The effectiveness of high dose zinc acetate lozenges on various common cold symptoms: a meta-analysis

BMC Family Practice

Research Article

Harri Hemilä¹  Elizabeth Chalker² 

[1] Department of Public Health, POB 41, University of Helsinki, Mannerheimintie 172, FIN-00014, Helsinki, Finland;University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia;

关键词: Common cold;    Cough;    Laryngitis;    Meta-analysis;    Myalgia;    Randomized controlled trials;    Pharyngitis;    Respiratory tract infections;    Rhinitis;    Zinc acetate;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12875-015-0237-6

 received in 2014-10-22, accepted in 2015-01-29,  发布年份 2015

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundA previous meta-analysis found that high dose zinc acetate lozenges reduced the duration of common colds by 42%, whereas low zinc doses had no effect. Lozenges are dissolved in the pharyngeal region, thus there might be some difference in the effect of zinc lozenges on the duration of respiratory symptoms in the pharyngeal region compared with the nasal region. The objective of this study was to determine whether zinc acetate lozenges have different effects on the duration of common cold symptoms originating from different anatomical regions.MethodsWe analyzed three randomized trials on zinc acetate lozenges for the common cold administering zinc in doses of 80–92 mg/day. All three trials reported the effect of zinc on seven respiratory symptoms, and three systemic symptoms. We pooled the effects of zinc lozenges for each symptom and calculated point estimates and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI).ResultsZinc acetate lozenges shortened the duration of nasal discharge by 34% (95% CI: 17% to 51%), nasal congestion by 37% (15% to 58%), sneezing by 22% (−1% to 45%), scratchy throat by 33% (8% to 59%), sore throat by 18% (−10% to 46%), hoarseness by 43% (3% to 83%), and cough by 46% (28% to 64%). Zinc lozenges shortened the duration of muscle ache by 54% (18% to 89%), but there was no difference in the duration of headache and fever.ConclusionsThe effect of zinc acetate lozenges on cold symptoms may be associated with the local availability of zinc from the lozenges, with the levels being highest in the pharyngeal region. However our findings indicate that the effects of zinc ions are not limited to the pharyngeal region. There is no indication that the effect of zinc lozenges on nasal symptoms is less than the effect on the symptoms of the pharyngeal region, which is more exposed to released zinc ions.Given that the adverse effects of zinc in the three trials were minor, zinc acetate lozenges releasing zinc ions at doses of about 80 mg/day may be a useful treatment for the common cold, started within 24 hours, for a time period of less than two weeks.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Hemila and Chalker; licensee BioMed Central. 2015. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.