Symptoms Of A Selenium Deficiency

Shortness Of Breath

An individual's selenium deficiency may manifest as frequent shortness of breath or dyspnea as a symptom. The shortage of selenium inhibits the normal process that synthesizes a compound required to produce both T3 and T4 hormones. Without enough of both of these thyroid hormones, the lungs have a reduced hypercapnic ventilatory drive and hypoxic ventilatory drive. In addition, insufficient levels of thyroid hormone in the body can cause the patient to have myopathy or dysfunction of the muscle fibers.

When muscle fibers experience dysfunction, the individual is unable to produce a full muscle movement with the exertion of their best effort. When this malfunction of myopathy occurs in the lungs, it results in a weakening of the lung muscles. These muscles control the inflation of the lungs upon inhalation, and deflation upon exhalation, and because these muscles are not working as they should be in selenium deficiency patients, they may feel like they are unable to inhale enough air. This sensation is also described as shortness of breath.

Slow Wound Healing

Individuals who are deficient in selenium may exhibit slow wound healing as a symptomatic manifestation of their condition. Low levels of selenium cause a reduced production of thyroid hormone by the thyroid gland. Thyroid hormone helps with expediting the process of skin barrier formation by stimulating the activity of certain enzymes. These enzymes are vital factors in the epidermal cholesterol sulfate cycle that regulates skin cell differentiation, desquamation, and its function of serving as a barrier. When an individual is wounded, the factors within the blood develop a blood clot to stop any bleeding.

Once the blood clot is no longer needed, it falls off or the body absorbs it. The cholesterol sulfate cycle takes over along with other processes to form a new layer of skin in the place of the damaged or missing tissues. When there are not enough thyroid hormones in the body due to a selenium deficiency, there is a delay in the functioning of the sulfate cycle and other healing processes because the enzymes are not being appropriately triggered from insufficiency of thyroid hormone.