Zinc: The Essential Mineral for Endo Health

In today's episode, we continue our mineral series by diving into all things zinc! Zinc is a vital mineral for managing endometriosis, playing a crucial role in many bodily functions. Zinc supports many vital functions in the body, and it’s often something we’re deficient in. Maintaining healthy zinc levels is crucial for managing endometriosis.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

-The critical role zinc plays in your body and why it’s so important.

-How to recognize the signs of zinc deficiency and what happens if you have too much.

-Why zinc deficiencies happen, and the connection between zinc deficiencies and copper levels in the body.

-Tips on ensuring you get enough zinc through food sources and when to consider supplements.

-How to test whether you have a healthy balance of zinc in your body.

If you're fascinated by how nutrients can support your health, join me tomorrow, Thursday, August 15th, for a free webinar! I’ll be unpacking everything you need to know about functional nutrition and how to support your journey as an endo warrior. It’s going to be jam-packed with valuable information—I hope to see you there!   

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Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational purposes only. This may not be the best fit for you and your personal situation. It shall not be construed as medical advice. The information and education provided here is not intended or implied to supplement or replace professional medical treatment, advice, and/or diagnosis. Always check with your own physician or medical professional before trying or implementing any information read here.

Transcript

Alyssa Chavez [00:00:00]:
Hey, my friend. Welcome back to the Endo Belly Girl podcast. I'm Alyssa. I'm your host. I am a functional nutritionist specializing in endometriosis and super passionate about what I do. I love working with people, and so I am here to share all of the information that I have with all of you so that you can become the healthiest version of yourself, because there's so much that nutrition and lifestyle and whatnot can help with endometriosis. I really fully believe in that because I've seen it in myself, and I've seen it in my clients and the people who I work with, and I wanted to bring that to more people, and that's why I have the podcast. So that's why we're all here, right? Okay.

Alyssa Chavez [00:00:54]:
So a couple of weeks ago, two episodes ago, we talked all about magnesium, which is a fantastic mineral. It's so important for endowarriors. And so we really unpacked that and went into all the ins and outs of why magnesium is important. That was episode 47, which I will link in the show notes. But today we are going to continue on this mineral journey, because there's just so much to say and so much to think about when it comes to minerals. Minerals are these itty bitty little compounds that have a massive impact on our bodies. So today, let's take a deep dive on zinc. Zinc is another one of those minerals that's so powerful and so important for endometriosis, and another one that so many people are deficient in.

Alyssa Chavez [00:01:48]:
I see it all the time. So today, we will take a look at why zinc is important, what it does in your body, signs of deficiency to look out for, and also signs of excess, because that can happen, too, and how to ensure that you are getting enough. So, let's start out by looking at why zinc is important and what it actually does in your body. One of the major roles of zinc is supporting your immune function. Now, why is your immune function important for endometriosis? Well, actually it's everything because endometriosis is, at its root, an immune dysfunction. That inflammation that you experience, which those signs of inflammation typically include things like pain and fatigue. Guess what? That's a sign of immune dysfunction. If you want a deeper dive on that, because I'm not going to super unpack the connection between immune system and endo today, but if you want a deep dive on that, there's two episodes I've done that, really unpack that.

Alyssa Chavez [00:02:57]:
The first one is episode five called what is endometriosis really one of my early episodes where we really looked at what endometriosis actually is, which helps us to understand how to approach it. And more recently, episode 48. Hey, that's the last episode where I interviewed Doctor Sarah Wilson, a naturopathic doctor who really dove into the connection between endometriosis and the immune system and did a wonderful job. So you can definitely go check out that episode as well. I will also link to that in the show notes. And the cool thing is, there's actually been a lot of research done on that topic. There's so much to learn. And for the most part, I think that even taking zinc for immune support is kind of a common thing, right? Because think about when you get a common cold.

Alyssa Chavez [00:03:48]:
So many of us, I know I was taught this as a kid, although maybe I was just a more well informed kid. I don't know that when you start to get signs of a cold, that you take zinc right away, like within the first 48 hours. And it has been shown to reduce the severity and the longevity of a cold because it supports your immune system. And so, of course, supporting your immune system is something that we need as endowarriors. I'll give you kind of the short version, which is basically that our immune system should be going in and cleaning up those endometriosis lesions that grow in our bodies. And it's not, that's why they're there. So we definitely want some immune support to help our bodies to be able to take care of the processes that it's intended to take care of. Now, in addition to the immune system support, zinc is also needed for digestive juice production.

