Zinc: The Lockdown Mineral

Zinc Supplements Shut Down Redox Chemistry

Zinc is the Lockdown Mineral because the excess amounts of zinc in synthetic zinc supplements will shut down redox chemistry.

Zinc is the main redox-inactive first row transition metal. Aside from the very rare scandium, zinc is the only first row transition metal which lacks multiple redox oxidation states. The other common first row transition metals participate in redox chemistry, but zinc doesn't:

Excerpted from National Center for Biotechnology Information (2022). PubChem Periodic Table of Elements. https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/periodic-table/ .
Red circles added.

Zinc ion, unlike other first row transition metals, cannot readily give or accept an electron. Therefore, when zinc fills in spaces that can be filled with various metals, it tends to stay there and shut down redox reactions.

Zinc also has a reputation for increasing production of metallothionein, a protein that binds or removes metals from the body, including important redox-active minerals such as copper.

Zinc's lack of participation in redox chemistry relates to its roles that Morley Robbins describes as structural roles, rather than catalytic roles. Indeed, zinc can't participate catalytically in the same ways as other transition metals, due to zinc's lack of redox activity.

Get Zinc from Organic Ancestral Whole Foods, NOT from Synthetic Supplements

Of course, zinc in natural amounts is an essential mineral. It does important things, such as help link ceruloplasmin with transferrin. This is why to get zinc from organic ancestral whole foods only, in natural forms and amounts, and NOT from synthetic supplements.

Energy metabolism runs on redox reactions! Thus, synthetic zinc supplements with their excess zinc place the body into a lockdown state, with limited energy metabolism.

Many people permanently enter this lower-energy lockdown state by chronically taking zinc supplements or zinc-containing multivitamins. This may occur too with zinc supplements that contain copper alongside the zinc — the zinc remains damaging in its effect, even if the supplements also contain copper.

Support Your Energy Metabolism Instead of Locking It Down

Zinc supplements don't address the underlying causes of oxidative stress, inflammation, weakness, or poor energy. Instead, zinc supplements shut down the body's redox chemistry and ultimately make you weaker in energy.

In contrast, the Root Cause Protocol addresses the underlying root cause for why your redox chemistry may be off track to begin with, involving common mineral imbalances induced by stress.

I recommend avoiding zinc supplements, however popular they may become. Don't shut down your body's redox processes and energy metabolism with zinc supplements. Instead, face your situation with better energy and strength, using the Root Cause Protocol. This will improve your mineral balance, redox chemistry function, energy, and outlook.

I took high-dose zinc supplements for a number of years. They may have slowed down some problems, but my burnout state continued. In contrast, my energy returned once I stopped the zinc supplements and began activating copper and iron.

The Root Cause Protocol takes a better, more logical approach to redox chemistry and the transition metals, compared with use of synthetic zinc supplements.

Mineral balancing using the Root Cause Protocol works far better in my experience and that of clients than synthetic zinc supplements do.