By Kennedy Shelley
There is a vital mineral you may not have heard of since high school chemistry that is essential for your health.
It’s selenium.
What in the world does that do for you?
It is an important factor in many metabolic functions in your body.
If your thyroid is out of whack, low thyroid hormone levels are almost always because of low selenium levels.
Yet, most Americans are deficient in it.
It’s because our diet is unfortunately low in selenium, especially in times of drought.
If you are deficient in selenium your body doesn’t utilize protein correctly, your athletic performance suffers, and your brain slows down.
It eventually starts to affect your sleep.
So how do you get enough?
Research also shows that two of these nuts every day will also help give you enough selenium to keep your levels up.
Just two Brazil Nuts a day will give you all you need.
You could also get it from cold water fish (tuna and salmon) as well as oysters.
Your thyroid function depends on getting enough, as well as your reproductive health.
So, when you realize that just two Brazil nuts are probably cheaper and better absorbed than most supplements, having a few around the house suddenly makes sense.
Some of the amazing health benefits of selenium are:
Protection from certain types of cancer. Bladder, stomach, skin and esophageal cancers are much more common in people with low selenium levels.
Prevention of heart disease. Scientists have found higher levels of cardiovascular events with people with low selenium levels.
Increased selenium helps keep dementia at bay. More and more research shows that low selenium levels are correlated with lowered cognitive function.
Women with low levels of selenium have much lower levels of thyroid hormone. When this is low (as well as iodine) thyroid problems almost always follow.
The major caution with selenium is to make sure you let your health care provider know if you are supplementing this if you are doing chemotherapy.
Too much selenium can be a problem. It can interfere with kidney function if taken for a long time.
Some symptoms of high selenium levels are:
- Garlic breath
- Brittle hair or nails
- Nausea
- Metallic taste in your mouth
- Nervous system problems
These effects only show up in high levels over an extended period of time.
So, if you are eating a big handful of Brazil nuts every day and you have these problems, you might want to cut back to the recommended dosage of just two a day.
But just two Brazil nuts a day is pretty cheap insurance against some of the major problems associated with low selenium levels.
Preserving your thyroid, reproductive health and keeping your brain sharp should be high priorities for most people.
And just two nuts a day is enough to keep this going.
But there are other sources of this important mineral if you just can’t stand the taste of these nuts.
