Sometimes findings from medical studies seem to make so much
sense it is difficult to understand why anyone had to spent good money on an expensive study to find the simple solution to confounding problems. Such is the case of the nutrient zinc as it pertains
to inflammatory responses within the body and cancer formation. Zinc has been
found to be helpful in repairing damage to DNA which is very important because
DNA damage has been linked to an increased risk of developing cancer.
The information we are discussing can be found in an article
published in The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry. The study found that supplementing
the diet with zinc helps to control inflammation which is associated with
cancer formation, heart disease, autoimmune diseases, and diabetes. An
important aspect of this study is that it points to the importance of
increasing dietary zinc supplementation as people age.
Findings from this study used laboratory animals to make
determinations regarding the effects of aging on the absorption of zinc and the
effects of age-related zinc deficiencies. In other words, as these laboratory
animals aged their ability to assimilate zinc into their body was reduced to
the point of zinc being found in deficient quantities below the levels
necessary to keep DNA damage and cancer in check. This inability to absorb zinc
into the body occurred even when sufficient amounts of zinc were supplied in
the diet. It was necessary to increase the dietary requirement of zinc tenfold
before anti-inflammatory markers were restored to levels normally found in
younger animals.
So, how big of a problem is zinc deficiency in people? Well,
studies show that approximately 40 percent of elderly Americans are deficient
in zinc, and this could be problematic for them. Why would this situation be
problematic?
The answer is simple.
Elderly people exhibit a combination of not consuming an
adequate amount of zinc in their daily diet with an impaired ability to absorb
the zinc they do consume. This is essentially a double whammy leading to a
serious zinc deficiency problem. It is a double whammy because more cellular
and genetic damage is taking place due to aging while there is less zinc available
to repair that damaged genetic material.
In the elderly this is significant because the amount of
genetic damage is increasing while their ability to repair that damage is
decreasing. This situation can lead to an increased risk of cancer as well as
other degenerative diseases including arthritis, Alzheimer’s disease, and heart
disease. Zinc deficiency has been implicated in all of these deleterious
processes.
Having sufficient amounts of zinc in your body can aid
immune function, wound healing, eye health, and prevention of cancer in
addition to the inflammatory diseases listed above. However, taking more than
40 milligrams of zinc per day can cause problems so avoid taking more than this
amount.
