What do you think about this supplement ? Another study show selenium restriction being better
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We have several other threads on this forum related to selenium. I just came across this paper on prostate cancer, rapamycin, and certain selenium compounds. Remarkable inhibition of mTOR signaling by the combination of rapamycin and 1,4-phenylenebis(methylene)selenocyanate in human prostate cancer cells - PMC
Does anyone know if it is best to take selenium on an empty stomach? I know that is the case for zinc.
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Beware, the study i posted show a much superior effect over classic selenium supplement.
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Why not just have a brazil nut every dayâŠits prepackaged with Fats, Vitamin E and Mg for superior bioavailability. Granted you may not get a precision of dosing that supplements afford.
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This looks great - but its early research and Iâm sure it will be many years until commercialization, if it happensâŠ
Nano-Selenium 2.0: Restoring Calcium Homeostasis to Halt Senescence
In a significant advancement for trace element therapeutics, researchers have engineered a âsmartâ selenium delivery system that bypasses the elementâs notorious toxicity risks while potently extending lifespan and healthspan in mice. While selenium is a known essential micronutrient, its therapeutic window is dangerously narrowâtoo little accelerates aging, but slightly too much becomes toxic. To solve this, the team developed redox-dual-responsive diselenide-bridged mesoporous silica nanoparticles (SeMSNs). Unlike standard supplements, these nanoparticles remain stable until they encounter oxidative stress (ROS) within the body, triggering a precise, on-demand release of selenium.
The study reveals a novel mechanistic axis linking selenium directly to calcium signaling and cellular senescence. The researchers discovered that SeMSNs upregulate specific selenoproteins (GPx1 and SelK) in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). This upregulation quells ER stress and maintains intracellular calcium homeostasis. Crucially, this stabilizing effect prevents the nuclear translocation of NFATc2 , a transcription factor that otherwise drives the expression of Sik1 (Salt-inducible kinase 1). By keeping Sik1 suppressed, the treatment effectively blocks the downstream activation of senescence markers p21 and p16.
In aged mice (starting at 18 months), this intervention didnât just improve biomarkers; it visibly reversed frailty (restoring fur quality and grip strength) and extended lifespan, with all treated mice surviving past the 24-month mark where controls faltered. The study also validated these pathways in human adipose progenitor cells, suggesting immediate translational relevance.
Source:
- Institution: China Medical University, China.
- Journal: Advanced Science.
- Impact Evaluation: The impact score of Advanced Science is approximately 14.3 (JIF), evaluated against a typical high-end range of 0â60+ for top general science. Therefore, this is a High Impact journal.
5. Critical Limitations (Ruthless Review)
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Sample Size (n=10): The survival cohort (n=10) is statistically underpowered for a definitive longevity claim. The Interventions Testing Program (ITP) typically requires n=40+ per sex per site. [Confidence: Low]
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Short-Lived Controls: As noted, the controls dying off at ~2 years suggests suboptimal husbandry or environmental stress, making the âlifespan extensionâ relative to a compromised baseline rather than a true biological maximum.
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Sex Bias: The animal study was exclusively male. Given known sexual dimorphism in longevity interventions (e.g., acarbose, rapamycin), this is a major gap.
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Duration: The study intervention lasted only 5 months (18 to 23 months). This is a âlate-life rescueâ paradigm, not a life-long extension study.
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Clinical Extrapolation Gap: The human âclinicalâ data is purely correlational (selenium levels vs. frailty markers) and ex vivo (treating isolated cells). No human subjects were treated with SeMSNs.
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Toxicity Data: While short-term toxicity looks clean, silica nanoparticles can have long-term accumulation issues (silicosis/renal toxicity) not fully captured in a 5-month window.
