Taking Zinc Can Shorten Your Cold. Thank A 91-Year-Old Scientist For The Discovery

"The common cold is a top reason for missed work and school days. Most of us have two or three colds per year, each lasting at least a week."

"There's no real cure, but studies from the last several years show that some supplement containing zinc can help shorten the duration of cold symptoms by up to 40% — depending on the amount of the mineral in each dose and what it's combined with."

"Zinc has an interesting back story. It wasn't even acknowledged as an essential mineral for human health until the 1970s. But that changed thanks to the work of Dr. Ananda Prasad — a 91-year-old doctor who, decades ago, had a hunch that led to a better understanding of zinc's role in immunity."

"Back in the 1960s Prasad was studying a group of young men in Egypt who had not grown to normal heights and remained underdeveloped in other ways, too. Prasad wondered if the problem might be a lack of zinc."

"When Prasad gave them zinc supplements, the men grew significantly taller."