Now, we’ve already talked about how vitamin C acts as an immune booster that helps keep your body healthy and free of sicknesses. However, it’s important to note that you’ll need more than just vitamin C if you wanna maintain your good health. Zinc, in particular, has a slew of health benefits that helps prevent illnesses. In fact, studies have shown that zinc stops your immune system from spiraling out of control.
With that being said, the everyday person actually knows very little about this important material. To help remedy this, we thought it would be useful to put together a brief explainer about zinc and how it can benefit your body. If this is something that you’re interested in, read on to know more about zinc and how it aids your immune system!
What is Zinc?
Zinc is an essential nutrient that fulfills a multitude of vital roles in your body. Essential nutrients can’t be produced and stored in the body. Because the human body can’t naturally produce zinc, it’s important that you get it through the food that you eat and the supplements that you take. Many food items are fortified with synthetic forms of zinc in order to keep their zinc levels at optimal levels.
To give you a better idea of what zinc does for your body, here are the processes wherein zinc is required:
- Gene Expression
- Enzymatic Reactions
- Protein Synthesis
- DNA Synthesis
- Wound Healing
- Growth and Development
- Immune Function
How Does Zinc Help You?
Considering that zinc is essential to your immune function, it’s not really surprising that zinc plays an important role when it comes to fending off sicknesses. In fact, studies have shown that taking zinc supplements significantly reduces the risk of infection and promotes immune response, especially in older adults.
Aside from boosting your immune system, zinc also affects sicknesses like the common cold. Zinc has actually been observed to prevent the rhinovirus, the virus mainly responsible for the common cold, from multiplying. This can significantly shorten how long you’ll be sick and may make your colds go away much more quickly. If you’re going to use zinc for this purpose, it would be best to take it as a lozenge or syrup so that it comes in contact with the rhinovirus in your throat.
How Much Zinc Should You Take?
Too much of anything is bad. This is why you’ll want to make sure that you’re taking the right amount of zinc. The recommended daily allowance for zinc ranges from around 8 to 11 milligrams. This is totally doable for meat-eaters as red meat and poultry contain a significant amount of zinc. If you subscribe to a diet that lacks red meat or poultry, it would be best to take supplements to ensure that you get enough zinc in your body.
Conclusion
We hope this article has helped you gain a better understanding of this vital mineral. As you can zinc has a slew of different benefits that will help keep illnesses at bay. With that being said, we suggest that you speak with your doctor before taking any new supplements just to be sure that everything checks out.
If you are looking for immune boosting supplements to try, check out 123immuniy. It is a supplement filled with the ingredients your body needs, including a good amount of zinc, carefully formulated to provide essential nutrients to support maximum immune system support.
