ha, omg you're like my twin or something terry. i totally used to get the itch-needle kind of jimmyleg haha! haven't had it in some time though.
i vascillated around whether it was due to low iron, or zinc, or magnesium, and i've settled on "all of the above"!
glad you're doing better. what's your peeing issue again? i feel like i have to go when my bladder's hardly got anything in it, but i've been like that for years and years and years. i haven't really devoted any particular attention to it yet.
you're being SO proactive. if you stock up you're body's stores for all it's crazily complicated, interconnected biochem requirements, you're giving it exactly what it needs to fight the good fight. i like those sayings that go like, you're not sick because you're body is low on CRABs hehehe
do trust yourself, you're the one who has to live with you 24/7
hopefully the zinc you're taking now will help prevent any more optic neuritis. you'll want to get it tested at some point though, i don't think you'd need to keep taking 75mg per day in the super long term. could drop it back to every other day, or every three days once you know you're in the middle of the normal range.
you know, i have sort of wondered if my episodes with my brain last summer were related to my nasty zinc deficiency, but also if it was maybe a faint link to ON. it definitely felt like it was something to do with my left eye, kind of a bad connection.
More severe cases of zinc deficiency will cause a stop in growth and maturation of children, sometimes resulting in a form of dwarfism. Poor testicular functioning can result. There will also be increased problems with the eye such as, optic neuritis, cataract formation, and poor color formation. Zinc deficiency will also lead to immune disorders, and dermatitis. A lack of zinc is also found to result in anorexia. Researchers believe zinc is used by the body in some way to create appetite, and without zinc in the body there is no appetite.
oh this is really interesting.
J Am Optom Assoc. 1981 May;52(5):409-14.
Nutritional effects of zinc on ocular and systemic physiology.
Yolton DP.
Zinc, an essential mineral in human nutrition, has multiple and complex ocular and systemic functions. Zinc deficiency is characterized by growth retardation, reduced appetite, skin changes, impaired reproductive development, impaired taste acuity, and impaired wound healing. Zinc deficiency may also cause or contribute to learning problems. Observations of Denver children have suggested that suboptimum zinc nutriture may be quite common in otherwise normal infants and children in the United States. The most likely cause of this deficiency is dietary insufficiency. High concentrations of zinc are found in human ocular tissues and are closely related to visual function. When zinc levels are inappropriately low, results can include ocular birth defects, reduced ability to dark adapt, excessively low IOP, and optic neuritis. Correction of zinc deficiency with zinc supplementation must be done cautiously because excessive zinc can interfere with the metabolism of copper and zinc.
