Is Zinc Efficient Against a Cold? Probably Yes, But You Have to Know This
Zinc is useful to keep our immune systems in proper working conditions. Zinc also plays a role when it comes to wound healing, cell growth, cell division, and also carbohydrates breakdown. You got the point until now: zinc is crucial in our bodies.
Zinc could also be efficient in fighting off the common cold, and ScienceAlert.com informs us about a new meta-analysis of almost 30 trials that supports the idea of zinc being able to fight respiratory infections. Therefore, flu and the common cold could stop making a person manifest any symptoms or make the infection’s duration shorter.
Zinc isn’t perfect at fighting infections
Jennifer Hunter, an integrative medicine doctor from Western Sydney University in Australia, declared as quoted by ScienceAlert.com:
It is commonly thought that zinc’s role in preventing and treating infections is only for people who are zinc deficient; our findings really challenge this notion,
The two large trials from China found very low dose zinc nasal spray reduced the risk of clinical illness. The two smaller trials in the US that evaluated the preventive effects of oral zinc excluded people who were zinc deficient.
All the other trials that evaluated zinc for treating the common cold were in populations where zinc deficiency is very unlikely.
Zinc was proven to be pretty efficient when it was taken in a preventive way. The risk of developing milder symptoms was 28 percent lower, while the risk of having to deal with moderately severe symptoms was 87 percent lower.
It also turns out that if someone gets infected with a cold virus on purpose, he’ll still contract the illness regardless of having a zinc intake or not.
The new study has been published in BMJ Open.
Tommy’s hobby has always been playing video games. He enjoys competing in video games tournaments and writing about his experience. It’s not a big surprise that he mostly covers the latest trends from the gaming industry.
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