Alyssa Chavez [00:04:43]:
And this is another important one for my friends out there who are bloated, who have that endo belly going on, constipation, upset stomach, you may have lowered digestive juice function. I see it all the time. Right. It's something that's just super, super common these days. And honestly, zinc deficiency is a big part of that, of why your body's just not able to produce the digestive juices that it needs. So zinc is a really important piece for that. Your body requires zinc to produce those digestive juices, especially hcl, which is the stomach acid, which we actually need. Contrary to popular belief, it is actually very necessary for our digestive system.

Alyssa Chavez [00:05:32]:
Zinc also helps to maintain normal taste and smell. Now, this is an interesting one, because there's a certain virus that I will not name that was going around circa 2020, and since then, that for many people ended up or started out oftentimes with a loss of taste and smell. Or should taste. I should say taste and or smell. Well, zinc may have been part of the picture with that, right? Because zinc is a mineral that helps to maintain normal taste and smell. Zinc also helps wounds to heal properly. Right? So if you get a cut on your finger or something, the zinc helps with the wound healing process. But guess what? That's also true inside of your body, not just on the surface.

Alyssa Chavez [00:06:32]:
Zinc is also involved in insulin production, which is involved in blood sugar management. It's involved in cell growth and development. It's super important in pregnancy for this reason. So you can start to see why we need zinc so much. There's a lot of things that zinc does in your body. Now let's transition into how to tell if you are deficient in zinc. Are you actually getting enough in your body? And pretty typical. Our body is really incredible and amazing at showing us what it needs and giving us some signs and symptoms.

Alyssa Chavez [00:07:13]:
So symptoms of having low zinc in your body are things like having a weak immune system, are you getting frequent illnesses and infections, poor skin health? Having acne can actually be a sign of low zinc. Having blood sugar issues, having digestive discomfort, white spots on your fingernails. Everybody pull up your hand right now. Unless maybe you're driving, then you should focus on what you're doing. Pull up your hand right now. Look at your fingernails and check them out. Do you have white spots on your fingernails? I actually find myself looking at my fingernails all the time to check for white spots. And the cool thing is I used to always have white spots, like always.

Alyssa Chavez [00:07:56]:
And I never really thought much of it because who really thinks about that very much? Until I learned about that, that the white spots on your fingernails can relate to zinc deficiency. And then I started noticing it all the time. Nowadays, I'm looking at my fingernails now. I see one little white spot in the corner, the top corner of my thumbnail, and that's it, which is pretty cool, because my hands used to not look like that at all. But fun fact, always interesting to look at. Do you have, are your nails also kind of cracked and brittle? Do they break easily? That can also be a sign of that zinc deficiency. And we talked before about how zinc is really important in wound healing. Well, if you get wounds and they're very slow to heal, like if you get a cut and it takes a really long time for that thing to heal, that can also be a sign of low zinc.

Alyssa Chavez [00:08:51]:
Now you're probably thinking, okay, I've got white spots all over my fingernails, Alyssa and I have digestive issues and I get sick all the time and I've got acne. I must be low in zinc. I'm going to take all the zinc. I'm going to load my body up. I'm going to go the opposite extreme and get as much zinc in my body as I can. No, you absolutely can get too much zinc. It's one of those that has to be in balance. You don't want too little, but you don't want too much.

Alyssa Chavez [00:09:24]:
You want to find that nice sweet spot, that Goldilocks zone, for your zinc. The most common symptom of having too much zinc is getting a metallic taste in your mouth. So if you find that, all of a sudden you just have this weird metallic taste and you're not sure where it's coming from, you might be getting too much zinc, and typically that comes from too much supplementation. Probably very hard to get too much zinc in your diet just through food, but you can definitely get too much zinc through supplementation. That's fairly easy to do in a large part because zinc is a part of a lot of multivitamins. And so sometimes if you're taking multiple multivitamins and different ones have zinc, and then, oh, maybe we're also supplementing with zinc separately, then all of a sudden we're getting in way too much and you can start to develop that metallic taste in your mouth. Too much zinc can also lead to symptoms like nausea, dizziness, headaches, an upset stomach. So there's some other signs that can point towards too much zinc as well.

