Could Zinc Deficiency Be Robbing You of Your Taste and Smell?

Last week, I published a post that I had found research indicating that my lack of smell might be related to zinc deficiency. This week, I want to give a high level overview of how zinc might be impacting your life and give you some great resources if you want to learn more about it.

Zinc is an essential trace mineral that we obtain through our diet. It is so essential for the body that many articles claim that it is involved in up to 300 of the body’s enzyme processes. It is extremely important in the production of prostaglandins (PG). PGs are needed for many bodily processes, such as immune system function, skin and wound healing, inflammation, the cardiovascular system, and many more.

Signs of Zinc Deficiency

Doctors usually diagnose zinc deficiency by getting an overall picture of your life factors, understanding your current symptoms, and then confirming it with one of the various zinc medical tests. The major life factors that doctors are usually looking for related to zinc deficiency are vegan-ism, total calorie intake (low is bad), alcoholism (zinc is needed to metabolize alcohol), physical activity level (high activity depletes zinc), digestive diseases, and other autoimmune diseases.

To zoom in further, let’s take a look at any possible symptoms related to zinc. The hard part of trying to correlate symptoms with zinc deficiency is that zinc supports so many of the body’s functions. There isn’t one main symptom that can raise a flag for zinc, but rather the symptoms must be observed in context with the patient’s life factors. This pattern can be hard to see, so it is easy to become mildly zinc deficient and never put the pieces of the puzzle together.

The list of related symptoms for zinc deficiency is a mile long, but I think the questionnaire below does a good job of capturing most of the main symptoms. Answering yes to any of these questions indicates the possibility of zinc deficiency and means you should probably get your levels tested:

• Have you lost much of your sense of taste and smell?
• Do you have adult acne, even if you didn’t have it as a teenager?
• Do you get frequent colds and flu, usually with an ear infection?
• Is your hair going prematurely gray? Does it grow slowly? Is your hair texture dry with brittle ends?
• Do your nails have white flecks? Do they peel and fray easily? Do they grow abnormally slowly? Do they have hard ridges either vertical or horizontal?
• Do you have an enlarged prostate (BPH) or prostatitis?
• Is your skin dry and cracked? Do you get fungal skin infections? Do cuts or rashes heal slowly? Do you sunburn easily?
• Have you been diagnosed with macular degeneration? Are your eyes overly sensitive to sunlight?
• Does your body have trouble with sugar balance? Do you have diabetes or hypoglycemia?
• Do you have a history of low sperm counts? Have you ever suffered from impotence or erection problems?
• Do you often get herpes-type mouth sores? Are your lips regularly dry, cracked or chapped?

For reference, I have the relevant life factors of digestive disorders and high physical activity levels. My symptoms of possible zinc deficiency are a loss of smell, adult acne, prematurely grey hairs (at least I hope so I’m only 24!), fingernail ridges / white spots and regularly chapped lips.

How Do I Get Tested?

If you identified with any of the life factors that could result in zinc deficiency, and/or you found several symptoms that might correlate to zinc deficiency, it would be good idea to confirm the deficiency and get an approximate level.

It is intuitive to think to pick up the phone and call your doctor, because, for most minerals, a blood test is the golden standard to confirm deficiency. Unfortunately, with zinc it isn’t that simple. The problem is zinc supports so many bodily processes that there is quite a bit of disagreement between what serum, plasma, red/white cell zinc level or zinc metalloenzyme studies (zinc dependent enzymes) levels indicate.

From the research, I’ve found the best test to confirm zinc deficiency is actually the Zinc tally taste test. It gets even better; this is a test that could be done at home on the cheap!

The test involves taking a small amount of zinc solution and holding in your mouth for usually 10 seconds (up to 30 seconds) depending on strength of the solution. You can make your own solution at home if you desire, or you can buy some zinc tally solution that is already pre-mixed. I chose the latter route, as I don’t have the patience or equipment to sterilize and perform chemistry experiments in my apartment.

The test is relatively straightforward and being honest with the time and the change in taste sensations is the only thing required to perform it correctly. Just like any home self-diagnostic test, it is a good idea to perform the test at least 3 separate times on 3 different days (to remove most biases). It is also important that if you find yourself deficient and decide to supplement with zinc that you continue to self-test and track what is happening.

Replenishing Zinc Stores

After my self-testing, I believe I’m somewhere between level 1 and level 2 zinc deficiency. The good thing about

replenishing zinc stores is it appears that it can happen relatively quickly. The recommendations I’ve found suggest 150mg a day for people who are level 1 and 100mg a day for level 2 and 50mg a day for level 3 and usual length of supplementation is 3 to 6 weeks.

For my supplementation, I’m going to shoot for 100mg a day and the protocol to use when starting to supplement with zinc is to start slow and slowly build your dosage. I found some 50mg tablets that might be SCD legal (use at your own risk!). I started the first week at one pill a day and then the next week I will start taking 2 pills a day (or 100mg). If you were going to 150mg, you wouldn’t get to that dosage  until the 3rd week when following this protocol.

I’ve got a couple things for you to remember. Acute zinc toxicity results in the following symptoms: nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, abdominal cramps, diarrhea, and headaches. Chronic zinc toxicity is also something to worry about if you plan on long-term supplementation. Zinc can, in high dosages of 150mg-450mg a day, cause low copper and affect iron levels. This is why it’s recommended to not exceed 150mg a day unless under a doctor’s observation and continue to do weekly zinc tally tests to know when to stop supplementing.

As always, it is best to take this information and present it to your doctor, as he/she might have other ways of helping you sort with your symptoms. It is also good to remember that zinc works synergistically with magnesium, vitamin B6, and plays a large role in stomach acid (HCL) production. So, if supplementing with zinc does not cure your symptoms, following one of these other paths may lead to your answer.

I’d love to hear from anyone else who is experimenting with zinc!

-Steve