[0:00]This is Abdul Sad, clinical psychologist at Vital Mind Psychology here in Sydney, Australia. And today I'm going to be discussing the topic of the mineral zinc. Zinc, the mental health mineral. Uh, thank you very much for continuing to watch the videos. Uh, thank you for supporting the channel. Uh, thank you to the subscribers. And for all of those who engage with the content and, uh, and who comment. So in today's video I'm going to be discussing the mineral zinc. And I've, uh, termed zinc the mental health mineral for a number of reasons. Chief amongst them is that zinc is being increasingly recognized in the published research as having incredibly profound effects upon mental health, upon brain function, upon nervous system function. And zinc deficiencies are amongst one of the most common, uh, micronutrient deficiencies that are being observed in mental health populations. Um, some researchers, such as, um, William Walsh, William J. Walsh PhD, uh, have observed that zinc deficiency is ubiquitous amongst mental health populations. Whether you look at anxiety, depression, psychosis, uh, this is a very important mineral, uh, to help keep our brain in top shape and to help, uh, keep our mental health on a stable footing. So in this video I'm going to be talking about zinc the mineral, uh, the, the various roles it plays in the body, especially as it relates to mental health. So let's, uh, let's get started. So as you know, as we all know, I think zinc is a, uh, is a mineral in the body. And with regard to mental health, zinc plays a major role in our central nervous system, uh, in regulating brain, brain function. Uh, zinc, uh, helps to activate the prefrontal cortex, the rational part of the brain. Um, so it's, it allows us to, uh, make, uh, decisions to, uh, engage in what's called higher order or executive level thinking. And zinc is very, plays a very important role in moderating the fight, flight response, or in more technical terms, the HPA axis, the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis. Zinc actually plays a major role in regulating this, um, uh, brain, um, uh, adrenal, um, access which regulates our stress response. And if we're low on zinc, uh, that stress response can become highly deregulated. Um, one of the areas of, uh, the, the body that are most rich in zinc is an area of the brain called the hippocampus. And the hippocampus has a lot of zinc rich neurons, brain cells, and the hippocampus is involved in, um, memory. It's involved in regulating the stress response. And, uh, numerous studies have shown that, um, people with major depressive disorder have impaired hippocampal function. Um, and there are alterations to both the function and structure of the hippocampus in depression. And zinc plays an integral role in regulating hippocampal function. Zinc is an antidepressant, or to be more precise, zinc exerts profound antidepressant effects. And this has been demonstrated in numerous animal studies, um, and also in a number of randomized control trials in humans that zinc as a stand-alone supplement, as well as in conjunction with anti-depressants, exerts antidepressant effects. And if, uh, when it's been combined with antidepressants, zinc has been shown to increase the efficacy of the antidepressant. Basically it increases the, the, uh, the chance that the antidepressant will help, will work. In terms of the nervous system and mental health, zinc is a major, uh, sedative mineral. It has a sedative effect, and what we find as people become more zinc deficient, especially for example, young children, uh, we see an increase in hyperactive behavior, we see an increase in irritability in adults, sort of the scattered brain, uh, syndrome. Zinc has a calming, regulating effect upon the nervous system. It truly is the mental health mineral. Um, zinc is critically important for proper gut function. Um, without enough zinc, we can't properly maintain the lining of our gut, we can't properly digest food, and anyone who knows anything about, um, the latest research on mental health and, uh, the physical functioning understands that there is an intimate connection between the gut and the brain, often called the gut-brain access. And, uh, impaired gut functioning, um, is implicated in depression and in anxiety. So zinc helps regulate normal gut function and, uh, the, the lining of our, uh, of our gut. Um, zinc is also involved in regulating our blood sugars. Um, so we need zinc to produce adequate amounts of insulin and to regulate the insulin response. And we know that if insulin becomes deregulated, uh, that can also have negative mental health effects because the brain as a very glucose hungry organ, needs a reliable source of glucose, uh, to fuel, uh, it's, um, uh, billions upon billions of brain cells. In fact, the brain uses up about 20 to 25% of all the calories we eat. Uh, it's a, it's a powerhouse of energy. It is the most metabolically active organ of the body. The other thing that's important with zinc deficiency as it relates to mental health is, um, and and zinc the mineral is that zinc, um, is protective against heavy metal accumulation and heavy, heavy metal toxicity. Such as arsenic, uh, cadmium, lead, and these heavy metals have been well studied in the literature as having a profoundly disrupting effect upon central nervous system function, especially in children, who in their formative years have very, uh, a much more fragile brains and bodies compared to adults. Um, so if we look at the clinical manifestations of zinc deficiency, um, zinc deficiency can often produce quite subtle symptoms. Um, the person will feel a sense of malaise. Um, in in, uh, there's often a disruption to, uh, this person's sense of taste and smell and to the regulation of their appetite, because zinc is intimately involved in all these functions. So, uh, there could be a reduced appetite, there could be an inability to properly digest foods, especially proteins, uh, and actually appetite disturbance is actually one of the symptoms of major depression. And what we see, uh, clinically when zinc is used in, in depression is that people do report an improvement in appetite and an improvement in vitality.
