This article is part of a special report on Thyroid Disorders. To see the other articles in this series, click here.
A healthy thyroid is a critical component of one’s overall health, and many people are struggling with thyroid disorders such as hypothyroidism, specifically Hashimoto’s autoimmune thyroiditis. In this autoimmune condition, the immune system attacks the thyroid gland, with the resulting inflammation leading to an underactive thyroid gland or hypothyroidism. Hashimoto’s disease is the most common form of hypothyroidism and was the first condition ever to be classified as an autoimmune disease.
I’ve written extensively about thyroid health, focusing on a multitude of environmental factors that may affect thyroid function, including gluten, gut health, stress, excess iodine, and vitamin D deficiency. I’ve also discussed why dietary changes are always the first step in treating Hashimoto’s, and why replacement thyroid hormone is often necessary for a successful outcome.
There Is yet Another Nutritional Factor That May Play a Role in Thyroid Health: Selenium.
Selenium deficiency is not thought to be common in healthy adults, but is more likely to be found in those with digestive health issues causing poor absorption of nutrients, such as Crohn’s or celiac disease, or those with serious inflammation due to chronic infection. (1, 2) It is thought that selenium deficiency does not specifically cause illness by itself, but that it makes the body more susceptible to illnesses caused by other nutritional, biochemical or infectious stresses, due to its role in immune function. (3) Adequate selenium nutrition supports efficient thyroid hormone synthesis and metabolism and protects the thyroid gland from damage from excessive iodine exposure. (4)
One study found that selenium supplementation had a significant impact on inflammatory activity in thyroid-specific autoimmune disease, and reducing inflammation may limit damage to thyroid tissue. (6) This may be due to the increase in glutathione peroxidase and thioredoxin reductase activity, as well as the decrease in toxic concentrations of hydrogen peroxide and lipid hydroperoxides which result from thyroid hormone synthesis. (7)
Another study followed patients for 9 months, and found that selenium supplementation reduced thyroid peroxidase antibody levels in the blood, even in selenium sufficient patients. (8) While these studies show promise for the use of selenium supplementation in preventing thyroid tissue damage, further research is needed to determine the long-term clinical effects of selenium treatment on inflammatory autoimmune thyroiditis.
Additionally, selenium is also essential for the conversion of T4 to T3, as deiodinase enzymes (those enzymes that remove iodine atoms from T4 during conversion) are selenium-dependent. As I’ve explained before, T3 is the active form of thyroid hormone, and low T3 can cause hypothyroid symptoms. A double-blind intervention study found that selenium supplementation in selenium deficient subjects modulated T4 levels, theoretically by improving peripheral conversion to T3. (9) In cases of severe selenium deficiency, conversion of T4 to T3 may be impaired, leading to hypothyroid symptoms. As T3 conversion is not performed by the thyroid, the dependence on selenoproteins for this conversion demonstrates how significant selenium deficiency could lead to hypothyroid symptoms.
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So the Question Is, Should You Start Supplementing with Selenium If You Have Hypothyroidism, Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, or Low T3 Levels?
As the answer often is, it depends.
While it seems that selenium supplementation would be an obvious solution to poor thyroid function, long term consumption of high doses of selenium can lead to complications such as gastrointestinal upsets, hair loss, white blotchy nails, garlic breath odor, fatigue, irritability, and mild nerve damage. (10) Additionally, supplementing selenium in the context of low iodine status may actually aggravate hypothyroidism. Mario Renato Iwakura discusses this particular topic extensively on Paul Jaminet’s Perfect Health Diet blog.
Moreover, a large clinical trial examining the effects of selenium supplementation on prostate cancer risk in over 35,000 men found that those with normal to high selenium levels at baseline experienced a significant increase in the risk of prostate cancer after supplementing with 200 mcg/d of selenium. For more details on this study, see my article “Important Update on Selenium Supplementation“.
