope she is okay.

    Emma 

    • Pippa26
      Pippa26 emmaj43

      Posted

      Thank you Emma, how do you decide how much to take? would you recommend any other vitamins/mineral supplements? I've been reading lots of posts about different diets inc. gluten free diet. 

      Pippa

    • emmaj43
      emmaj43 Pippa26

      Posted

      Hi Pippa

      I think I must have taken the maximum dose off the shelf - Boots or Holland and Barratt - I also take vitamin d - my consultant said all the family should take this regularly - all his family do.  My consultant also said I should be on an atkin style diet - however I was too ill to engage in a diet as well!  It is to do with the effect on sugar in the body.  I really did not want to give up fruit and veg, but I do need to eliminate wheat, oats, root veg etc.  it should also help with weight loss - after the initial loss of over a stone it just went back to normal - my muscle strength is still poor but improving.  One thing I did notice was I started to go grey and my skin was terrible.  The grey is now disappearing.  hope that helps. 

  • RossF
    RossF Pippa26

    Posted

    My understanding is that selenium assists the absorbtion of thyroxin - I had my throid removed so am on replacement and generally with selenium I can reduce my intake by about 12 ug per day ( half a 25 ug pill ! ).  It certainly has an effect but not really sure if it will benefit. 

    See my other post about timing and milk as that had a massive effect on my wellbeing.

    Ross

    • Pippa26
      Pippa26 RossF

      Posted

      Thank you Ross. Have you followed a certain diet at all? Pippa 
    • emmaj43
      emmaj43 RossF

      Posted

      Hi Ross, how did you feel after the removal of your gland?  Do you notice a difference? 

      Thanks

      Emma

    • RossF
      RossF emmaj43

      Posted

      Pippa - no, no special diet at all - I did have coronation chicken and a jacket spud the night of the op to everyone's alarm and then had a suspected heart attack during the night ( turned out to be indegestion ! ) - seriously,, absolutely standard food.

      Emma - OMG yes - two years of Hell.  Absolutely no energy at all, had to give up much of my business and spent day after day 'vacuum packed into a chair' - utter exhaustion.  I used to cut logs, go off road driving and my hobbies were engineering and gardening.  After the op I couldn't do an hour in the garden without being laid out for a couple of days.

      Then I managed to find the key to the issue and life changed in 2 hours and I am now as active and energetic as I have ever been.

      I've posed elsewhere so apolgies if you have read it, but my troubles seem to have been mainly mistimed thyroxin - I was taking it at night - with a cuppa. Boosting the dose only brought on symptoms with no change in energy and I was getting nightmares and a dreadful sleep pattern from having too much swilling about while I should have been asleep.

      I now take it in the morning, first thing, with a half pint of dilute squash.  Then NOTHING to eat or drink for at least half an hour and preferably longer. Above all, no milk for an hour as this is supposed to reduce the uptake of the thyroxin.  I also take Selenium from H & B and that seems to increase the effect of the thyroxin so that I can cut down about 12 ug per day if I want to - if I don't,  I eventually ( 3 or 4 days later ) begin to get mild symptoms of being over.

      I also found the amount I was taking to be critical - I was prescribed 125 ug per day as replacement - when I discovered that was just a guestimate and it depends a lot on your weight - and at the time I was 19 stone - I upped it a bit and am now on 162.5 ug ( well half a 25 ug pill - I think a precise measure is a bit optimistic with a kitchen knife ! ).  I find I very slowly run down on 150 and am soon suffering on 175 so go for 162.  I can then fine tune if I have a really busy day and add a bit or knock it back if I've been a couch potato.

      So don't panic - I'm now back to normal and feeling brilliant - its all in the amount you take and only you can judge that.  It tends to lag a day or so but when I retimed the pills and delayed my morning cuppa I was back to rights in a couple of hours !

      Trouble is that we think what the medics say is correct and they can only give a guestimate.  I'd just about consigned myself to the scrap bin when I happened to speak to a nutritionalist/spiritual healer who told me what to do and it surely worked for me.

      Hope that helps.

      Ross :-)

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