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Zinc Deficiency | Dietary Sources, Causes, Signs & Symptoms , Diagnosis, Treatment

In today article, we are going to talk about a very fascinating and interesting nutrient, Zinc. Now because zinc is so vital for your body and it’s just a fascinating mineral, I created three parts. First thing you need to know is two billion people on this planet are deficient in zinc.

 

That’s crazy. That’s a lot of people that are deficient. I would imagine it’s even more than that as far as having a subclinical deficiency and as we go through this you’ll see what I’m talking about.

One thing about zinc is the body does not store it so you have to constantly actually take it in. And it’s a trace mineral which means that we need it in smaller amounts compared to things like potassium and it’s essential.

So what does it mainly do? It acts as a cofactor for over 1000 enzymes. So you have all these chemical reactions going on at the cellular level with DNA turning into RNA which is the kind of the blueprints turning into the copy of those blueprints and the transcription and the interpretation and all that and the building of proteins all needs zinc.

So, the enzymes are those things in the body that do all the work and they need certain minerals to accomplish their job. 10% of all human protein is bound to zinc. It’s a vital, vital nutrient. It’s the most common deficiency in crops so we may need to replenish our bodies with it through supplementation.

 

Scarcity in the soil, deficiency of micronutrients that are essential for plant growth, can lead to a lower crop yield. During the past decade soil micronutrient deficiencies have been ascertained primarily for zinc, and to a lesser extent, boron and molybdenum. Soil deficiencies of zinc are widespread in Asia. Scarcity in feed and food and human nutrition, zinc deficiency is the most well-known micronutrient deficiency.

 

Zinc deficiency can cause disorders in humans such as retarded growth in children. We talked about it estimated of 1/3 of the population is at risk for zinc deficiency. It is the fifth most important risk factor for disease in developing countries.

 

Scarcity of mineral deficiencies of micronutrients in agricultural soils can be replenished with mined minerals. And then they talk about a lot of these minerals are used exclusively for industrial applications, not crops, livestock or for humans.

 

The mineral reserves in relation to the use seem to be most restricted for zinc. At the current level of production of mining, we have a reserve for approximately another 21 years. So at that point I don’t know what’s going to happen.

 

Priorities should be given to zinc because zinc deficiencies are already occurring in food chains in a large part of the world. Now on top of that, glyphosate as in GMO foods, Roundup Ready, acts as a major chelator to bind and block zinc and other minerals.

 

Now I couldn’t find the data currently, but in 2007 they were putting 80,000 metric tons of glyphosate into the environment. Don’t worry, it gets worse. Alright so now let’s get into the symptoms of what happens when you’re zinc deficient.

 

Growth retardation. So if you’re pregnant, if you’re breastfeeding, make sure that you’re taking the trace minerals including zinc to maximize growth of that child. Loss of taste and/or smell.

 

A lowered immune system which we’ll get into in the next article. Prostate/testosterone issues. Skin problems, major depression. Zinc is intimately involved in insulin production. Another side effect of zinc deficiency is diarrhoea.

 

Eye problems, delayed healing, ulcers of the mouth, of the digestive system. Zinc is a really good remedy for ulcers of the stomach as well. Macular degeneration related to age, inflammation in general.

 

Zinc is a natural anti-inflammatory and it’s a very powerful antioxidant as well and I’m going to talk about some of these other things in more detail in the next couple of articles. The foods that are highest in zinc are oysters, beef, crab and pumpkin seeds by the way.

 

Now there’s other things that will decrease your absorption of zinc. If you had a gastric bypass surgery, if you had any type of digestive damage like IBS, Crohn’s, diverticulitis, you’ve had a lot of antibiotics.

 

That can create a problem. Liver disease, cirrhosis, things like that. And also if you have lower stomach acid. So many people don’t have enough stomach acid because you need this acid to absorb these minerals.

 

How do you know if you’re deficient? Well if you have heartburn, chances are you’re deficient in the acid that you need to absorb the minerals and especially if you’re taking an antacid. Phytates or phytic acid, that would be in grains, whole grains.

 

It’s in the bran or the fiber of whole grains and legumes. And this compound actually blocks the absorption of zinc. So, it’s actually kind of a chelator. It binds it very similar to glyphosate.

Having high blood sugar because a high carb diet will deplete zinc as well. So we’re living in this environment that it’s making it very hard to get zinc with the GMO foods, the high carb diets, with the soil becoming depleted and with all the pre-existing digestive problems that we normally have, not to mention low stomach acids because I really wanted to bring up your awareness of these connections between these problems and a simple trace mineral.

 

So I hope you have learnt how important Zinc is to your health and wellbeing. You can learn more from the video below.

 

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