Cold Prevention With Zinc

Cold and flu season brings the dreaded sniffling, sneezing, and runny nose that mean days missed from work and trouble concentrating. This year, make zinc a part of your cold prevention strategy, and you may find yourself feeling healthier.

How It Works

• While many of us at one point or another are painfully aware there is no cure for the common cold, taking zinc is one of those methods that has been shown to have antioxidant properties, meaning it can protect the body from disease, aging and other harmful effects. Zinc also has antimicrobial properties, meaning it is helpful in maintaining healthy bacteria in the digestive tract.

Dietary Supplements

• Zinc can be taken in capsule form. While it can be taken year-round without adverse effects, it's best to begin taking it in late September (earlier, if you live in a colder environment), and end in February. The recommended daily allowance (RDA) for zinc is 11 milligrams for a male and 8 milligrams for a female.

Boost Your Zinc Intake with These Foods

• Zinc is most digestible in the body when it comes from animal sources, such as oysters, beef shanks, cooked Alaskan king crab, chicken legs, and pork tenderloin. However, zinc also is available by eating baked beans, fortified breakfast cereal, cashews, low-fat yogurt and chickpeas. Incorporating some of these foods into your diet may boost your zinc intake as well as antioxidants in the body.

Preventing a Longer Cold

• In addition to prevention capabilities, zinc has been shown to shorten the duration of a cold. Researchers believe this may be due to the fact that zinc may prevent the cold virus from duplicating or can coat the virus, prohibiting its harmful effects in the body.

  If you do begin to experience cold symptoms, using zinc lozenges or nasal zinc gel has been shown to help reduce the duration of a cold.