Dental Cream Contains Zinc . . .
Fri, September 19, 2008 at 02:00AM . . . and excess use of it can cause health troubles. This can be because consumption of excess zinc can produce a lack of copper in the blood, and low copper levels are associated with as variety of neurological conditions. A report from Texas in the journal Neurology describes 4 patients with this problem.
The patients’ ages ranged from 41 to 61; two were men and two women. All 4 had muscle weakness or difficulty in walking, and there were individual instances of pins- and-needles, muscle spasms, loss of sensation, incontinence, and poor mental functioning. Serum copper levels in two were below 0.1 and the others’ were 0.18 and 0.23 microgram/mL, while normal levels are between 0.75 and 1.45 micrograms/mL. Serum zinc levels, on the other hand, were increased in all 4 patients. All 4 patients wore dentures and reported using large amounts of denture cream chronically – two or more tubes per week for years.
The researchers analyzed 3 formulations of dental cream (Fixodent®, Super Poly-Grip Original®, and Super poly-Grip Extra Care®), including the ones used by the patients, for their zinc content. All 3 contained 17,000 to 34,000 micrograms/gram of zinc. When three of the patients were given copper supplementation and they discontinued using dental cream, their serum zinc levels fell, their serum copper levels increased, and in two of them symptoms improved markedly. The 4th patient continued to use dental cream, and his zinc level remained high.
It’s highly improbable that any of my readers will be likely to suffer from this type of copper deficiency. But copper deficiency is not so uncommon. In Japan , over a period of 20 years (1950-1970), there were over 10,000 cases of a disease known as SMON (subacute myelo-optic neuropathy); this was found to be associated with the use of a drug for traveler’s diarrhea, clioquinol (Enterovioform®). It now seems most likely that SMON represented a deficiency of copper; could a zinc/copper reaction be the mechanism of clioquinol’s adverse effect, and a 40-year puzzle be solved?
Reader Comments (1)
Hi there,
Hmmm quite cool things here on this blog post
Thanks,
Jenelia