Mercury toxins reduced with vitamin intake

Nutra Ingredients - Vitamin E and selenium could reduce mercury toxicity

This gives a quick overview of a study done on laboratory rats that were given mercury in their food, but also given variations of vitamin E and selenium. Some rats just received mercury, others mercury & selenium, others mercury & vitamin E, others mercury & selenium & vitamin E, and finally some rats were given normal diet (control). The rats then gave birth and the lifespan and characteristics of the offspring was evaluated. The finding: vitamin E in conjunction with selenium contributed to lower toxicity in adult rats (compared to other groups, not to control), and the offspring grew better than other groups and lived longer. Since this is a rather simplistic article, not much more information is given. One thing to note is that the rats were given rather high levels of both mercury and vitamin E. The mechanism is unknown, but researchers hypothesize that vitamin E boosts the effects of selenium, which may have an effect on mercury on its own.