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Zinc Helps People with Colds

© Neal Rolfe Chamberlain

The common cold season is just around the bend. It seems as if summer has just started and before you know it winter hits with a vengeance. The most common causes of the common cold are members of the group of viruses called Rhinoviruses. There are over 100 different Rhinoviruses and many of them are different enough to result in people getting many different colds during their lifetime. In fact, the average child (less than 5 years of age) will get 5-7 colds per year and the average adult will get 1-2 colds per year.

Colds can be a real drag. You feel tired. Your nose is runny and sore. Your body temperature is elevated but not enough to keep you home from school or work. You are coughing and sneezing. Fortunately the average cold will last 7-10 days and be gone. Rarely, are there any complications. Children will sometimes develop an earache. Some people with sinus troubles may come down with sinusitis. Unfortunately, there is no effective vaccine nor is there currently any affordable treatment to prevent or shorten the length of this illness.

As a result many people do miss work and school resulting in a tremendous loss to our societies. Other studies have indicated that zinc maybe useful in shortening the number of days a person is ill with the common cold. Many people still debate this because of poorly designed studies. However, a recent study by Dr. Ananda S. Prasad and colleagues in the August 15th, 2000 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine indicates that zinc acetate lozenges shorten the duration and lowered the severity of syptoms of the common cold. This randomized (no specific patient was picked for a particular group), double-blind (the physicians giving the medication and the patients receiving the medication didn't know what they were giving or getting), placebo-controlled (some people were given sugar pills) trial was performed at the Detroit Medical Center.

Fifty patients 24 hours after coming down with a cold were placed either in a group that was to take 1 zinc acetate lozenge (12.8 mg zinc acetate) every 2 to 3 hours during the day for as long as they felt ill (zinc group) or a group that was to take 1 placebo lozenge every 2 to 3 hours during the day for as long as they felt ill (placebo group). The average number of lozenges taken by the patients was 5.8/day in the placebo group and 6.2/day in the zinc group. Therefore, the number of lozenges taken doesn't explain the differences seen between the zinc and placebo groups.

 Compared with the placebo group, the zinc group did have a significantly