Thread by @outliersgeorg

#COVID19 and zinc: a thread

1) Oral-dissolving zinc supplementation can block replication of upper respiratory viruses. The key point is keeping a high concentration of zinc in your throat area as much as possible - suck on lozenges or tablet fragments all day.

2) This works for colds, but it's a hassle. People don't want to bother with tasting zinc all day starting at the first sign of a sniffle in order to have a milder and shorter cold. But for a more serious virus, that can make a big difference.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinc_and_…

3) With oral dissolution, you're taking a mildly toxic dose of zinc & may experience stomach discomfort. OK tradeoff if you ask me.

Intranasal preparations are also effective but can potentially fuck up your sense of smell for life. We flew too close to the Sun on that one.

4) Do we know for ABSOLUTE FACT that zinc works for COVID19? No, because it's such a new virus. But it works for a ton of viruses, including SARS classic edition, so it'd be weirder if COVID19 were impervious.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/21079…
journals.plos.org/plospathogens/…

5) Finally, anecdata: another thing that makes it difficult to dose for colds is that it's a skill. There's a narrow range in between "not taking enough to do anything" and "ugh this stuff is giving me indigestion". The key in my experience is dose frequency.

So for example if you take 30mg pills 3x/ day, one at a time, you will likely give yourself indigestion and not slow down your virus that much, whereas if you divide those same pills into thirds or quarters and dose every 1-2 hrs, you're increasing the time it's in your saliva.