HH327: Key Nutrients-Chromium & Selenium

Welcome back to another episode of Halifax as I continue sharing key nutrients and signs of whether your levels are too high or too low and today I am talking about chromium and selenium. Now any good multivitamin is going to include both chromium and selenium. And if you are not supplementing it may be that you find your levels are low because they are both quite depleted from our soil systems. And it is hard to get optimal levels through our food sources. The other factor is with all of our minerals that when we are under stress, our body is trying to keep up with the stress that we are under and trying to get everything done that we are trying to do and we are burning through our minerals at that point until such time that we simply get depleted if we aren't putting enough minerals back into our body. And so I find that many people's chromium and selenium levels are low when they lab test and the great news is is that we can support it quite easily with a good multivitamin and some and with the Selenium with Brazil nuts they are like the best food source of selenium are the highest source and just to Brazil nuts per day can boost your levels. And it's really important to be supporting your Selenium, particularly if you have thyroid issues because and to prevent thyroid issues because selenium is very good in supporting your thyroid health. Now, if your Selenium levels are high that can be due to selenium in your well water. And they can also show up high if you're using anti dandruff shampoos. Low selenium is much more common, as I said and can be low due to toxins in your body free radicals. Processed foods will deplete your Selenium levels, as well as stress as I've said, and then thyroid imbalances and blood sugar dysregulation. When it comes to chromium, Chromium is also quite depleted from our soil systems. And it's really important because it helps with blood sugar regulation. And when our chromium levels are low, it can cause high blood sugar levels. And that can lead to a diagnosis of type two diabetes, which we know many people are experiencing. Unfortunately, excess iron intake can also lead to low chromium levels. And in my last episode, episode number 433, I did talk about iron. And as I've said all along in all of my episodes, when I talk about the body, it always wants to be imbalanced. So more of something that you need now isn't necessarily good forever. And so if your iron levels are low, yes, you want to supplement with iron to bring your iron levels up. However, you don't want to necessarily just do that forever and ever. Because that can then impact your chromium levels and have your chromium levels start to become deficient. So it's all about finding and maintaining that balance. And the best way to do that is to run lab tests. And you can run them each year so that you can see your progress and see where things are at and know exactly what your body truly needs, and be able to support your body through supplementation. And it's also very rare to see chromium high on lab tests. And if we do again, it's due to high levels of iron or other mineral imbalances, it is far more likely to see that it is low so you can run a lab test. Reach out to me if you'd like to do that if you're not taking a multivitamin, you want to get yourself a good quality multivitamin, to make sure you're getting all of the vitamins, all of the minerals that your body truly needs in order to support you and the busy lifestyle that you are leading. So enjoy that. If you'd like to reach out my email is Melissa at your guided health journey.com And I'd be happy to have a conversation with you around your health goals and how I can support you