[8:00]Um, So I would encourage you to look into and study zinc the mineral. Uh, it is an amazing mineral. Uh, I think that we can say with confidence that zinc deficiency is quite widespread in the population. Uh, I think it's quite widespread especially amongst children.
[8:31]And, um, children with growing brains especially need adequate sources of zinc, and the, the richest sources of zinc, uh, tend to be from the animal proteins. So meat is very rich in zinc.
[8:59]Um, the problem with the vegetarian, um, sources is that the zinc, although it is available, is very tightly bound, uh, within the, um, the fiber within the vegetarian or vegetable protein, the phytic acid. And this was actually how zinc deficiency was actually first discovered in human beings back in the 1960s where researchers studied a group of, um, uh, peasant farmers in Egypt who subsided on a vegetarian diet, a poor community. Um, didn't have a lot of access to meat and and milk product, and they were experiencing, um, dwarfism in their children and and and poor, uh, sexual development, the kids were not becoming pubescent. And zinc was the culprit. As you increase the zinc in the diet, brain development comes online, hormonal development comes online. It's important to add that in our modern stressful life, um, our bodies just like we said with magnesium can very easily become depleted in zinc. We're sweating it out, we're urinating it out, it comes out in, um, various forms from the body. And if we already have a zinc deficit because we're not ingesting it in our diet, or we're not properly absorbing the zinc rich foods, uh, this can lead to a, a mental health disaster as the zinc deficiency accumulates. Zinc is a bit tricky to test, um, sort of similar to magnesium. Um, serum and plasma levels can be of some value, although there's a lot of variation with blood testing. It can depend on, you know, what you've eaten the night before, how stressful you are. So blood levels can vary.
[11:05]Um, clinical symptoms of zinc deficiency are, uh, often quite a good guide to try and gauge your level of zinc need. And if you're vegan or vegetarian, there's definitely usually an increased need for zinc supplementation or to start to incorporate more bioavailable zinc rich foods in the diet. In terms of zinc dosing supplement wise, if we go by the, the RDA set by, uh, governments, um, it's usually about 10 to 15 milligrams, um, for children, adolescence. And anywhere from 15 to 25 milligrams in adults and that, um, is around that upper range in pregnant women as well. They have an increased need for zinc. It's important to understand that with zinc supplementation, too much of a good thing, um, it, it can be too much of a good thing. So if you're supplementing with large doses, 40, 50 milligrams a day, or more, you can actually induce a a copper deficiency or an imbalance in your zinc to copper, because zinc to copper need to be balanced in the body. Uh, what happens with a lot of zinc, uh, deficient people is they actually begin to have, um, an overload of copper. That's a whole other video about copper overload, copper toxicity, but also taking too much zinc indiscriminately can also not be helpful. So, the studies that have used zinc for depression have usually used a dose of 20 to 25 milligrams and those trials have gone on from eight to 12 weeks and they have demonstrated, um, quite solid antidepressant effects of zinc supplementation at that reasonable dose of about 20 to 25 milligrams a day. And looking around at health food stores and pharmacies, this tends to be the typical dose in most zinc, uh, formulations. Uh, good forms of zinc, highly absorbable forms include zinc picolinate, zinc citrate, zinc gluconate, um, zinc chelate, OptiZinc. Uh, less absorbed forms are, uh, zinc oxide, tends to be, um, much more, uh, much, much less absorbed. So I hope, uh, in this video I've given you some food for thought about zinc, the mental health mineral.
[14:23]Zinc, the mineral that activates the rational cortex, the prefrontal cortex, the rational part of the brain.
[14:38]Uh, zinc that allows us to adaptively deal with stress, um, and, um, I hope that this has, uh, will lead you on to some more research looking into, uh, zinc, its effects on mental health. Um, I will put, uh, some links to some of the published literature. It's always important that when we're, when we're discussing these things about health that we, uh, are open about the evidence base. And, uh, I think I'll leave it there for now. I will catch you soon with a, a new video, God willing. Take care. Bye-bye.
