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in the sense that it is able to document a very high level protection of body cell constituents from oxidative stress. Selenium contributes to normal thyroid functioning and to the maintenance of normal hair and skin plus normal It is recognized that soils in many areas of the world, including the UK, are deficient in selenium, often as a result of continual or intensive farming. This deficiency is manifest upwards through the food chain via plants and animals, culminating in man. In Scandinavian countries, selenium is added to agricultural fertilizers to increase depleted soil selenium levels, resulting in an increase in population (i.e. bound to an amino acid such as methionine or cysteine), inorganic in form.