"ZINC IN OLD MICE FACILITATED A COMPLETE RECOVERY OF THYMUS GLAND FUNCTION AND REGROWTH OF THE ORGAN WITH GREATER IMMUNE EFFICIENCY

". . . zinc [in old mice] facilitated a complete recovery of thymus gland function and regrowth of the organ with greater immune efficiency."

Spinach has a high zinc content.

Maybe there isn't a master mineral.  Maybe all essential minerals are masters of health.  I recently wrote about the magic of magnesium.  But why are minerals in general so important?  Is it just general, good maintenance?  Maybe.  Or is it that minerals are essential in digestion, like breaking down proteins?  Maybe it's not the class of nutrients that's so important as how well any single nutrient interacts with our biology to produce desired outcomes.  

For example, I recently read Bill Sardi's "Reassessment of Vitamin C Therapy and Cancer," published at his site and picked up by Lew Rockwell.  What astonished me wasn't actually the benefits of Vitamin C or the benefits of Vitamin C therapy on cancer.  What struck me was the study by Abram Hoffer.  

Enter a forgotten investigator in the war against cancer — Abram Hoffer MD, a nutrition-minded psychiatrist based in Canada who was known for his use of high-dose niacin therapy to treat schizophrenia.  Vitamin C therapy for cancer could easily be dismissed except for Dr. Hoffer’s strikingly successful use of oral vitamin C (12,000 mgs/day) to achieve prolonged survival times.

So Hoffer produced astounding results in his cancer therapy, but no third party ever tested or examined his results to find out why he was successful.  And to show you just how successful he was, check out this chart:

Here is Dr. Hoffer’s 5-year survival data:

Oral Antioxidant Therapy & End-Stage Cancer

Abram Hoffer MD, Journal Orthomolecular Medicine, Volume 15, 2000

No. of patients treated/vitamin C: 441

No. of patients in control group (chemo, radiation): 54

SURVIVAL CONVENTIONAL CANCER TREATMENT [i.e., chemo-therapy]
Year 1: 28%

Year 2: 15%

Year 3: 15%

Year 4: 13%

Year 5: 11%

VITAMIN C TREATMENT*

Year 1: 73%

Year 2: 56%

Year 3: 48%

Year 4: 44%

Year 5: 39%*

Consisted of 12,000 mg oral vitamin C as ascorbic acid, mega-dose niacinamide, beta carotene, zinc.

What is equally astounding is that no one checked his work.

Steven Hickey and Hilary Roberts, researchers from Manchester, England, also report on Abram Hoffer’s exceptional results with oral vitamin C in the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine. [Journal Orthomolecular Medicine 2013]  Reasons for the astounding effect of oral vitamin C were not explored, however.

Sardi found that in addition to the oral Vitamin C, that Hoffer also administered Zinc.  But which kind.  There are different kinds of zinc, 7 different zinc supplements in all [actually, there are more]:

• 
  

1.  Chelated Zinc.

2.  Zinc Orotate (some claim that this is the best form)

3.  Zinc Picolinate.

4.  Zinc Gluconate.

5.  Zinc Acetate.

6.  Zinc Oxide.

7.  Zinc Sulfate.

So at least from Sardi's article it's not clear which zinc was used.  And though the benefits of zinc are reported almost everywhere, take a look at very specific, very important organ that responds nicely to zinc.  That organ?  Your Thymus gland.

Dr. Hoffer treated his patients with an array of other nutrients including zinc.  Zinc is the key nutrient that primes T-cells in the thymus gland that shrinks with advancing age.

Shrinkage of the thymus gland, located below the chest plate (sternum) is progressive with advancing age.  The thymus gland is responsible for activating T-cells that are essential for immune system maintenance.   The thymus gland shrinks at a rate of about 3% per year till middle age and then 1% per year thereafter.  [Frontiers Immunology 2013]  There are no present therapies offered by physicians to regenerate the thymus gland even though they are widely documented and available.

This information should spike everyone's radar.  More on the thymus gland and zinc. 

Remarkably, zinc supplied to old mice facilitated a complete recovery of thymus gland function and regrowth of the organ with greater immune efficiency.  Researchers conclude that age-related thymus gland shrinkage and immune system dysfunction are not intrinsic and irreversible and largely depend upon zinc adequacy.  [International Journal Immunopharmacology 1995]

Imagine folks who've suffered childhood diseases and have had to endure chronic conditions their whole life.  If only they'd known about the combination of zinc and Vitamin C. So there's that.  Then there's this. 