Actionable Insight for the User: This paper reinforces the importance of Selenium status for calcium handling and ER stress management. However, the specific nanoparticle (SeMSNs) is not commercially available. For a biohacker, the actionable takeaway is optimizing Selenium status (via diet or careful supplementation like Se-Methyl-Selenocysteine or Selenomethionine) to support SelK/GPx1 function, while acknowledging that the âsmart releaseâ safety mechanism described here is currently lab-grade only. Monitoring HS-CRP (inflammation) and Calcium levels alongside Se supplementation may be a proxy for efficacy.
Until then, Iâll keep eating Brazil nuts (one or two a day, as mentioned)âŠ
Top 10 Lowest-Cost Sources for Brazil Nuts (USA)
The following table identifies the lowest-cost Brazil nut options currently available for shipping in the USA, sorted by Cost Per 100 grams.
Note on Shipping:
- Samâs Club: Requires membership. Shipping availability varies by region; often available for âPlusâ members with free shipping or standard shipping for a fee.
- Walmart (Sammys/Nut Cravings): typically offers free shipping on orders over $35 or for Walmart+ members.
- Sincerely Nuts: Free shipping on orders over $60.
- Vitacost: Free shipping on orders over $49.
| Rank | Product/Brand Name | Vendor | Total Weight | Total Price | Cost Per 100g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Natureâs Eats Raw Unsalted Brazil Nuts | Samâs Club | 24 oz (680g) | $9.98 | $1.47 |
| 2 | Sprouts Raw Whole Brazil Nuts | Sprouts (via Instacart/Delivery) | 1 lb (454g) | ~$9.99 | $2.20 |
| 3 | Raw Brazil Nuts (No Shell) | Sincerely Nuts | 1 lb (454g) | $11.99 | $2.64 |
| 4 | Sammys Raw Brazil Nuts | Walmart | 16 oz (454g) | $13.97 | $3.08 |
| 5 | Nut Cravings Raw Brazil Nuts | Walmart | 16 oz (454g) | $14.97 | $3.30 |
| 6 | Pecan Gifts Natural Brazil Nuts | Pecan Gifts | 1 lb (454g) | $14.99 | $3.30 |
| 7 | NOW Foods Whole Raw Brazil Nuts Unsalted | Vitacost | 12 oz (340g) | $11.89 | $3.50 |
| 8 | Shelled Roasted Salted Brazil Nuts | We Got Nuts | 1 lb (454g) | $15.99 | $3.52 |
| 9 | Vitacost Certified Organic Brazil Nuts Raw | Vitacost | 8 oz (227g) | $8.99 | $3.96 |
| 10 | Raw Brazil Nuts (No Shell) | Nuts.com | 8 oz (227g) | $9.99 | $4.40 |
Availability Verification
- Natureâs Eats (Samâs Club): Stock fluctuates rapidly online; verify local delivery availability by entering your zip code.
- Sprouts: Price is estimated based on in-store/local delivery rates; may vary slightly by location.
- Walmart Items (Sammys/Nut Cravings): Currently listed as in-stock for shipping.
- We Got Nuts: 1lb bag verified in stock.
- NOW Foods: Verified in stock at Vitacost.
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Freshness is a growing consideration during this period of shortage â which looks to be a long run. Costco was selling Brazil nuts that were reasonably fresh and priced lower than anyone else (assuming you have a membership). In contrast, I purchased a bag at Sprouts two weeks ago that I threw away because they were rancid. Winco has the freshest supply now but many reading this will never have heard of them, They started in Boise and now have 144 stores in 10 states. Given that they are employee owned and therefore lack the access to capital of a publicly traded company, they are growing fast. the guy at Winco said they get rancid shipments as well but wonât put them out for customers.
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You are right. I asked Gemini to look at the supplements available from Amazon. The selenomethionine form is the best form to buy if you want a selenium supplement. But Brazil nuts are much better. I was surprised at the amount of selenium in a single Brazil nut.
I asked about the ânarrow rangeâ of selenium for therapeutic and safe consumption.
Gemini said
Yes, there is a notably narrow therapeutic range for selenium. This means there is a small window between getting enough for health benefits and getting too much, which can lead to toxicity.
