Dose of selenium:

The recommended dietary allowance (RDA) includes the total amount of selenium you
should get from foods and from any supplements you take. Most people can get their
RDA of selenium from food.
Recommended Intakes

Intake recommendations for selenium and other nutrients are provided in the Dietary
Reference Intakes (DRIs) developed by the Food and Nutrition Board (FNB) at the
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. DRI is the general term
for a set of reference values used for planning and assessing nutrient intakes of healthy
people. These values, which vary by age and sex, include the following:

 Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA): Average daily level of intake

sufficient to meet the nutrient requirements of nearly all (97%–98%) healthy
individuals; often used to plan nutritionally adequate diets for individuals

 Adequate Intake (AI): Intake at this level is assumed to ensure nutritional

adequacy; established when evidence is insufficient to develop an RDA

 Estimated Average Requirement (EAR): Average daily level of intake estimated

to meet the requirements of 50% of healthy individuals; usually used to assess
the nutrient intakes of groups of people and to plan nutritionally adequate diets
for them; can also be used to assess the nutrient intakes of individuals

 Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL): Maximum daily intake unlikely to cause
adverse health effects

The safe upper limit for selenium is 400 micrograms a day in adults. Anything above
that is considered an overdose.

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Selenium toxicity:

A little bit of selenium is usually plenty to meet your daily requirements. Over the long
term, routinely getting unsafe levels could lead to selenium toxicity, a condition linked
to breathing issues, kidney failure, and heart problems. At high enough levels,
selenium toxicity could even be fatal.

Health Risks from Excessive Selenium

Chronically high intakes of the organic and inorganic forms of selenium have similar
effects. Early indicators of excess intake are a garlic odor in the breath and a metallic
taste in the mouth. The most common clinical signs of chronically high selenium
intakes, or selenosis, are hair loss and nail brittleness or loss. Other signs and
symptoms include skin rash, nausea, diarrhea, fatigue, irritability, and nervous system
abnormalities.

As discussed earlier, Brazil nuts contain very high amounts of selenium (68–91 mcg
per nut) and could cause selenium toxicity if consumed regularly. Acute selenium
toxicity has resulted from the ingestion of misformulated over-the-counter products
containing very large amounts of selenium. In 2008, for example, 201 people
experienced severe adverse reactions from taking a liquid dietary supplement
containing 200 times the labeled amount of selenium. Acute selenium toxicity can
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cause severe gastrointestinal and neurological symptoms; acute respiratory distress
syndrome; myocardial infarction; hair loss; muscle tenderness; tremors;
lightheadedness; facial flushing; kidney failure; cardiac failure; and, in rare cases,
death.

References:
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Gene Nomenclature. J Biol Chem 2016;291:24036-40. [PubMed abstract]
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eds. Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease. 11th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott
Williams & Wilkins; 2014:225-37.
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Present Knowledge in Nutrition. 11th ed. Cambridge, MA: Academic Press; 2020:443-
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4. Lei XG, Rayman M, Sunde RA. Selenium. In: Tucker KL, Ross CA, Jensen GL, Torger-
Decker R, Duggan CP, eds. Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease. 12th ed.
Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning. In press. 2024.
5. Burk RF, Hill KE. Regulation of Selenium Metabolism and Transport. Annu Rev Nutr
2015;35:109-34. [PubMed abstract]
6. Lei XG, Combs GF, Jr., Sunde RA, Caton JS, Arthington JD, et al. Dietary Selenium
Across Species. Annu Rev Nutr 2022;42:337-75. [PubMed abstract]
7. Terry EN, Diamond AM. Selenium. In: Erdman JW, Macdonald IA, Zeisel SH, eds.
Present Knowledge in Nutrition. 10th ed. Washington, D.C.: Wiley-Blackwell;
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8. Sunde RA. Selenium. In: Coates PM, Betz JM, Blackman MR, eds. Encyclopedia of
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