A recent study is instructive.  Vitamin C, aspirin, and zinc were administered to laboratory rats given a chemical to induce colon cancer.  Aspirin and vitamin C maintained normal colon cells in 87.5% of the animals whereas zinc showed a 100% reduction in tumor incidence. [Asian Pacific Journal Cancer Prevention 2013]

All this to prove that Vitamin C as a cancer therapy works but works mainly because of the pair.  When used alone Vitamin C didn't always perform.  It still did better than chemo, or conventional therapies, but it performed off the charts in the presence of zinc.  One more note on cancer therapy.  Check this out.

When vitamin K3 is combined with vitamin C therapy, cancer cells die by autoschizis – that is they are split and utterly destroyed. [Ultrastructural Pathology 2010]

The synergistic use of vitamin E as alpha tocopherol succinate and synthetically made vitamin K3 plus ascorbic acid is also proposed as a further enhancement of vitamin C cancer therapy. [PLoS One 2012]

Not surprisingly, the addition of quercetin to vitamin C + vitamin K was more effective in killing cancer cells than the two vitamins alone in a lab dish study. [Alternative Medicine Reviews 2010; British Journal Cancer 2010]

This is hopeful stuff.  It was upon this recommendation that I tried Zinc Orotate. 

Zinc orotate is a chelated form of zinc that is more readily absorbed by the body than any other zinc supplement available. Manufacturers of it will usually boast about having this type, because they have good reason to. Zinc orotate passes through the membranes of cells easily, and it pulls the highest amounts of accompanying minerals into the cells, which leads to higher tissue concentrations of zinc and other beneficial nutrients

But I felt nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  Was that nothing feeling the result of that powerful absorption?  Who knows? Then I read this article by Sardi on zinc acetate.  I could not believe what an energetic rush I got.  And it centered around the heart and the spine.  I thought "Wow! This stuff is potent."  Turns out that the zinc acetate was waking up my thymus gland.  

Given what I read on the internet, Sardi outstrips most in his details and exhaustive research, that exhaustive work to compare stories, and find out what was missed and why.  Talk about dedication.  

The other form of zinc I have taken is Chelated Zinc.  See, the nice thing about Sardi is that he explains which organ responds so well to a specific nutrient.  In the case of zinc it is the thymus gland.  Then he does background study on it and finds out that with age people's thymus gland shrinks.  And when that shrinks, you're going to have lowered immunity. All the other articles on the web tell you that zinc is good for immunity, which sounds good but is no where near the specificity of Bill Sardi.  Amazing, really. 

There are essential minerals for health, then there are trace minerals.  Both equally important, one more than the next? FitDay sums it up:  

Five percent of your diet typically includes macro minerals and trace minerals. Macro minerals are minerals that you need in quantities greater than 100mg/day and make up about 1 percent of your total body weight. These include sodium, chloride, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, and calcium. Trace minerals are elements that are needed is smaller amounts, 1-100mg/day by adults and are less than .01 percent of totalbody weight. These include Copper, Chromium, Fluoride, Iodine, Iron, Molybdenum, Manganese, Selenium, and Zinc. Trace Minerals are inorganic matter that cannot be destroyed by cooking or heat and are essential to the body for a variety of processes.

Macro Minerals

1.  Sodium.

2.  Chloride.

3.  Potassium.

4.  Phosphorus.  [despite this being a macro mineral, people's teeth are a mess today.  What's causing that?  Lifestyle?]

5.  Magnesium.

6.  Calcium: good for teeth and bones.  You know where to get it--milk and meat products.

Trace Minerals

1.  Copper.

2.  Chromium.

3.  Fluoride. 

4.  Iodine.

5.  Iron.

6.  Molydenum.

7.  Manganese.

8.  Selenium. 

9.  Zinc.

10.  Cobalt.

Together, I count 16 minerals in all.  But the lists that I have found range from 11 to 17 to 19 as in the list I compiled below, so there seems to be some debate as to which minerals are trace or macro or necessary for health.  And here I thought I was going to add or organize information into bite-sized, manageable tidbits.

