Coronavirus has many people taking more zinc than usual. Zinc is required in testosterone, which is why the rate of deaths for Coronavirus is worse for men, especially in countries where people traditionally eat red meat and a lot of meat, such as the Netherlands.[1A,1B,2] (As stated elsewhere here, men will suffer more from the lack of zinc, their bodies will try to prioritize it to the testosterone required for their muscles, and they are more likely to have a zinc deficiency before coronavirus, as well. Men in countries that eat a lot of red meat will be less tolerant of a sudden drop in zinc then men in countries where their genes have already adapted to being efficient with what little think they can get, such as through a vegetarian diet.) In India it is the reverse, a search I made as soon as I realized there was a gender difference.[3A,3B]
Likewise, for those who have studied how is zinc affect fibrogen, it shouldn't be a surprise that there are less strokes as more people who have minor clotting issues are taking zinc, and are not having the strokes which they otherwise would.
Early term and very early term babies (as well as stillbirths) correlate with lower zinc levels[6].
Autism also correlates with very early term babies[7]. No surprise: folic acid and zinc work together in the body, and when there is too much folic acid, the body defends itself by using the zinc to join with the folic acid to do other bodily "chores." Zinc works as a supply ("parts") for building the fetal brain, as well as being for methylation, reading the genes to get blueprints to build it completely and correctly. It also works in the immune system, at a higher ratio to folic acid than elsewhere. Too much folic acid can deflect the zinc away from both, ending up with autism or Asperger's, and lowered immune system, not enough to usually be a problem except with severe illness, particularly the type which includes Coronavirus.
The milder cases of Coronavirus correlate with a loss of sense of smell and taste. One possible cause could be that the body is willing to steal, I mean prioritize, the zinc away from the sense of smell and to the immune system. People whose bodies are willing and able to do that have more zinc available to the immune system than those who do not. Whether this is a natural reaction that Coronavirus is preventing in worst cases, or whether this is idiosyncratic to certain genetic or body types, nature or nurture, would be a deeper question.
One of the things we can expect from 2020 is that fetuses during this time will have a lower rate of autism and Asperger's when they grow up.
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There are two methods of zinc supplementation which I have not heard discussed. One is topical zinc creams, which are used for burns and wounds. Whether they would be an effective form of absorbing zinc without a wound, or even with one, would be something for someone else to research in the form of a study.
The other is zinc in the form of a denture adhesive cream. People who generally use denture adhesive creams which have zinc in them are liable to have adapted to a higher level of zinc, and therefore might be at a higher risk of dying of coronavirus, because their immune systems cannot get enough zinc for their higher requirement.
These people should go back to using their denture cream with zinc in it even though they're in the ER, and possibly without using the dentures.
Placing it between the gums and the cheek might be safe way to do this.
In addition, using a zinc denture adhesive in a very small amount might be a way to give a more extended zinc supplementation then would be possible with a pill. Or it might not be so extended, depending upon what sort of tissue it is in contact with. Quantity of absorption must have been researched to give a specific warning on the tubes of zinc denture adhesive cream, but the rate of absorption probably has not, and must be studied if this treatment is to be considered. Two benefits would be a way of stretching out our zinc supplement supply, and possibly giving a sustained release supply, especially for people on ventilators, where, as is done with thyroid medication in cats, it could be put in the ear canal, or other pink tissue areas, where the absorption might be slower (if it absorbs at all), which would be a benefit for people with undermethylation. (Citing zinc warning on label on Fixodent tube, Proctor&Gamble.)
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People with copper overload are low on zinc, and prone to undermethylation, since the other side of the coin of undermethylation is histadelia, and high histamine aids zinc and removing copper from the body.[15]
Possibly worse off are people with pyrrole syndrome[15], who are low in zinc and B6, and are at a higher risk of autism and Asperger's children, have a tendency toward thin skin with red blotches on them when elderly, and loss of sense of smell and taste, although that can also be the result of low folic acid, the sense of smell being one place where zinc and folic acid have been found to work together.
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Like any nutrient based health issue, each person's genetics and environment will cause it to choose different strategies for handling the excess or shortage, so that different people will present with different symptoms. This is made this difficult to handle, especially for people whose symptoms include mental illness.
Please read the page on this website about nutritional deficiencies induced by medications causing mental illness for more on this, particularly the sections on magnesium and zinc.
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Zincinc antagonists should be avoided by people who have coronavirus. That means primarily copper, which is common in seafood and spices. A diet for people who have Wilson's disease or the 2014 suggestions for Alzheimer's [] would be beneficial for those who currently have coronavirus, rather than the current suggestions of fresh fruits and vegetables and meat two to five times a week as suggested by the World Health Organization, beneficial generally for maintaining health. In fact, for those who eat red meat, increasing it would increase the amount of zinc in the body and reduce the amount of copper and folic acid.
