Zinc Acetate

[TPFKA@W]

My zinc intake has always been Nature Made tablets, not lozenges. Years ago clinical trials by the FDA said stuff like zinc based Airborne lozenges are totally ineffective against colds and flu -- mostly placebo if anything, and a waste of money.

BINGO!

[Darren]

My zinc intake has always been Nature Made tablets, not lozenges. Years ago clinical trials by the FDA said stuff like zinc based Airborne lozenges are totally ineffective against colds and flu -- mostly placebo if anything, and a waste of money.

I've never heard of a zinc based Airborne lozenge. I have heard the nasal sprays are not effective.

Did you read the link to the research? Keep in mind the FDA has a notorious track record of trying to regulate supplements and herbals. Those efforts go back to the Flexner Report early in the last century before the FDA was established.

If you want the straight dope for herbals get a copy of The German Commission E Monologues off eBay. Lot's of libraries have surplussed them because of the date of printing.

Each monologues cites the research that proves whether or not the herb is efficacious. I pass them out to medical personnel at the VA if they're not entirely subjugated by the AMA. Watch for one in the $20 range.

For some reason, maybe because it's out of print, some sellers are scalping them. There's also a PDR for Herbs. With both you can often figure out contraindications.

Pharmacies also have a database you can check. FWIW zinc acetate is not in either reference book. You can browse the monologues at the link below.

http://cms.herbalgram.org/commissione/i ... 20127d31b6

[BoSoxGal]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ucheal ... -19/%3Famp

There IS science establishing the effectiveness of zinc in minimizing effects of coronaviruses that cause common colds, and inhibition of replication in the first SARS coronavirus.

That study wasn’t, it turned out, a fluke. A Cochrane review updated in 2013 summarized 18 randomized controlled trials involving 1,781 participants across all age groups found that zinc – particularly in lozenge or syrup form – “inhibits replication of the virus” that cause the common cold and shortens average duration of the common cold when taken within 24 hours of onset of symptoms at a dose of more than 75 milligrams a day.

A 2010 study led by University of Leiden Medical researchers in the Netherlands sought to understand how zinc inhibited that replication. The team reported that zinc inhibits a cousin of SARS-CoV-2: SARS-CoV, the original SARS of the 2003 outbreak. Click through for details, which get into the biochemical nitty-gritty, but the gist is that zinc throws a wrench in the virus’s RNA-synthesis machine.

[Econoline]

There is at least one OTC zinc-containing lozenge on the market (I forget the brand name and don't have the package anymore) which I accidentally bought once and then later noticed it was labelled (in a not-prominent-enough location/typeface) a "homeopathic remedy". So pay close attention, and read the label carefully.

[Darren]

There is at least one OTC zinc-containing lozenge on the market (I forget the brand name and don't have the package anymore) which I accidentally bought once and then later noticed it was labelled (in a not-prominent-enough location/typeface) a "homeopathic remedy". So pay close attention, and read the label carefully.

Most of those are useless depending on the formulation as mentioned in the article I linked and how, in your experience, you develop a cold.

Do you always get a sore throat or are you one who never gets a sore throat before your head gets stuffed up and your nose starts running? If you don't get a sore throat before the cold sets in the lozenges won't work for you.

I used to have excellent results from one brand of zinc gluconate. That was in the book previously mentioned. After using it for over ten years it wasn't as effective. It didn't taste the same either.

The article from 2019 describes why some formulations work while some do not.

[ex-khobar Andy]

Zinc tablets and lozenges contain zinc - there's a clue in the name - and are therefore not homeopathic which by definition are so vastly diluted that they contain no atoms or molecules of the putative active ingredient.

A Mayo Clinic analysis of several published studies found that zinc might be marginally effective in reducing duration or intensity of a cold but not by much and concluded that the studies they looked at were too small for definitive conclusions. So it's plausible that they have some use.

Homeopathy is unscientific nonsense.