For now, the best option for most people may be to include selenium-rich foods in the context of a healthy Paleo diet. Great sources of selenium include: brazil nuts, crimini mushrooms, cod, shrimp, tuna, halibut, salmon, scallops, chicken, eggs, shiitake mushrooms, lamb, and turkey. Brazil nuts are particularly rich in selenium; it only takes one or two per day to improve your selenium status and boost immune function. (11)
Making sure your selenium intake is optimal may give your immune system and thyroid the boost it needs to help it function better. It is especially important for those managing thyroid conditions to ensure their selenium status is adequate.
Better supplementation. Fewer supplements.
Close the nutrient gap to feel and perform your best.
A daily stack of supplements designed to meet your most critical needs.
Is 200mcg of selenium and vitamin e safe to take if you are trying to conceive? Would it be safe to take during pregnancy?
Howdy Chris, how are you?
Thanks so much for your informative website – much appreciated!
Is it possible to grab a quick moment of your time?!?! I’d greatly appreciate it!
(sorry if Ive posted this comment in the wrong section but the blood sugar section forum was closed)
After being diagnosed with hypothyroidism (hashimotos) & adrenal fatigue (over a year ago) & more recently leaky gut, my treatment has been the following (amongst other things): medicating on T3/HC (after reducing RT3) & other supps, Leaky gut diet & measuring my body temps & blood glucose recently…..been feeling much better!
I suspect that I have insulin resistance (T3 pooling) due to many reasons including: my FT3 is slightly over range yet my body temperatures are still lowish (36.7 degrees not 37), lowish pulse (60 odd), high glucose in fasting & pre prandial tests, crave sugar/ sleepy after meal etc. Can I have your advice on how to treat insulin resistance? any tests? Specific nutrients? Exercise?
Id greatly appreciate it!
Thanks for your time & I look forward to your response!
Ro 🙂
Hi Ro,
Sorry, it’s not Chris answering your question…but I do have a question for you, if you don’t mind!
You mention you corrected some of your issues by supplementing with T3/HC (i assume HC means cortisone?). I also have Hashi’s with current swelling of my thyroid, and have VERY high RT3 levels, like off the charts. Been on Natural Desiccated Thyroid and was doing ok on it until this sudden attack. Doc told me to get off all T4 containing meds ASAP and go on T3 only…he did NOT give me specific guidelines on how to dose the T3 though, so I am operating blindly on my own.
Curious if you could share how you used T3 to fix your RT3 levels?? Thanks!
BTW, per your question about insulin resistance, that is directly related to the inflammation from your leaky gut and who knows what else (have you been tested for Lyme, heavy metals like mercury, and other viral agents? That often perpetuates inflammation in the body). For inflammation I use an amazing supplement called Anatabloc. Check it out, may help you!
Erin
Erin, I have hashimotos and I am on synthroid. my thyroid levels are ‘normal’ but I feel worse after starting the medicine in January. I am desperate to get on desiccated thyroid and cant find a natural doctor to help me. my endo said the T3 is fine so I Dont need it. would you recommend natural thyroid medicine? im only 18, and more then desperate to get my life back! do you have any advice for me? ,thank you!
The cure for you would be: selenium and iodine at the same time.
Read this whole article right to the end. You’ll learn that selenium and iodine combined are absolutely essential together. Taking selenium alone or iodine alone will make you very sick. Taking both at the same time will cure you of all thyroid related diseases. You might need vitamin C, vitamin B2 and B3 if your symporters are broken (a symporter is the mechanism that absorbs and concentrates iodine the cell).
http://www.greenwillowtree.com/page.bok?file=selenium.iodine.html
Hi Chris,i have alway thought that i have an issue with my thyroid.Went for test .T3 0.53,T4 6.03 and TSH 1.406,is my thyroid fine
And normal TSH is one or two
The Hashimoto’s of a person close to me stopped showing up in medical tests after I started him on a low-carb diet. He eats eggs every day now.
