Supplementing with zinc may not prevent the common cold, but evidence suggests it could reduce its duration by several days, according to a systematic review.
A paper recently published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews examined 34 existing studies involving 8,526 participants to evaluate whether zinc is effective and safe in preventing and treating the common cold. Nineteen of the human trials looked at zinc as a treatment, and 15 assessed its ability to prevent a cold.
