Effects of Selenium Supplementation on Cardiovascular Disease Incidence and Mortality: Secondary Analyses in a Randomized Clinical Trial

Abstract

Despite the documented antioxidant and chemopreventive properties of selenium, studies of selenium intake and supplementation and cardiovascular disease have yielded inconsistent findings. The authors examined the effect of selenium supplementation (200 microg daily) on cardiovascular disease incidence and mortality through the entire blinded phase of the Nutritional Prevention of Cancer Trial (1983-1996) among participants who were free of cardiovascular disease at baseline (randomized to selenium: n = 504; randomized to placebo: n = 500). Selenium supplementation was not significantly associated with any of the cardiovascular disease endpoints during 7.6 years of follow-up (all cardiovascular disease: hazard ratio (HR) = 1.03, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.78, 1.37; myocardial infarction: HR = 0.94, 95% CI: 0.61, 1.44; stroke: HR = 1.02, 95% CI: 0.63, 1.65; all cardiovascular disease mortality: HR = 1.22, 95% CI: 0.76, 1.95). The lack of significant association with cardiovascular disease endpoints was also confirmed when analyses were further stratified by tertiles of baseline plasma selenium concentrations. These findings indicate no overall effect of selenium supplementation on the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease in this population.

Low plasma selenium concentrations and mortality among older community-dwelling adults: the InCHIANTI Study

“…In the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, selenium levels were inversely associated with risk of nonfatal myocardial infarction but not fatal coronary heart disease (18). A secondary analysis of the Nutritional Prevention of Cancer Trial showed that selenium supplementation (200 µg/day) was not associated with cardiovascular disease outcomes (19). The heterogeneity among studies may be due to the differences in selenium levels in the populations studied, as the selenium content of plant and animal foods is usually related to the local selenium content of the soil.…”

Selenium and coenzyme Q10 interrelationship in cardiovascular diseases – A clinician's point of view

“…However, there are conflicting reports regarding the effectiveness of intervention with selenium on cardiovascular disease [27][28][29][30][31].…”

Assessment of essential trace elements in selected food grains, herbal spices and seeds commonly used in Kenya

“…Selenium improves sperm motility and hence human reproduction (Hawkes and Turek, 2001). It is also an essential co-factor of antioxidant enzyme such as glutathione peroxidase (Zhang et al, 1999) and its deficiency has been associated with cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, arthritis (Stranges et al, 2006;Coppinger and Diamond, 2001). It has also been shown to have protective role against cancers such as prostrate (Bjelakovic et al, 2004;Yu et al, 1997) and to improve immune function (Broome et al, 2004).…”