Zinc Supplementation Has No Effect on Lipoprotein Metabolism, Hemostasis, and Putative Indices of Copper Status in Healthy Men

Abstract

Pharmacological doses of zinc can adversely affect body copper status. The resulting copper deficiency can impact directly upon cholesterol metabolism and a suboptimal copper status has been observed to influence markers of hemostasis (specifically fibrinogen and the copper-containing coagulation factors V and VIII). The aim of this investigation was to examine the effect of a low level of zinc supplementation, to include dietary intake, at the United States tolerable upper intake level of 40 mg/d upon indicators of lipid metabolism, hemostasis, and copper. Thirty-eight subjects were recruited onto a double-blind placebo-controlled intervention trial and randomly selected to one of two groups. Group 1 took zinc supplements (30 mg/d) for 14 wk followed by copper supplements (3 mg/d) for 8 wk (to counteract adverse effects, if any, of zinc supplementation). A second group took placebo supplements for the full duration of the trial. Estimated dietary zinc intake approximated 10 mg/d. The effect of supplement was analyzed by repeated-measures analysis of variance (anova). Results indicate that no effect of zinc supplementation on putative indices of copper status, lipoprotein metabolism, and markers of hemostasis. These results indicate that short-term low-level zinc supplementation (total intake 40 mg/d) is not detrimental to health.

Effect of zinc supplementation on insulin resistance and components of the metabolic syndrome in prepubertal obese children

“…22, 23 The non-significant change in HDL-C in this study was consistent with other studies. The effect of zinc supplementation in males appears to be dependent on the dose of zinc and the duration of the supplementation.…”

“…The majority of controlled trials which evaluated the effect of zinc supplementation on plasma lipids did not document significant changes on serum lipids with 15-150mg daily zinc. [22][23][24] On the other hand, it was shown that supplementation with 20 or 53mg zinc/day can decrease plasma cholesterol concentrations in older people with low zinc serum level.…”

Zinc as a feed supplement and its impact on plasma cholesterol concentrations in breeding cocks

“…The impact of zinc on other monitored blood plasma indices in breeding cocks was not found in our study; the similar results were obtained by Bonham et al (2003). The presented work provides the first available experimental evidence regarding the impact of zinc supplementation on the cholesterol concentrations in blood plasma of breeding cocks.…”

Toxicological Profile for Zinc

“…Healthy men given 200 mg zinc/day as elemental zinc for 6 weeks showed a reduction in lymphocyte stimulation response to phytohemag glutinin as well as chemotaxis and phagocytosis of bacteria by polymorphonuclear leukocytes (Chandra et al 1984); however, no changes in lymphocyte cell number or in the proportion of lymphocyte populations were noted. Exposure of male volunteers to 0.48 mg zinc/kg/day, as zinc glycine chelate, had no effect on markers of coagulation (Bonham et al 2003b) relative to unexposed subjects. While the changes in hematological end points following long-term zinc exposure in humans are noteworthy, they were subclinical in nature, and therefore, are generally considered to be non-adverse.…”

“…A series of two studies (Bonham et al 2003a(Bonham et al , 2003b) evaluated a large number of hematological and immunological parameters as well as several copper-sensitive enzymes (e.g., superoxide dismutase) in healthy men exposed to 0.43 mg supplemental zinc/kg/day, and reported no significant changes resulting from zinc exposure. Studies by three other groups have evaluated exposures in the 0.6-0.8 mg zinc/kg/day range and identified slight but measurable effects.…”