Hi  – you’ll find that information with links to zinc product recommendations in this video here in the zinc section of the Mineral Balance course. I also share when and how to take it. Empty stomach is best but for many people it causes nausea, so taken with food and away from phytate-rich foods (grains, beans, nuts, etc) is usually the recommendation.

Hi ,

Dosage may also depend on what you want to take it for. Are you using zinc to make sure you have adequate amounts? Are you on a plant based diet? Or are you trying to improve immunity? Or are you trying to give your body for other reasons support? 

 Giving your immune system support with some zinc can help if you are zinc deficient. But you need to know if you are first. 50mg of elemental zinc is quite a lot though and could cause nausea within 1 hour of supplementation.  I also would recommend supplementing with high levels of zinc for a short time only since high levels of zinc make it hard for copper to be absorbed. Personally I don’t recommend my female clients to take more than 40 mg if they are zinc deficient and on a low zinc diet.

Click here if you would like to learn more about the signs & symptoms of a zinc deficiency.

An autoimmune disease is not necessarily caused by a weak immune system. More by a busy immune system. Let me try to explain – and I know I oversimplify this here.
How can autoimmune issues start?Some types of white blood cells called macrophages can ‘eat’ and kill pathogens or components that are foreign to our own body. They can engulf viruses, bacteria or other things foreign to our body like parts of bacteria called Lipopolysaccharides (LPS for short). LPS can come from gram-negative bacteria living in our gut. When the gut lining is damaged those parts could get into the circulation of our body.

Now the macrophages are part of our innate immune system and ‘live’ mostly inside tissues. Sometimes they say ‘Hey, I can only do so much’ and ask the help of the adaptive immune system. They present some proteins unique to the foreign invader to help produce antibodies for example.

Neutrophils are another type of white blood cell that can eat and trap pathogens and just like macrophages they are part of the innate immune system. They are the most abundant type of white blood cells. But unlike macrophages they don’t help with antibody production.

What can happen is that a neutrophil engulfs a pathogen. Now it just sits and waits until other parts of the immune system, for example, macrophages come along and deal with them.

But Neutrophils, once eaten a pathogen will fall apart after a certain amount of hours and if they are not dealt with in time, they release their toxic content.

If this happens in tissue layers like for example the thyroid, this then can cause inflammation in these tissues and cell death of the body’s own tissues (in this example the thyroid). That inflammation communicates to the rest of the body: we need more neutrophils.

And now a vicious cycle can be formed. Neutrophils come in, engulf the toxic material, sit around & wait, die off and fall out of each other, spilling their toxic content, which leads to more inflammation and thyroid tissue death…

Where things get tricky is that the macrophages that engulf (just like neutrophils) bacteria, viruses and other toxic debris like dead tissue now start to learn the adaptive immune system to deal with the dead cells of the thyroid tissue and picks it up as a problem. Suddenly your own thyroid tissue becomes a target.
Where to focus on with autoimmune disease?With autoimmune disease, I like to reduce the load on the immune system with my clients and provide nutrients for optimal function of the immune system.
 
We like to have optimal vitamin D levels. Why? Because vitamin D is necessary to keep the tight junctions between the cells in the lining of the gut closed. This is to minimize unwanted exposure to foreign material coming from the gut. I usually advise avoiding gluten, because gluten can open the tight junctions as well. Of course, vitamin D is also necessary for optimal immune function and it helps reduce inflammation. Things that further help resolve information are for example the omega-3 fatty acids EPA & DHA.

Other nutrients that our immune system needs are vitamin A and the B vitamins. Some people aren’t real good converters of the plant-based precursors of vitamin A (betacarotene) and do well to have the fully formed vitamin A in their diet (in supplements I personally look for ‘retinal-palmitate’ on the label since I like my carrots and sweet potato, so I get enough betacaroteen from foods)

I usually focus on stress reduction, reducing inflammation, focus on organic foods, gut healing, addressing SIBO if this is at play, and having optimal hydrochloric acid in the stomach.

All the things we described in ‘The Gut Health Masterclass’ will help – which if you didn’t watch it, I really recommend you do! You can find the masterclass here.

But supporting your immune system with zinc is definitely part of it! If you do want to be on the safe side because you don’t have Signs and symptoms of a zinc deficiency you can add 10-15 mg of zinc in supplement form without testing. There are even nice products containing zinc & a little copper that makes sure you keep your minerals in balance! 

 was your zinc measured? This can help determine the dosage. And since the supplement you’ve been given is a zinc-only supplement, and is a high dose, you’ll want to be monitoring your zinc, copper/ceruloplasmin levels since they are antagonists and can deplete each other.

And do you have access to the B Better Fullscript dispensary? There are definitely better quality brands there that you can search for.