1.   Lithium orotate.

2.   Reacted calcium

3.   Calcium-Magnesium

4.   Chromium

5.   Iron

6.   Magnesium

7.   Magnesium-Potasium

8.   Selenium.

9.   Phosphoros.

10.  Zinc.

11.  Stromium.

12.  Sodium

13.  Copper

14.  Manganese

15.  Molybdenum

16.  Iodine.

17.  Sulfur

18.  Fluoride. 

19.  Cobalt

Also, almost all the articles I read at sites like NCBI, KnowledgeofHealth, Natural News, and others point out deficiencies.  Why are Americans deficient in these nutrients?  Isn't this knowledge built in the local culture, local wisdom of its people?  You would think.  But one reason that Americans are deficient is precised because of what we consume, like alcohol, or people turning Vegan to for lifestyle or eating too many nuts or vegetables.  There are nutrients in daily foods called anti-nutrients that actually block minerals from getting absorbed into our system.  Is it entropy?  

My guess is that if you eat beef, cheese, milk, yogurt, eggs, and green leafy vegetables that you're getting the best multivitamin known to man.  Some folks recommend nuts for Vitamin E, but nuts contain an anti-nutrient called phytic acid, which blocks the absorption of calcium, zinc, magnesium, and others.  If a population is experience a deficiency in these minerals, it doesn't seem like a good idea to eat foods that block their absorption.  And why are nuts so prevalent in our stores and diets?  Is it because of the Mediterranean Diet craze?  Who knows?  But definitely pasteurized nuts have grown in popularity since I was a kid.  And the only packaged nuts we ate were sunflower seeds, peanuts, and corn nuts.  Stores used to have a bin of assorted nuts in shells.  Yeah.  At Christmas time my dad would buy bags of walnuts that we'd shell on the dining room table and pick from.  It was never the kind of thing where we open a bag and start eating them like, well, peanuts.

The latest mineral on my Top 5 List is zinc.  Wow!  This stuff is restorative.  I mean if you're in to taking supplements and all, I would definitely make zinc a priority.  You can find zinc in foods, of course, with oysters having the highest level of zinc than any other food.  So you want lots of zinc through food, eat your oysters. But if you're shell fish averse, you'll want to supplement.  

So I go to the internet not so much to prove as much as I do to corroborate my claims and findings.  We all know that zinc is good for us, but how good?  Where is it best served and what organs are best served by adequate zinc or zinc supplementation?  

John Phillip reports at Natural News that . . . 

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center and chemists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology collaborated to study the effects of zinc on brain function. Scientists experimenting with mice used a chemical that binds with zinc to eliminate it from the brain of the test animals. They found that in the absence of the mineral, communications between neurons was significantly diminished and that zinc is vital for controlling the efficiency between nerve cells in the hippocampus.

For more than a half century, scientists have understood that high concentrations of zinc are deposited within nerve cells; called vesicles, they package the transmitters which enable the nerve cells to communicate. The highest concentrations of brain zinc are found among the neurons of the hippocampus that control the high functions of learning and memory.

Clearly, if you're looking for brain support, zinc is the way to go. But we're always hearing about fish oils or gingko biloba and others as brain food.  And they are.  But these lowly minerals tend to take a back seat in the miraculous department until you're deficient in them.  And how does one become deficient in zinc, magnesium, and calcium?  Phytic acid is one way, one of a series of anti-nutrients available to us in our stores that end up in our diet. Nuts are a big one. The phytic acid in nuts blocks the absorption of minerals in our system.  Does the phytic acid deplete the minerals? I don't know, but I would say that blocking is no picnic either. We want magnesium in our bodies.  We need calcium for bones and teeth.  One of the things that phytic acid does is block or deplete phosphorous, which is the essential mineral for our teeth.  You want to keep those bones in your head for a lifetime?  Then consume foods high in phosphorous.

Then the question of which kind of zinc.  And there are several. The first zinc supplement that I took was Zinc Orotate on the recommendation of an online article.  In fact, I went through 2 bottles of them, thinking that this was the best of the zinc forms. I really did not feel anything.  Even overdosing on Zinc Orotate, nothing.  The next zinc I tried was Zinc Acetate on the implied recommendation of Bill Sardi.  

But for best absorption, Sardi recommends Zinc Gluconate and Zinc Methionine:  

SUPERIORLY ABSORBED FORMS OF SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRIENTS: VITAMINS, MINERALS, & TRACE MINERALS

1.  Zinc gluconate: Zinc methionine.

2.  Inorganic selenium as selenite, selenite: Organically bound selenium in a natural full array of protein-bound forms (Seleno Excell®).

