Whilst looking into copper deficiency, I have found a number of references to the danger of ending up with a copper deficiency due to taking zinc supplements.

I can personally testify that this is possible as I recently developed much more frequent arrhythmias which, I strongly suspect, was due to over-supplementation with zinc gluconate (but could have been caused by a few other things, too).

There's more here about this:

http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/reprint/51/2/225.pdf

It's a fairly technical article but the abstract at the beginning should give you the gist.

I am pretty sure that my arrhythmias are mostly copper related because now that I have upped my copper intake (temporarily with supplements - and long-term I will ensure I have plenty of copper and zinc in my food, but not in supplements, especially not zinc gluconate), the frequency of my arrhythmias has gone down again. I am still deficient, I think, as about 12 hours after taking 2mg of copper, the arrhythmias start to become more frequent again, but about half an hour after taking the copper, they go again!!!

Just thought I'd pass this on.

amanda

Thank you for posting this!

I forwarded the article to my mom. She had several of the symptoms listed in the article and is now cutting back her zinc supplements. She wasn't taking much, but she thinks it could be part of her problem.

Hi NewRuth,

You're welcome!!! That was the main reason I posted the article, because I thought there might be a few people out there who might have these problems. Apparently, zinc excess can be a problem with people who have dentures if the paste they use to help fix the dentures has zinc in it. I read about that a few times when I was looking up zinc toxicity on pubmed.

Does your mum also have dentures by any chance?

And, for some people, like myself, too, it doesn't have to be very much. I was taking a supplement that had 15mg per tablet (the RDA) and for a while I took two a day. Some zinc supplements have 50mg or even a 100mg!!!

The trick, apparently, is to take a chelated zinc supplement, like zinc glycinate (but then only at a dose of 15mg, every other day, because this is very well absorbed, too), but not zinc gluconate, which is ionic.

I hope she feels better soon. I got myself some copper glycinate, 2mg per tablet and have been taking them and now feel a lot more normal again. The diarrhoea has gone and the frequent arrhythmias are also almost gone.

It has made me think again about taking supplements without reading up on them thoroughly first, that's for sure!!!

amanda

No, she has all her teeth.

She has RA and had been taking a cal-mag-zinc supplement for years. Between all of her sources of zinc, none of which were that large, she had almost 100g per day.

Mom has been very up on her supplements. She started reading Prevention in the '70s. It's just one of those things that creep up on you.

I also think that the more mature have less wiggle room as far as their bodies making adjustments of overages and underages.