Jamieson Zinc 50 mg Ultra Strength

Good stuff and perfect dosage.

My boyfriend swears by theses. He is 65 and healthy as an Ox, he uses the zinc prophylactically.

GOOD FOR MY HEALTH

perfect we buy it often

The pills are difficult to swallow as they are rough. Yet, I’ve been using these pills for a year now, and I feel they did the job as I haven’t really been sick ever since taking them despite everyone around me being so. I’ve been taking them every two days for the last 6 months, though, instead of daily. Why every two days? Because this is Zinc Gluconate. Zinc gluconate has a high bioavailability: 60.9% of the zinc in this form will be absorbed (citrate 61,3 %, oxyde 49,9 %). Considering this is a 50 mg dosage, this translates to effectively ingesting 30 mg of zinc daily. Since the absolute maximum daily dose is 40 mg (toxicity above this intake), 30 mg is a huge amount (remember, you still have to take the input from real food into consideration). Moreover, zinc inhibits the absorption of copper as it successfully competes against copper to bind to the protein bringing those minerals in the body. It used to be that copper intake was not a problem because water pipes were made of copper (not joking). But the house where I live now has plastic pipes, so I’ve got low exposure to copper nowadays. And while we need more zinc than copper, an appropriate ratio of zinc/copper is as important than the concentration of either copper or zinc. All this to say that I’m going down to the 25 mg formulation (also available from Jamieson). It’s still gluconate, so this translates as 15 mg of daily zinc intake, which is still also above the recommended daily intake for adult men (12 mg), anyway, without hovering too high near toxic levels. I didn’t know all this when I started on zinc: the downsides are well hidden on the web, and only the good sides are put forward (prostate health, atopic dermatitis, tiredness, protein synthesis including immune system). But now that I’m more aware, I also notice that even Jamieson insists on the importance of not taking zinc daily (They write: “use of zinc tablets should be limited to short term therapy, such as the treatment of cold symptoms for about 1 week”). Anyway, I’m pretty sure I don’t have any deficiency any more, and 25 mg will be more than enough for maintenance.