Zinc carnosine for eczema shows a lot of promise.
Doctor Tom O’Bryan’s book titled The Autoimmune Fix: How To Stop The Hidden Autoimmune Damage That Keeps You Sick, Fat, and Tired Before It Turns Into Disease, contains just enough information on zinc carnosine to wet the appetite for those late night Google searches.
In part, Doctor O’Bryan writes:
Zinc carnosine had long been identified as having properties that heal the GI tract. It has been used in treating ulcers because it is known to promote a 75 percent increase in proliferation and migration of new cells to heal damage in the stomach. Recent research has shown that it also promotes a 50 percent increase in proliferation and migration of new cells to heal damage in the small intestines.
The information in Doctor O’Bryan’s book, The Autoimmune Fix, is well worth the money and the time spent reading through it. I have read it through twice. There are over 300 Amazon customer reviews. Most of these reviews are 5-stars. Those 5-star reviews are evidence of many happy readers who found valuable information in these pages. I know I did!
Note: zinc carnosine is also known as polaprezinc. Much of the literature at the US National Library of Medicine, in the PubMed database, references either zinc carnosine or polaprezinc.
Zinc carnosine is supplement that aids in rebuilding and maintaining a healthy gut mucosa. It has been studied extensively for its curative and preventive effects on the mucosal lining of the stomach, as well as the small intestine.
A healthy mucosal lining is a healthy gut. A damaged intestinal mucosal lining allows partially digested food bits and pieces, bacteria, and who knows what else to get where it shouldn’t.
My eczema hypothesis.
My theory is that eczema is ultimately an autoimmune problem. My immune system was attacking my body. This autoimmune condition was a result of a leaky gut. And, the leaky gut was probably months or years in the making, a result of diet, nutrition, medication, or something else I may have been exposed to.
Fix the leaky gut and the autoimmune problems should calm down. That is my theory.
My own episodes and flare-ups of eczema didn’t take up as much bodily real estate as other folks.
I am not a doctor. Nor am I offering medical advice. Everything I talk about on this web site are n=1 experiments on myself that I have done in an effort to heal the eczema on my feet and legs. So, talk to your own doctor.
Zinc Carnosine for Eczema
The keyword searches for zinc carnosine for eczema related issues provided surprising few Google results.
● zinc carnosine for eczema, over 55,000 results
● zinc carnosine for autoimmune, over 42,700 results
● zinc carnosine for leaky gut, over 13,000 results
From these search results, zinc carnosine for eczema relief doesn’t seem to get a lot of press. However, in a Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine paper titled The answer is 17 years, what is the question: understanding time lags in translational research, the conclusion was that takes an average of 17 years for medical research to reach clinical practice.
Social media is much quicker and might just provide relevant information. But, social media lacks that peer review scrutiny of other experts in this field for evaluation and validation. Fake news and hoaxes anybody?
Much of this literature references that zinc carnosine was first used in Japan in the mid-1990’s for stomach and intestinal problems. Zinc carnosine appeared to be more effective than either zinc or l-carnosine when used alone.
Zinc carnosine, or polaprezinc is a chelated form of zinc and l-carnosine.
If you do a lot of late night Google research, you’ll run into the term chelated a lot when researching supplements like zinc carnosine or polaprezinc.
Chelation is a process of combining minerals with amino acids to form complexes. It’s believed that this process makes the minerals more absorbable by the body. This Nutritional Outlook post titled, Understanding Chelated Minerals explains the process.
However, some web sites say that there is little evidence to support this claim. Such as this WebMD post titled CHELATED MINERALS.
What to do?
Ask your functional medicine doctor!
Functional medicine seeks to identify and address the root causes of disease, not just symptoms. Functional medicine views the body as one integrated system and not a collection of various piece-parts that’s divided into multiple referrals and specialists with lengthy waiting room time-wasters for that 15-minute appointment slot.
Next!
Functional medicine treats the whole, not just symptoms!
Zinc, An Elusive and Essential Trace Mineral
Zinc is an essential trace mineral that contributes to our total physical and mental well-being. However, zinc is not easily absorbed in the body unless first attached to another substance.
This is why many supplement manufacturers have chelated zinc to amino acids.
L-Carnosine, What Is It?
