whimsical happenstance

All you never wanted to know: Zinc

I have come down with a cold in the past few days, so I walked up to CVS for provisions: throat drops, zinc drops, vicious green NyQuil, tissues, and liquids. With the Green Death as a last resort, I pulled out the ColdEeze and read the ingredients. I like to know what in the heck I am putting into my body. Of course, I had no idea what 13.3 x 6 mg of zinc would do to me, so I decided to investigate.

Dr. Ronald Acu's website gives a detailed rundown of zinc and its importance to the human body, as well as side effects of over/underdosing. He states that about 1.5-2.5 mg of zinc are found in the body, and that it does not produce this necesary mineral on its own. Zinc is accountable for functions of the body that include wound healing, DNA/RNA synthesis, reproductive health, growth and learning development...the list goes on. Read the article.

While one must ingest it to keep up healthy zinc levels, too much of a good thing is ultimately a bad thing. Abnormally high/low zinc consentrations in the body seem to effect men and the production of testosterone most adversely, with low levels connected to higher estrogen levels in men (as zinc is necessary to stop testosterone from changing over to estrogen) and all that this entails: obesity, heart disease, and the desire to buy more shoes than you could ever need. High levels are also found in men with prostatitis, and cause many more nasty side effects in the reproductive functions of the body for both men and women.

However, this is not answering the question of "how much is too much?" The Recomended Daily Allowance of elemental zinc is about 15 mg. However, the therapeudic range of the mineral is much higher: Dr. Acu says it is 10-250 mg/day and the U. of Maryland Medical Center says it is 30-60 mg/day (These varied numbers seem to come from different causes for zinc therapy for different lengths of time). The ColdEeze website claims that as long as you do not take more than the recommended daily dose (six lozenges/ 16 sugar-free tablets) you will not experience "Excessive dosage" with the product, and that you should not take more than 150 mg/day even under therapeudic conditions. The daily recommended dose of ColdEeze turns out to be about 80mg of zinc, which is far below that cap. It is within the therapeudic range put forth by Dr. Acu, and just outside UMM's nubers.

Conclusion: I am not going to suck down the full six lozenges per day, but I should not be too worried about side effects if I am only taking the amount over a 3-4 day period. You can feel to load up on zinc and adversely effect your repro organs if that is your bag, but I would not recommend it. The next time you are sucking down oysters (the richest natural source of zinc), think of this post. Your prostate will thank you.

posted by Megan at 6:18 AM