Abstract
The review provides a description of the main pathways for selenium metabolism in humans. It has been shown that the main biological role of selenium in eukaryotes is its participation in the synthesis and regulation of the activity of a number of enzymes (glutathione peroxidase, selenium dependent peroxidase, neutrophils, proteins of the family of selenoproteins P and W, 5’-iodo-thyronindeionidase, thyroredoxin reductase). In recent years, Ukraine’s endocrinologists have been actively prescribing selenium supplements for any problems with thyroid gland. We are not advocates of such treatment, and we consider it necessary to prescribe selenium-containing drugs only in the case of initial low selenium content in the human body. The correctness of this view is confirmed by a number of articles by foreign authors. We tried to summarize scientifically based information about when to take selenium, and when not, and why there was this practice in principle.