Hey Chris. What if you don’t tolerate grains well. The selenium you recommend has rice flour in it. Any other good brands out there?
First, I love your site. It’s the only source of information that actually makes any sense and speaks to my issues. That being said, I have a few questions. Would it ever make sense to take both synthroid and naturethroid? I’ve tried each in isolation, and felt much better on nature throid, but the doctor put me on synthroid anyway. I felt worse on that, so went back to nature throid, but am worried I might be missing something by not taking synthroid. I supplement with selenium, iodine (occasionally, via supplements and seaweed), vitamine D, magnesium, digestive enzymes, probiotics, and cod liver capsules (occasionally). Before taking either synthroid or nature throid, my free t3 was 1.7, tsh 1.33, ferritin 27, free t4 .82. After 3 months on nature throid, I had t3 of 76, tsh of 1.08, t4 of .84. A month later, free t3 of 2.7, t3 of 90, tsh of 1.37, and free t4 of .79. After 6 weeks of synthroid (and no naturethroid), I had tpo Ab of 12, t4 of 6.3, dhea-sulfate of 134.1, t3 of 51, tsh of .765, transferrin of 180, iron of 131, and free t4 of 1.13. So, I think the synthroid (and supplements) were working in terms of free t4, if that’s possible, but obviously not in terms of t3. Do I need both? If I can only have one (i.e., t4 via synthroid or t3 via nature throid), which is better/advisable? Overall, in response to your question, I can’t tell if supplementation helps, but I also don’t know if that’s mediated by the fact that I was switching from nature throid to synthroid. Either way, I’m going to continue supplementing because I don’t feel worse doing so. Is that a good approach?
I should add that I eat fairly strict paleo, and avoid gluten, soy, and dairy.
Same hear does great
“Has anyone had any experience with selenium supplementation? Was it a positive or negative experience? Let me know in the comments below.”
Hi, I’ve been diagnosed with hashimotos and yes I have tried supplementing with selenium but my experience was definitely negative.The side effects I experienced were a sudden drop in my energy levels the next day accompanied with brain fog and a mood swing of feeling depressed. Although I’m not sure whether if it was due to the selenium itself or the brewers yeast that the supplement contained.Since I also suspect having a leaky gut and ppl with LGS can also be sensitive to brewers yeast. I’ve now resorted to brown rice as a natural source of selenium and haven’t seen any negative effects there has also been an improvement in my hair growth since I’ve been eating it.
You mentioned brazil nut as a good source of selenium , should the nuts be soaked before using? I’ve read nuts contain lots of phytic acid with prevents minerals like zinc(that is very essential for the thyroid gland) from being absorbed.
Chris, love your site. I’ve learned a lot from your site.
I was dx with hashi about a year ago with very high antibodies >2500, My dr did 3 tests and the last test, my tsh, t3 and t4 were all normal. He did not retest for antibodies. During the day, I feel fine with generally no symptoms. However at night, I cannot sleep through and wake up drenched with sweats. This has been happening for a year. I’ve tried Armour and Iodine and neither helped. I take 100mcg Selenium daily, B complex, 400 mg magnesium, 4000 iu Vit D, 1 astaxanthin. I wonder if I’m in hyper mode right now. What can I do to stop the night sweats and thyroid burn out?
Bonjour ! so, may i know the tendency of selenium to the iodine deficiency are more to give advantages or disadvantages?? hope to get the reply as soon as possible since i have to do presentation about risk factors of iodine this coming Monday. Thank you =)
Y’all, get your selenium the EASY way, one Brazil nut a day! I personally hate them, so I throw them in my smoothie. Super easy and simple and you get your 200mcg in!
i have problems if i have yeast , can you advise a selenium tablet that is yeast free,
I have hashimoto’s after a recent decline in my health I went gluten free (largely based on info from your site) and after only 2 months all of my symptoms have been alleviated and my TPO antibodies have dropped from 944 to 631, so thank you for that.
