According to a podcast that seemed like the host knew what he was talking about, you also need the lozenges to not contain any additional ingredients that might make them taste nice, like vitamin C. (If it tastes nice, the zinc isn’t binding in the right place. Bad taste doesn’t mean it’s working, but good taste means it’s not.) As of a few years ago, that brand of lozenge was apparently the only one on the market that would work. More info: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/un2fgBad4uqqwm9sH/is-this-info-on-zinc-lozenges-accurate
Last time I looked into all this a while back, eg on Examine.com—an excellent site which analyses research on supplements—Healthspan Elite Zinc Defence Lozenges seemed to be the only suitable zinc lozenge available in the UK for treating colds once you have them. Doesn’t come with instructions (!) but as soon as cold symptoms start, dissolve slowly in the mouth and avoid eating/drinking for say 15 min afterwards, and avoid citric acid for a while before too. You need to take 9 lozenges (1 sheet) per day.
Examine.com also suggests black elderberry, eg Sambucol Immuno Forte. High doses of vitamin C may also shorten colds slightly, and help prevent them in people who have very high physical activity eg athletes & soldiers. Zinc (swallowed pills, not lozenges) may also help prevent colds.
Evidence for all these things is weak IIRC but fairly harmless to try, particularly if (as for me) your colds are frequent, persistent, or annoying.
I don’t think it is worth listening to “a podcast host” on medicine in any circumstance, tbh.
Elaborating, I thought that wouldn’t even be controversial—“I heard it on a podcast” fairly universally precedes advice and ideas that range from questionable to outright false, and maybe out of a dew dozen pieces of scientific or medical knowledge I’ve received anecdotally from heardonapodcast none of them have checked out when I looked.
And that advice in particular really doesn’t mesh with any sort of biochemistry I know of—it’s the exact kind of folk medical advice that wouldn’t work.
Copying my comment from the original site:
According to a podcast that seemed like the host knew what he was talking about, you also need the lozenges to not contain any additional ingredients that might make them taste nice, like vitamin C. (If it tastes nice, the zinc isn’t binding in the right place. Bad taste doesn’t mean it’s working, but good taste means it’s not.) As of a few years ago, that brand of lozenge was apparently the only one on the market that would work. More info: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/un2fgBad4uqqwm9sH/is-this-info-on-zinc-lozenges-accurate
I feel like as a community we have too much reliance on this one podcast for our zinc usage. I’d love for someone to do an independent analysis.
Last time I looked into all this a while back, eg on Examine.com—an excellent site which analyses research on supplements—Healthspan Elite Zinc Defence Lozenges seemed to be the only suitable zinc lozenge available in the UK for treating colds once you have them. Doesn’t come with instructions (!) but as soon as cold symptoms start, dissolve slowly in the mouth and avoid eating/drinking for say 15 min afterwards, and avoid citric acid for a while before too. You need to take 9 lozenges (1 sheet) per day.
Examine.com also suggests black elderberry, eg Sambucol Immuno Forte. High doses of vitamin C may also shorten colds slightly, and help prevent them in people who have very high physical activity eg athletes & soldiers. Zinc (swallowed pills, not lozenges) may also help prevent colds.
Evidence for all these things is weak IIRC but fairly harmless to try, particularly if (as for me) your colds are frequent, persistent, or annoying.
I don’t think it is worth listening to “a podcast host” on medicine in any circumstance, tbh.
Elaborating, I thought that wouldn’t even be controversial—“I heard it on a podcast” fairly universally precedes advice and ideas that range from questionable to outright false, and maybe out of a dew dozen pieces of scientific or medical knowledge I’ve received anecdotally from heardonapodcast none of them have checked out when I looked.
And that advice in particular really doesn’t mesh with any sort of biochemistry I know of—it’s the exact kind of folk medical advice that wouldn’t work.
Why do you think that?
edited to add