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there’s a dark side of zinc relating to

your hair that we need to talk about now

since zinc is probably one of the most

important trace minerals for your hair

you need to know that too much zinc can

cause the same exact problem with your

hair as not enough zinc so zinc being a

trace mineral is involved in over 300

different enzymes relating to your

immune system testosterone sense of

smell taste Vision reproduction skin

health I mean it’s involved in almost

every part of your immune system but I

want to touch on the relationship

between zinc and your hair because a lot

of people are taking way too much zinc

and that could be the reason why things

get worse so the reason why you might

lose your hair when you don’t have

enough zinc is that zinc is needed to

support the growth of the hair follicle

now what is the hair follicle it’s not

the actual hair it’s the pore or shaft

that the hair grows out of and it’s just

beneath your scalp and so the growth of

that follicle is dependent on zinc and

if you don’t have zinc you’re not going

to have follicles for the hair to grow

out of zinc is also needed for collagen

and keratin two types of protein that

allows the hair to be strong and elastic

so if you’re deficient in zinc you’re

going to have thin hair and brittle hair

because it’s not going to be elastic and

also zinc is needed to make this enzyme

Alp I’m not going to get into the name

of it it’s not important but Alp is

involved in three different Pathways

that control the different phases of

hair growth so for example if you have

one of the phases of hair being a little

too short or not even existing at all

because you don’t have enough zinc

you’re going to have hair loss just from

that enzyme and on top of that that

enzyme is also responsible for feeding

the hair follicle energy so it can

actually work correctly and so as you

can see zinc is really really important

your hair depends on it okay and I’m

going to talk about the amounts of zinc

that you need but let’s just first talk

about what happens when you get too much

zinc and what those numbers are when you

get too much zinc you actually create a

copper deficiency in the body because

zinc and copper work together like a

teeter-totter just like in calcium and

magnesium but the more zinc that you

take the more copper you’re going to

need and if you’re taking zinc without

copper that’s when you can create

problems but copper itself is involved

in hair growth as well copper maintains

the color of your hair so if you have to

color your hair very often chances are

you could be missing copper copper also

helps the structural Integrity of the

hair and so this could actually show up

as a thinning hair brittle hair or even

hair loss copper is the co-factor or

helper molecule in different enzymes

that relate to the growth of hair as

well as the maintenance of your hair so

copper will help prevent the hair loss

prevent air thinning and it will support

the follicle that that shaft of the hair

so when you think of zinc toxicity think

of a copper deficiency so here’s the

important part the upper tolerance the

amount of zinc that you can take without

any side effects is roughly about 40

milligrams per day and this is for

adults and you’re not going to have any

bad effects from that and just so you

know the bad effects would be feeling

nauseous you might have vomiting

decrease appetite abdominal cramps

diarrhea and headaches but here’s the

thing you need to know

in certain circumstances you need to

take high amounts of zinc like if you

have an autoimmune disease or you get an

infection or you have inflammation of

the gut which prevents the absorption of

zinc because most of the absorption

happens in the small intestine and just

so you know when you eat food that’s

high in zinc like whether you’re eating

oysters any Meats shellfish seaweed or

cheese you’re only absorb 20 to 40

percent of the zinc from those foods but

if you have inflammation in your gut

it’s going to be less than that now on

top of that there’s other things that

decrease the absorption of zinc like

stress like a high carb diet like phytic

acid now what is phytic acid that’s a an

anti-nutrient in grains that prevents

the absorption of zinc and other

minerals and then another thing is if

your estrogen dominant let’s say you’re

taking birth control pills or hormone

replacement therapy as estrogen or

progesterone you can block the

absorption of zinc and then you also

have your stomach acid if your stomach

acid is not strong enough you’re not

going to absorb zinc so in those

situations you have to take more and in

some videos I even recommend taking 200

or even 250 milligrams of zinc short

term to overcome a certain health

problem whether it’s autoimmune or

inflammation or whatever but the key is

making sure you take enough copper to

prevent any side effects at all and so

roughly the ratio of zinc to Copper that

I would recommend is like 10 to 1. 10

times more zinc than copper so let’s say

for example you don’t have an autoimmune

disease you’re not going through an

infection you don’t have any problems

with your small intestine I would take

the upper limit dose of 40 milligrams of

zinc per day and then I would roughly

take like one milligram of copper now

these numbers are arbitrary worry

they’re not exact so it can be around

that but generally speaking if you do

like a 10 to 1 ratio of zinc to Copper

you’re not going to experience symptoms

but some people actually like to start

off small and just do like maybe 10

milligrams of zinc and maybe see how

that does maybe work up but so many

people are deficient in zinc 1.1 billion

people on this planet are deficient in

zinc and what the body will do it’ll

allocate that zinc to the most important

uh functions of the body and not to

everything so the body tends to ration

out or use the zinc the most important

parts and that probably be related to

reproduction sperm count things like

that but your hair probably is not the

top of the list for survival as a

priority I mean you can survive without

your hair just fine but as a species we

can’t survive without reproducing so you

have a couple options with zinc make

sure that you’re avoiding things that

prevent the absorption but also you

might want to be taking some zinc in

addition to that eating foods high in

zinc now there’s a lot more to know

about zinc it’s a fascinating mineral if

you haven’t seen this video you should

probably check it out right now