The nutritional selenium status of healthy Greeks

The nutritional selenium status of apparently healthy Greeks has been assessed by measuring fluorimetrically the selenium content of whole blood, morning urine, hair and finger nails. The means and standard deviations were 165 +/- 33, 25 +/- 7 ng Se ml-1, 416 +/- 86, and 536 +/- 91 ng Se g-1, respectively. No significant difference was found between the selenium content of whole blood, hair and finger nails, but, for morning urine, there was a significant difference between males and females. The young and the elderly have less selenium in these biological materials than other Greeks. Whole blood selenium correlates significantly with morning urine, hair, and finger nail selenium, as does hair and nail selenium of male, female and male + female Greeks. The results are compared with those in the literature and possible explanations for the observations are presented. It is concluded that the selenium status of Greeks is satisfactory.