July 2018
Twelve studies about the effect of zinc supplements on acne have been conducted as of date.
Most of these showed promising results revealing a significant relation between the active ingredients in zinc and the formation of acne.
A highly regarded study made by Dr. Breno and his colleagues involved the use of zinc gluconate by 332 acne patients. Gluconate is equivalent to 30mg of elemental zinc.
Another substance was also used called 100mg of minocycline. Over the first 3 months, the pimple count of the people dropped by around 49.8% for the acne group.
The numbers are better for the minocycline group with 66.6%. This showed that the use of minocycline was 17% more effective.
However, this also showed that zinc had a considerable effect. In terms of success rate, minocycline had 63.4% while zinc had 31.2%.
Clearly, the effect of zinc on acne cannot be ignored.
Another study in 1990 by the French resulted into suggesting that 200mg a day of zinc gluconate is as effective as half the dosage of minocycline.
There was one speculation that the form of zinc used was a factor of the low results.
Further studies showed that other zinc forms with better bioavailability yielded better numbers.
