Abstract
The importance of zinc for human health has been recognized since the early 1960s, but today there is little concern about zinc deficiency in developed countries. In this study, we measured the zinc concentration in hair from 28,424 Japanese subjects (18,812 females and 9,612 males) and found that 1,754 subjects (6.17%) had zinc concentrations lower than 2 standard deviations (86.3 ppm) below the control reference range, which qualifies as zinc deficiency. In particular, a considerable proportion of elderlies and children (20% or more) were found to have marginal to severe zinc deficiency. A zinc concentration of 9.7 ppm was the lowest observed in a 51-year-old woman; this concentration was approximately 1/13 of the mean reference level. The prevalence of zinc deficiency in adults increased with aging to a maximum of 19.7% by the 8th decade of life, and decreased to 3.4% above 90-year-old. The proportion of zinc deficiency in infants 0–4 years was 36.5% in males and 47.3% in females; these percentages were higher than the maximum prevalence in elderly subjects. These findings suggest that infants and elderlies are prone to zinc deficiency and that intervention of zinc deficiency is necessary for normal human development, health and longevity.
Highlights
The importance of zinc for human health has been recognized since the early 1960s, but today there is little concern about zinc deficiency in developed countries
The prevalence of zinc deficiency in the adult male group increased with increasing age, and when assessed by decade it ranged from 2.0% at the 2nd decade to 4.2, 6.0, 9.7, 11.6% and reached 15.1% by the 7th decade; the rate decreased to 9.3% or less for ages over 80 years (Fig. 3)
Because zinc is required for the synthesis and repair of DNA, RNA and proteins, this micronutrient appears to affect the basic biochemical and physiological processes involved in cell growth, cell division, cell differentiation, development and aging[1,2,3,4]
Summary
The importance of zinc for human health has been recognized since the early 1960s, but today there is little concern about zinc deficiency in developed countries. Recent advances in highly sensitive and reliable trace element analysis methods using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) have enabled the detection of chronic essential mineral deficiencies in the human body. Clinical metallomics studies with reliable ICP-MS methods have been used to investigate the association of several diseases and symptoms with the dynamics of trace bio-elements including toxic metals and essential minerals[10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20] In this cohort study investigating zinc deficiency, we examined human scalp hair zinc concentrations in 28,424 Japanese subjects with ages ranging from 0 to 100 years
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