According to the analysis of a randomized placebo-controlled clinical trial covering 13 years, selenium does not protect against cardiovascular disease, despite its reported antioxidant and chemopreventive properties.

The negative selenium-CVD association results of the Nutritional Prevention of Cancer Trial, appear in the April 15 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology.

"Our results extend previous research based on smaller intervention trials focusing on cardiovascular risk factors," said Stranges. "Our findings are consistent with those from previous studies that have shown no beneficial effect of selenium supplementation in combination with other antioxidants on the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease."

Several antioxidants, vitamins C and E in particular, that were thought to play a role in preventing heart disease based on observational studies have turned out not to be protective in randomized clinical trials, and selenium now has joined this group.

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