My question is regarding selenium, on the advice of my neurologist I started supplementing with selenium 200 mcg/ day about 4 months ago. I had my GP do a test for my selenium levels just recently and they are at 320 mcg/ L which he says is high and so I have stopped the selenium. I am wondering what the target range is for Selenium levels, he didn’t know the answer so I have been trying to research it but I’m not getting anywhere so far.
Thank you,
Jessica
Hello,
I agree with everything I have read from you. Hoping you might be able to help with a question.
Info: Female 41, hashy diagnoses in 11/11. Anti body level in 400’s. 3 grain of Amour a day. Selenium 200, coconut water & oil. Vit C 5000 a day, B12 4000 a day, B complex (just started). Gluten free for 1 month now.
I am having a very hard time with menstruation. Week before and week of ; I slow down, joint pain, anxiety, Very loud tinnitus, lethargy, and swelling. The week after I slowly get better , by Thurs Im ok.
Can you please suggest anything that may help this? Would getting on birth control and skipping all of ovulation help? I generally have a “hard time” with birth control but would gladly take it to forgo the other horrible Hashy symptoms.
I so hope you are able to respond and thank you for your time,
Linda B.
Hi Linda : very loud tinnitus, lethargy, AND during the menstruation>> Have you had your iron levels checked ? low iron levels ( not necesarely anemia) could be your issue. I was myself told I was fine because my iron levels were within “normal” ranges even though they were ridiculously low (30)!!. I decided to supplement with iron and feel WAYYY much better now.
I have been able to substantially shrink my enlarged thyroid by supplementing with at least 10,000 IU of Vitamin D and 400 mcg of Selenium daily. I also take a multi-vitamin twice a day and a combination calcium/magnesium/zinc tablet. Thanks to the brilliant Dr. Mack Harrell in Ft. Lauderdale for making the Vitamin D deficiency diagnosis–the shrinking was nearly immediate . . . everyone else told me I had cancer and wanted to do surgery, even though I had consistently normal thyroid levels and no Hashimoto’s antibodies in my blood.
pHow long does hypothyroidism take to fesimant?br /Twice I have tested low on my TSH levels, the later test involving both T3 and T4. My doctor now sent me a prescription for synthroid a few days ago that I have yet to fill. The only reason I even had my thyroid checked in the beginning was because of some infection they thought my toe had that really wasn’t that bad and the antibiotics ended up making me feel worse because they were too strong, which is a whole nother story. I’ve had a few CBCs, but I guess that doesn’t indicate thyroid function because they never told me anything./ppI know what the symptoms are for hypothyroidism, but I don’t have any of them. I mean, yeah I’m sleepy or drowsy when I get less than 7-8 hrs sleep and I do have iron deficiency anemia which could be the cause of that. I get hot or cold when it is truly hot or cold and everyone else feels it. My hair and nails continue to grow without abandon and my skin is not pale (I’m tan) or flaky, although it may be dry from time to time because I have had eczema all my life./ppSo if I actually did have hypthyroidism would I know it right off or would it take some time? If anything, I would have HYPERthyroidism as I only weigh around 125-130 lbs and 5’7 . I’m freakin skinny! In the meantime I’m taking an herbal supplement my mom already had in the cabinet that is kelp and alfalfa that has 100% DV iodine. IDK how much good that’ll do since I don’t feel symptoms anyway./p
Just because your skinny does not mean that you are Hyper. I have been Hypo for over 13 years and have always had a problem with weight gain. I now have Hoshi and still have the a problem with keeping weight on.
So just fyi. Being skinny does not necessarily mean Hyper. But in my experience it does not help with finding a good doctor that listens to you cause most look at you and see that your skinny and therefore think you are crazy as you sit there and state all of your Hypo symptoms.
Good Luck 🙂
What do you think of selenium supplementation with Graves disease? The only research I could dig up stated it was beneficial in treating orbitopathy in patients with Graves. Is there any research that suggests it can aid in proper thyroid function in hyperthyroid patients?
