(Press-News.org) Zinc supplements reduce the severity and duration of illness caused by the common cold, according to a systematic review published in The Cochrane Library. The findings could help reduce the amount of time lost from work and school due to colds.
The common cold places a heavy burden on society, accounting for approximately 40% of time taken off work and millions of days of school missed by children each year. The idea that zinc might be effective against the common cold came from a study carried out in 1984, which showed that zinc lozenges could reduce how long symptoms lasted. Since then, trials have produced conflicting results and although several biological explanations for the effect have been proposed, none have been confirmed.
The review updates a previous Cochrane Systematic Review, carried out in 1999, with data from several new trials. In total, data from 15 trials, involving 1,360 people, were included. According to the results, zinc syrup, lozenges or tablets taken within a day of the onset of cold symptoms reduce the severity and length of illness. At seven days, more of the patients who took zinc had cleared their symptoms compared to those who took placebos. Children who took zinc syrup or lozenges for five months or longer caught fewer colds and took less time off school. Zinc also reduced antibiotic use in children, which is important because overuse has implications for antibiotic resistance.
"This review strengthens the evidence for zinc as a treatment for the common cold," said lead researcher Meenu Singh of the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh, India. "However, at the moment, it is still difficult to make a general recommendation, because we do not know very much about the optimum dose, formulation or length of treatment."
Further research should focus on the benefits of zinc in defined populations, the review suggests. "Our review only looked at zinc supplementation in healthy people," said Singh. "But it would be interesting to find out whether zinc supplementation could help asthmatics, whose asthma symptoms tend to get worse when they catch a cold." The researchers also say that more work needs to be carried out in low-income countries, where zinc deficiency may be prevalent.
### END
Zinc reduces the burden of the common cold
2011-02-16
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Safety of biologic treatment for arthritis depends on the drug
2011-02-16
Some biologic drugs may be safer than others according to a new systematic review by Cochrane researchers. Biologics are a broad class of drugs based on biological molecules. The drugs are used to reduce inflammation in diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease.
Although the effectiveness of biologics is now well established, it is thought that some may have rare but serious side effects related to their immune-suppressing activities. Links have been made to increased risk of infections, reactivation of tuberculosis (TB), cancer and congestive ...
Tick population plummets in absence of lizard hosts
2011-02-16
Berkeley — The Western fence lizard's reputation for helping to reduce the threat of Lyme disease is in jeopardy. A new study led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, found that areas where the lizard had been removed saw a subsequent drop in the population of the ticks that transmit Lyme disease.
"Our expectation going into this study was that removing the lizards would increase the risk of Lyme disease, so we were surprised by these findings," said study lead author Andrea Swei, who conducted the study while she was a Ph.D. student in integrative ...
Study finds blacks more likely to be readmitted to hospitals after discharge
2011-02-16
Boston, MA – Elderly black patients were more likely to be readmitted to the hospital after a prior hospital stay for a heart attack, heart failure, or pneumonia, according to a new study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers. They found that the higher readmission rates were due to disparities related to both race and the hospitals where patients were treated.
"Disparities in health and health care are well-documented in this country, but little was previously known about whether there were disparities in hospital readmissions at the national level," ...
Calorie labeling has no effect on teenagers' or parents' food purchases
2011-02-16
(New York, NY) February 15, 2011 – A new study led by an NYU School of Medicine investigator and published in the February 15, 2011, Advance Online Publication, International Journal of Obesity, challenges the idea that calorie labeling has an effect on the purchasing behavior of teenagers or what parents purchase for their children. Teens appear to notice the calorie information at the same rate as adults, however they respond at a lower rate. The conclusions are similar to a previous study about adult eating behavior by Dr. Brian Elbel, assistant professor and colleagues, ...
Losing hair at 20 is linked to increased risk of prostate cancer in later life
2011-02-16
Men who start to lose hair at the age of 20 are more likely to develop prostate cancer in later life and might benefit from screening for the disease, according to a new study published online in the cancer journal, Annals of Oncology [1] today.
The French study compared 388 men being treated for prostate cancer with a control group of 281 healthy men and found that those with the disease were twice as likely as the healthy men to have started going bald when they were 20. However, if the men only started to lose their hair when they were 30 or 40, there was no difference ...
Frequent, potentially avoidable readmissions are major driver of pediatric health care care costs
2011-02-16
Boston, Mass. - Hospital readmissions are increasingly viewed as an indicator of quality of care. If patients receive appropriate discharge care planning and coordinated outpatient follow-up when leaving the hospital, they should transition safely home without the need to return to the hospital. n a retrospective study of inpatient records at 37 free-standing children's hospitals between 2003 and 2008, nearly 20 percent of admissions and one-quarter of inpatient expenditures ($3.4 billion) were accounted for by a small group (2.9 percent) of patients who were readmitted ...
UT Southwestern launches clinical trial for treatment of breast cancer using CyberKnife
2011-02-16
DALLAS – Feb. 15, 2011 – Breast-cancer patient Kristin Wiginton is the first to be treated at UT Southwestern Medical Center with high-beam radiation using the Accuray CyberKnife System, which offers improved cosmetic results, less radiation exposure to surrounding tissue and a shorter treatment period.
Dr. Wiginton is among 45 participants in a UT Southwestern-based clinical trial – the first of its kind in the Southwest – investigating use of the radiation delivery system for breast cancer. Her post-lumpectomy therapy lasted one-third the duration of a typical radiation ...
US Secret Service moves Tiny Town to Virtual Tiny Town
2011-02-16
Chemical releases, suicide bombers, air and subsurface threats: the U.S. Secret Service needs to be prepared to handle these real-life incidents. Training to respond to such incidents, however, has been more theoretical than practical.
Now, with help from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science & Technology Directorate (S&T), the Secret Service is giving training scenarios a high-tech edge: moving from static tabletop models to virtual kiosks with gaming technology and 3D modeling.
For the past 40 years, a miniature model environment called "Tiny Town" ...
Chance of dying early 20 percent higher in north than south England
2011-02-16
Since 1965, the chances of dying early (under 75) are a fifth higher in the north of England than the south, finds a study published on bmj.com today.
An accompanying editorial says the north-south health divide is now at its widest for 40 years and warns that "the north is being decimated at the rate of a major city every decade."
The north-south health divide in England is well documented and has posed a public health challenge - as well as a political and economic challenge - to successive governments. From 2003 to 2010, the UK government had performance targets ...
Therapy for depression can be delivered effectively by non-specialists
2011-02-16
Depression can be treated effectively with psychotherapy by mental health nurses with minimal training, according to new preliminary research findings.
The study, led by Durham University's Mental Health Research Centre, shows that patients with severe depression can be treated successfully with behavioural activation – a psychotherapy for depression – by non-specialist mental health staff which could potentially lead to considerable cost-savings for the NHS.
Currently, psychotherapies, such as behavioural activation, are delivered by specialist clinicians and therapists. ...