11 Incredible Zinc Benefits For Your Health and Best Supplement to Buy?

by Zoran Gajic | May 2, 2018

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Zinc is extremely important essential mineral for your body. It is actually a metal and our body doesn’t store it, so you need to consume it in food. Adult human body requires approximately 11mg of zinc daily.

Zinc is so important for your health, because it is involved in nearly every biological process in the body. From cell metabolism, DNA expression, wound healing, digestion, immune system function to balancing mood, making your skin look better and boosting sex drive.

Zinc is very abundant in nature and in certain type of foods, especially animal products. If you are on a healthy, balanced and various diet you are probably getting enough of it. However, industrially processed foods, junk food and high carbs low protein diets contain extremely low quantities of zinc.

Shellfish such as lobster is a great source of zinc

Vegetarians, vegans and anyone who follows a plant based diet that doesn’t include meat or dairy products is at high risk of becoming zinc deficient. People who suffer from chronic digestive problems and alcoholism are also at higher risk of being zinc deficient.

There is an important fact to consider. Legumes and grains contain zinc. Also, zinc is many times added to industrially processed and packaged grain products like cereals. This type of zinc doesn’t absorb in your body because it is bound to antinutrients called phytates that prevent zinc absorption.

Zinc has many amazing health benefits, and it is hard to cover them all in one article.

Here Are The 11 Incredible Zinc Benefits For Your Health

1. Zinc Acts as a Strong Antioxidant

Zinc helps fight the oxidative stress in almost all cells in the body. By doing so, it decreases the chance of disease development. Zinc is so effective that has even been researched in cancer prevention, and showed some promising results (1).

Researchers have confirmed that zinc shows some incredible antioxidant effects in body. One study done on elderly, showed that zinc was able to reduce fat peroxides in the blood (2).

2. Zinc Boosts Immune System Function

Immune cells show decreased function even after mild zinc deficiency. Zinc is essential for normal function of the immune system. It helps your immune system fight bacterial, viral an parasitic infections (3).

Zinc is crucial for normal development and function of natural killer cells, lymphocyte production and rising resistance to infection (4).

Important notice. Zinc deficiency leads to impaired immune system function and research confirms that proper zinc supplementation can bring it back and repair the damage. However, taking too much zinc is found to cause similar symptoms to zinc deficiency. It is very important to supplement your body with zinc if you are deficient, and to be careful not to take too much of it.

Daily recommended dose for adults is 11 mg. High quality supplements contain up to 15 mg of zinc per capsule or tablet. This is recommended daily dose for an adult, since not all of the zinc contained in one tablet is absorbed. Some studies used doses up to 30 mg/day for up to 3 months, and this still showed to be a safe upper dose. However, I highly recommend not to take more than 15 mg of zinc daily.

You should always consult your doctor if you are unsure about taking supplements or need professional medical advice. If you have any preexisting or chronic conditions, please consult with a doctor before taking a supplement!

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3. Zinc Helps Fight Inflammation

Zinc controls inflammation by inhibiting the production of proinflammatory cytokines (5).

Excessive chronic production of these molecules contribute to inflammatory diseases like atherosclerosis and cancer. There are also links to depression and other neurological diseases. Zinc helps regulate a balance of important molecules in body that find inflammation.

Zinc also shows promising results in regulating inflammatory conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome and colitis (6).

It has been very efficient aid for elderly people suffering from age related inflammatory problems. Elderly are very prone to zinc deficiency. Some of age related symptoms can be related to zinc deficiency. Hair loss, poor concentration and memory, feeling tired all the time and hormonal problems like menopause are all linked to zinc deficiency.

4. Zinc Helps Reduce Allergy and Asthma

Zinc is a key element that controls how your body stores histamine. Zinc deficiency causes your body to release more histamine. High levels of histamine increase your sensitivity to ALL allergic reactions. If you are suffering from any types of allergies, it is worth checking if you may be zinc deficient.

Low levels of zinc are linked to more severe asthma symptoms in children (7). Studies also show that zinc supplementation reduces shortness of breath, cough and wheezing in children with asthma (8).

Zinc has been found to help with allergies to grass pollen, an allergen that is a major cause of allergic rhinitis (9).

