Zinc Balance - Supplements Descriptions

Zinc Balance
(Jarrow Formulas)

by Gary F. Zeolla

Even though the Twinlab Daily One Caps I was using at one time contained 15 mg of zinc (100% of the DV), with my powerlifting training, I believed I needed more than this. So I also took one Jarrow’s Zinc Balance every day. This product contains 15 mg of zinc (in the form of zinc monomethionate) and 1 mg copper (in the form of copper gluconate).

Copper is included in this product as taking zinc without copper can lead to a copper deficiency. The Daily One Caps also contains 2 mg copper. So I was getting a total of 3 mg a day. This is more than the current RDA for adult men of 900 mcg, but with taking more than the RDA for zinc I thought it wise to also take "extra" copper.

At one time, I took this product along with Twinalb's CellMins: Potassium & Magnesium (aspartate hydrochloride) at bedtime. And I found this combination helped me to sleep better. And these two supplements together basically give the equivalent of the popular bodybuilding supplement ZMA.

ZMA contains zinc in the form of zinc monomethionate and magnesium in the form of magnesium aspartate. One of the main benefits lifters report from ZMA is that it helps them sleep better at night. It is also purported to raise testosterone levels. However, ZMA tends to be rather expensive. But one can get the same ingredients for much less by combining the CellMins and the Zinc Balance.

So I took the two products together for a while, but they never did seem to help with raising T levels. And then I ran into problems. The CellMins seemed to make my "tics" worse, as described on that page. And after a while, the Zinc Balance longer seemed to be helping with sleep. so I stopped taking both products.

Later, I began to question the wisdom of taking any kind of synthetic nutrients. See the article Folly of Synthetic, Mega-Dose Supplements for details. Zinc is a nutrient that too much of can cause problems. As mentioned in that article, taking excessive zinc can depress the immune system. And with 15 mg in my multi, another 15 in the Zinc Balance, that gave me 30 mg, on top of the 22 mg I average a day form my diet. And that much zinc is just too much.

So now I only take Twinlab's Food Based Ultra Daily. It contains 15 mg of zinc from baker's yeast, a natural food source, along with copper from the same source to balance out the zinc. And that is helping more with sleep and T levels than this product ever did. But if you want a separate zinc supplement, Zinc Balance would be better than most since at least it also contains copper.

Jarrow's Zinc Balance is is available at:
WebVitamins and MuscleSurf.

The above article was posted on this site May 7, 2004.
It was last updated May 3, 2008.

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