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Nutritional Epidemiology

Higher Selenium Status is Associated with Adverse Blood Lipid Profile in British Adults^1–3,

⁴ Health Sciences Research Institute, University of Warwick Medical School, Coventry CV47AL, UK; ⁵ Department of Cardiovascular Epidemiology and Population Genetics, National Center for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC), 28029 Madrid, Spain; ⁶ Departments of Epidemiology and Medicine, and Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology and Clinical Research, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205; ⁷ Clinical Sciences Research Institute, University of Warwick Medical School, Coventry CV2 2DX, UK; ⁸ Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21025; ⁹ Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, Boston, MA 02111; ¹⁰ Nutritional Sciences Division, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, UK

Recent findings have raised concern about possible associations of high selenium exposure with diabetes and hyperlipidemia in the US, a population with high selenium status. In the UK, a population with lower selenium status, there is little data on the association of selenium status with cardio-metabolic risk factors in the general population. We examined the association of plasma selenium concentration with blood lipids in a nationally representative sample of British adults. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 1042 white participants (aged 19–64 y) in the 2000–2001 UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey. Plasma selenium was measured by inductively coupled-plasma mass spectrometry. Total and HDL cholesterol were measured in nonfasting plasma samples. Mean plasma selenium concentration was 1.10 ± 0.19 µmol/L. The multivariate adjusted differences between the highest (1.20 µmol/L) and lowest (<0.98 µmol/L) quartiles of plasma selenium were 0.39 (95% CI 0.18, 0.60) mmol/L for total cholesterol, 0.38 (0.17, 0.59) for non-HDL cholesterol, and 0.01 (–0.05, 0.07) for HDL cholesterol. Higher plasma selenium (i.e., 1.20 µmol/L) was associated with increased total and non-HDL cholesterol levels but not with HDL in the UK adult population. These findings raise additional concern about potential adverse cardio-metabolic effects of high selenium status. Randomized and mechanistic evidence is necessary to assess causality and to evaluate the impact of this association on cardiovascular risk.

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: s.stranges{at}warwick.ac.uk.

Manuscript received 8 June 2009. Initial review completed 17 July 2009. Revision accepted 29 October 2009.

Published online 11 November 2009.

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