Inflammation, the immune system, and zinc.

This paper acknowledges that zinc-deficient patients display severe immune dysfunctions. Zinc is an antioxidant, has anti-inflammatory actions, and has performed therapeutic roles in acute infantile diarrhea, acrodermatitis enteropathica, prevention of blindness in patients with age-related macular degeneration, as well as treatment of the common cold.

It is recently reported that in both young adults and elderly subjects, zinc supplementation decreases oxidative stress markers and the generation of inflammatory cytokines.