If you are only taking 22 mg. of that zinc piconolate I think that dose is way too low. I have a dependency of zinc, so my dose will always be high (for the rest of my life). But when you are treating a deficiency you have to work with high doses. You don't start out really high but you increase the dose as your body gets used to the one you are taking.

How do you know when to stop increasing the dose? You should feel that the symptoms for that deficiency have gone away completely. My nails would usually break when my zinc level was low. If you listen to your body you can usually get some clues to when the dose is enough and when it is not enough.

I take more that 500 mg. of zinc each day. That is not the dose I recommend you even consider. But I think that 22 mg. of zinc is not enough to correct a deficiency.

You should be changing that dose, increasing it higher every few weeks.

The same with some other nutrients. You can't start out with that high a dose but you can work up to higher doses over time.

William Walsh of the Pfeiffer Institute talks about how promoting MT will help the body get rid of the heavy metals. And his method of promoting MT is to take at least 60 to 80 mg. of zinc. And I think that is the dose to take and not the amount you take each day. So you should be starting with that kind of dose with meals, all meals, and then try to increase that. Usually you should wait about two weeks to make sure your body has adjusted to that dose before you consider increasing it. And the increase should be less than 50% of the existing dose. Too much of an increase will cause problems, so try increasing the dose about 25% or 30% each time.

http://www.hputest.nl/lit109.doc

This link is some notes and may seem unorganized. But Walsh is a leading authority on MT which is a special group of proteins that gets heavy metals and other toxins out of the body via the urine mostly. There may be some other sites which mention his methods if you do a search.