All About Zinc: The Most Common Mineral In Your Body

I wanted to continue describing to you some of the supplements that I take in my everyday regimen. Today I wanted to tell you a little bit about zinc which happens to be the most common mineral in your body, next to iron. It helps with about a hundred different enzymes to do their work. It’s involved in growth in childhood, it’s involved in learning and memory, it helps with wound healing, it helps with proper insulin and thyroid function.

Zinc helps to maintain a healthy immune system and it helps to prevent macular degeneration, and there’s also evidence that zinc can help you fight off the common cold. I recommend a supplement of between 50 to 75 milligrams at the first onset of symptoms of a cold. You would have a tendency to get better from that about one to two days quicker than if you otherwise didn’t take anything.

Zinc can be found in a number of foods, including beans, nuts, fish, and seafood, animal meats, dairy, grains and cereals. I also recommend that we take a total of about 30 milligrams a day as it helps to support prostate health. High doses of zinc supplementation will interfere with your absorption of copper so it’s important to take one or two milligrams of copper for every 10 milligrams of zinc.

The reason I like zinc, especially for men, is for prostate support as it can inhibit an enzyme called five alpha reductase, which converts your testosterone to dihydrotestosterone. The dihydrotestosterone is something that contributes not only to increasing the size of the prostate, but also contributes to hair loss. So a daily supplement of zinc is a particularly good idea for men on testosterone replacement therapy.