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Article: Heavy metal for bigger babies? (zinc supplements for infants)
- Article from:
- Medical Update
- Article date:
- November 1, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 Benjamin Franklin Literary & Medical Society, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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"Everything from A to Zinc" - So goes the TV commercial for a popular vitamin supplement. Although zinc is included in the recommended dietary allowances (RDAs) for vitamins and minerals, it is abundant enough in most diets that its value in a vitamin supplement has been questioned. The British National Formulary, for example, states that oral zinc therapy should only be given "when there is good evidence of deficiency" - and British doctors, like many of their American colleagues, look at zinc supplements as a dietary fad, except for their elderly patients.
Researchers at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, however, found that zinc supplements may be important for ...