While you may think about it mainly during cold and flu season, zinc is an essential mineral found throughout your organs, tissues and bodily fluids. Moreover, after iron, zinc is the second most abundant trace mineral in your body. Because zinc plays a vital role in many biological processes, you may be surprised to learn that your body does not store zinc. Instead, it has to be consumed daily, either through the foods you eat or a high-quality supplement.

Zinc supports critical processes within your body such as blood clotting, cell division, immune function, thyroid health, smell, taste, vision and wound healing. Good dietary sources of zinc include dairy products, nuts, red meat and seafood. Although plant sources such as asparagus, beans, green peas and spinach contain zinc, it is more easily absorbed from meat and animal proteins.

If you are an alcoholic or vegetarian, are pregnant or lactating, or have a digestive disorder or sickle cell disease, you are more likely to have a zinc deficiency. Even if you consider yourself to be a healthy person, you may not be eating enough zinc-rich foods on a daily basis to achieve optimal levels of this essential nutrient.

Why Your Body Needs Zinc

Well beyond helping your body fight off a cold or the flu, zinc plays many other crucial roles within your body. In fact, there are more biological roles for zinc than for all the other trace elements put together. For example, your body contains 300 unique enzymes that require zinc to function normally. Furthermore, researchers estimate about 3,000 proteins out of the roughly 100,000 you have in your body consist predominantly of zinc. Your body needs zinc for:

Blood clotting and wound healing

Gene transcription (the process that allows your cells to read genetic instructions)

Sense of smell and taste

Blood sugar balance

Immune system support

Thyroid health

Cell division and growth

Mood

Vision

Zinc also protects your body against oxidative stress and helps with DNA repair. While some level of oxidative stress is a normal result of your body processes (such as breathing and digestion), many factors — ranging from air pollution to radiation and emotional stress to obesity — can cause an excess of free radicals in your body.1

An overabundance of free radicals is associated with oxidative stress. Oxidation is the same process responsible for turning apple flesh brown and rusting metal — it breaks things down. In humans, oxidation accelerates aging.

High levels of oxidative stress affect every organ and organ system in your body. Research suggests oxidative stress is directly linked to conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, colitis, dementia, gastric cancer, gastritis and inflammatory bowel disease.2,3

If you are deficient in zinc, your body may be less able to repair genetic damage caused by oxidative stress. On the other hand, if your diet is rich in zinc and other antioxidants, such as vitamins A, C and E, your body will be able to fight back against free radicals.

A Closer Look at Zinc’s Effect on Your Immunity, Mood and Thyroid

As mentioned above, zinc affects your immune system, mood and thyroid. Let’s take a closer look at each area.4

• Immune system — If you have taken zinc lozenges at the first sign of a cold or to help shorten the duration of a cold, flu or infection, you already recognize zinc’s role in strengthening your immune system. Zinc plays a vital role in activating your body’s T cells, certain white blood cells tasked with destroying infected cells. 

If you fall victim to frequent bacterial infections or colds, your body might be trying to tell you it needs more zinc. Given its immune-boosting properties, zinc supplements also can be useful to address bacterial issues such as acne, body odor and dandruff. 

• Mood — If you suffer from depression, it is likely that your body has too little zinc. Researchers have observed low serum blood levels of zinc in depressed individuals, which suggests zinc deficiency may trigger chronically poor mood. Depression causes your hippocampus to shrink, and this is the part of your brain involved with emotion, memory and learning. 

Because zinc has been shown to protect your hippocampus from the inflammation caused by emotional stress, it is considered to be an important factor in the treatment of depression. Furthermore, zinc can activate your body’s production of brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a crucial metabolic agent needed to counteract brain inflammation and depression. 

• Thyroid — Related to your thyroid health, zinc plays a role in making thyroid releasing hormone in your brain, which in turn signals your pituitary gland to make thyroid stimulating hormone. Low zinc is associated with low T3 and a reduced ability for your body to convert T4 to T3, an action also requiring sufficient stores of selenium. 

When your zinc levels are low, you may experience many of the characteristic symptoms of low thyroid such as cold hands and feet, sluggish metabolism and thinning hair. Zinc also helps your thyroid hormone bind to the DNA receptors inside your cells. If you are lacking in zinc, your body can’t effectively make use of thyroid hormone even if you have normal levels of it in your blood.

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