Alyssa Chavez [00:10:27]:
Just something to be aware of now, when you're supplementing, which we will dive more into in a bit, you don't want to go above about 30 milligrams per day. And I say that really as kind of more of an upper limit. Not everybody's going to even need that much, but you don't want to go beyond that. So if you are taking multiple vitamins, and especially if you have multivitamins that have a lot of different nutrients in them, you might want to check that out and just see how much zinc in total you're getting in, if at all. All right, now, we looked at some of the signs and symptoms of having a zinc deficiency, but I think one of the really important parts to be aware of is why you might be deficient in zinc. Because zinc doesn't just fall out of your body, it's used up in some fashion or another. And I think it's important to understand why, where that zinc deficiency might be coming from. So that we're not just supplementing with zinc because we're deficient in zinc, that's kind of just slapping a band aid on the problem.

Alyssa Chavez [00:11:41]:
But actually figuring out why your body is deficient in zinc in the first place is super interesting to take a look at. And there's a few reasons. It's like many things that go on in our body. It's not just one thing. There are several different things that we can look at as to what might be contributing to that. So first thing that I think is important to know is that zinc and copper, another mineral in your body, work antagonistically with each other. Meaning when you have, for example, high copper in your body, that can end up leading to low zinc and vice versa. So if you have too much copper, that can lower your level of zinc.

Alyssa Chavez [00:12:22]:
If you have too much zinc, that can lower your level of copper. And we don't want either of those to happen. We want those two minerals to be in balance because we need both. I'm not going to dig deep into copper today. That's an interesting nuance as well, especially for endowarriors who experience more period pain and things. I think copper is definitely something to consider, but we're not going to dive deep into that today. I think it's just good to know that those can work antagonistically with each other. Because what that means for us is that excessive copper intake can impact the level of zinc that you have in your body.

Alyssa Chavez [00:13:00]:
And that could come that excess copper can come from things like, for example, do you have a copper IUD? Many people who have copper IUD's put in end up getting that copper and zinc ratio out of balance where they have that excess copper going on. So that may be a consideration if that's something that you have in your body right now. Now it doesn't mean you need to go run and get that copper IUD taken out right this second. Some people really get a lot of benefit from the copper IUD. It is non hormonal, so it's all a give and take. Right. But just something to be aware of that if you are using that, you may need to think about some zinc supplementation to help offset. So just some things to think about.

Alyssa Chavez [00:13:44]:
Also, do you have copper pipes that your water is being pulled through? Typically that's going to be more common in an older home. I don't believe, to my knowledge. Not that I am any sort of expert in home building, but I don't believe they're still making a lot of copper pipes. Question mark. I really don't know. I might be totally making that up. But something to look into. If you find that copper levels are high, you might want to look into what your water is being pulled through and or just what's being filtered out.

Alyssa Chavez [00:14:16]:
If you are filtering your water, which I highly recommend. There was also a fad, which I feel like has kind of fallen off the wagon now, which is probably a good thing for the most part. There was a thing going around for a while with copper water bottles being kind of popular. I think it was kind of a fringe thing. I don't think it was ever super mainstream. But if you're drinking out of copper all the time, that can also offset the amount of zinc in your body. Something to think about. And then, of course, are you taking supplements that have copper in them? That's a pretty easy thing to look at.

Alyssa Chavez [00:14:48]:
Just check your supplement labels again. Comes in a lot of multivitamins and things like that. Okay, so we talked zinc and copper. The other thing that is really key when it comes to getting enough zinc in your body is thinking about your diet. Because most zinc, dietary zinc comes from animal sources, and that could include things like oysters, red meat, poultry, seafood. It's hard to get enough zinc without animal sources. There are some plant sources of zinc, but honestly, it's really challenging to get enough. And like anything, we come back to the conversation of bioavailability.

Alyssa Chavez [00:15:33]:
So if you, for example, are following a vegan or vegetarian diet and you're not eating those animal sources of zinc, you're not getting in those food sources, you'll probably need to be supplementing with zinc. Just something to think about because, yeah, it can just be challenging to get enough in just through diet without eating meat. Oysters in particular are considered to be probably the highest source of zinc. They're super rich in zinc. I don't go out eating oysters every day. It's. They're. They're a little pricier and it's, you know, it's not something I'm gonna sit there and, like, prepare for a weeknight meal by any means, but, you know, I like it.

