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Osteoarthritis Risk, Severity Higher With Low
Selenium Levels
Nov. 14, 2005 - People without enough selenium in
their bodies face a higher risk of knee osteoarthritis, a
first-of-its-kind new study suggests. Not only are they more at risk,
the level of severity is higher for those with low selenium.
Osteoarthritis is often considered an ailment of senior citizens but
increasingly it is being found in baby boomers.
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University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Thurston Arthritis Center medical scientists and colleagues conducted
the research. It focused on the knees of 940 participants enrolled in
the Johnston County (N.C.) Osteoarthritis Project, a continuing,
federally supported investigation of osteoarthritis that began 15 years
ago and is headquartered at UNC.
Scientists found that for every additional tenth of
a part per million of selenium in volunteers bodies, there was a 15
percent to 20 percent decrease in their risk of knee osteoarthritis.
Those who had less of the trace mineral than normal in their systems
faced a higher risk of the degenerative condition in one and both knees.
The severity of their arthritis was also related to
how low their selenium levels were.
"We are very excited about these findings because
no one had ever measured body selenium in this way in relationship to
osteoarthritis," said study leader Dr. Joanne Jordan of UNC.
"Our results suggest that we might be able to
prevent or delay osteoarthritis of the knees and possibly other joints
in some people if they are not getting enough selenium. Thats important
because the condition, which makes walking painful, is the leading cause
of activity limitation among adults in developed countries."
Jordan is associate professor of medicine and
orthopaedics at the UNC School of Medicine. Also associate director of
the schools Thurston Arthritis Research Center, she is principal
investigator of the long-term Johnston County Osteoarthritis Project.
That investigation is the largest and longest of its kind ever done and
has involved some 4,400 volunteers, both blacks and whites, whose
experiences with arthritis doctors follow and analyze.
Jordan and colleagues will present results of their
study in San Diego Tuesday (Nov. 15) at the annual meeting of the
American College of Rheumatology. Co-authors are UNC statistician Fang
Fang; Dr. Lenore Arab of the University of California at Los Angeles;
Dr. Steven J. Morris of the University of Missouri in Columbia; Dr.
Jordan Renner, professor of radiology and allied health sciences at UNC;
Dr. Charles G. Helmick of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) in Atlanta; and Dr. Marc C. Hochberg, professor of medicine at the
University of Maryland.
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Dietary
Supplement Fact Sheet: Selenium |
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Office of Dietary Supplements
NIH Clinical Center
National Institutes of Health
What is selenium?
Selenium is a trace mineral that
is essential to good health but required only in small amounts .
Selenium is incorporated into proteins to make selenoproteins,
which are important antioxidant enzymes. The antioxidant
properties of selenoproteins help prevent cellular damage from
free radicals. Free radicals are natural by-products of oxygen
metabolism that may contribute to the development of chronic
diseases such as cancer and heart disease . Other selenoproteins
help regulate thyroid function and play a role in the immune
system.
What foods provide selenium?
Plant foods are the major
dietary sources of selenium in most countries throughout the
world. The content of selenium in food depends on the selenium
content of the soil where plants are grown or animals are
raised. For example, researchers know that soils in the high
plains of northern Nebraska and the Dakotas have very high
levels of selenium. People living in those regions generally
have the highest selenium intakes in the United States (U.S.).
In the U.S., food distribution patterns across the country help
prevent people living in low-selenium geographic areas from
having low dietary selenium intakes. Soils in some parts of
China and Russia have very low amounts of selenium. Selenium
deficiency is often reported in those regions because most food
in those areas is grown and eaten locally.
Selenium also can be found in
some meats and seafood. Animals that eat grains or plants that
were grown in selenium-rich soil have higher levels of selenium
in their muscle. In the U.S., meats and bread are common sources
of dietary selenium. Some nuts are also sources of selenium.
Selenium content of foods can vary. For example, Brazil nuts may
contain as much as 544 micrograms of selenium per ounce. They
also may contain far less selenium. It is wise to eat Brazil
nuts only occasionally because of their unusually high intake of
selenium. Selected food sources of selenium are provided in
Table 1.
