Zinc and it's effects

[Ballisticbrian]

Hi all

I have mild psoriasis in various small zones and under toe nails and one finger nail and I noticed that I had gradually lost my sense of smell. I was round my mother's and she was talking about some lillies she had with a rather pungent smell and I could not smell these at all even at point blank range. I can't taste much either apart from tabassco sauce.

Anyhow, I googled this and found that it may be zinc deficiency and as I was googling, I found that it may be tied up with psoriasis also although not everyone agreed depending on what you read.

I also have irritable bowl on and off and I also drink alcohol fairly regularly both of which can deplete your body of zinc so I am a prime candidate despite a fairly balanced diet.

Anyway.... within a week of taking the zinc at 30mg a day with food morning and night, my sense of smell is coming back very strongly (I was going to say my smell was coming back LOL)

I also am having less trouble with night blindness \ photophobia and feel better in general. Has it helped the psoriasis? I have no idea yet. My finger nail looks better but it could be just me. I guess I need to wait to see. Has anyone tried zinc tablets and if so how long before effects noticed?


cheers

Brian

[david_8]

hi, Brian

yep been there done that ,

eon's ago parents took me to a top natropath in his day

all so had to indure  zinc ointment/and cream/baths containing zinc

didnt do much for me a very slight calming if anythink as i remember

[stewart_h]

Zinc on its own is unlikely to help greatly, however one poster on a USA board recently said if yo combine it with vitamin b1 it can help alot more. I also advise looking at vit k2 which i believe psoriasis suffers r low in. And vit d3 which we ARE low in on the whole as our bodies use alot of it upAll are easily obtainable, holland and barret sell all four.


vit b1 200mg a day
vit k2 90mg a day (2 tabs)
vit d3 (2000iu) a day
zinc 25-50ug

Here is his post:

I have been playing with various food and supplement combinations for years and have read many articles looking for clues, about beneficial supplements.

Something that came up recently in my self-experiments and reading, is the combination of thiamine and zinc taken together. Seems a combination of zinc and thiamine deficiencies together is common in North America.

High dose thiamine of say 200mg with zinc 50 mg may be very helpful for some people.

This combination can improve your whole nutritional profile, if you are deficient.

Seems they are vital for producing gastric acid, and being deficient reduces the nutrients that you get from all your food, due to poor digestion in the stomach.

You need both together, to see the benefit of either, if you are deficient in both, which as I said is common. Taking only one will not overcome the deficiency of the other, since both are needed to produce gastric acid, amongst other things.

[Ballisticbrian]

Interesting. I would think that my love of all things Marmite may be giving me a fairly good supply of B1 at the moment.

The reason I posted is because there is obviously proof that I have zinc deficiency from other symptoms and was interested to know if there is a psoriasis connection.

Another interesting thing; if you get most of your B1 from whole grains and cereals, they contain yet another substance which combines with zinc and stops it being absorbed, just as a footnote.

cheers