Essential Minerals

As we mentioned in our previous newsletter New Zealanders are geologically a young country and trace elements and essential minerals vary in availability relative to countries that experienced glaciation and extensive sedimentation during the ice ages. Zinc is another member of the essential nutrients, which means our bodies can’t produce or store zinc so we must consume zinc as a regular part of our diet. Zinc is essential in numerous biological body functions including healing wounds and damage, growth and development generally, synthesis of DNA, gene expression, enzymatic reactions and the function of the immune system and synthesis of proteins.

Natural sources of zinc available to include in our diet are plentiful and varied. They include meat (beef,  lamb, pork, chicken and shellfish) lentils, chickpeas, yoghurt, milk and cheese, shitake mushrooms.

Zinc deficiencies may result in stunted growth, suppressed immune response, lung infections especially in the young and the elderly including susceptibility to the common cold its severity and duration.

We have heard much in the news in respect of the current strain of the corona virus we will refer to as  CV-19 in this section. A number of therapies and treatments have been trialled with very promising results  specially if administered in the early stages when symptoms are first apparent. One is by an Australian team working in both the United States and Australia, the therapy involves a triple therapy ivermectin, zinc and doxycycline, the results from which have been almost 100% cure when administered in the early stages.

The other therapy is the one that has received much publicity that President Trump is credited with using; once again it is a triple therapy that includes zinc, hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin; which once again has shown very promising outcomes for those who are treated in the early stages at the onset of CV-19 symptoms.