MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Harri Hemilä, MD, PhD Department of Public Health University of Helsinki MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Some zinc lozenges intended for treating the common cold have contained zinc acetate and some others have contained zinc gluconate. There have been proposals that zinc acetate might be more optimal salt for lozenges than zinc gluconate. Therefore I compared the randomized trials that have used zinc acetate with zinc gluconate to see if there is difference between the lozenges. Although the average effect in 3 studies with zinc acetate lozenges was greater (40%) than the average effect in 4 studies with zinc gluconate lozenges (28%), that difference was explained by random variation. I also analyzed the dose dependency of the effect and found that 2 studies that used 192 and 207 mg per day elemental zinc did not find greater benefit than 5 studies that used 80 to 92 mg per day zinc. The overall average effect of zinc lozenges was 33% reduction in common cold duration and that effect seems to be reached with doses less than 100 mg per day. (more…)