For those with undermethylation (aka hypomethylation), already a recognized concerned with cancer, slower ability to adapt to the high and then losing environment of a single or twice a day Hospital zinc dose could put them at risk of going low zinc and not being able to adapt as quickly to it. To deal with this, meat, red meat in specific, is high in zinc but slow to absorb, a benefit which can also be gotten in the very hard to find and somewhat expensive sustained action zinc. Either of those could improve recovery rates from coronavirus, if only for people who have undermethylation.
Avoiding cadmium, aluminum, and mercury, all of which have been found to be zinc antagonists. Or to put it another way, zinc is useful in removing them from the body, which deflected away from the immune system, to get rid of them, rather than to do other work generally beneficial for the body, the way full like acid does.
To the extent that such food is available to hospitals, currently a problem in itself their diets should focus on a diet similar to Wilson's disease, or Alzheimer's.
To people not in the hospital, a diet focusing on zinc and away from copper should be suggested and described, if they have reason to believe that they may have contract Coronavirus.
Although avoiding the various zinc antagonists could be beneficial, the diet should be fortified with antioxidants, because they have been found to be beneficial in at least one study in preventing damage when zinc was deficient.
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Where is the zinc going?
Per https://cosmeticdentistryofsa.com/denture-adhesive-warning/, "Zinc poisoning may be commonly misdiagnosed as: Demyelinating Syndrome, Guillain-Barre Syndrome, Multiple Sclerosis, and Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy."
Is it possible that Coronavirus can convince the body to use the zinc inappropriately? To prioritize it to remove appropriate copper?
Conversely, is there a chance that we are giving high doses of zinc past the time when they are required, so that the Guillaim-Barrè symptoms may sometimes be caused by a copper deficiency? Cytokine storms are caused by and overactive immune system. While zinc act as a gentle braking advice for the immune system under certain circumstances, it is possible that too much zinc, removing too much copper, could cause the same symptoms as too little zinc to limit the immune system from this over activity. It is possible that either or both being too low, or simply being out of balance, could be part of the problem. Are people being tested for copper levels (and levels of other nutrients listed as zinc antagonists) as well as zinc levels after recovery from Coronavirus? Could the cytokine storms be the result of nutrient imbalance as a result of extended periods of high zinc, particularly if there is a chance that the zinc was deflected from the immune system by covid-19?
Per A Review on Kombucha Tea [28], "It was concluded that essential minerals (Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, and Zn) increased as a result of the metabolic activity of kombucha."
Could Coronavirus increase the amount or, more likely, availability, of copper or some other zinc antagonists in the same fashion?
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From looking at these conditions and situations from the lens of zinc, everything about coronavirus begins to make more sense.
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1A Healthline Media's What are the health benefits of zinc?
Medically reviewed by Debra Rose Wilson, Ph.D., MSN, R.N., IBCLC, AHN-BC, CHT — Written by Joseph Nordqvist on December 5, 2017
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/263176
Notes RDA of zinc for women is 8 mg and for men is 11 mg.
List foods containing zinc, mentioning vegetarians need extra supplementation, that meat is a major source, does not differentiate between foods with zinc and foods with zinc and a lot of copper which antagonizes zinc, such as oysters. Whether the ratio of zinc to Copper leaves oysters as a significant benefit is not mentioned; was not checked; should be confirmed or denied before advising.
1B Zinc status and serum testosterone levels of healthy adults
Nutrition. 1996 May;12(5):344-8.
doi: 10.1016/s0899-9007(96)80058-x.
A S Prasad 1, C S Mantzoros, F W Beck, J W Hess, G J Brewer
1Department of Internal Medicine, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, Michigan, USA.
PMID: 8875519
DOI: 10.1016/s0899-9007(96)80058-x
2 Brookings.edu UP FRONT
COVID-19 much more fatal for men, especially taking age into account
Richard V. Reeves and Tiffany FordFriday, May 15, 2020
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/05/15/covid-19-much-more-fatal-for-men-especially-taking-age-into-account/amp/
3A BBC News' Are more women dying of Covid-19 in India?
By Soutik Biswas India correspondent
21 June 2020
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-asia-india-53104634
3B Studies of Nutrition and Autoimmunity. Failure of Zinc Deprivation to Alter Autoantibody Production when Initiated in Disease-Established Mice1
Journal of Nutrition 117(1):177-82 · February 1987 with 61 Reads
DOI: 10.1093/jn/117.1.177 · Source: PubMed
Kimberly G. Vruwink; Carl L Keen, University of California, Davis; M. Eric Gershwin; Lucille S. Hurley
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/19341802_Studies_of_Nutrition_and_Autoimmunity_Failure_of_Zinc_Deprivation_to_Alter_Autoantibody_Production_when_Initiated_in_Disease-Established_Mice1
Zinc deprivation at early ages allows mice to adapt too low zinc with reduced autoimmunity and increased life spans; at older ages, low zinc interferes with immune sysem. Implies that epigenetic adaptation to efficient use of zinc must start young. Good vote for reduced meat intake; shows individual needs can vary from RDA epigenically.
