Plasma selenium and risk of dysglycemia in an elderly French population: results from the prospective Epidemiology of Vascular Ageing Study

Background A preventive role of selenium on the risk of diabetes has been reported and ascribed to the "insulin-like" activity of selenium and the antioxidant properties of the selenoenzymes. By contrast, data from cross-sectional studies and clinical trials have suggested an adverse effect of high selenium status and selenium supplementation on type-2 diabetes risk. Given these controversial results, we investigated prospectively the relationship between baseline plasma selenium concentration and occurrence of dysglycemia (impaired fasting glucose or type 2 diabetes) in an elderly French cohort.