Acne And Zinc

Posted on December 8, 2008
Filed Under Acne Skin Care | Leave a Comment

Zinc is said to be effective for countering the worst effects of acne. However, there are other considerations that you need to be aware of. Zinc is extremely important to your body because it plays a critical role in more than 300 enzymatic reactions that take place naturally.

It also is extremely important for the effective functioning of your immune system, because without the correct amounts of zinc in your system, several things can start to go wrong. For instance, your white blood cell count drops dramatically and the production of what are known as T-killer cells falls away drastically as well.

Both of these damage the immune system of your body, seriously reducing your ability to fight disease and sickness. That is why zinc can be used so effectively to reduce the duration and severity of several common sicknesses, including the common cold, as well as acne.

In an ideal world, all of the zinc that you need would be taken in as part of your normal daily diet from such apparently zinc-rich foods as fish, red meat, legumes, egg yolks, soy products and whole grains.

However, modern farming methods have managed to dramatically reduce the amount of zinc that is actually present in most of these things nowadays.

Zinc is a mineral that comes from the ground, and so for zinc to be present in your food, it must have been present in the ground where that food was grown (or, in the case of eggs and meat, in the feed that was given to the hens or the beef cattle).

Modern farming methods (or more correctly, the fact that most land is over-farmed nowadays) mean that this is not the case, so it is less and less likely that you can get all of the zinc that you need to help fight your acne from your daily diet.

However, you should not be discouraged from trying zinc as part of your anti-acne diet, as it is one of the most effective tools against acne, and supplementing your diet with additional zinc is pretty cheap too.

According to the majority of experts, the two types of zinc supplements that seem to be most effective in the battle against acne are Zinc gluconate and Zinc monomethionine (sometimes known as Opti-Zinc).

Of these, most recommend the latter over the former, as it seems to be the most effective form of zinc when it comes to strengthening your immune system in the way that it needs, if it is to help in your fight.

You should also understand that there are such things as zinc inhibitors – other things that you take in that can drastically reduce the effectiveness of the zinc that you do ingest.

For example, zinc and copper will fight against one another in your system for absorption in the gut, and copper almost always wins the fight! So, if there is excess copper in your body, it does not matter how much zinc you take in, it is not going to work.

If you drink tap water that is delivered through copper pipes, then there will be trace elements of copper dumped into your system by every glass of water that you drink. Similarly, birth control pills are often rich in copper as well, so if you are taking them, it is far less likely that zinc is going to help you fight acne, no matter how much you are taking in.

If, therefore, you are supplementing your diet with zinc and seeing no beneficial effects, it may well be that copper is winning the battle between the two minerals inside your body, so you should perhaps test for copper toxicity. The most accurate method for doing this is a 24-hour urine copper level test that can be carried out by your normal medical attendant.

Testing for the levels of copper in your red blood cells may also work, but testing for copper levels in a hair sample is going to be far less reliable, because of the potential for external contamination.

If you can find someone who is skilled in a relatively unknown muscle testing process called applied kinesiology, they should also be capable of testing for excess levels of copper. In fact, this particular method of testing is something that you can learn to apply yourself, with a little practice, so it might be worth finding someone who can help you.

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