there's a dark side of zinc relating to
your hair that we need to talk about now
since zinc is probably one of the most
important trace minerals for your hair
you need to know that too much zinc can
cause the same exact problem with your
hair as not enough zinc so zinc being a
trace mineral is involved in over 300
different enzymes relating to your
immune system testosterone sense of
smell taste Vision reproduction skin
health I mean it's involved in almost
every part of your immune system but I
want to touch on the relationship
between zinc and your hair because a lot
of people are taking way too much zinc
and that could be the reason why things
get worse so the reason why you might
lose your hair when you don't have
enough zinc is that zinc is needed to
support the growth of the hair follicle
now what is the hair follicle it's not
the actual hair it's the pore or shaft
that the hair grows out of and it's just
beneath your scalp and so the growth of
that follicle is dependent on zinc and
if you don't have zinc you're not going
to have follicles for the hair to grow
out of zinc is also needed for collagen
and keratin two types of protein that
allows the hair to be strong and elastic
so if you're deficient in zinc you're
going to have thin hair and brittle hair
because it's not going to be elastic and
also zinc is needed to make this enzyme
Alp I'm not going to get into the name
of it it's not important but Alp is
involved in three different Pathways
that control the different phases of
hair growth so for example if you have
one of the phases of hair being a little
too short or not even existing at all
because you don't have enough zinc
you're going to have hair loss just from
that enzyme and on top of that that
enzyme is also responsible for feeding
the hair follicle energy so it can
actually work correctly and so as you
can see zinc is really really important
your hair depends on it okay and I'm
going to talk about the amounts of zinc
that you need but let's just first talk
about what happens when you get too much
zinc and what those numbers are when you
get too much zinc you actually create a
copper deficiency in the body because
zinc and copper work together like a
teeter-totter just like in calcium and
magnesium but the more zinc that you
take the more copper you're going to
need and if you're taking zinc without
copper that's when you can create
problems but copper itself is involved
in hair growth as well copper maintains
the color of your hair so if you have to
color your hair very often chances are
you could be missing copper copper also
helps the structural Integrity of the
hair and so this could actually show up
as a thinning hair brittle hair or even
hair loss copper is the co-factor or
helper molecule in different enzymes
that relate to the growth of hair as
well as the maintenance of your hair so
copper will help prevent the hair loss
prevent air thinning and it will support
the follicle that that shaft of the hair
so when you think of zinc toxicity think
of a copper deficiency so here's the
important part the upper tolerance the
amount of zinc that you can take without
any side effects is roughly about 40
milligrams per day and this is for
adults and you're not going to have any
bad effects from that and just so you
know the bad effects would be feeling
nauseous you might have vomiting
decrease appetite abdominal cramps
diarrhea and headaches but here's the
thing you need to know
in certain circumstances you need to
take high amounts of zinc like if you
have an autoimmune disease or you get an
infection or you have inflammation of
the gut which prevents the absorption of
zinc because most of the absorption
happens in the small intestine and just
so you know when you eat food that's
high in zinc like whether you're eating
oysters any Meats shellfish seaweed or
cheese you're only absorb 20 to 40
percent of the zinc from those foods but
if you have inflammation in your gut
it's going to be less than that now on
top of that there's other things that
decrease the absorption of zinc like
stress like a high carb diet like phytic
acid now what is phytic acid that's a an
anti-nutrient in grains that prevents
the absorption of zinc and other
minerals and then another thing is if
your estrogen dominant let's say you're
taking birth control pills or hormone
replacement therapy as estrogen or
progesterone you can block the
absorption of zinc and then you also
have your stomach acid if your stomach
acid is not strong enough you're not
going to absorb zinc so in those
situations you have to take more and in
some videos I even recommend taking 200
or even 250 milligrams of zinc short
term to overcome a certain health
problem whether it's autoimmune or
inflammation or whatever but the key is
making sure you take enough copper to
prevent any side effects at all and so
roughly the ratio of zinc to Copper that
I would recommend is like 10 to 1. 10
times more zinc than copper so let's say
for example you don't have an autoimmune
disease you're not going through an
infection you don't have any problems
with your small intestine I would take
the upper limit dose of 40 milligrams of
zinc per day and then I would roughly
take like one milligram of copper now
these numbers are arbitrary worry
they're not exact so it can be around
that but generally speaking if you do
like a 10 to 1 ratio of zinc to Copper
you're not going to experience symptoms
but some people actually like to start
off small and just do like maybe 10
milligrams of zinc and maybe see how
that does maybe work up but so many
people are deficient in zinc 1.1 billion
people on this planet are deficient in
zinc and what the body will do it'll
allocate that zinc to the most important
uh functions of the body and not to
everything so the body tends to ration
out or use the zinc the most important
parts and that probably be related to
reproduction sperm count things like
that but your hair probably is not the
top of the list for survival as a
priority I mean you can survive without
your hair just fine but as a species we
can't survive without reproducing so you
have a couple options with zinc make
sure that you're avoiding things that
prevent the absorption but also you
might want to be taking some zinc in
addition to that eating foods high in
zinc now there's a lot more to know
about zinc it's a fascinating mineral if
you haven't seen this video you should
probably check it out right now
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