3.  Iron as ferrous sulfate: Iron as carbonyl iron (Ferronyl).

4.  Magnesium oxide: Magnesium chloride, carbonate, malate, glycinate, gluconate, threonate, others. 

Further, Sardi lists some conditions that zinc improves

       Zinc deficiency is associated with a low sperm count. 

Zinc deficiency increases the prevalence of dental caries. 

Zinc deficiency in the skin is associated with psoriasis and acne.  Patients with these skin conditions are likely to have normal blood serum levels of zinc.

Zinc supplementation is associated with 14% reduction in preterm birth.  

Zinc is only recently appreciated as an essential nutrient to prevent age-related bone loss, a.k.a, osteoporosis.

A skin rash condition (acrodermatitis enteropathica) which emanates from an inherited disorder of zinc absorption is resolved by zinc supplementation.Zinc carnosine is a remedy for H. pylori infection and gastritis.

Crohn’s disease results in poor zinc absorption.  Researchers successfully used 110 milligrams of zinc sulfate (providing 75 mg of elemental zinc) to quell recurrence of symptoms of Crohn’s disease (10 of 12 patients experienced resolution of their “leaky gut” problem).  

Resolution of a leaky gut!  That is news, incredible news. 

                     

Want quality sleep? Reach for the zinc

Zinc is the 2nd most abundant trace element in the human body.  It reduces stress, improves the quality of your sleep, and regrows your thymus to its original size. 

Further, 

in this same period, the thymuses of these mice had quadrupled in size and exhibited a greatly enlarged cortex repopulated with immature thymocytes

For years, I was under the impression that magnesium was the go-to mineral for the biological ravages of stress.  And I am sure that magnesium is still good for treating that.  But more recently, in the last couple of years, I've learned first-hand that zinc is even better.  After a simple Google search of "stress and zinc," the first entry produced this, 

Zinc plays a significant role with respect to the stress response.  Proper maintenance of zinc status can help to stabilize serum cortisol levels over time,¹ and zinc intake has been shown to temporarily inhibit cortisol secretions. However, in turn, prolonged stress will deplete zinc concentrations in the blood.

That article goes on to say that

Zinc is required for the catalytic activity of approximately 100 enzymes. 

Magnesium is involved in even more--over 300 chemical interactions in your body.

Zinc plays a role in immune function, protein synthesis, wound healing, DNA synthesis, and cell division. Zinc supports normal growth and development during pregnancy, childhood, and adolescence, and zinc is necessary for proper sense of taste and smell. 

So if you find that your sense of taste and smell diminishing, reach for the supplemental zinc. 

Given that the body has no specialized zinc storage system, regular daily zinc intake is required to maintain a steady state and to prevent deficiency.

That was interesting because I think that homeostasis leaves us with the impression that we're all doing okay; meaning, that it's hard to tell, hard to know if we're deficient.  And you're never going to have a doctor tell you that you're deficient in zinc.  Ever. 

I remember the first time that I ever took supplemental zinc how it completely relaxed me and put me in a great mood for a good night's sleep.  This was about 3 years ago.  In fact, now I prefer to take zinc rather than melatonin for sleep. Note well, that 

Sleeplessness has a huge impact on the human physiology and is commonly associated with metabolic disorders (obesity and diabetes), cardiovascular diseases (hypertension) and mental disorders (anxiety and depression). 

So if you're looking for quality hours of sleep, reach for the . . . well, you know what to reach for--the zinc, of course. 

The first paragraph in this article states that

Recent research has concluded that zinc serum concentration varies with the amount of sleep, while orally administered zinc increases the amount and the quality of sleep in mice and humans.

Melatonin is a decent sleep-aid and has excellent anti-oxidant properties to boot, but so does zinc.  Melatonin does lower your blood pressure.  If you have high blood pressure like I have had a few times, then melatonin would be a good choice.  But zinc relaxes more functions in your body, I believe.  

Important to know [in the Introduction] is that 

Zinc is the second most abundant trace metal in the human body and is essential for many biological processes.

WHAT TYPE OF ZINC IS BEST?

That depends. 