As an integrative Gynecologist, I see many women suffering with sub-clinical and otherwise untreated hypothyroid. By testing more than just TSH (checking free T3 and free T4, reverse T3 and thyroid antibodies) we get a great lab picture to add to my clinical impression from the exam and the symptom survey.
I recommend selenium rich foods and supplementation when I see elevated antibodies and/or poor conversion of T4 to T3. This helps every time. Too many physicians forget the basic physiology and neglect the roots to so many common imbalances. These tiny (and many other fact-based) corrections yield enormous benefits.
What are your thoughts on people who have a confusing set of labs (low TSH and Low levels of T3 and T4)? Have you read of pituitary gland dysfunction or over-function making the TSH less relevant?
I appreciate the excellent research and writing you do here on this website.
Steven,
I’m quite curious about your question “What are your thoughts on people who have a confusing set of labs (low TSH and Low levels of T3 and T4)? Have you read of pituitary gland dysfunction or over-function making the TSH less relevant?”
Have you ever received a satisfactory answer?
I inquire because that is the result I had on my very first thyroid labs done over a year ago. I was VERY hypo–for years–in terms of symptoms, but because TSH was low and T3/T4 were “low normal” my complaints were always dismissed. I began Natural Desiccated Thyroid supplementation thanks to an open-minded doc who didn’t care what my TSH was. Now I have full blown Hashi’s with very low TSH, higher T3 and very hig Reverse T3 levels that are 2x the top of the range! Started T3-only therapy in attempt to fix this.
Anyhow, would love to know if you ever found the answer to your question, as it may help me. Thanks!
HI Chris,
I was wondering If i eat eggs, meat, and seafood regularly–which averages to roughly 150 mcg of selenium daily–should I still supplement with selenium? or is that overdoing it? THanks for any input =)
I guess not, unless you take high doses of iodine too.
Chris,
In your opinion would a high TSH with normal T3 & T4 be a reason to be cautious with supplemental iodine?
Thank you for the wonderful knowledge you share, it’s much appreciated!
No, not necessarily. TSH is a much more sensitive indicator of thyroid function than T3 & T4, because it responds to changes at the cellular/metabolic level.
Sorry Chris, but you are dead wrong when you say “TSH is a much more sensitive indicator of thyroid function”. THe. TSH test is a farce For detecTing hypothyroidism!!!! Stopthethyroidmadness.com. Explains why the TSH test Is a joke
I’m well aware of the perspective at Stop the Thyroid Madness, but it’s hardly accurate to say that TSH is a farce. There are many other factors to consider (which I’ve outlined in great detail in my thyroid series http://chriskresser.com/thyroid), but TSH is still a valid and important marker. The problem is when it’s used in isolation and other markers are ignored.
I don’t know if you’ve mentioned this book before but I often reference the book: Why Do I Still Have Thyroid Symptoms? by Datis Kharrazian when I am working with my patients with hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s disease. She talks about selenium but also there is a great section on TH1 vs TH2 immune modulation for patient’s with Hashimoto’s, and various nutrient and herbal protocols to help address the autoantibody piece. I have found this to be really helpful.
Dr. Julieanne Neal, ND
Yes, I’ve trained with Dr. Kharrazian and his book is on my http://chriskresser.com/thyroid special report page.
I am in the process of figuring out what is going on with me and cannot find a doctor that will listen to my symptoms and not look just at my numbers with regards to my thyroid. I’m almost certain that I may have Hashimoto’s but my blood results don’t support that. Can you recommend a doctor in the Northern CA area that specializes in Hashimoto’s and other thyroid issues? I have a large nodule on the right that has been biopsied non cancerous. Please help.
Cate – check out stopthethyroidmadness.com for tons of great info on the thyroid. If I were in your shoes, I’d be seeking treatment for sure. Sadly, that often involves hunting for a good doctor, which can be difficult.