Alyssa Chavez [00:16:17]:
For example, I went out to. What was that? I guess it was our anniversary dinner. That was at the time I'm recording. This was a few weeks ago or like a month ago. My husband and I went out for anniversary. We went to this seafood kind of place in San Diego, which is about an hour from where we live. And I decided, just for fun, to get a little oyster shooter thing, which was fun. I enjoyed it.

Alyssa Chavez [00:16:44]:
My husband thought it was weird and gross and wouldn't touch the oyster. So if you're on that boat, that's okay. It's not a requirement to eat oysters, but I'm just saying they are very rich in zinc. So maybe give it a try sometime and see how it goes. I think they're pretty tasty. Put a little squeeze of lemon on there. Delicious. Okay.

Alyssa Chavez [00:17:02]:
Anyway, I digress. I must be hungry or something. All right. One of the other things that can contribute to zinc deficiency is. Drumroll, please. Stress. Now, we talked about this in the magnesium episode as well, but the stress response also uses zinc. So if you're under a lot of stress, if you have high stress going on in your life, you're going to be burning through zinc faster.

Alyssa Chavez [00:17:34]:
It's going to come into your body and then right back out because you're going through those resources very quickly. Another thing that can cause you to burn through zinc very quickly is birth control. Now, we talked before about the copper IUD and why that offsets zinc. I'm actually talking right now about the hormonal birth control. So that can be the pill or the patch or the ring or any of those various types of hormonal birth control. They come in many different forms, something that's not often talked about, but hormonal birth control actually causes nutrient depletions, quite a few different nutrients. There's a whole list, which I'm not going to unpack all of that today, but zinc is on that list, as is magnesium. I don't, can't remember.

Alyssa Chavez [00:18:24]:
Actually, if I covered that in the magnesium episode, I might have mentioned it. If I didn't, I'll mention it now. But zinc and magnesium are both some of those essential nutrients that birth control kind of depletes along the way. Now, I find this topic to be super interesting, and I think it's something that all women need to be aware of because I know I was put on birth control at a young age, didn't really think much of it because it's so common and had no understanding of its impacts on my body for many, many years. So not saying, you know, pro birth control or anti birth control, I think that's a decision that every woman needs to make for themselves. Make the best decision for your own body. But I do very much believe in informed consent, meaning that you are making a fully informed decision. You know, all the pros and cons, and you are making a decision based on that information.

Alyssa Chavez [00:19:20]:
Now, we did take a deep dive on birth control in episode 28. Where I interviewed Crystal Felice, who is a fellow nutritionist, but also a former pharmacist. So she has a lot of wonderful information. She has a really interesting perspective on that. And we had a great conversation. So I'll link that one in the show notes as well. We're going to have a busy show notes today because there's just a lot of related episodes that you could definitely dive into. Now, if you're getting too much zinc, like we talked about before, definitely check in on your multivitamins, see if there is zinc in your supplements.

Alyssa Chavez [00:19:59]:
Maybe you're just supplementing with zinc too much. If you don't have any zinc in your supplements, you may also want to think about other sources. And the other one that comes to mind is topical sources like sunscreen. If you're somebody who uses a natural sunscreen, not one of the super chemically kind, but one of the more natural kind, oftentimes it has zinc in it, which is fine if you're using it once in a while. Like for me, I tend to use that sunscreen, like when I'm gonna be at the beach all day or out on the water. I love going out kayaking and stuff. So if I'm gonna be out on the water a whole lot, I'll put some sunscreen on for sure, because I am very pale and I do burn very easily. However, if you're using that stuff every day, I know some people just put sunscreen on every day.

Alyssa Chavez [00:20:51]:
Not something I would recommend either, but that's a different topic for another day that can definitely impact your level of zinc and kind of getting too much in your body. So, another thing to think about now, I gave you some of the signs and symptoms of having too much zinc or too little zinc. But the best way to know really, of course, is to test and check things out. Blood tests aren't great for zinc. There's not really a good source for that because it's just you don't really have the zinc circulating in your blood the same way you do certain other nutrients. My favorite way to test as far as getting that data on paper, is a hair trace mineral analysis, or HTMA, which I did talk about during the magnesium episode as well. It's something that I like to use with my clients. I feel like it gives some really interesting information, and it also lets you look at the mineral balance and ratios.

