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Vitamins, minerals
March 23, 2009
Too little zinc might be fatal for some patients, study suggets
Many intensive-care patients suffer from a deficiency of zinc, and some of them may have a hard time fighting off sepsis, a dangerous and sometimes fatal blood infection, a new study suggests.
“Zinc deficiency is common in patients in intensive care units and in those at risk for developing sepsis,” says Dr. Elliott Crouser, a critical care specialist at Ohio State’s Medical Center in a news release about the study. Crouser is the senior author of the study being published in the April issue of the journal Critical Care.
This is the first I’ve heard of the zinc deficiency issue, but in the past year, I’ve been inundated with information about vitamin D deficiency. (I’ve been taking vitamin D supplements for the past few months since my doctor told me I might be deficient.)
Could zinc be the new vitamin D? It’s too early to say.
Crouser and his team hope say that future studies at Ohio State will try and find out if correcting zinc deficiency in ICU patients prevent deaths from sepsis, a leading cause of hospital infections. In the US, an estimated 750,000 patients a year contract sepsis.
Foods high in zinc include beef, lamb, pork, crabmeat, turkey, chicken, lobster, clams, salmon, milk, cheese, peanuts, beans, wholegrain cereals, brown rice, whole wheat bread, potatoes and yogurt, according to the Nutritional Supplements Health Guide.
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