The natural supplement that will really help you fight colds - Walla! health

2021-11-07T21:19:22.327Z

No, it is not vitamin C: there is another dietary supplement that taking it can reduce the chances of getting sick from exposure to winter illnesses and also shorten the duration of the illness. What is it and how is it taken?

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The natural supplement that will really help you fight colds

No, it is not vitamin C: there is another dietary supplement that taking it can reduce the chances of getting exposed to respiratory viruses and also shorten the duration of the disease by two days.

What is the supplement and how should it be taken?

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"It is commonly thought that the role of zinc in preventing or treating infections is effective only in people with zinc deficiency. However, our findings challenge this assumption," said Dr. Jennifer Hunter, an integrative medicine specialist at the University of Western Sydney in Australia. Most on the subject, conducted in China found that taking zinc in a very low dose using a nasal spray reduced the chance of clinical disease.

"Two smaller studies in the U.S. focused on the preventive abilities of taking zinc, and they did not include people with zinc deficiency."

Less symptoms at least days

When zinc was taken as a preventative measure, the researchers found that the chance of developing mild cold symptoms decreased by 28 percent, while the chance of developing mild to severe cold symptoms decreased by 87 percent following taking the supplement.

Reduces the chance of getting sick?

Nutritional Supplements and Vitamins (Photo: ShutterStock)

When zinc was ingested for therapeutic purposes - that is, after people became infected and contracted a cold - the researchers found that it was able to slightly reduce the length of time they experienced the symptoms of the disease. Usually, taking zinc shortened the duration of the worst symptoms by about two days. In these cases the effect is quite minimal, especially considering the fact that taking the supplement has not been able to alleviate the severity of the symptoms.

The new analysis is an important and intriguing advancement in the field of zinc-related health benefits, but its researchers note that some of the studies included were small-scale, not all gave the same dose of the supplement and some were based on participants' self-report, which may be biased. Certain of the data. All of these caveats should always be taken into account when conducting meta-analyzes that combine several different studies - credibility The conclusions of the analysis are derived directly from the reliability of the data on which it is based.

Another point to keep in mind is that this analysis does not provide any information about how zinc contributes to the fight against respiratory viruses.

It may be that taking zinc in a spray is the way to get the most out of it.

Woman uses nasal spray (Photo: ShutterStock)

Zinc has made headlines in the last two years due to an outbreak of the corona epidemic, which is also ultimately caused by a respiratory virus.

Doctors were reminded that this supplement may in some way help people dealing with lower respiratory tract infections, and the potential of zinc has become intriguing again.

Clinical studies examining whether zinc treatment has any efficacy in improving the condition of covid-19 patients have not yet published their results, but in some places it has already been given to corona patients because it is considered a low-risk treatment.

As long as the dose is not unusually high and the patient does not suffer from a specific disorder that allows excess zinc to penetrate the brain, there are no known complications of taking zinc.

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However, certain doses of zinc-taking may have (non-serious) side effects, including nausea and in cases of overdose taken with nasal spray, there may sometimes be loss of sense of smell.

By the way, one of the issues that doctors and researchers are trying to find out about zinc is what is its most effective way of taking it - is it by mouth, or by nasal spray?

"For now, we do not have enough research to decide how best to take zinc - whether in nasal spray, gel, swallowing pill, soluble candy or any other means. Most studies have used two main zinc formulas: zinc gluconate and zinc acetate, But that does not mean that other zinc compounds on the market are less effective, "said Dr. Hunter.