Zinc lozenges are made with zinc acetate, so if you've got a cold then you'll want zinc lozenges. [I tend to trust Bill Sardi's recommendations, so I buy his zinc lozenges product.] Zinc lozenges are what you should be giving your children, er, grandchildren when they have a cough, not a cough drop which is mainly sugar and provides only a short-lived placebo effect.  Know, too, that zinc regrows your thymus gland back to its original size, which I find absolutely miraculous.  The thymus gland has a tendency to shrink through the years.  Read this, 

After the deficient mice had been fed a zinc-adequate diet for 1 week, their response was nearly normal, except that the indirect response was 68% of controls; in this same period, the thymuses of these mice had quadrupled in size and exhibited a greatly enlarged cortex repopulated with immature thymocytes [my emphasis as if you couldn't tell].  By 2 weeks, the thymuses of the previously zinc-deficient mice were normal in size and appearance; however, there was a slight increase in the numbers of indirect plaque-forming cells. By 4 weeks, the thymus weights, direct and indirect plaque-forming cell counts, and the secondary response of the previously deficient mice were normal. Mice that were nearly athymic after 45 days of dietary zinc deficiency were also able to fully reconstruct the thymus and regenerate T-cell helper function.

It's been argued that the brand name Optizinc is the most absorbable.  May be true.  If you're deficient in zinc and have never supplemented with it, then the Optizinc will surely improve your sense of well-being.  Keep a bottle of zinc lozenges around the house in case of a cold or any lung issues.  Lately, I've really appreciated Bill Sardi's zinc product, called T-Cell Zinc.  If you accidentally overeat at a party (remember those?), reach for the zinc.  We overeat in response to stress, and then overeating causes our bodies stress.  So any stressful event, reach for the zinc.  

The benefits of zinc are remarkable.  OptiZinc reduces acne by 50%.  So there's that.  Acne may be due to bodily stress of a teenager.  Zinc Carnosine treats intestinal ulcers.  Even Wikipedia understands this.

"ZINC LOZENGES ARE THE SILVER BULLET AGAINST CORONAVIRUSES"

We should all know the importance of zinc.  Combine it with vitamins D, A, and C, and you're putting your immune system in an excellent position.  Check out these highlights of zinc from Sardi's article: 

Zinc is required to maintain thymus gland function to produce life-long antibodies from T-memory cells.

Dr. James Robb, a pathologist who performed early experiments with coronaviruses back in the 1970s, claims that zinc lozenges are the “silver bullet against coronavirus.”     

You'll definitely want to get a brand of zinc lozenges that taste good since the lozenges, as such, have to sit in your mouth as they break down over several minutes.  The one brand whose taste I am not a fan of is Swanson's Zinc Lozenges.  Sorry.  If you need or want more convincing than the lone quotation above, then check out what Dr. Robb said

4) Stock up now with zinc lozenges. These lozenges have been proven to be effective in blocking coronavirus (and most other viruses) from multiplying in your throat and nasopharynx. Use as directed several times each day when you begin to feel ANY "cold-like" symptoms beginning. It is best to lie down and let the lozenge dissolve in the back of your throat and nasopharynx. Cold-Eeze lozenges is one brand available, but there are other brands available. 

More on zinc from Bill Sardi . . . 

Zinc supplementation in the elderly, the high-risk group of coronavirus Infections, lowers illness markedly.  Modern medicine needs to emphasize zinc therapy, especially during epidemics.

Between 15-30 milligrams of zinc in dietary supplements can be safely consumed by adults.  Zinc oxide is poorly absorbed.  Other forms (acetate, gluconate, acetate, picolinate) are preferred. 

Four years ago, I wrote a review of Sardi's valuable scrutiny of zinc, where he cited Canadian cancer researcher, Abraham Hoffer, MD, who concluded that

". . . zinc [in old mice] facilitated a complete recovery of thymus gland function and regrowth of the organ with greater immune efficiency."

I initially posted this video of Dr. V.A. Shiva Ayyadurai, an Indian-American scientist, engineer, and entrepreneur.  The video came courtesy of Steve Bartin.  And though I liked much of what he said, I recalled an article by Bill Sardi published earlier this week at LewRockwell.com on March 30, 2020.  As I read it, thought about it, and reviewed the article, I realized that Dr. Shiva, though articulate and knowledgeable, is no match for the scientific scrutiny of Bill Sardi.  So what I prefer to do instead is to highlight some of the benefits zinc that Bill Sardi points out.  It's hard to find better, more actionable advice.  

