I need help with selenium toxicity !!

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Ssa
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Re: I need help with selenium toxicity !!

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Masterjohn and dr Weil suggest antioxidants to ease the symptoms of overdose and to protect from damage. The veterinary sites say to increase the toxins to remove the selenium and to increase the sulfur amino acids. I just don’t know how this works knowing about the genetic aspects.

I’m wondering about MSM. Helps to create the two amino acids methionine and cysteine. The veterinary sites say to increase these two. Has anybody had any experience with MSM.

I also thought about IP6 but also have read that chelating exasperates the symptoms and makes them worse.

When my iron got too high I did blood donation and quickly brought it down. Wondering about that too but can’t find any information. Masterjohn says the selenium is the plasma.

I’m just so upset with myself. I read and study all this stuff. How could I not know about selenium? I was trying to replace the 400 mcg in my multi I took for several years. First why would a multi ever have that much. Criminal. And was it just not that potent. Masterjohn does say that he eats two Brazil nuts a day and that everyone should get a plasma level of selenium status. He also says you should be careful with Brazil nuts because one might have normal selenium and one might have dangerous too much. And there is no way to know. I’ve been eating these mixed nuts for several months and all the Brazil nuts. It had plenty. He also says that he doesn’t supplement and if you do to not take more 100mcg if you’ve confirmed with plasma test that you are deficient. I was supplementing 400mcg for 2 or 3 years in my multi and then 100mcg for few months with pic mins and doubled them the last month or so. Getting 200mcg.

Not taking all my usual antioxidants which I take plenty of for the past 3 days has definitely showed the damage going on. I have a headache that won’t let up. And major fatigue. The antioxidants kept me from knowing what I was continually doing to myself.
Ssa
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Re: I need help with selenium toxicity !!

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[quote="floramaria"
More likely you would be compounding problems by adding in some serious toxins.
Best wishes that you find a more gentle path to eliminating the selenium.[/quote]

Just wanted to report that I am doing better!! I don’t think it’s completely out of system but it is coming down. My skin feels better and even see hair growing around temples. I had weird rough patches on my knees and the ankle rash resolved completely. I also had a small scar that kept growing extra fast that I would have to remove and it is smooth now. Symptoms I didn’t know were because of selenium was not sleeping as good and tense and irritable because now that it’s lifting I feel a sigh of relief. I do have a couple toenails that got bad and had I continued would have lost which I still might but it will grow back. I’ll also have to grow out ridges on my fingernails.

When following the veterinary advice and letting the selenium be my antioxidant by stopping my antioxidants was horrible and I could feel what it was doing to me. It was awful and I never felt so bad. Once I got plenty of antioxidants in me, I no longer felt like I would die. I took epsom salt apple cider vinegar and baking soda baths which finally relieved the unrelenting headache.

It was hard to know what to do because I needed the protein with sulphur amino acids to use it up but it all has selenium. I think it will take time for it all to come down but also have to know my antioxidants were hopefully protecting me. I can’t believe how ridiculously stupid I feel.
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Re: I need help with selenium toxicity !!

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Ssa wrote:I can’t believe how ridiculously stupid I feel.
We are all struggling along with incomplete information; please don't be so hard on yourself! Glad to hear you are doing better.
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Re: I need help with selenium toxicity !!

Post by floramaria »

Ssa wrote: Just wanted to report that I am doing better!!
.
Hi Ssa, wonderful that you are feeling better and that your symptoms are reversing. That is great news.
That you made a mistake in taking more selenium than your body could handle is understandable. We all make mistakes. But you noticed the problems, identified the source, and took positive and effective steps to correct it. Far from feeling ridiculously stupid, I would think you have good cause to celebrate your perseverance and intelligence !
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Ssa
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Re: I need help with selenium toxicity !!

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Thank you everybody! This helps.

I hope at least anyone that reads this will know to watch how much selenium they are supplementing or eating. I don’t think it should be allowed to have 400mcg in a recommended dosage of a multi. I was probably teetering on overdosage for years and then did the Brazil nuts. It’s not hard to eat all you could need in a regular diet. And the mixed nuts should have a note of caution on it at least. It’s not inconceivable for one of my grandkids to decide he wanted all the big nuts. And as Masterjohn says there’s no way to know how much is in each one.
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Re: I need help with selenium toxicity !!

