However, zinc is essential for supporting a range of important functions in the body. Because your body doesn’t produce zinc naturally, you need to get it from food or supplements.
What Is Zinc?
Zinc is one of your body’s essential nutrients, which means you can’t store or produce it yourself. Instead, you need to get a consistent supply through your diet.
Zinc is found in a variety of plants and animals.
The important roles if zinc in your body include aiding:
- Growth and development
- Wound healing
- DNA synthesis
- Protein synthesis
- Immune function
- Enzymatic reactions
- Gene Expression
Without zinc, your body would be unable to function as it’s supposed to. In fact, those who suffer from deficiencies of zinc can have severe medical issues, including skin rashes, impaired growth and development, delayed sexual maturity, chronic diarrhoea, and impaired wound healing.
The Benefits of Zinc Supplements
Adding zinc to your diet with the right food or supplements can have health benefits in many ways. Zinc is essential for the activity of more than 300 enzymes which aid in digestion, metabolism, nerve function, and other processes. It’s also important for skin health, immune function, and DNA synthesis.
Some of the key benefits of increasing your zinc intake (to the correct amounts), include:
- Improved immunity: Zinc helps strengthen your immune system, improves immune cell function, and stimulates various immune cells. Zinc supplements can significantly reduce the risk of infections and promote better immune response in adults.
- Wound healing: Zinc is often used in hospital environments when treating a range of skin injuries, like burns and certain ulcers. This is because the mineral plays an important role in inflammatory response and collagen synthesis, facilitating better healing.
- Reduced age-related diseases: Some studies indicate zinc may be able to reduce your risk of age-related issues like macular degeneration, pneumonia, and similar problems.Zinc can relieve oxidative stress and improve immune response to protect you from infection, and even help you avoid more severe illnesses as you get older.
- Curing acne: Acne is one of the most common skin diseases in the world, driven by the obstruction of crucial oil-producing glands in the skin. Studies indicate that topical and oral zinc treatments offer an effective way of reducing inflammation and minimising the development of acne.
- Reduced inflammation: Zinc plays a crucial role in decreasing oxidative stress, and can also reduce various levels of inflammatory proteins in the body. Oxidative stress can lead to chronic inflammation, a contributing factor in various illnesses, including heart disease and cognitive decline.
- Managing blood sugar: People with diabetes are often at higher risk of zinc deficiencies. In some reports, zinc has been found to help with blood sugar control and maintaining healthy lipid parameters in people with diabetes.Your doctor may recommend taking zinc supplements if you have diabetes, or to help improve insulin sensitivity if you’re dealing with obesity.
- Heart health: Various studies have indicated supplementing with zinc may support heart health. Zinc can help lower cholesterol levels, reducing high blood pressure.Although more research is needed, a zinc supplement could be good for protecting against heart conditions.
- Sexual health: Low zinc levels have been shown to lead to issues like fertility problems and delayed sexual development. As a result, some researchers believe taking zinc supplements might be a helpful to improve hormone balance and enhance overall sexual health.
Do You Need a Zinc Supplement?
One thing to keep in mind if you’re considering taking a zinc supplement, is that not everyone will need to supplement. Genuine zinc deficiencies are quite rare because there are a lot of foods naturally high in zinc.
Examples of foods that are high in zinc are meat such as beef, pork, and poultry, as well as fish, and many dairy products. Zinc can also be found in shellfish, legumes, nuts and seeds, eggs and whole grains. Some vegetables also have high amounts of zinc.
If you’re concerned about your zinc levels, consult your health professional. You might want to consider changing your diet before you consider a supplement.
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