How Important is Zinc?

One or twice a year, my wife and I get together with a group of friends I made when I trained or taught at the University of Kansas Medical Center. Last night we got together to celebrate Hannukah, eat latkes and play “Dreidel” on the fifth night of the festival. Before dinner, Dr. John Belmont, Ph.D. asked me if zinc was really important when someone was ill. I told him that all of the studies I had seen suggested it. This morning I came across an article that pretty much tells the whole story.

The article was entitled: “Researchers Uncover Secret to Staying Pneumonia-free This Winter.” In this review, it stated that low levels of zinc can kill more than just your sex drive-not having enough of this important trace element/nutrient can increase your risk of dying from pneumonia!

A recent study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that zinc plays an important role in either preventing or limiting the damage done by pneumonia. Researchers from the USDA, Tufts University, and Boston University studied nursing home residents (averaging 84.6 years old) over a 12-month period. When the researchers
measured the zinc levels at the end of the study, they discovered that
those with low levels had an increased incidence of pneumonia, had it for a longer period of time, and needed to take antibiotics for longer as well. This was important to know because with the rise of antibiotic-resistant superbugs like MRSA, the less you use antibiotics, the better you are.

But the most important part of the study was this: Those who had a normal zinc level had a 39-percent lower mortality rate than those who were low in zinc. It just makes sense-if you don’t develop pneumonia, chances are pretty good you’re not going to die from it and you don’t have to take antibiotics. The study didn’t merely show that adequate levels of zinc can help prevent pneumonia – it showed that supplementing with zinc is an effective way of reducing your risk!

Quite a switch from the supplement-bashing studies (no doubt funded by Big Pharma) popping up in medical journals. Zinc is responsible for helping you maintain a healthy immune system, so it’s no big surprise zinc would mount such a strong defense against a disease like pneumonia. It increases the production of your infection-fighting white blood cells-plus it gives them the extra boost they need to fight more aggressively and also increases the number of your infection-fighting T-cells.

You can get all the zinc you need by including plenty of meat in your diet. At two milligrams per ounce, a nine-ounce steak would put you right in the middle of the recommended 15 to 25 mgs per day. But what if you are a vegetarian? The study showed that supplementing Zinc was also important. So where can you get a biologically active form of zinc? There are many fruits that have adequate levels of Zinc. One such fruit is Amalaki (or Amla). It was been used in Ayurvedic medicine for over 5,000 years. A good source of Amalaki is in Zrii, a liquid nutritional supplement that I have talked about in the past.

But be careful. Zinc can easily fall into the “too much of a good thing” category. If you take too much zinc, it can actually inhibit your immune function. Your best bet is to go to an alternative doctor and have a test done to determine if you’re deficient in zinc – and to tell you how much you should supplement with.