Zinc
mg/day
A zinc salt, usually 15 to 45 mg a day. It is that salt, not a folate mix or a multivitamin.
Trials use zinc sulfate or a similar salt for three to six months. Zinc plus iron and copper in infants, or zinc plus another drug, is a different exposure from zinc alone.
Also called zinc sulfate, zinc acetate, zinc supplementation.
Connected relationships
Randomized trial · Contested
Zinc→Cognitive performance
Higher Zinc moves Cognitive performance only in some conditions. Read the mechanism.
Maylor 2006 found that 15 or 30 mg of zinc a day for six months had a mixed effect on Cambridge tasks in 387 healthy adults aged 55 to 87: one spatial working-memory score moved at three months, and 15 mg worsened one attention score. de Vargas 2023 saw higher Mini-Mental and Stroop scores on 30 mg in 32 overweight women.
Randomized trial · Contested
Zinc→Testosterone
Higher Zinc increases Testosterone.
Mahajan 1982 found that 50 mg of elemental zinc as acetate a day for six months raised serum testosterone from 2.8 to 5.2 ng per milliliter versus no change on placebo in 20 men on hemodialysis. Prasad 1997 then saw testosterone fall under zinc restriction in four young men and rise after zinc gluconate in nine older men.
Sources
- EA Maylor et al. (2006). Effects of zinc supplementation on cognitive function in healthy middle-aged and older adults: the ZENITH study.
- LDS de Vargas et al. (2023). Effects of Zinc Supplementation on Inflammatory and Cognitive Parameters in Middle-Aged Women with Overweight or Obesity.
- SK Mahajan et al. (1982). Effect of oral zinc therapy on gonadal function in hemodialysis patients. A double-blind study.
- AS Prasad et al. (1997). Zinc status and serum testosterone levels of healthy adults.