Can Zinc Conquer Colds? - Brief Article

Feel a cold coming on? Sucking on zinc acetate lozenges may shorten the symptoms, say researchers at Wayne State University in Detroit. Zinc may have failed to curb cold symptoms in five out of ten earlier studies, they add, because the researchers didn't use the right dose or the right form of zinc.

Ananda Prasad and colleagues recruited 48 people who reported at least two cold symptoms within the previous 24 hours. Each was told to suck on either a placebo or a lozenge with 12.8 milligrams of zinc acetate every two to three hours while awake for as long as they had symptoms.

Some symptoms didn't last as long in the zinc-takers as in the placebo-takers (three versus six days for cough, four versus six days for nasal discharge, and five versus eight days for overall symptoms). However, the zinc-takers also reported more mouth dryness than the placebo-takers (72 versus 26 percent) and more constipation (24 versus zero percent).

As with earlier studies, it's possible that the taste of the zinc lozenges led people to report shorter symptoms (because they correctly guessed what they were taking).

Prasad's advice: "Take zinc acetate lozenges for three or four days, and if they don't work, stop." Taking a lozenge every two or three hours adds up to 80 mg a day--too much to take for long periods.

"If you took 50 to 100 milligrams of zinc a day for six to 12 weeks, you would become copper-deficient," he adds. And that could cause anemia and impair your immune system.

Annals of Internal Medicine 245: 302, 2000.

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