maybe - shortage of zinc may contribute to diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's,
 

more than a few articles about this
 

i think there is something here, and as many know, zinc causes loss of sense of smell...which many PWP have as one of the early symptoms.

Here is an article, I think done by the same facility that did the research ST shared, from 2010:

http://aja.sagepub.com/content/25/7/572.abstract

BTW, selenium and copper are critical too, all minerals are vital and cannot be made by the body like most vitamins can, so we must get them from external sources....food (which may or may not provide it, depending on the soil where it is grown) or supplements.

from 1999
 

More, maybe we should look at supplementing?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10100031

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...10854512000549 I couldn't get this whole article but it sure looks fascinating and sounds like what many of us here talk about: our body trying to maintain homeostasis and apparently tiny amounts of these metals help us do it. One gets out of balance, and it's a mess. If anyone can access this entire article, please share it with the rest of us.

I agree with you, there definitely appears to be something going on with zinc. I would be careful though, before starting to add supplements. Zinc can be toxic when there is an excess.

Zinc Discovery May Shed Light on Neurodegenerative Diseases
 

Just saw this article on zinc. Although the research was actually done on yeast cells it was still very interesting.

Scientists at UW-Madison have made a discovery that, if replicated in humans, suggests a shortage of zinc may contribute to diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, which have been linked to defective proteins clumping together in the brain.

If low zinc supply has the same effect on human cells as on yeast, zinc deficiency might contribute to human diseases that are associated with a build-up of “junked” proteins, such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Eide says a similar protective system to Tsa1 also exists in animals, and the research group plans to move ahead by studying that system in human cell culture.


http://neurosciencenews.com/neurolog...tion-zinc-460/

Ten years ago a "hair analysis" showed only low zinc as abnormal for me.

I find this thread interesting.

There is one other factor to consider...some drugs actually deplete
zinc!

ACE inhibitors are one common class that do this.
Diuretics
long term antibiotics
long term use of GERD acid lowering drugs
Estrogens (HRT and birth control)
Some of the HIV drugs (anti-retrovirals)

Vegetarians can become low in zinc, as phytates in veggies may complex out the zinc and prevent absorption in the GI tract.

People with low zinc also have skin problems, acne etc. I also see loss of smell already mentioned, but this too can happen. Low zinc also may lead to more infections.

food over medicine
 

If you don't want to risk supplementing with minerals, which can be tricky because more is definitely NOT better, then try increasing eating more foods which contain zinc:

oysters and certain other fish
meats (beef has the highest, I think, grass fed if you can get it)
pumpkin seeds (squash seeds too, but not many folks eat those)

there are others but these are the main ones....

We started taking a mineral complex last night, it's the one by Source Naturals, called Life Minerals...it claims it is closest to the Krebs cycle and has high bioactivity. We won't take one every day, probably every other day or maybe even just 2 times a week, to see how we do. I'll share what we experience, good or bad.

I certainly agree that food would be better then any supplementing if that food would be grown on minerals and other nutrients rich soil. There is some info on do and don't of zinc supplementing, etc., on this website ://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/natural/982.html. From my own experience (long time ago), I developed white spots on my fingernails after taking 50,000 IU of vit A a day for approximately three weeks. I read that vit A interact with Zinc and that white spots on the fingernails might indicate Zinc deficiency. When I lowered vit A to 10,000 IU a day and took Zinc supplement all white spots disappeared.

even though i posted this, slightly skeptical. there a lot of malnourished people in the world and i don't think they have a higher incidence of pd. if there was a strong correlation with zinc you'd think there would be cluster of pd geographically, economically.

plus in countries where whole grain unleavened bread is a staple, they ingest more phytic acid, which is a strong chelator. phytic acid has a strong attraction to cations since it is a sugar with 6 phosphate groups attached. leavening breaks down the phytic acid. not sure if pd is higher in those countries.