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OysterMax® and Zinc Deficiency
The World Health Organisation states that ‘research conducted in the last 10-15 years suggests that zinc deficiency is widespread and affects the health and well being of populations world wide.’ [1]
‘OysterMax® is the highest source of natural zinc available on the market today’
Dr. Ananada S. Prasad is regarded as the world’s leading expert on the trace mineral zinc and its metabolic effects on human beings. He has somewhere between 200 and 300 peer-reviewed publications to his credit. He notes at the beginning of one such publication that "Zinc deficiency is prevalent throughout the world, including the USA." [2]
Zinc is one of the most important trace minerals required by the body. It is required by the body for the production of more than 200 essential enzymes. [3]
‘OysterMax® contains the highest source of organic zinc of any zinc supplement, with it’s co-factors, to ensure healthy enzymatic functioning’
Although the typical requirement for zinc is only 15 mg a day for men and 11mg a day for women, it is surprisingly easy to fall below this. Indeed some estimates suggest that typical dietary intakes may be as low as 9 mg for women and 13 mg for men, and even this may be poorly absorbed, so some nutritionists recommend aiming for a higher intake to ensure an adequate supply. [4]
‘OysterMax® has all of the essential trace elements bound in an amino acid matrix to ensure maximum absorption.’
Zinc can help increase testosterone levels and is therefore useful in the treatment of Sexual Dysfunction and low sex drive in both men & women. [2]
Zinc supports a healthy immune system [8,9], is needed for wound healing [10], helps maintain your sense of taste and smell [11], and is needed for DNA synthesis and gene expression [7]. Zinc also supports normal growth and development during pregnancy, childhood, and adolescence [12, 13].
‘OysterMax® contains zinc in a form that is more bio-available than synthetic zinc supplements. This happens because the zinc and other trace elements are already bound to bio-active transport molecules. Synthetic forms of zinc first have to undergo this chemical bonding in digestion before they can be absorbed.’
It also needs to be remembered that certain groups of people with depressed immune systems, such as HIV sufferers, diabetics and alcoholics may have an increased requirement for zinc and so would particularly benefit from a zinc supplement. [7,14]
But by far the largest such group is comprised of the over 65s. And it should be realised that the consequence of a zinc deficiency may be much more serious for these older individuals, given that their immune systems are likely in any case to be less effective than those of healthy young adults.
‘OysterMax® is the only natural zinc supplement on the market which concentrates all the bio available trace elements.’
Given the poverty of modern Western diets in both vitamins and minerals, a good zinc supplement may in any case be necessary to ensure the health of the immune system, particularly, as discussed above, for the over 65s. Various forms of specific zinc supplement are readily available, but it is probably wiser to ensure that any supplementation of zinc is taken in a properly balanced multi-mineral formulation also containing an appropriate amount of copper.[15]
‘OysterMax® is the only multi-mineral which contains all 59 trace elements the body requires in a bio-available format’
For a comprehensive list of the symptoms associated with zinc deficiency click here
References
1. http://www.who.int/publications/cra/chapters/volume1/0257-0280.pdf
2. Nutrition, Volume 12, No.5, 1996, pp. 344-348.
3. Galdes, A., Vallee, B.L., 1983. Categories of zinc metalloenzymes, in Metal Ions in Biological Systems.
4. Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). HG Bulletin No. 232, 2000. http://www.ars.usda.gov/dgac
5. Prasad, A.S., 1993. Biochemistry of Zinc.
6 . Sandstead HH. Understanding zinc: Recent observations and interpretations. J Lab Clin Med 1994;124:322-327.
7. Institute of Medicine. Food and Nutrition Board. Dietary Reference Intakes for Vitamin A, Vitamin K, Arsenic, Boron, Chromium, Copper, Iodine, Iron, Manganese, Molybdenum, Nickel, Silicon, Vanadium, and Zinc. National Academy Press. Washington, DC, 2001.
8. Solomons NW. Mild human zinc deficiency produces an imbalance between cell-mediated and humoral immunity. Nutr Rev 1998;56:27-28.
9. Prasad AS. Zinc: An overview. Nutrition 1995;11:93-99.
10. Heyneman CA. Zinc deficiency and taste disorders. Ann Pharmacother 1996;30:186-187.
11. Prasad AS, Beck FW, Grabowski SM, Kaplan J, Mathog RH. Zinc deficiency: Changes in cytokine production and T-cell subpopulations in patients with head and neck cancer and in noncancer subjects. Proc Assoc Am Physicians 1997;109:68-77.
12. Simmer K and Thompson RP. Zinc in the fetus and newborn. Acta Paediatr Scand Suppl 1985;319:158-163.
13. Fabris N and Mocchegiani E. Zinc, human diseases and aging. Aging (Milano) 1995;7:77-93.
14. Beck FW, Prasad AS, Kaplan J, Fitzgerald JT, Brewer GJ. Changes in cytokine production and T cell subpopulations in experimentally induced zinc-deficient humans. Am J Physiol 1997;272:E1002-1007
15. http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/cc/zinc.html#what
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