Could low selenium be contributing to your low body temperature?

Could low selenium be contributing to your low body temperature?
Is low selenium keeping you from a normal body temperature?

A recent study was performed on 70 women with autoimmune thyroiditis (Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis) which causes elevated TPO antibodies.  36 patients were each given 200 mcg / day of selenium for 3 months and T4 to keep their TSH levels normal.  Then, tests showed that the TPO antibodies had dropped 40% in the patients that had taken the selenium, while the TPO antibodies increased by 10% in the 34 patients who had not.

Furthermore, 9 of the patients given selenium had complete resolution of their TPO antibodies and their thyroid nodules went away.  This is amazing information that many people don’t know or don’t mention.  It just goes to show how important selenium can be in thyroid health.

It’s easy to see why selenium is so important to thyroid health.  It is the center of a few important enzymes that have everything to do with thyroid health.  For one, selenium is at the heart of the family of enzymes (iodothyronine deiodinases) that convert T4 to T3 throughout the body.  When patients are selenium deficient it may affect their ability to convert T4 to T3 adequately to maintain a normal body temperature even when thyroid blood tests are normal.

Selenium is also at the center of glutathione peroxidase.  This important enzyme protects the thyroid cells from oxidative damage that can result from toxins and that can lead to autoimmune disease like Hashimoto’s.  It’s also important in “organifying” iodine from the diet so that it can be used to make thyroid hormone.  It’s been reported that giving selenium can increase glutathione peroxidase by 21%.

(Gartner R, Gasnier BC,Selenium supplementation in patients with autoimmune thyroiditis decreases thyroid peroxidase antibodies concentrations; J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2002 Apr;87(4):1687-91.)