Special edition: Immune support
Zinc
While scientific reviews may have questioned some of the other ingredients, a review in the Open Respiratory Medicine Journal concluded that zinc lozenges may shorten the duration of common cold episodes by up to 40%.
Dr Harri Hemila of the University of Helsinki, Finland, who authored the review, said: “Controlled trials that have examined the effect of zinc lozenges on common cold symptoms have reported divergent results.
“This meta-analysis shows that a large part of the divergence can be explained by the variation in the total daily dose of zinc that the person obtained from the lozenges.”
A recent Cochrane review estimated that the total economic impact of cold-related work loss exceeds $20 billion USD per year. As a result, Americans spend around $2.9 billion on over-the-counter drugs (and another $400 million on prescription medicines) for symptomatic relief of cold.