5. Zinc Protects Neurons and Boosts Cognition

Zinc is absolutely essential for growth, cognitive performance and mental development of children. A study done in China discovered that providing only 50% of daily recommended dose of zinc improved attention (10).

Zinc helps improve learning and memory function. In elderly with Alzheimer’s, zinc therapy protected against cognitive decline. Zinc also lowers blood copper levels, which is toxic to the brain (11).

Zinc is also very important for the balanced function of central nervous system and zinc-containing neurons found almost exclusively in the forebrain (12).

6. Zinc Reduces Stress and Improves Mood

Your body makes important enzymes containing zinc, which are necessary for the synthesis of serotonin. This important neurotransmitter regulates mood, can reduce stress and regulate sleep cycle.

Zinc also stimulates crucial enzymes that are involved in synthesis of GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid), which regulates mood states and helps promote quality sleep.

Zinc increases BDNF (brain-derived neurotropic factor) levels, a powerful protein that stimulates production of new brain cells and strengthens existing ones. People with depression usually have low levels of BDNF.

A study confirmed that zinc therapy was able to improve overall mood (13).

7. Zinc Protects Digestive System

Zinc shows protective effect on the gut lining and positively helps and protects the digestive system. It shows great potential in helping or easing symptoms of gastrointestinal diseases like colitis, inflammatory bowel disease, cancer, alcohol toxicity, diarrhea, malabsorptions and food allergies (14).

Zinc also reduces the risk of stomach cancer by suppressing stomach inflammation and helps reduce indigestion. Low concentrations of zinc severely increase helicobacter pylori infections (15).

8. Zinc Improves Skin Health

When it comes to skin health, zinc is many times overlooked essential mineral that significantly improves the health of your skin.

It is beneficial for variety of skin conditions including acne, warts, eczema, psoriasis, melasma, rosacea, dandruff and herpes.

In a clinical trial, patients suffering from acne vulgaris were given oral zinc therapy. 58% of the patients showed significant improvement, compared to no change in the placebo group (16).

In another clinical trial, zinc supplementation showed a potential of completely clearing viral plantar warts that were resistant to all forms of treatment. In just 2 months, 86% of the patients reported complete clearance of warts, which is a breathtaking result (17).

When it comes to skin health, zinc is many times overlooked essential mineral that significantly improves the health of your skin.

It is beneficial for variety of skin conditions including acne, warts, eczema, psoriasis, melasma, rosacea, dandruff and herpes.

In a clinical trial, patients suffering from acne vulgaris were given oral zinc therapy. 58% of the patients showed significant improvement, compared to no change in the placebo group (16).

9. Zinc Makes Your Bones Stronger

Zinc also increases bone density and makes your bones stronger by enhancing bone formation and preventing bone loss (18).

Zinc is essential for proper calcium absorption. It is also necessary for production of certain enzymes that degrade and recycle worn-out bone proteins. Low levels of zinc have been closely linked to osteoporosis.

Low concentrations of zinc are linked to low bone mass. Here is a study that confirms that zinc supplementation can improve total-body bone mass (19).

10. Zinc Helps Balance Women’s Health

Zinc deficiency is linked with hormonal imbalances that lead to infertility, menstruation irregularities and ovarian function problems.

During pregnancy, zinc deficiency may cause several serious complications like spontaneous abortion, malformations, retarded growth and extended pregnancy or prematurity (20).

Studies confirm that zinc can help with menstrual problems (primary dysmenorrhea). It reduces the severity and the duration of menstrual pain. Zinc also helps reduce cramps, back pain, diarrhea, constipation and nausea associated with menstruation (21).

11. Zinc Enhances Male Fertility and Increases Sex Drive

Zinc is highly concentrated in the prostate and testes. It plays an important role in synthesis of testosterone (22).

Zinc enhances male fertility and sperm count. It boosts testosterone production which may increase the libido and sexual performance of men with erectile dysfunction.

It is amazing how zinc positively effects both men and women’s health, and supports healthy growth and development of a child. Zinc is essential for more than 200 important processes in body. This article covers only 11 of the most incredible benefits of zinc that I put together.

Why aren’t we more aware of this amazing mineral and its benefits? Many are zinc deficient because of the poor food quality. People that don’t eat animal products are at highest risk of zinc deficiency.

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