Zinc for the purpose of decreasing viral infection

[psalm139]

Hi, hope everyone is enjoying a beautiful and much anticipated Springtime!

Had an interesting conversation with an MD regarding zinc. I am having a bout of bronchitis, and she asked me if I had heard the latest on zinc, and how it is being attributed with the ability to somehow retard viruses. It works around the immune system, not as an "immune booster". I was then given the following link by my primary MD, after asking him about it: summaries.cochrane.org (search Zinc onsite) for some recent studies. He told me the Cochrane site has some of the best peer reviewed articles. I haven't searched myself as yet.

I was wondering if anyone else here in forum-land has heard anything about this mineral? I started taking OptiZinc about 4 days ago, and is still too soon to know anything. I will update again if I notice a decrease in colds/ sinus infections. I usually get one or the other every 6 -10 weeks or so. In the meantime, looking forward to hearing from you...

[s162216]

Like about every other vitamin and mineral I've heard it getting promoted for some supposed "benefits", if I remember someone was saying something about it for diabetes a few years ago. You should be able to get all the zinc you need from dietary sources as red meat, poultry, whole grains, beans etc are all fairly high in it and the US dietary guidelines recommend only 11 and 9 mg per day for males and females respectively over 19, with a maximum of 40 mg per day for both. The NIH have some quite detailed information here: ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Zinc-HealthProfessional/

The Cochrane review you want is this one here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD001364.pub4/pdf/standard they concluded from the available data that although zinc supplements statically significantly reduced the length of a cold if taken from the first day, more studies need to be conducted to determine the effect of dosage and of side effects as most studies noticed that subjects found unpleasent side effects due to altered taste in the mouth and nausea.

Sam