Table 1: Selected food
sources of selenium
|
Food |
Micrograms
(μg) |
Percent
DV* |
|
Brazil nuts, dried,
unblanched, 1 ounce |
544 |
780 |
|
Tuna, light, canned in
oil, drained, 3 ounces |
63 |
95 |
|
Beef, cooked, 3½ ounces |
35 |
50 |
|
Spaghetti w/ meat sauce,
frozen entrιe, 1 serving |
34 |
50 |
|
Cod, cooked, 3 ounces |
32 |
45 |
|
Turkey, light meat,
roasted, 3½ ounces |
32 |
45 |
|
Beef chuck roast, lean
only, roasted, 3 ounces |
23 |
35 |
|
Chicken Breast, meat
only, roasted, 3½ ounces |
20 |
30 |
|
Noodles, enriched,
boiled, 1/2 cup |
17 |
25 |
|
Macaroni, elbow,
enriched, boiled, 1/2 cup |
15 |
20 |
|
Egg, whole, 1 medium |
14 |
20 |
|
Cottage cheese, low fat
2%, 1/2 cup |
12 |
15 |
|
Oatmeal, instant,
fortified, cooked, 1 cup |
12 |
15 |
|
Rice, white, enriched,
long grain, cooked, 1/2 cup |
12 |
15 |
|
Rice, brown,
long-grained, cooked, 1/2 cup |
10 |
15 |
|
Bread, enriched, whole
wheat, commercially prepared, 1 slice |
10 |
15 |
|
Walnuts, black, dried, 1
ounce |
5 |
8 |
|
Bread, enriched, white,
commercially prepared, 1 slice |
4 |
6 |
|
Cheddar cheese, 1 ounce |
4 |
6 |
*DV = Daily Value. DVs are
reference numbers developed by the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) to help consumers determine if a food contains a lot or a
little of a specific nutrient. The DV for selenium is 70
micrograms (ug). Most food labels do not list a food's selenium
content. The percent DV (%DV) listed on the table indicates the
percentage of the DV provided in one serving. A food providing
5% of the DV or less is a low source while a food that provides
10-19% of the DV is a good source. A food that provides 20% or
more of the DV is high in that nutrient. It is important to
remember that foods that provide lower percentages of the DV
also contribute to a healthful diet. For foods not listed in
this table, please refer to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's
Nutrient Database Web site:
http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/cgi-bin/nut_search.pl.
More About Selenium - click |
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The team got interested in the possibility that
selenium might play a role in preventing osteoarthritis in part because
in severely selenium-deficient areas of China, people frequently develop
Kashin-Beck disease, which cause joint problems relatively early in
life.
The U.S. study involved comparing the extent of
knee osteoarthritis in each subject as shown on carefully examined
X-rays with how much selenium was in their systems. At the University of
Missouri, Morris determined the latter from toenail clippings taken
during physical examinations in North Carolina. He employed a
complicated nuclear technique known as Instrumental Neutron Activation
Analysis.
"We found that when we divided the participants
into three groups, those with the highest selenium levels faced a 40
percent lower risk of knee osteoarthritis than those in the
lowest-selenium group," Jordan said.
"Those in the highest selenium group had only about
half the chance of severe osteoarthritis or disease in both knees. Some
of the findings were even stronger in African-Americans and women."
The bottom line was that there appears to be a
clear relationship between selenium and osteoarthritis, she said.
"The next step will be in the laboratory to see how
selenium affects cartilage," Jordan said. "It might act as a protective
antioxidant. Later, well want to expand the study with larger samples
and see whether selenium supplementation reduces pain or other
symptoms."
Most people get enough selenium in their diets in
the United States, if those diets are varied and include foods that come
from different regions, she said.
"If you were just growing most of your own food in
soil that did not have much selenium and not eating vegetables and meat
from elsewhere, you could potentially get in trouble with selenium
deficiency," Jordan said.
Osteoarthritis, the most common form of arthritis,
afflicts almost a million North Carolinians and more than 21 million
people nationally, including many adults over age 65, the physician
said. Some estimates suggest that as many as 70 million Americans will
suffer from some form of arthritis within the next 20 years as baby
boomers age.
Support for the research came from the CDC and the
National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases.
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