Selenium (Se) is a key component of a number of functional selenoproteins required for normal health. The best known of these are the antioxidant glutathione peroxidase enzymes, which remove hydrogen and damaging lipid and phospholipid hydroperoxides generated in vivo by free radicals and other oxygen-derived species. If not removed, lipid hydroperoxides impair membrane structure and function and cause blood-clotting disturbances by decreasing the production of prostacyclin while increasing the production of thromboxane.
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