Herbs, supplements and HIV

January 2005     View PDF     En español

Zinc deficiencies and HIV

Deficiencies in dietary zinc have been associated with decreased immune function and possibly increased HIV reproduction. Drug users are at particular risk for zinc deficiencies for a number of reasons. These include poor diets, poor absorption of nutrients and poor processing of nutrients by the body.

A team in Florida examined the nutritional and immunologic status of 118 HIV-positive injection drug users. They found that people whose diets included foods with higher levels of zinc showed higher levels of zinc in their blood. This suggests that, in general, improving a person’s diet results in more normalized zinc levels.

The study also showed that people with lower zinc levels had somewhat lower CD4+ cell counts and were more likely to have counts below 200. It would be rash to suggest, however, that low zinc levels are the cause of lower CD4+ cell counts and not merely an effect of disease progression. In general this study is encouraging in that it shows that simply improving diet, without supplements, leads to increased zinc levels in the blood and better immune status. Another study is ongoing to see if zinc supplements will result in improved blood levels of zinc and to see if it has any effect on HIV or immune markers.