Zinc supplements and insomnia, any idea of the mechanism behind it?

[FitnessMike]

“Taking zinc orally, 5 or 10 mg, can replenish the body's stores in a few days, but the supplement can oxidize other nutrients in the stomach or intestine, so it isn't good to use it for a long time.” -Ray Peat e-mail exchange

Ray Peat Email Exchanges - Ray Peat Forum Wiki

raypeatforum.com

thanks sis, I almost forgot about the email exchange place.

I got oysters today and they are tasty, I'm surprised.

I don't know what is about supplemental zinc that is making me feel so much better, I doubt i will be able to replicate this with zinc foods, but as long as it will improve my conversion im good.

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

thanks sis, I almost forgot about the email exchange place.

I got oysters today and they are tasty, I'm surprised.

I gotchu Mike! I had raw oysters last week and they were divine, like my mouth was on a beach vacation! Something about them this time of the year makes them even better. I keep meaning to make the oyster stew I love so much, with canned oysters. Thanks for the reminder, I am going to put it on my list.

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

I don't know what is about supplemental zinc that is making me feel so much better, I doubt i will be able to replicate this with zinc foods, but as long as it will improve my conversion im good.

I was not suggesting taking a zinc supplement, but rather thinking it was the culprit in your insomnia. Gut irritation is a common cause of insomnia.

 

[FitnessMike]

Seconding copper toxicity. I experienced this too for a while when I began high dose zinc. Testicles hurt a bit too, which is another common symptom of copper elimination. These days zinc is making me sleep better.

how long did it take for insomnia to settle? were you limiting high-copper foods?

 

[Deadpool]

It’s weird for me. After reading up and posting in a few threads I started trying out gluconate again because some people mentioned picolinic acid might be a problem.

At first I thought oh yeah maybe gluconate is the way. I was getting colder extremities and felt super high adrenaline which at first I attributed to copper toxicity.

However I’ve been getting worse in libido department and also generally and I didn’t know why.

So today I took 30mg of picolinate again and it knocked me out.

That’s the weird thing about picolinate. I took breaks before and everytime I take it after a break it feels really pro zinc, pro test, pro relaxation etc but after a while the wired feeling and inability to sleep creeps in which really makes me thing it’s a copper toxicity issue.

Even then when I have those insomnia periods zinc picolinate knocks me out in a way. It’s like insomnia mixed with hypersomnia.

Just to test I took copper 2mg for the first time in like 2 years (I only ever took copper 3 times total or so), and it warmed me up considerably, but I legit wasn’t able to think anymore and it felt like everything, my environment was overstimulating me and I had this anxiety creep in. It felt like the walls kept closing in. My testicles also went way up.

I also second thesir with the testicle pain during copper dumping. It always goes away after a while on zinc but I always keep taking breaks due to insomnia.

That pulled up testicle feeling I was describing with the copper supp also happened after I started eating „peaty“ with lots of dairy, sugar, fruit juice etc. happened after about a year and didn’t go away for like 6 years until I started taking zinc again.