Herbal Health Solutions

Zinc improves exercise
endurance
Scientists already know that our
muscles need zinc, but a study
from investigators at the Human
Nutrition Research Center in Grand
Forks provides new details about
zinc’s key role in exercise and
endurance.
Consuming less than the recommended
amount of zinc reduces the
activity of a certain enzyme in the
body with the result that the heart
has to work harder, the researchers
showed.
Workouts during the low-zinc
stint left volunteers panting as
their hearts worked harder to carry
carbon dioxide to the lungs, where
it is exhaled.
That’s in contrast to the volunteers’
performance during the
regimen in which they received the
recommended amount of zinc. The
study, reported in 2005, provides
the first evidence that the carbondioxide-
removing enzyme won’t
perform normally in people during
exercise if body stores of zinc are
too low.
Source: American Journal of Clinical
Nutrition, volume 81,