Thanks to Steve Bartin.  "The virus is not some big Godzilla" says Dr. Shiva.  It's B.S.  A virus is coming in, your immune system is compromised . . . ."  But all he is doing is riding on the coattails of Bill Sardi, who already cited why so many people are dying from the coronavirus--a damaged immune system.  And it makes sense.  Most people don't know how to take care of themselves.  They don't even know what an immune system is.  

Dr. Shiva claims that the "Less adaptive immune function, [the] less T-cell activity."  Of course.  But that's a problem that is readily and easily repaired with zinc.  Zinc has the ability to regrow your thymus gland back to its original size.  Zinc doesn't make your thymus gland grow larger than original but back to its original size, and that is something given how it shrinks over our lifetime due to illness, stress, and nutritional deficiencies.  Bill Sardi recently pointed out that the Coronavirus mimics zinc deficiency.  He writes, 

An emergency room physician in New Orleans shares an account of his experience with this dreaded pathogenic virus.   He writes: “You can literally watch it happen in a matter of hours.”  Some 70-90% of hospitalized patients who have to be placed on a ventilator die. 

Talking about insufficient ventilators or how they are becoming cost-prohibitive is the wrong direction.  People will die on ventilators if . . . if they're not also provided with nutritional support to strengthen their innate and adaptive immunity.  

I'd wish that people would stop picking on the elderly BEFORE they're even sick, or at all.  If someone is sick, stay away from them: problem solved.  But the damage has already been done.  The media has dog- whistled the entire population to despise, to be wary of, to thwart any threat by someone with gray hair, wrinkles, or a hunch in their shoulders.  What, as if everyone else who does not fit these descriptors is somehow healthy?  Please.  The narrative initiated in Seattle that elderly folks were dying almost en masse in a Seattle convalescent hospital.  I don't know the details surrounding that hospital or those deaths.  But the most likely scenario is that it wasn't just age plus the coronavirus that killed these people; instead, my guess is that those who passed had lived with chronic disease and malnourished lives that kept them functioning at a very low grade.  And then if they were tossed by family and friends and abandoned, that can't bode very well for their well-being.  

SUPPLEMENTAL ZINC HELPS RESTORE HEALTHY HEART PUMPING AFTER A HEART ATTACK

Bill Sardi has a March 19, 2019 article on the value of zinc supplementation posted at Martie Whittekin's site, Healthy By Nature.  

Sardi alerts us to a serious health condition: zinc depletion or zinc deficiency.  It's not that we're all born deficient, but certain environmental exposures puts some of us at greater risk of becoming zinc deficient.  And given the importance of zinc in regulating our immunity, in development, and in its role in certain intellectual abilities, like reading, and composing one's emotions, zinc deficiency becomes quite a serious social health issue.  So how do we know if we're deficient in zinc?  If you've had a serious illness or if you're chronically ill, chances are you're zinc deficient.  There are, however, signs of zinc deficiency.  See the list of symptoms below.  There are so many things in our lives that can make us deficient in zinc.  Sardi points out a major culprit: arsenic.  So somehow too many of us are getting exposed to arsenic, but how?  Through our food.  More specifically, from Glyphosate: i.e., RoundUp.  

The first culprit that comes to mind is arsenic as blood concentrations of zinc and selenium, two essential trace minerals, drastically decline with exposure to arsenic.  The widespread use of glyphosate weedkillers [e.g. Roundup] in crops may be the hidden source of arsenic [or for some other reason glyphosate lowers zinc].

Dr. Derrick Lonsdale made a similar point, citing the pathology that arises from consuming non-organic foods that are sprayed with RoundUp.  He said if your food is not organic, then it has glyphosate in and on it.  Which means that we're all susceptible to zinc deficiency.  Sardi presents it thus:

Something has happened in America.  In retrospect, it appears zinc in the American diet has vanished or is not getting absorbed.  Either way, too many Americans exhibit overt symptoms of zinc deficiency.  A blood test is notoriously inaccurate as zinc may be locked up with a binding protein and be biologically unavailable.  Here are some signs and symptoms of zinc deficiency that may help you determine if you are zinc deficient [you don’t have all or even many of these]. 

Here are the symptoms.   

·         [new study about zinc for diabetes prevention and management]

·         Are you losing your sense of smell?

·         Are you losing your sense of taste?

