What is zinc?
- It's a nutrient found throughout the body. It helps your immune system and metabolism. Usually, your body gets enough zinc from chicken, red meat, and breakfast cereals.
- Zinc is essential for immune system health. A lack of zinc raises the chances of illness because it's involved in many vital functions in the body. It helps activate more than 100 enzymes. You can get all these benefits by taking a small proper amount of zinc. The daily recommended dose is 8 mg for women and 11 mg for men. But pregnant women might need more zinc.
Benefits of zinc
As mentioned earlier, zinc is good for immune health. It also helps form DNA properly, supports kids' growth, and heals wounds. Studies have found many other health benefits of zinc, and we’ll list those next.
1. Boosting immunity
Researchers found zinc is needed to activate T-cells (T-CELLS). These T-cells help the body in two ways by
- Controlling and regulating the immune response
- Attacking cells infected by infections and cancer
So we find that people who have zinc deficiency become more prone to many diseases
2. Treating diarrhea
According to the World Health Organization, diarrhea causes many child deaths but zinc tablets can reduce diarrhea risks in kids. Research shows diarrhea cases in children can be treated using zinc tablets prescribed by a doctor for 10 days.
3. Zinc affects learning and memory
Zinc plays a key role in regulating how nerve cells communicate, which affects how memories are formed and how we learn.
4. Wound healing
Zinc plays an important role in keeping the skin healthy and its structure, especially for patients with chronic wounds or ulcers often.
5. Reducing flu symptoms
Research found zinc pills help cut the duration of regular flu by 40% because they contain antiviral agents.
6. Reducing risks of chronic age-related diseases
It’s well known for decades that improving zinc levels in the body through food or supplements helps lower risks of chronic diseases, since zinc deficiency is linked to more inflammation caused by these diseases.
7. Preventing cell breakdown and damage linked to aging
Zinc prevents damage to cells in the retina, which lowers chances of losing vision or getting macular degeneration.
The daily recommended amount of zinc to consume
- Kids from 1 to 8 years old should take 3 to 5 mg daily.
- Boys from 9 to 13 years old should take 8 mg daily.
- Men older than 14 should take 11 mg daily.
- Girls from 9 to 13 years old should take 8 mg daily.
- Women older than 14 should take 9 mg daily.
- Pregnant women should take between 11 and 13 mg daily.
Signs of zinc deficiency
Usually zinc deficiency happens because of not eating enough. But it can also be due to poor absorption or chronic illnesses like diabetes and liver diseases.
Signs of zinc deficiency include:
- Loss of appetite
- Having some skin problems like acne or eczema
- Slow wound healing
- Getting anemia
- Slow growth
- Diarrhea
- Hair loss
- Depression
A zinc deficiency during pregnancy may increase the chance that labor is hard and long
Harm of excessive zinc intake
As we said earlier, zinc has many health benefits but too much zinc can cause many harms like
- Vomiting
- Stomach pains
- Headaches
- Diarrhea
- Loss of appetite
- Nausea
- Reducing the body's absorption of copper
- Formation of kidney stones
