DOES COLDS SUPPORT ZINC? ZINC AND THE COLD COMMON

 

Does it cure the common cold with zinc? These days, as many individuals have colds and are looking for anything that will help, this is a common and serious question. The answer is no. Zinc is a non-soluble metal consisting of two atoms of zinc that share a pair of electrons that are used to galvanise steel in industry.

One atom of zinc, however, is water soluble with its 2+ electrical charge. It combines to form hydrated, or solution, zinc ions carrying a 2+ charge with 4 to 8 water molecules. Solution zinc ions (Zn2+ ions) have strong and highly beneficial effects on upper respiratory infections, unlike the metal zinc (rhinovirus common colds). The cause of the great majority of colds is now known to be rhinoviruses, one of the five genera of the picornavirus RNA virus family of which much is known.

Colds are nasal cavity infections and, in particular, infections of the nasal cavity's highly vascularized nasal mucosal turbinates. Shigeru Ishikawa, MD, PhD, of the Department of Otolaryngology at Kanazawa Municipal Hospital, Japan, has conducted digital helical CT studies to greatly help visualise the nasal cavity itself, particularly the highly vascularized mucosal turbinate tissues covering the nasal turbinate bones. "The images marked as "untreated" are similar to what one would find in a person experiencing a common cold, according to Dr. Ishikawa.

In 1974, in Nature, Bruce Korant, PhD, of Du Pont Chemicals, showed that Zn2+ ions were highly antirhinoviral. Others have shown that Zn2+ ions help to release large amounts of interferon-gamma, a potent antiviral agent, to T-cell lymphocytes. Other Zn2+ ion functions that are helpful in treating or curing common colds include anti-inflammatory activities, histamine destruction, cell plasma membrane stabilisation (preventing cell leakage, congestion and runny nose), and stimulating the action of T-cell lymphocytes.

Wouldn't the real cure be a nasal spray which releases Zn2+ ions? It definitely seems logical! "But, nature is saying, "No way! For more than a century, nasal sprays and nose drops that release Zn2+ ions have been used as a mild, short-acting, nasal decongestant with no role in shortening colds or curing colds. Professor Derek Bryce-Smith of the University of Reading, Great Britain, found in his 1990 European patent application (number 381522) that frequent administration of powerful zinc sulphate nose drops provided only a mild nasal decongestant effect, consistent with literature published in the 1930s.

Conversely, because they are absorbed into tissues through the mouth-nose biologically closed electric circuit (BCEC), a recently discovered feature of human physiology, Zn2+ ions released into the mouth can shorten or cure common colds. It is easy to demonstrate the directionality of the mouth-nose BCEC with an ohmmeter. A diode-like difference in resistance is shown simply by reversing the leads. The same mouth-nose BCEC is repelled from nasal tissue surfaces by Zn2+ ions from nasal spray or drops.

At 5 to 8 millimolar concentrations, zinc gluconate lozenges releasing Zn2+ ions kept in contact with the oral mucosa for 20 to 30 minutes used nine times a day definitely shortened common cold symptoms by 5 to 7 days! In two independent clinical trials, one in the U.S. in 1984, and the other in Great Britain, at the Medical Research Council Common Cold Unit (MRC) in 1987, this amazing effect was documented. In other studies of "flavour masked" zinc lozenges in experimental cold therapy, many common food ingredients (aspartic, citric, tartaric, other food acids, acacia, and strong bases) were used to follow up on these reports. The researchers did not understand that Zn2+ ions are strongly bound by those chemicals, rendering those lozenges ineffective against colds, setting back 10 years or more of common cold research.

In the arcane field of solution chemistry, the technology behind effective zinc lozenges involves complex mathematics. This is a study of what happens when they are dissolved in water with metal compounds. As shown in the figure, according to solution chemistry calculations by Guy Berthon, PhD, INSERM Unit 305, Toulousse, France, zinc chloride and zinc acetate release 100 percent of their zinc as antirhinoviral Zn2+ ions at physiological pH 7.4, while zinc gluconate releases 30 percent of its zinc as Zn2+ ions at pH 7.4. These three have merited close research. At physiological pH 7.4, other common zinc compounds do not release Zn2+ ions and have no utility in the treatment of common colds. Zinc chloride, because it was too unstable, reacted with lozenge components. After lozenges aged for a while, zinc gluconate combined with sweet tablet bases (except fructose - see MRC study) became offensively bitter.

Properly prepared lozenges of zinc acetate release 100 percent of their zinc at physiological pH as Zn2+ ions. They shorten common colds depending only on the availability of zinc ion (ZIA), a name for zinc lozenge strength derived from the permeability laws of Fick, the pharmacology law regulating the absorption of solutes through membranes and tissues. Efficacy begins with an intensity of ZIA of 25, where colds last a day or two less than average (and treatment is hardly worthwhile). Surprisingly, the stronger lozenges of ZIA 50 zinc acetate were strong enough for the U.S. To award the world's first and only 'Cure for Common Cold' patent to the Patent and Trademark Office. Lozenges with a ZIA strength of 50 to 100 shorten symptoms of colds by 5 to 7 days; and lozenges with a ZIA strength of 100 or greater sometimes result in a "cure" with no further treatment in less than a day. Further knowledge on the value of usable zinc ions at physiological pH for efficacy in the treatment of common colds is slightly more technical: