Men who have high plasma selenium concentrations in their bodies are less prone to dysglycemia, according to a new study published in BioMed Central's open access journal Nutrition and Metabolism. Any malfunctioning of blood sugar metabolism is called dysglycemia.

About 1162 healthy French men and women were followed by the team led by Tasnime Akbaraly, from the University of Montpellier, for nine years, who observed plasma selenium concentrations and occurrence of dysglycemia.

About 127 fresh cases of dysglycemia (70 in men and 57 in women), occurred during the study was being conducted.

Akbaraly said, "The reason we observed a protective effect of selenium in men but not in women is not completely clear, but might be attributed to women being healthier at baseline, having better antioxidant status in general and possible differences in how men and women process selenium".

However, the study is in stark contrast with the researchers at Johns Hopkins University who examined diabetes rate and selenium levels of about 900 adults. They found that the people who suffer from type 2 diabetes had excess of selenium in their blood.