4 In vitro effects of trace elements on blood clotting and platelet function. B--Zinc and magnesium
E A Abou Shady et al. J Egypt Public Health Assoc. 1991
J Egypt Public Health Assoc. 1991;66(1-2):49-72.
E A Abou Shady 1, H E Farrag, N A el-Damarawy, F A Mohammed, A M Kamel, A A Massoud
1Dept of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
PMID: 1800625
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1800625/
In vitro, zinc can have an immediate effect; magnesium, despite studies showing it has a benefit in reducing clotting, does not have a direct chemical effect, but must therefore have something to do with the quality or production or other preparation or interaction before an event which requires clotting.
5 Association of serum magnesium levels with risk factors, severity and prognosis in ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke patients
Sadra Samavarchi Tehrani et al. Caspian J Intern Med. Winter 2020;11(1):83-91.
doi: 10.22088/cjim.11.1.83.
Magnesium lower in those with hemorrhagic strokes.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32042391/
6 Journal of Clinical Laboratory Analysis, Volume 32, Issue 5
A multilateral investigation of the effects of zinc level on pregnancy
Özgül Özgan Çelikel, Özlem Doğan ,Nurkan Aksoy
First published: 02 February 2018
https://doi.org/10.1002/jcla.22398 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jcla.22398
Table 3 shows correlation of zinc deficiency 2 week of birth. It should be noted that stillbirths have a direct relationship to zinc levels.
It might be interesting to see if covid survivors or people who do not show symptoms include and unusually high ratio of people who were born prematurely, particularly if they did not go on to eat a lot of meat in their diet thereafter.
7 Volume 2018 |Article ID 8316212 | 9 pages | https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/8316212
Risk for ASD in Preterm Infants: A Three-Year Follow-Up Study
Ayelet Harel-Gadassi,1 Edwa Friedlander,2 Maya Yaari,2 Benjamin Bar-Oz,3 Smadar Eventov-Friedman,3 David Mankuta,4 and Nurit Yirmiya2
Academic Editor: Bennett L. Leventhal
Published11 Nov 2018
https://www.hindawi.com/journals/aurt/2018/8316212/
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15 Walsh Research Institute
Biochemical Individuality and Nutrition
By William J. Walsh, PhD, FACN
https://www.walshinstitute.org/biochemical-individuality--nutrition.html
16
17 (details, see #26) The Nutritional Relationships of Zinc - Trace Elements (pdf)
David L. Watts, D.C., Ph.D., F.A.C.E.P.i
"Manifestations of Zinc Deficiency Absolute or Relative
Manifestations of zinc deficiency will vary
from one individual to another. "
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22 DNA hypomethylation in cancer cells: "DNA hypomethylation: a ubiquitous feature of carcinogenesis"
Epigenomics. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2010 Oct 1.
Published in final edited form as:
Epigenomics. 2009 Dec; 1(2): 239–259.
doi: 10.2217/epi.09.33
PMCID: PMC2873040
NIHMSID: NIHMS171925
PMID: 20495664
Melanie Ehrlich
https://www.futuremedicine.com/doi/10.2217/epi.09.33?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%3dwww.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2873040/#__ffn_sectitle
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26 The Nutritional Relationships of Zinc - Trace Elements (pdf)
p.65 Cu & Cd as Zn antagonists
David L. Watts, D.C., Ph.D., F.A.C.E.P.i https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.traceelements.com/Docs/The%2520Nutritional%2520Relationships%2520of%2520Zinc.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiS1vDFwt3qAhUEPq0KHXBgDaoQFjAIegQIBBAB&usg=AOvVaw2YGQFQ6AQHN1A1etHbH9nO
27 Supplementation with vitamin C, vitamin E or beta-carotene influences osmotic fragility and oxidative damage of erythrocytes of zinc-deficient rats
A Kraus et al. J Nutr. 1997 Jul.
J Nutr. 1997 Jul;127(7):1290-6.
doi: 10.1093/jn/127.7.1290.
A Kraus 1, H P Roth, M Kirchgessner
1Institut für Ernährungsphysiologie der Technischen Universität München-Weihenstephan, 85350 Freising, Germany.
PMID: 9202082
DOI: 10.1093/jn/127.7.1290
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9202082/
28 A Review on Kombucha Tea—Microbiology, Composition, Fermentation, Beneficial Effects, Toxicity, and Tea Fungus
Rasu Jayabalan, Radomir V. Malbaša, Eva S. Lončar, Jasmina S. Vitas
First published: 21 June 2014
https://doi.org/10.1111/1541-4337.12073
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1541-4337.12073
Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety, Volume 13, Issue 4