L-carnosine is a dipeptide composed of beta-alanine and l-histidine.
If you do a lot of late night Google research, you’ll run into the term dipeptide a lot when researching zinc carnosine or polaprezinc. So, just what is a dipeptide?
A dipeptide is two amino acids bonded together.
Fun fact: A peptide is a compound of two or more amino acids. Yes, there is a tripeptide. For other peptide fun facts, check these out!
ScienceDirect: Learn more about Peptide.
Breaking Muscle.com: A Primer On Peptides: What They Are And Why To Take Them
L-carnosine is naturally present in muscle and nerve cells and it’s thought to have antioxidant properties.
Beta-alanine and l-histidine are both amino acids.
It is also appears that zinc carnosine remains in the stomach acids without immediately being destroyed, allowing it time to provide its tissue-healing effects.
Both zinc and l-carnosine are heavy hitters when it comes to their health promoting properties. Here we’re just diving into those aspects related to leaky gut and autoimmunity.
Taking the time to read some of these Google search results and the references from below, the theme is mostly the same. Zinc carnosine is being used to treat a good number of digestive support issues in general, to include maintaining a healthy balance of gut bacteria.
In the Discussion section of this US National Library of Medicine PubMed Central paper, Zinc carnosine, a health food supplement that stabilises small bowel integrity and stimulates gut repair processes, in part, writes:
We have shown that ZnC, which is currently commercially available in health food stores, stimulates several aspects of gut mucosal integrity. It stimulated cell migration and proliferation in vitro, and reduced the amount of gastric and small‐intestinal injury in rats and mice. We also showed that if volunteers ingested ZnC at the levels suggested by the health food supplement industry, it could prevent the rise in gut permeability caused by standard clinical doses of the NSAID indomethacin.
[ … omitted text … ]
Indomethacin causes damage to the gastrointestinal tract by several mechanisms including reduction of mucosal prostaglandin levels, reduction of mucosal blood flow, stimulation of neutrophil activation and possibly also stimulation of apoptosis.
[ … omitted text … ]
In conclusion, our studies have shown that ZnC, commercially available as over‐the‐counter “health food” supplements for licensing purposes, possesses biological activity when assessed using several models of gut integrity and repair, and in a clinical trial. Importantly, these effects were seen at concentrations likely to be found in participants taking the product as a health food supplement. Further studies are warranted.
After reading through this and other google search results, I decided to give zinc carnosine for eczema a try. One bottle is under $20.00.
This is what I use, the Doctor’s Best PepZin GI, Zinc-L-Carnosine Complex, Non-GMO, Vegan, Gluten Free, Soy Free, Digestive Support, 120 Veggie Caps.
For my own anti-eczema protocol, I’ll start the day by taking zinc carnosine, along with l-glutamine on an empty stomach in the morning. I also took one at the end of the day. I did this for approximately 60 days.
Research shows it can take 6 months to heal a leaky gut.
I consider myself in the maintenance phase. With this product, I am currently supplementing with just one capsule in the morning before breakfast.
The combination of these gut healing and microbiome promoting protocols discussed on this web site has eliminated my own eczema.
Zinc Carnosine for Eczema References:
Zinc Carnosine for Ulcers and Gut Healing – But Longevity Too?
https://info.dralexrinehart.com/articles/nutrition-benefits/zinc-carnosine-ulcers-gut-healing-longevity
Polaprezinc protects human colon cells from oxidative injury induced by hydrogen peroxide: Relevant to cytoprotective heat shock proteins
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4088113/
Efficacy of zinc-carnosine chelate compound, Polaprezinc, enemas in patients with ulcerative colitis.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24286534
Applicability of zinc complex of L-carnosine for medical use.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10951100
Zinc carnosine, a health food supplement that stabilises small bowel integrity and stimulates gut repair processes
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1856764/
Polaprezinc
https://www.drugbank.ca/drugs/DB09221
Polaprezinc
https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Polaprezinc#section=Top
http://www.townsendletter.com/June2017/leaky0617.html
https://www.naturalmedicinejournal.com/journal/2013-11/nutrient-profile-zinc-carnosine
The answer is 17 years, what is the question: understanding time lags in translational research
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3241518/