Oral Zinc for the Common Cold

CLINICAL QUESTION: Is oral zinc associated with a shorter duration, decreased severity, and reduced incidence of the common cold compared with placebo ? BOTTOM LINE: When initiated within 24 hours of symptom onset, oral zinc is associated with a shorter duration of the common cold in healthy people....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association 2014-04, Vol.311 (14), p.1440-1441
Main Authors: Das, Rashmi Ranjan, Singh, Meenu
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Cell adhesion & migration
Colds
Common Cold - drug therapy
Enterovirus
General aspects
Human viral diseases
Humans
Infectious diseases
Medical sciences
Medical treatment
Picornaviridae
Viral diseases
Viral diseases of the respiratory system and ent viral diseases
Viruses
Zinc
Zinc Compounds - therapeutic use
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Summary:CLINICAL QUESTION: Is oral zinc associated with a shorter duration, decreased severity, and reduced incidence of the common cold compared with placebo ? BOTTOM LINE: When initiated within 24 hours of symptom onset, oral zinc is associated with a shorter duration of the common cold in healthy people. However, there is no association between oral zinc and symptom severity, and the prevalence of adverse effects with zinc lozenges is high. Given the high heterogeneity of data, these results should be interpreted with caution. Used prophylactically, oral zinc is associated with a reduced cold incidence in children. Prophylactic use has not been studied in adults.
ISSN:0098-7484
1538-3598
DOI:10.1001/jama.2014.1404