Zinc is a nutrient that we need to stay healthy. Zinc is found in cells throughout the body. It helps the immune system fight off invading bacteria and viruses. The body also needs zinc to make proteins and DNA. During pregnancy, infancy, and childhood the body needs zinc to grow and develop properly. Zinc also helps wounds to heal and is important for proper senses of taste and smell. Zinc blood tests are primarily ordered to help detect iron deficiency in children and to detect and monitor chronic exposure to lead in adults, as zinc is involved in the chemical process by which our body carries iron via red blood cells. Signs and symptoms of lead poisoning include:
-High blood pressure
-Numbness / tingling in the hands and feet
-Memory loss, mood disorders
-Weakness
-Abdominal pain
-Headache
For this reason, it is also common to assess zinc levels when iron deficiency is suspected, symptoms include:
-Chronic fatigue, tiredness
-Dizziness
-Weakness
-Headaches
-Pica (cravings for specific substances like chalk, dirt, or clay)
-A burning sensation on the tongue or a smooth tongue
-Sores at the corners of the mouth
-Spoon-shaped fingernails and toenails
Most people in the United States get enough zinc from the foods they eat. However, certain groups of people are more likely than others to have trouble getting enough zinc:
-People with malabsorption disorders (e.g., Crohn’s disease)
-Vegetarians (meat is a good source of zinc)
-Alcoholics
Although zinc deficiency is rare in North America, it can cause:
-Slow growth in infants and children
-Delayed sexual development in adolescents
-Hair loss
-Diarrhea
-Problems with wound healing
-Decreased ability to taste food
Understand and improve your laboratory results with our health dashboard.
Upload your lab reports and get your interpretation today.
Our technology helps to understand, combine, track, organize, and act on your medical lab test results.
The main reasons for zinc levels to increase are iron deficiency and lead poisoning. In addition, zinc may be elevated in inflammatory conditions, infections, and in people with anemia of chronic disease, but zinc tests are not generally used to monitor or diagnose these conditions.
Interpret Your Lab Results
Upload your lab report, and we'll interpret and provide you with recommendations today.
Get StartedMonthly plan
Annual plan
Own it for life
Our exclusive data entry service is a convenient way to get your results into your private dashboard. Simply attach an image or a file of your lab test results, and one of our qualified data entry team members will add the results for you. We support all sorts of files, whether PDFs, JPGs, or Excel. This service is excellent whether you have a lot of reports to upload or are too busy to do the data entry yourself.
We strive to make the data entry process easy for you. Whether by offering dozens of templates to choose from that pre-populate the most popular laboratory panels or by giving you instant feedback on the entered values. Our data entry forms are an easy, fast, and convenient way to enter the reports yourself. There is no limit on how many lab reports you can upload.
$15 /month
billed every month
Most popular
Data entry included
$79 /year
$6.60/month billed annually
Data entry included
$250 /once
own it for life
Are You a Health Professional?
Get started with our professional plan
Welcome to Healthmatters Pro.
Save time on interpreting lab results with the largest database of biomarkers online. In-depth research on any test at your fingertips, all stored and tracked in one place. Learn more
Pro Monthly Plus
for health professionals
$75 per month
At HealthMatters, we're committed to maintaining the security and confidentiality of your personal information. We've put industry-leading security standards in place to help protect against the loss, misuse, or alteration of the information under our control. We use procedural, physical, and electronic security methods designed to prevent unauthorized people from getting access to this information. Our internal code of conduct adds additional privacy protection. All data is backed up multiple times a day and encrypted using SSL certificates. See our Privacy Policy for more details.