Here is a breakdown of the range and how Brazil nuts fit into the picture.
The Narrow Range of Selenium
The âtherapeutic rangeâ generally refers to the amount you need to take to see a benefit without causing harm. For selenium, the difference between a recommended daily amount and a potentially harmful amount is surprisingly small compared to many other nutrients.
- Recommended Daily Amount (RDA): For most adults, the recommended intake is just 55 micrograms (mcg) per day. This is the amount considered sufficient to meet the nutrient requirements of nearly all healthy individuals.
- Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL): The maximum daily intake unlikely to cause adverse health effects is 400 mcg per day for adults. Consuming more than this amount on a chronic basis increases the risk of toxicity, a condition known as selenosis.
+1
The gap between the recommended 55 mcg and the upper limit of 400 mcg is relatively small. To put it in perspective, some experts suggest an optimal intake for certain health benefits might be closer to 100-200 mcg per day from all sources (diet and supplements), but you should consider 200 mcg as a safe daily cap to avoid creeping toward the toxicity zone.
Signs of getting too much selenium (selenosis) can include: garlic odor on the breath, metallic taste in the mouth, hair and nail brittleness or loss, skin rashes, nausea, and fatigue.
Can You Get the Proper Amount from Brazil Nuts?
Yes, absolutely. In fact, Brazil nuts are the single most potent dietary source of selenium on the planet. However, because of the narrow therapeutic range mentioned above, they must be eaten with caution.
Here is why:
- A single Brazil nut can contain anywhere from 68 to 91 mcg of selenium. Just one nut can provide more than your entire daily recommended amount.
- A standard 1-ounce serving (about 6-8 nuts) can contain huge amounts, upwards of 544 mcg. This single serving is already well above the safe upper limit of 400 mcg per day.
Conclusion & Recommendation:
Brazil nuts are an incredibly effective way to ensure you get therapeutic value from selenium without needing a supplement. However, you should treat them almost like a timed-dose medication rather than a snack.
- The safe and effective dose is 1 to 2 Brazil nuts per day. This amount will easily meet your daily needs and keep you safely within the therapeutic range. Eating handfuls of them regularly could quickly lead to selenium toxicity.
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Might want to rethink this, lest we unintentionally harm ourselves. So, I will now add selenium to the list of supplements with questionable benefits.
Agents That Disappointed or Caused Harm in RCTs
Selenium In several large studies, men with high selenium levels were at greater risk of being diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer or dying from prostate cancer. NCI The SELECT trial was largely terminated early for futility.
Vitamin E (high-dose) The SELECT trial showed no reduction in prostate cancer and actually found a statistically significant increase in prostate cancer in the vitamin E group (620 cases vs. 529 in placebo), a magnitude increase of 17%. NCBI High-dose supplemental vitamin E for prostate cancer prevention is essentially contraindicated based on current evidence.
Calcium (high intake) A 2015 meta-analysis concluded that high intakes of dairy products, milk, cheese, total dietary calcium, and dairy calcium may increase prostate cancer risk, and supplemental calcium was associated with an increased risk of fatal prostate cancer. NCI
Summary Table
| Agent | Evidence Quality | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Finasteride / Dutasteride | RCT 
|
Reduces incidence (~25%) |
| Metformin | Observational | Reduces risk, esp. with statins |
| Statins | Observational | Probably reduces risk |
| Vitamin D | Mixed RCT | Trend toward protection |
| Lycopene | Observational | Probably modest benefit |
| Curcumin | Preclinical/small trials | Promising, poor bioavailability |
| Green tea (EGCG) | Small trials | Modest signal |
| Grape seed extract | One large cohort | Positive but needs replication |
| Vitamin E (high-dose) | RCT 
|
Increases risk â avoid |
| Selenium (high-dose) | RCT
|
Neutral to harmful |
| High-dose calcium | Meta-analysis
|
Increases risk |
The most actionable conclusion from the literature, for a man focused on primary prevention, is probably this: the 5-ARIs have the best RCT evidence for reducing incidence, while metformin and statins offer pleiotropic overlap with cardiovascular and longevity goals. Vitamin D sufficiency (not megadosing) is worth maintaining. Supplemental vitamin E and selenium should be avoided for this purpose specifically.
