Selenium Supplements May Raise Diabetes Risk

July 10, 2007— -- While selenium supplements have been touted as a preventative measure for conditions ranging from cold sores to cancer, those who take the pills daily may be getting more than they bargained for when it comes to diabetes.

Specifically, people taking selenium supplements daily over a period of years may be putting themselves at a 50 percent higher risk of developing type II diabetes than those who do not, new research suggests.

The analysis, published on the Annals of Internal Medicine Web site Tuesday, used data from the Nutritional Prevention of Cancer Trial (NPC), a large clinical trial designed to determine whether selenium supplements prevent skin cancer.

Researchers selected more than 1,200 participants from the study who were initially diabetes-free. Half took a 200-microgram selenium supplement daily for an average of nearly eight years, while half received a placebo pill over the same duration.

What researchers found was that those taking the actual selenium supplements actually increased their risk of developing type II diabetes by about 50 percent.

Lead study author Dr. Saverio Stranges of Warwick Medical School, UK, said that the findings from this study suggest that selenium supplements do not prevent diabetes and that they might be harmful.

"At this time, the evidence that people should take selenium supplements is extremely limited," Stranges said in a press release issued Monday. "We have observed an increased risk for diabetes over the long term in the group of participants who took selenium supplements."

Study co-author James Marshall, senior vice president for cancer prevention and professor of urology at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, N.Y., told ABCNews.com that the finding is of particular interest because of a widespread belief that loading up on antioxidants such as selenium invariably protects against a host of ills.

"The idea that people should just go out and start taking selenium in large amounts, willy-nilly, seems not to be sensible," he said. "Fifty percent risk is not trivial."