Zinc plays an essential role in the formation of DNA, the formation of proteins, cell growth, wound and tissue healing. It is involved in maintaining your sense of taste and smell and plays a vital role in maintaining optimal immune function.
To ensure that you get enough zinc to support all these important functions, you must consume sources of zinc every day as your body does not store zinc like it does some other vitamins and minerals. While we all must ensure that we get some zinc in our diets every day, the amount of zinc that we require may differ.
Let’s take a deeper look into the role of zinc in the immune system. One of the basic roles of zinc is to support overall cell growth and development. This includes cells involved in the immune system such as lymphocytes.
You have two main types of lymphocytes namely T-cells and B-cells. There are a variety of T-cells that either alert the immune system that it is time to fight off an infection, support other immune cells to fight off infections or to fight infections themselves. B-cells make something called antibodies that are created to recognize incoming infections and create a reaction in the body to fight the infection.
Neutrophils
A type of white blood cell that help to fight off infections and heal damaged tissues in the body
Macrophages
Responsible for searching the body and detecting infections. They help to destroy infected cells and cells that may have died.
If you do not consume enough zinc, then these cells involved in the immune response do not grow and develop correctly. This significantly impacts the core function of the immune system.
Zinc also plays a key role in wound and tissue healing; therefore, a zinc deficiency prevents this from occurring as it should. Open wounds and damaged tissues that do not heal can further increase your risk for infection, so this starts to become a vicious cycle of inadequate immune function.
Zinc importantly functions as an antioxidant in the body, which means that it helps to prevent oxidative stress in the body by neutralizing free radicals. Free radicals are unstable molecules in the body that can cause damage if there are too many of them. Oxidative stress is when there are too many free radicals in the body because they are not being removed. During oxidative stress, the body is vulnerable to damage right down to a DNA level.
Your genetic make-up may influence your zinc requirements. Eatwellgx™ can help you uncover whether you require more zinc than the average person. Make a better choice, choose Eatwellgx™ today!