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âEat Brasil nuts, live longerâ
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I am not sure about this.
It may be âEat a Brasil nut, live longerâ
but
It may be âEat 5 Brasil nuts a day, die fasterâ
But I have not done the figures.
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One wrinkle in considering vitamin e is that every study I have seen uses a synthetic form generally thought to cause problems in excess: dl-alpha-tocopherol acetate. Early on, when understanding was minimal, Vitamin e was standardized on the alpha isomer because it had the highest antioxidant activity as then measured. The received view (Iâm not suggesting it is fully settled science) is that the gamma form as well as the tocotrienols confer more benefits and less risk. I stopped taking alpha tocopherol 25 years ago when the literature began to question it but I take 100 or so mg gamma tocopherol and delta tocotrienol on a regular basis, typically alternating EOD. However, the fact that no adverse research exists on these two forms is an artifact of the conservative processes in medical research. In fact, both can have adverse effects at high levels. At more modest doses, the benefits are stronger than the alpha form.
Summary Table
| Compound | Conservative Dose | Primary Margin Being Maintained | Key Consideration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gamma tocopherol | 100â150 mg/day | 2x below Îł-CEHC natriuretic threshold | Electrolyte-sensitive individuals lower end |
| Delta tocotrienol | 100â150 mg/day | Well below HMGCR suppression and CYP inhibition range | Drug interactions warrant extra caution; active radiation therapy is a flag |
| Combined | 100 mg each/day | Additive margin maintained | Must take with fatty meal; avoid alpha tocopherol supplementation concurrently |
I keep eating Brazil nuts
In the end one of us will live longer.
Did the eating Brazil nuts extend lifespan?
Or
Did not eating Brazil nuts extend lifespan?
I have almost drunk a bottle of port after two pints of lager. I will finish the port later tonight (in about 10 minutes)
Game On!
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Itâs funny how often we take the circular path; now itâs good, now itâs not.
Isolated high-dose alpha-tocopherol (especially dl-alpha, especially â„400 IU) carries real risks, particularly for prostate cancer.
I stopped taking it decades ago because of the mixed bag of results:
Early vitamin E researchers were indeed convinced by their own animal/cell data to supplement themselves, even while publicly urging caution.
COLUMN ONE : The Rags to Riches Story of E : Discovered in the â20s, the vitamin was long touted as an aphrodisiac. Now it is being heralded as a protector against heart disease, cancer and many ailments linked to aging.
Gemini said
"The observation that early researchers began supplementing with vitamin E after seeing it extend the lifespans of their test subjects is a well-documented part of the history of aging research. This trend was largely driven by two key figures: Dr. Denham Harman, the father of the Free Radical Theory of Aging, and Dr. Lester Packer, a pioneer in antioxidant research.
Denham Harman and the Free Radical Theory
In 1956, Denham Harman proposed the âFree Radical Theory of Aging,â suggesting that aging is caused by the cumulative damage to cells produced by reactive oxygen species (Harman, 1956). To test this, Harman conducted several experiments in the 1960s where he added various antioxidants to the diets of mice (Harman, 1961, 1968). He found that certain compoundsâincluding vitamin E and 2-mercaptoethylamine (2-MEA)âsignificantly increased the mean lifespan of the mice, sometimes by as much as 20â40% (Harman & Eddy, 1979).
Harman was a major proponent of his own theory, famously living to the age of 98. He was widely known to take a cocktail of antioxidants himself, including vitamin E, after observing
these effects in his lab animals (Milisav, 2011)."
Harman either had happy genes or he was doing something right.