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Ssa wrote:Thank you everybody! This helps.

I hope at least anyone that reads this will know to watch how much selenium they are supplementing or eating. I don’t think it should be allowed to have 400mcg in a recommended dosage of a multi. I was probably teetering on overdosage for years and then did the Brazil nuts. It’s not hard to eat all you could need in a regular diet. And the mixed nuts should have a note of caution on it at least. It’s not inconceivable for one of my grandkids to decide he wanted all the big nuts. And as Masterjohn says there’s no way to know how much is in each one.
Thank you for posting about this Ssa. I just got a high RBC selenium result of 371 (120-300 mcg/L). [Note from the lab: "This test ... has not been cleared or approved by the FDA. This assay has been validated pursuant to the CLIA regulations and is used for clinical purposes."]

I'd been supplementing just 100 mcg of Selenium, half the dose recommended by a well known functional medicine doctor in a Thyroid combo medicine (200 mcg; I was only taking half the recommended amount on the bottle because I'm highly cautious about "throw in the kitchen sink" supplement combos). This formula was recommended without checking my baseline selenium. I can't cite anything that says RBC selenium is the test to use. It's just the only one available through the lab company I was using.

Needless to say, I won't be taking it anymore. I eat three eggs a day and plenty of fish and seafood. I do need to cut back my eggs and see if my chronic, mildly elevated hs-CRP goes down (eggs are associated with high hs-CRP in some lean women ... odd), but I have three choline SNPs with homozygous mutation status. Supplementing phosphatidylcholine raised my TMAO significantly (it went into the normal range as soon as I stopped it). Based on this hardly worth anything amount of data, I wonder if TMAO status may be controlled better by getting choline through food than by getting it through supplements, but I have really not tested this thoroughly in myself or read this.

The only high selenium symptoms that seem to fit in my case are increased irritability, but my stress levels are very high too.
ApoE 3/4 > Thanks in advance for any responses made to my posts.
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Re: I need help with selenium toxicity !!

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Hey! I believe i’m going through something similar.. I just need this metallic taste out my mouth please help.. I was taking 200 mg of selenium daily for a couple months.. I ended up taking colloidal silver not knowing the two don’t mix. I took the colloidal silver for 3 days. Now i have a disgusting metallic taste that i need help getting out. I seen on your post you mentioned you felt better? Did the taste go away?? Did it get better? What did you do? so far i’ve just been drinking water and I stopped taking all supplements
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Re: I need help with selenium toxicity !!

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anonymouseb wrote: Thu Mar 16, 2023 2:15 am Hey! I believe i’m going through something similar.. I just need this metallic taste out my mouth please help.. I was taking 200 mg of selenium daily for a couple months.. I ended up taking colloidal silver not knowing the two don’t mix. I took the colloidal silver for 3 days. Now i have a disgusting metallic taste that i need help getting out. I seen on your post you mentioned you felt better? Did the taste go away?? Did it get better? What did you do? so far i’ve just been drinking water and I stopped taking all supplements
Hello, anonymouseb!

As a Support Team Intern, I would like to make sure you feel welcomed on our site. So sorry to hear that you having this issue. We can't offer medical advice on this forum but hopefully you can consult with your doctor as soon as possible or go to urgent care if your symptoms are serious to you.

Here is an article on Selenium Toxicity on Merck Manual Professional Edition, and here is the link: https://www.merckmanuals.com/profession ... m-toxicity.

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Please take care of yourself, and hopefully you feel better soon! Our community is always here for you if you have other questions.

Warmly,

Natalia
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Re: I need help with selenium toxicity !!

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Thank you.. do you think this can be irreversible? I read the link and it just said to stop taking selenium.. which i’ve done.. it’s going on day 3. My doctor doesn’t really know. Maybe i’ll go to urgent care and see what they say
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Re: I need help with selenium toxicity !!

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anonymouseb wrote: Thu Mar 16, 2023 12:56 pm Thank you.. do you think this can be irreversible? I read the link and it just said to stop taking selenium.. which i’ve done.. it’s going on day 3. My doctor doesn’t really know. Maybe i’ll go to urgent care and see what they say
Dear anonymouseb,

So sorry to hear you were not able to get the answers you were looking for from your doctor. Perhaps at Urgent care they may be able to provide some support and might have some answers for you.
Hang in there!

Warmly,

Natalia
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