Did you supplement with Zinc during Covid?
And are you by any chance still taking it today?
The pandemic saw a great rise in Zinc popularity. Everywhere you looked on the internet someone was advocating taking zinc to ‘boost your immune system’.
And not unwisely in some respects: a high viral load (as in a viral disease) uses up a lot of zinc. People may have caught Covid in a state of zinc deficiency (especially common as we age), which is then exacerbated by the higher utilisation during the illness, making recovery on the other side of Covid rather more challenging. (By the way, inadequate zinc can lead loss of taste and smell, so that could be a clue).
From what I have observed, quite a number of people are still merrily taking it everyday – in doses of 20mg, 50mg, even higher, and not just once a day but two or three times!
But if zinc is so protective, why does this matter?
It matters because there is another mineral which competes with zinc, both for absorption in the digestive tract and also for entry into our cells, and if there is too much zinc around, it doesn’t get much of a look in. And that mineral is Copper.
Is Copper so important?
Yes, I am afraid it is. (Skip this if you are prepared to take it as read!) Copper is a co-factor (ie required ingredient) in cellular respiration (ie the generation of ATP or cellular energy) which powers absolutely everything we do and every function in the body. It is also key for countering anaemia by supporting iron absorption and mobilisation, which is necessary for making haemoglobin, certain neurotransmitters and certain hormones. It plays an important role in the health of our connective tissue. And it’s needed for the manufacture of one of our two principal antioxidants – called SOD (thought I would just slip that in casually).
And while I am at it, why is Zinc so critical?
(Again skip if this isn’t your bag). We need it for immune balance, in particular balance across the various types of T-helper cells. It is also essential for maintaining pro- and anti-inflammatory balance – we need both but balance is key. It is necessary for tissue/wound healing; it also suppresses abnormal tissue growth, so helps reduce the risk of cancer. It contributes to many steps in Vitamin A metabolism, and thus plays a valuable role in skin, eye and hair health. It contributes to hormone balance, bone density and I could go on and on.
So both are critical. (Oh, and I shouldn’t omit the fact that both are required for the manufacture of red and white blood cells).
Balancing the two
By supplementing with zinc as a solo supplement you may have unwittingly driven copper levels to an inadequate state, particularly if there isn’t much copper in your diet, or because, for various reasons, your digestion and absorption of minerals isn’t too hot.
Because these minerals compete, a balanced intake of BOTH is essential. For this I would recommend a supplement that has these two minerals in the right proportion to each other (Zinc:Copper = 15: 1). The one I use is by Jarrow, and is called Zinc Balance.
Final word
Just a word of caution about supplements. This is not a simple subject. You can do yourselves a disservice by supplementing in an ad hoc way without understanding what you are doing. The more I learn, the more I realise how cavalier most people are with supplements. I shall be writing more on this subject shortly. But in the meantime, go steady. You are safe with a good magnesium supplement (preferably glycinate, malate or citrate) and if you follow my advice in this article you are fine to supplement with Vitamin D3. Otherwise stick with a high quality multi-vitamin unless you get professional advice.