While flu season largely gets the spotlight during the fall, this year has placed the attention on the ongoing coronavirus pandemic when it comes to preparing for viruses. However, the fall also usually leads to an increase in people catching a cold.
According to Piedmont Healthcare family medicine physician Dr. Daniel M. Feckoury, however, colder weather is not the culprit behind catching a cold.
“We’re inside more and we’re touching more of the same things,” he said.
Regardless, you may be considering taking a zinc supplement to help avoid getting sick or at least shorten the duration of a cold. But do they really work that way? Mic.com interviewed experts to get an understanding of how zinc functions in the body.
Evelyn R. Hermes-DeSantis, clinical professor at the Rutgers Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, told Mic that zinc is “one of those things that is necessary in a lot different functions in the body, and some of those do relate back to the common cold or anti-infection." Zinc is a mineral found in shellfish, poultry, legumes, whole grains and other foods, according to Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
While Hermes-DeSantis said it makes sense to take it in an effort to prevent infections, in randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials, researchers at the Department of Medicine in Maryland and Germany assigned participants to take either zinc or a placebo to guarantee any advantage seen in the trial wasn’t up to chance but due to zinc.
Evidence suggested that if within two days of your symptoms showing you begin taking a zinc lozenge that had between 10 and 20 milligrams of zinc every two hours while you’re awake, your cold could be three days shorter than it would’ve been if you didn’t take the lozenge. But according to Hermes-DeSantis “it was a mixed bag." Two trials showed no benefit came from taking zinc.
Additionally, a randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled trial from researchers at the University of Helsinki, Finland, published earlier this year found that zinc lozenges didn’t shorten colds.
“Our study does not confirm the usefulness of zinc lozenges for treating the common cold, but neither does it refute the previous studies where zinc lozenges were found to be effective,” Dr. Harri Hemilä said in a news release.
There’s no cure for the cold, but the Mayo Clinic has a list of things you can do to help you feel better if you catch one. They include drinking lots of water and broths for hydration, resting and adding moisture into the air to help loosen congestion.
As for zinc, the nonprofit academic medical center says that while several studies have indicated zinc supplements could shorten colds, research has shown mixed results about their effect on colds.
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