Copper Supplementation in Treatment of Zinc Deficiency Diseases

A long series of diseases are already known to result from zinc deficiency of which parakeratosis (in swine) was first to be recognized (1,28). Dwarfizm-hypogonadismanemia (22), acrodermatitis enteropathica (20,29), severe trauma and injury (3), iron deficiency and geophagia (2), pregnancy (15), acquired immunodeficiency (5, 16, 21, 23), prolonged parenteral nutrition (14), carcinomatosis (19,26), cirrhosis (11), senile osteoporosis (4), anemia and neutropenia (13) are but a few of a long list (17,18,24). To these we added several allergic ailments and diseases of unknown aetiology ranging from giant urticaria to aphtous stomatitis through exema and alopecia (8,25). It is interesting that oral administration of zinc leads to a dramatic improvement in many of these pathological conditions (6,7,9).