Selenium is a mineral and trace element that has many benefits for our health and hair. Working together with vitamin E, it helps to prevent oxidative damage in our bodies and promote hair growth. So eating foods rich in selenium will help ensure you don’t become deficient. Here we list the top ten selenium foods:
How Foods Rich In Selenium Affect Your Hair Health
Hair Health
4 Min Read
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Selenium Rich Foods
The top foods rich in selenium are as follows:
- Brazil nuts
- Yellowfin tuna
- Halibut
- Sardines
- Beef
- Turkey
- Beef liver
- Chicken
- Eggs
- Spinach
How Selenium-Rich Foods Prevent Hair Loss
Eating enough selenium-rich food is important to keep a good amount of the vital mineral in the body. As it is an effective antioxidant, selenium fights free radicals. These are not only harmful to our overall health but can also inhibit hair growth by weakening and killing hair follicles.
Selenium is vital for the proper functioning of the thyroid and this organ also regulates hair growth – if it’s out of balance, you may start experiencing hair loss and weight loss.
Selenium is also frequently used in anti-dandruff shampoos as it fights the flaky scalp imbalance by killing off fungus. Dandruff or fungus on the scalp can cause hair loss with itching, which makes us scratch the itch and pull the hair out of its follicles.
Why Selenium is so Beneficial for Our Overall Health
As stated above, selenium collaborates with vitamin E to prevent oxidative stress in the body. That means damage to the body’s cells caused by free radicals. Selenium can also help prevent heart disease.
Selenium also works synergistically with iodine to keep our thyroids healthy. It does this by producing a hormone called T3, which is critical to control our metabolism and maintain thyroid health.
Too Much Selenium Could be Toxic
Although selenium deficiency could lead to different types of diseases and pain, there have also been cases where selenium supplements have contained hundreds of times higher doses than what the labels state. This could therefore lead to selenium toxicity, which can cause hair loss, nausea, fatigue and diarrhea. Along with eating selenium rich foods, you can consider taking a supplement containing many different vitamins and minerals meant to work synergistically to aid your hair health.
