Zinc and colds.Zinc and colds If zinc lozenges do cure the common cold, as one study indicated in 1984, they don't do it by killing the virus directly, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. researchers in Charlottesville, Va. While researchers at several institutions are conducting clinical trials of human reactions to zinc gluconate Zinc gluconate is the salt of gluconate and zinc II. It is an ionic compound consisting of two moles of gluconate for each mole of zinc. Zinc gluconate is a popular form for the delivery of zinc as a dietary supplement. , University of Virginia's Felicia C. Geist, Judith A. Bateman and Frederick G. Hayden have taken it back to the lab. They pitted various concentrations of zinc gluconate and other zinc salts against rhinoviruses growing in human cell lines and found that the zinc compounds did not inhibit the viruses. "These results do not exclude the possibility that zinc lozenges have a therapeutic effect in natural colds," says Hayden. Zinc could have an independent effect on the immune system immune system Cells, cell products, organs, and structures of the body involved in the detection and destruction of foreign invaders, such as bacteria, viruses, and cancer cells. Immunity is based on the system's ability to launch a defense against such invaders. or on the rhinovirus's target cells in the body (as opposed to in vitro in vitro /in vi·tro/ (in ve´tro) [L.] within a glass; observable in a test tube; in an artificial environment. in vi·tro adj. In an artificial environment outside a living organism. ). The results "do predict that the possible beneficial effects are unlikely to be related to specific antiviral antiviral /an·ti·vi·ral/ (-vi´ral) destroying viruses or suppressing their replication, or an agent that so acts. an·ti·vi·ral adj. action," Hayden says. |
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