| Let’s talk about something that deserves more love in the functional health world: Zinc. Underrated, essential and often completely out of whack in your clients.Everyone’s obsessing over magnesium, vitamin D, iron… meanwhile, zinc is over here holding the immune system together, regulating hormones, stabilizing the nervous system, and keeping copper from going rogue. But most people have no idea how fragile zinc status actually is…or how easy it is to tip the scale too far in either direction. First: Why is everyone so zinc-deficient?Sl. Soil depletion. Modern agriculture has stripped our soils clean, and zinc’s one of the first to go. Hybrid crops. More yield, fewer nutrients, especially zinc. Processed foods. White flour, sugar, rice? Zero zinc left. Table salt. Don’t even. EDTA on frozen food. Yep, that broccoli’s beauty treatment is binding zinc. Vegetarian/vegan diets. No shellfish or red meat = no zinc party. Stress. Chronic stress burns through zinc fast — hence the infamous white spots on nails. Life stages. Childhood, puberty, pregnancy, breastfeeding, aging, all zinc-hungry chapters. Babies are often born zinc-deficient because their moms were, too. But here’s the part no one tells you:You can overdo zinc. And I see it all the time in HTMA data. When I run an HTMA test in someone, I often see too much zinc. Too much zinc can:Trigger copper dumping (which is brutal if their liver isn’t ready for it) Worsen detox symptoms Disrupt iron metabolism Deplete other minerals like manganese and chromium Act like a mild metal stressor (especially if given in isolation) That’s why I rarely recommend more than 15mg a day, unless it’s short-term or guided by test data. Just because someone feels better at first on high-dose zinc doesn’t mean it’s fixing the root issue. It’s often just pushing copper out or metals out and if that happens too fast, it can tank sodium, spike anxiety, and make everything feel worse a few weeks in. How do you support zinc the right way? Test first. An HTMA test gives you context, especially in relation to copper, sodium, calcium, and stress patterns. Go food-first. Oysters, red meat, eggs, pumpkin seeds. If supplementing, keep it gentle. I like oyster capsules or small doses of zinc glycinate or gluconate — ideally under 15mg/day unless you’re closely monitoring the response. Don’t ignore synergy. Zinc works with vitamin A, magnesium, B6, and needs to be balanced with copper. Zinc is powerful, essential, and overlooked but like everything in mineral work, context is everything. You may not need Zinc supplementation or you may need Zinc but only certain amounts and at certain times. |
If you are the interested in testing your mineral levels (and heavy metal exposures), consider an HTMA hair test. It’s simple, easy, and can be obtained remotely. You can find information about this by clicking here. www.theweeddoc.net