When it comes to taking care of your overall health, immune wellness is important. By taking vitamins, ensuring you get a balanced range of nutrition, exercising, and prioritizing personal hygiene, you can care for your immune health. Zinc is also an excellent tool to help your immune system. 

You’re likely familiar with zinc as a vitamin that, along with Vitamin C, can help reduce cold symptoms. This is an important function of zinc, but it’s not the only benefit this supplement offers. Zinc is vital for overall wellness, including cognitive health, hormonal functions, and more. 

Zinc deficiencies are becoming more and more common. This can be dangerous and lead to increased risk for illness, reduced healing time, and even skin issues like acne, eczema, or psoriasis. So, how can zinc help your immune system and how can you maximize the benefits of zinc in your life? Healthydirections.com  has some answers! 

Zinc’s Benefits

To understand how zinc benefits immune health, it’s important to understand how zinc benefits the body. There are a range of important jobs zinc has that help protect the body. Let’s take a closer look.  

Heavy Metals

Heavy metals like cadmium can be dangerous to the body. However, heavy metals are often found in foods like grains, rice, cigarette smoke, and even shellfish. Zinc may be able to help reduce some of the carcinogenic effects of cadmium, which can help reduce your exposure to dangerous toxins and protect your body.

Oxidative Stress

Zinc may also be able to help reduce oxidative stress. Free radicals can enter the body through pollution, stress, and smoke. These free radicals can turn into oxidative stress in the body and cause harm when left unaddressed. Research shows zinc may be able to help reduce oxidative stress and support wellness instead! 

The Common Cold

Zinc is also an excellent supplement to help reduce symptoms of the common cold and lower your risks of getting sick altogether. In fact, zinc may be more effective than taking vitamin C by itself. Zinc may help reduce your symptoms during a cold and reduce the length of the cold itself. 

Eye Health

Another benefit of zinc is that it helps support eye health. It does this by working together with antioxidants in the body to protect the eyes, reduce the risk of macular degeneration, and help keep the eyes healthy. 

Zinc and the Immune System

If you’re looking for ways to boost your immune system, incorporating zinc into your daily supplement and vitamin intake and your nutritional priorities is the most important place to start. 

Zinc helps the body heal wounds faster by promoting blood flow, encouraging blood platelets to form and clot where an injury has occured, and support cell growth and protein synthesis. This helps the body heal faster and more efficiently. 

Here’s everything you need to know about how to take zinc! 

Food Sources of Zinc

One of the best ways to consume zinc is through nutritional sources like food. Pumpkin seeds, ginger, nuts, whole grains, and oysters are excellent sources of zinc. Incorporating these into your daily diet is a great way to make sure your body is getting the zinc it needs to thrive. 

Zinc Supplements

Sometimes, nutrition alone doesn’t quite cut it. If this is the case, a zinc supplement or vitamin can help! Look for a multivitamin that contains zinc in at least 30 mg per day. If less, be sure to incorporate a dietary source of zinc as well. You can also look for zinc supplements that can be taken daily, and take extra zinc during the cold season to help strengthen your immune system and reduce your risk and symptoms. 

Zinc Dosages

A proper dosage of zinc includes 30 mg per day. While toxicity is rare even with higher doses of zinc, it’s important to reduce the risks of overdosing on zinc. Talk to your doctor before taking zinc to make sure your dosages are safe and incorporate other vitamins, nutrients, and antioxidants in your diet as well. This will help your body reap the total benefits of zinc and help boost overall health and wellness.

Think Zinc for Immune Health

Taking zinc for immune health is one of the best ways to take care of your body and support immune system wellness. When you take zinc in combination with other supplements and vitamins, you’re able to strengthen your immune system and stay healthy!