âOne of the most specific âlifespan extensionâ findings regarding vitamin E occurred in 1974. Dr. Lester Packer and Dr. James R. Smith published a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) demonstrating that vitamin E could more than double the lifespan of human diploid cells (WI-38) in a test tube (Packer & Smith, 1974). While the normal âHayflick limitâ for these cells was about 50 population doublings, the vitamin E-treated cells reached over 100 doublings.â
This result caused a sensation in the scientific and public communities. Packer himself became a lifelong advocate for antioxidant supplementation, later writing The Antioxidant Miracle (1999) and routinely taking high doses of vitamin E and alpha-lipoic acid (Packer & Colman, 1999). However, it is worth noting that Packer later published a re-evaluation in 1977, stating that the original cell-doubling results had been difficult to replicate and were likely influenced by environmental factors in the lab (Packer et al., 1977).
Searched the web
Lester Packer was born August 28, 1929 and died July 27, 2018
PubMed â he lived to 88 years old, just a month shy of his 89th birthday.
Not a bad run for the worldâs foremost antioxidant researcher.
However:
Extension of the lifespan of cultured normal human diploid cells by vitamin E: a reevaluation.
âIn 19 subsequent subcultivation series, we were unable to reproduce these findings. While vitamin E is incorporated into the cells and is able to act effectively as an antioxidant, apparantly is intracellular antioxidant properties alone do not routinely result in an increase of cell lifespan. A synergism between vitamin E and some component(s) in the first of two lots of serum used in the original experiments seems the most likely explanation for our earlier findings.â
Whatever that was.
From Dr. Michael Greger. N=10.
This is one of the craziest articles I saw all year. A single consumption of high amounts of Brazil nuts improves the cholesterol levels of healthy volunteers. OK, thatâs interesting. They gave 10 men and women a single meal containing zero, one, four, or 8 Brazil nuts, and found that the ingestion of just that single serving almost immediately improved cholesterol levels. LDL, so-called âbadâ cholesterol levels in the blood were significantly lower starting just nine hours after the ingestion of nuts, and by no insignificant amount, nearly 20 points within a day. Even drugs donât work that fast. It takes statins like four days to have a significant effect. But thatâs not even the crazy part. They went back and measured their cholesterol five days later, and then 30 days later. Now keep in mind they werenât eating Brazil nuts this whole time. They had just that single serving of Brazil nuts a month before and their cholesterol was still down 30 days later. It went down and stayed down, after eating just four nuts⊠Thatâs nuts!
And no, the study was not funded by the Brazil nut industry.
Interestingly, four nuts actually seemed to work faster than the 8 nuts to lower bad cholesterol and boost good cholesterol. These results suggest that eating just four nuts might be enough to improve the levels of LDL-c and HDL-c for up to 30 days, and maybe longerâthey didnât even test past 30.
The source study:
Itâs interesting indeed. We know selenium is one of the most critical nutrients to have enough of. It is a critical component in thyroid function for instance. It also showed great cardiovascular benefits with CoQ10 combined in some studies.
Dr. Dave: âAlso, the researchers were all Brazilian - maybe they werenât funded directly by the nut industry, but maybe their Universities funded the work through a foundation supported by the government, who also wants to promote the industry. Also, the LDL levels were pretty low to start with. This brings up the concern, as always: What was the background diet of these eaters? Was the low LDL a result of Lipitor, other meds, a good diet, or what? The food industries have a nasty way of stacking the trial to get the results they desire. For those eating a whole foods, low fat, vegan diet, this sort of food chemistry manipulation is unneeded and maybe harmfulâ
Havenât seen @A_User around today, so I will take the responsibility of chief cold water thrower. 
I remember being excited about this area, including the theory that refined wheat sans tocopherols were a cause of ASVCD, and then digging into the shortchanged logic involved in producing the tocopherol taxonomy. I recall writing a few papers about it. Still, it was âall the rageâ and retains some of the juice to this day.