I have moderate acne now, and had a saliva test done and a nutritionalist and he said I was extremly low in zinc! Do you think this could be causing my acne?

cause of your acne? probably not. but taking zinc could drastically improve it. give 50mg of zinc a try for sure

It's not impossible. Lowered levels of zinc have long correlated with acne. Recent research implicates the superoxide anion as the precise mechanism by which P. acnes induces inflammation in the skin, and one of the most effective reducers of the superoxide anion is zinc superoxide dismutase -- for which you need both zinc and superoxide dismutase.

Unfortunately, there is no test for zinc deficiency -- many otherwise healthy people show lowered levels of zinc in one or more of the many ways zinc can be measured (urine, red blood cells, serum, saliva, etc.). (OTOH, if your doctor was testing your saliva zinc because he detected symptoms that are often curable by taking zinc, then that would be the correct way to conclude you are zinc deficient.)

More unfortunate, taking a zinc supplement may not get digested well, or if digested, may not go to where it might be relevant to skin. Did your doctor test your Vitamin D levels? There's a preliminary hint from Alzheimer's research that people who have little Vitamin D will have trouble absorbing zinc (which is not an easy to absorb substance in the first place).

And of course, even if all this were true and you elevated your zinc levels substantially, you still would need good levels of superoxide dismutase to go with the zinc to affect acne.

This is the Zinc supplement that I've been taking, its more expensive but it's in an organic natural form so it will likely be better absorbed. If you're lacking in zinc I would take two a day since they're 30mg.

http://www.iherb.com/New-Chapter-Zinc-Food...Tablets/67?at=0

This post has been edited by Stephen01: Nov 19 2009, 01:12 PM