Zinc for Viral Upper Respiratory Tract Infections

It’s a little late for this since cold & COVID/flu season is winding down, but a common reason people come to the PCP is because of the usual cold symptoms: stuffy nose, cough, sneezing, etc. There’s not a lot that we can offer other than medications to help with symptoms (nasal decongestants, cough medication), but what about zinc? In 2013, researchers gathered all the available data and pooled it together, what they found is people who started taking at least 75 mg of zinc within 3 days of their illness starting showed reduced symptom severity and reduced length of illness when compared to placebo, except for cough. The most common side effects of the zinc were an altered taste and nausea that went away after stopping the zinc. So before that summer cold inevitably comes around I recommend stocking up on some zinc. As with all supplements, I don’t recommend one brand over another. I do recommend you use a brand that has submitted their product to third party testing to verify the contents of the supplement to make sure you’re actually getting what is advertised on the bottle.