Video

Transcript

so let’s talk about the importance of zinc in your immune system zinc is

probably one of the most important trace minerals because it does so many things

but one of the most important things it has the capacity to help is supporting

your immune system it’s involved in genes DNA synthesis making DNA it’s

involved in many different enzymes it’s involved in protein synthesis wound

healing heart health joint health insulin thymus function and your gonads

if you’re low in zinc you’re not going to make enough testosterone so let’s

take a look at what occurs if you become deficient in zinc related to your immune

system first thing is that your thymus gland starts to shrink okay

it’s called thymic atrophy well you need the thymus gland to make t-cells it’s a

training camp for white blood cells also your lymphocytes go down this is part of

your army that fights infection next one defective white blood cell responds so

your immune system doesn’t respond correctly anymore also you get a

decreased recovery rate of the infection so it takes you longer to heal there’s

an increased duration of the infection there’s also increased inflammatory

response there’s increased oxidative stress which creates a lot of collateral

damage and then you have a general decrease capacity to fight off

infections and you’re susceptible to viruses and bacteria other than that

you’re good to go now the question is how do you get it well there’s certain

foods that are very high in zinc oysters are at the top of the list and also

other shellfish red meat is a good source of zinc and other trace minerals

seafood fish in pumpkin seeds if you wanted to get it as a supplement I

recommend getting the zinc bisglycinate chelate why because this is much more

bioavailable than other sources it has a 230 percent better absorption rate than

zinc sulfate and a 390 percent better absorption rate

then zinc oxide there are certain things in your foods that can prevent the

absorption of zinc one are phytates now where do you get phytates that’s in

all the cereals it’s in the whole grains it’s in the brand so if you’re consuming

cereal on a regular basis or you’re doing breads and pasta and certain

crackers things like that you potentially could be deficient in zinc

also oxalates can deplete your zinc and that would be in spinach almonds

chocolate Kiwi rhubarb antacids and acids will also lower the absorption of

zinc and they really have to do with your stomach acid you need a lot of

strong stomach acid to pull in the zinc so antacids pull the stomach acid out

leaving you deficient in stomach acid and now you can absorb zinc also

malabsorption if you’re some type of pre-existing gut damage or inflammation

your gut because of whatever maybe you took antibiotics when you’re younger

that could prevent the absorption of zinc also gastric bypass could be

another situation so if you have any of those conditions you need to take more

zinc especially if your immune system is weakened and you’re more susceptible if

you haven’t seen my comprehensive video on boosting your immune system I put it

right here and check it out