If you were to see me you would probably wonder what a young girl like me is doing taking Zinc vitamin tablets on a daily basis. Well, the reason behind why I started taking them began in the summer of 2000. I was still sitting on a chair in the piercing parlour, waiting for my leaflet about the aftercare procedures of my new belly button piercing. There was a list of bullet points explaining how to make the piercing heal up quicker, including that zinc was a natural healing vitamin for the body.

Still wearing my low cut trousers, so not to catch my new piercing on any material, I went to the supermarket. I quickly went round to the health aisle and picked up some Zinc tablets. They were the last tub there and contained thirty lozenges (about a months supply). I thought that this would be enough, so I rapidly took them to the checkout, paid for them (the tablets cost me £1.49, which averages out to about 5 pence per tablet), and went home. Phew - home at last, time for a lie down, not before taking my zinc tablet though.

As soon as I undone the lid, I could smell the peppermint aroma. The lid is one of those clever safety devices that stop young children for being able to open them.

I am terrible at taking tablets and have had the problem since I was a teenager. Usually when I take things such as paracetomol, I have a glass of water to wash them down with, so I did the same with these. I tried swallowing it first though without the need of a drink, and it had a very smooth texture to it, almost like a tic-tac sweet. They are only about the size of a tic-tac as well, so at least they are not like those seven seas cod liver oil capsules!

After taking them for about a fortnight, I had noticed a difference. I know that everyone is different, but a lot of my friends who had previously had navel piercings and not known about the 'zinc trick', took ages for theirs to heal (almost six months on some of them). So two weeks after
having my piercing done, it was going fine and was not showing any signs of infection, which is common after having a piercing in this area. I continued taken them until my tub had run out, and I thought that maybe if I took another 30 over a course of a month, it would improve even more and be completely healed all within two months - a miracle if you ask me!

I went back to the same supermarket to get the same product again, but unfortunately they didn't have any more and when I asked, they said that they had never heard of the product - mine must have been a one-off because it was the last one in the shop when I bought it.

Since then I have kept my eye open, even in herbal remedy shops such as Holland and Barrats, but have not been successful in finding them. This meant that I had to try Tesco's own brand zinc tablets, and although they were about half the price, they just weren't the same.

In my opinion though, without the help of the zinc tablets, my piercing would probably be all nasty and gooey, so I have the piercing parlous to thank for their helpful tip.

These Zinc lozenges were made by a company called Willamette Valley Nutritional Products Inc. who are based in the USA. The company began in 1995, and has been going strong ever since. Willamette Valley is owned by a man called Joel Wallach who spent thirty years as a veterinarian and then became a naturopathic doctor. They have a huge range of products, ranging from Shark Cartilage to Liquid Calcium.

Lets get Scientific (off of the back of the container). These amounts are per serving, and a serving is one single lozenge.

Zinc (as zinc citrate) 2mg
Peppermint leaf (mentha piperita) 25mg
Propolis 25g
Licorice root (glycyrrhiza glabra) 20mg
Echinacea (Proprietary blend: A 4: 1 extract of Echinacea purpurea and angustifolia root and herb) 15mg
Marigold leaf (calendula) 15mg
Bearded usnea lichen (usnea barbata) 10mg r>Grapefruit seed and rind extract (citrus and paridisi) 10mg
Ammoniated glycyrrhizin 5mg

The company address is:

Willamette Valley Nutritional Products
Unit A
Grovebell Industrial Estate
Wrecclesham Road
Farnham
Surrey
GU10 4PL

Hopefully sometime in the near future, I will be writing off to them to ask if I can order these zinc lozenges by mail order. I will keep you updated.