hair like a fox - too much zinc?

Taking too much zinc can interfere with your body's ability to absorb other minerals, especially copper...i think that if you follow hair like a fox guidelines you might take too much zinc?

It could be helpful if you state how much Zinc the book recommends

I always feel great when taking zinc even in high doses and I've tried many different zincs including glycinate and orotate and for me the best was Opti Zinc by now. I have almost a full bottle of Orotate form that I need to take. I sometimes think I have a copper issue because how much my body loves zinc.

Zinc is probably one of the most important minerals you require, and if we're talking about about dietary intake from food (no extra supplementation) its going to be pretty difficult to get too much zinc. If you were eating only oysters every day, maybe. Many, if not most, people don't get enough as it is. And any situation in which you are experiencing inflammation you'll have a greater loss of zinc, hence a greater need. Again, getting it in the matrix of a whole food, you really have no need to worry about your zinc intake. Its when you get to supplementation that you may want to use discretion. Even with this, you'd have to be virtually mega-dosing before I'd start worrying. If you are experiencing diarrhea, you need more zinc. Any gastrointestinal issue. More zinc. Any infection. More zinc. If your diet is plant heavy, you may want to supplement zinc. The NIH reports that most Americans are getting sufficient zinc, which for an adult is 9 mg. That's very low. Especially for males, whose male hormone production require zinc, I'd be aiming for higher.

The side effects of too much zinc tend to be gastrointestinal. One case study of a 4 gram intake (just a stupid high dose) resulted in stomach upset and vomiting. The body just rejected it. But since the body has no real storage mechanism for zinc, I'd personally tell you to get more than the recommendation. You might start getting side effects once you get up around 150-200 mg daily or more, and also some loss of copper. But you'd be fine to get up to 100 mg daily if you wanted. I usually supplement with 50 mg daily plus whatever I get via diet, which usually puts me at around  75 or 80 mg daily. To balance this I usually take a copper supp every few days. Let's put it this way, what you aren't using for biological functions, you are just losing in the toilet. I'd rather err on the "more than enough" side when it comes to zinc.

Ugeskr Laeger. 2014 Mar 3;176(5). pii: V11120654.
[Zinc is the most important trace element.]
[Article in Danish]
Muhamed PK1, Vadstrup S.

Zinc is one of the most important trace elements. Zinc deficiency is a major health problem worldwide. Causes of zinc deficiency can be nutritional, iatrogenic, genetic or a result of diseases. Severe zinc deficiency results in symptoms like pustular dermatitis, alopecia, weight loss, diarrhoea, infections secondary to immune dysfunction, hypogonadism and problems in ulcer healing. Zinc supplementation is necessary in cases of zinc deficiency, but high doses zinc supplementation through a long time can result in copper deficiency or anaemia. Thus a rational use of zinc supplementation in the required time is necessary.

Personally I take 15 mg of zinc and 1 mg of copper each day.  Works for me.

http://www.iherb.com/Jarrow-Formulas-Zinc-Balance-100-Capsules/278?=hil335

Roddy doesn't recommend many supplements, if I recall correctly. But oysters and seafood contain a lot of zinc, and he does recommend that.

CausticSymmetry wrote:
http://www.iherb.com/Jarrow-Formulas-Zinc-Balance-100-Capsules/278?=hil335

The difference between that and Now foods Opti is Jarrow's is half the zinc dosage but 1mg of copper opposed to the 0.3 in Now foods?

I've only got the Now foods L opi at the moment so could I just supplement with 3mg of copper to be on the safe side?  I have that Source Naturals Copper Sebacate around here somewhere.