Liquid zinc: immediate side effects?

[UnstrungHarp]

I am reading Dr. Atkins' Vita-Nutrient Solution and have started adding some supplements beyond a daily multivitamin (primarily, anything he said that was beneficial for those with psoriasis or anxiety/depression). Some people think my supplement regimen is ridiculous when they see my pill box, but that's mostly because the fish oil and borage oil take up so much room in each day-of-the-week cube. I could list everything I take, but the one supplement that's causing problems to the point I'm going to have to discontinue it is the liquid zinc. I read that people with skin problems might be deficient in zinc, and the best way to determine this is by the liquid zinc taste test (if you taste it, you're not deficient). Unfortunately, I had to mail-order unflavored liquid zinc in order to take this test, thinking I'd just use that as my supplement since I paid for the whole bottle...plus that's what it's designed for. The dropper/lid is marked for daily dosage. Anyway, the first day I tried it, I immediately tasted it....awful!!! It took a while to get the taste out of my mouth. But other than that, no adverse effects were noticeable.

So, stupidly enough, I thought it still wouldn't hurt to take the zinc daily since the dose wasn't high enough to cause toxicity, plus I didn't want it to go to waste. The next day, I took it again around lunch time - the only difference may have been that it was on a more empty stomach this time. Yucky taste..then maybe less than a minute later, an extremely horrible feeling that's hard to describe. It was worse than just nausea...it was similar to a severe panic attack, for those of you who may have experience with that. Nausea, yes, but also a feverish flush, heart racing, the overwhelming feeling that you're going to die right there. I thought that it might have been due to the yucky taste, plus maybe some of my other supplements were reacting with it? So I bravely/stupidly tried again this morning before taking any other supplements and on a mostly empty stomach again. The result was worse than yesterday!

Has anyone else experienced this or know why it would happen? The feeling passes after an eternity....that is, maybe a minute. I decided I don't want to take it anymore since I'm clearly not deficient, but I am very curious about why it's happening.

 

[wutherhi]

Here's a link that discusses the symptoms of zinc poisoning. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002570.htm

Please check into this right away. I've also heard that overdoses of zinc can cause you to lose your sense of smell, although that is just a rumor. This website should be able to get you started finding the information you need.

Shari

 

[UnstrungHarp]

Thanks for the link. Since I feel fine the rest of the time, I am just not going to take any kind of additional zinc supplement to be on the safe side. It just seemed like a very strange reaction to have so suddenly and abruptly disappear after a couple minutes. I don't have any symptoms besides what I mentioned, certainly not a loss of my sense of smell, thank goodness!