Alyssa Chavez [00:21:50]:
So not just the individual minerals, but you're looking at the ratios in particular in this instance, thinking about zinc and copper, and if they're in balance with each other. And when you're testing the hair like that, you're actually looking at a three month history of your minerals, which I find to be super interesting. So pretty cool little test. Another thing that you can do, which I wanted to mention as well, this is something that I also have my clients do sometimes, and I'll do for myself, is that you can also get a liquid zinc, like an aqueous zinc, hold it in your mouth for about 30 seconds and do a little taste test. Because just tasting that zinc can actually give you an idea of whether you need it or not. So if you are tasting the zinc liquid, or some people will even do the same idea with a zinc lozenge. That's an idea. But I find it easier to do with the liquid zinc.

Alyssa Chavez [00:22:53]:
If you're tasting that and you don't really taste anything, it kind of just tastes mostly like nothing. That probably means that you need more zinc. However, if you taste that zinc and you're getting that metallic taste in your mouth, that can give you an idea that you're getting enough or maybe even too much. So there you go. That's something that I actually like to do on a regular basis myself, just to kind of check in on that fun fact. All right. Definitely something that's going to be important to touch base on today is just how to ensure that you're getting enough zinc in your body. And step one for that, of course, is going to be looking into food sources.

Alyssa Chavez [00:23:35]:
Always a food for. Whoa. Food first approach. Are you eating red meat and poultry? Goodness, I'm having trouble with words today. Poultry, maybe the oysters, if you're an oyster kind of girl. And seafood. Right. Various types of seafood can be high in zinc as well.

Alyssa Chavez [00:23:55]:
So definitely use that first. Always the food first. And then step two, supplement if necessary. You want to start low and then increase from there. Now, of course, with supplementing, sourcing matters. The form matters. So something to think about. You don't want to grab just any old zinc supplement off of a shelf in the grocery store.

Alyssa Chavez [00:24:19]:
Not all supplements are created equal. I really took a deep dive with one of my colleagues and mentors, Kate Mahoney, on an episode not too long ago. And I can even tell you which one that is in just a second. I didn't actually put that in my notes because I wasn't planning to put it in my show notes, but can always add it in here. That was episode 36, looking into supplements with Kate Mahoney. Super interesting stuff. If you want to learn more about supplement quality, it's quite a wide world. But just to give you an idea for zinc, you want to be thinking about taking forms that are going to be bioavailable.

Alyssa Chavez [00:24:58]:
So looking at the type of zinc that you're taking, the most bioavailable form are going to be either a zinc that has an amino acid chelate, meaning it's attached to an amino acid. So that can be one of the common ones that I see is zinc. Biglycinate is a very bioavailable form. You can also look at food forms. So sometimes you'll see like a zinc that's just extracted straight from oysters for example. That can be a good form to take. Zinc carnosine is a good option, zinc gluconate is a good option. Ten milligrams a day can be a good starting point.

Alyssa Chavez [00:25:39]:
And then you can always work your way up to, you know, 30 milligrams a day. You really don't want to go past that because you can overdose or get too much in your body. Overdose is maybe too strong of a word, but you can definitely do too much. Alright my friend, I hope this was helpful for you. I think zinc is such an amazing mineral. We all know that I'm a big nerd, but even still it's pretty awesome. It does so much for your body. I always have some zinc on hand.

Alyssa Chavez [00:26:09]:
It's something that I take, maybe not every single day at this point in time. I was for a while, but something that I rotate in and make sure that I'm trying to get enough in my body through supplements, through food, all of the things. So if you find it interesting how nutrients can support your body, I hope you will join me tomorrow. If you're listening live to or live in real time cause this podcast of course isn't published live, but you know what I mean on the day that it was published because I'm going to be hosting a free webinar on Thursday, August 15 and I'm going to be unpacking everything you need to know about functional nutrition, how it can support you as an endowarrior. It's going to be jam packed and awesome and I hope to see you there. I will put the link in the show notes to register. Alright my friend, I had so much fun being with you here today. I really love recording this podcast.

Alyssa Chavez [00:27:11]:
I hope that you're enjoying it as much as I do. Please feel free to reach out anytime. Let me know your thoughts. Let me know if you have any questions, any particular topics that you would like to hear covered you can find me anytime on Instagram at endobellygirl, and I hope to see you there. Much love.