But as we begin balancing other nutrients, like iodine for example, our body’s demand for selenium may increase. If someone’s metabolism is sluggish enough, even tiny daily doses could eventually cause them to end up with too much selenium. The issue we can run into is when we consistently take more than our body is able to use. This isn’t something that should be done a lot, but it shows that our body seems to be able to tolerate large doses. I have read about people taking upwards of 2,000mcg of selenium several times to increase their levels. I also eat blue corn chips pretty regularly as well as stone-ground mustard. I take 50mcg almost daily or 200mcg 2 to 4 times a month. Over time I figured out how much or how little I needed. I studied the symptoms of high or low selenium and only took small amounts while paying attention to how I felt. There are a lot of reports of people feeling better and having better progress by supplementing selenium even though their tests indicate higher levels. “SEPP1 plasma concentration is the best easily accessible marker of human selenium nutritional status” 1 2 There is a protein called SEPP which allows selenium to be ‘bioavailable’, meaning it doesn’t really matter what our selenium levels are if we don’t have proper function of this protein. There is an issue with this testing though. To avoid taking too much, a lot of people test selenium levels via either plasma selenium concentration or RBC selenium concentration. Overdose can be common when people have gene expressions or do not methylate well, due to the body not being able to physically process the selenium as part of an important detox phase. Deficiency seems common among people with compromised immune systems or related conditions like auto-immune, IBS, allergies, HIV, Crohn’s disease, Grave’s disease and Hashimoto’s disease. Selenium is a natural element found in low amounts in the Earth’s crust. If you are interested in more info, read Selenium Continued at I have done my best to keep this page as short as possible while highlighting the important aspects. This page is one of my longer write-ups, but this is due to the importance of selenium. Brownstein recommends 200mcg – 400mcg when someone is actively taking 50mg, which most people do not start at.