·         Do you crave salt and habitually to add salt to your foods?

·         Do you have adult-onset acne?

·         Is your hair prematurely turning grey?

·         Does your nail bed show white flecks?

·         Do you heal slowly from cuts?

·         Do you have a low sperm count?

·         Do you frequently experience cold sores on your lips?

·         Do you have an upset stomach, air, and gas, after meals?

·         Do you have skin problems like fungal infections (Athlete’s foot), yellow toenails?

·         Do you have chronic diarrhea?

·         Do you have thin or sparse hair, vanishing eyebrows?

·         Do you have moles on your skin?

·         Do you experience eczema (atopic dermatitis; red, itchy skin)?

·         Are you lethargic or irritable for no apparent reason?

·         Is your testosterone level low?

·         Do you experience a rash around your genitalia or mouth?

·         Do you regularly consume alcohol?

·         Do you take an ACE inhibitor blood pressure pill (lisinopril)?

·         Do you have stomach ulcers?

·         Do you or your children have difficulty reading due to dyslexia (letters are backwards)?

Who exactly is at greatest risk of zinc deficiency?  No one is immune.  

Food alone either takes too long to restore sufficiency or it lacks the ability altogether.  So supplements are required.  Sardi poses the questions, "How do we correct the shortage of zinc?"  Oysters is the food with the highest concentration of zinc.  You'll have to eat quite a bit.  Sardi explains, 

Aside from oysters, there is no single food that provides enough zinc to correct a deficiency.  Typical zinc intake levels are 10 milligrams/day but maybe only 1-2 milligrams are actually absorbed.  Older adults with low stomach acid levels typically have difficulty absorbing zinc.  And wouldn’t you know, zinc is an important co-factor in the internal synthesis of hydrochloric acid in the gastric tract. 

It was important for me to hear that "very high concentrations of zinc are found in the liver, muscle, brain, and testes."  Men, take heed.  "it is no wonder that zinc sufficiency has something to do with brain function, testosterone synthesis, and liver health."

Sardi explains that "There are ~2000 milligrams of zinc stored in body tissues."  Yes, but what happens if you get seriously ill, like say you contract measles or scarlet fever or chickenpox.  These drain your zinc stores.  For older folks, it's low stomach acid that keeps us from getting enough zinc.  So if it's not environmental issues, like Glyphosate, then it's low stomach acid due to age or some kind of illness, maybe diabetes, that depletes us of adequate zinc.  Sardi points out that "The trace mineral selenium helps to release zinc so it is biologically available."  What this means is that for zinc to be more absorbent, you'll need to take selenium with it.  

Zinc shortages cause loss of smell and taste, including mental decline.  

Zinc is responsible for a strong immune system.  It regulates the size of your master immune gland, called the Thymus gland.  Sardi says that "Zinc is required to activate T-cells, those memory white blood cells that confer life-long immunity via memory T-cells that produce antibodies against various pathogenic germs."

I wrote recently how OptiZinc reduces the incidence of acne by 50%.  There are different forms of zinc that seem to provide different kinds of protection.  Zinc Carnosine heals the lower intestine.  Sardi points out other parts of the body that are aided by supplementation of zinc carnosine.

Fortunately, there is a form of zinc that protects the nervous system, promotes the health of the digestive tract, aids in wound healing, normalizes gut bacteria, promotes liver health and helps restore the sense of smell and taste to individuals with these symptoms.  It is called zinc carnosine.

Zinc Carnosine is also important for the heart.

And no one would have guessed that supplemental zinc would help restore healthy heart pumping after a heart attack.  The amount of blood pumped (ejection fraction) after a heart attack improves with the provision of zinc carnosine.

Zinc is a great wound healer. And it helps diabetics.  I cannot get diabetics to listen to me.  

Zinc is known to promote wound healing.  And the preferred form of zinc to heal up gastric ulcers is zinc carnosine.   Zinc carnosine is the form of zinc commonly used to protect and heal tissues following cancer radiation treatment or to aid antibiotics in the kill off of H. pylori, the bacterium that causes gastric ulcers.  Zinc carnosine is the trace mineral of choice for nutritional support of hepatitis (liver inflammation). 

Helps fight aging. 

Zinc carnosine has also been demonstrated to stabilize genes that become fragile with advancing age. 

A typical two-week course of zinc carnosine, taken as directed on the label, may help you become zinc sufficient.