Symptoms associated with zinc deficiency include the following:

• Slow growth
• Poor appetite
• Decrease in wound healing
• Loss of hair
• Taste - impaired
• Smell, impaired
• Hypogonadism in males
• More frequent infections
• Inability or difficulty in adapting vision to the dark
• Various skin lesions

Zinc is one of the least toxic of the trace elements. Zinc supplements in large amounts (for example, 70 to 100 times the recommended amount) may cause diarrhea, abdominal cramps, and vomiting, usually occurring within 3 to 10 hours of ingestion of the supplements. The symptoms diminish within a short period of time after the discontinuation of the supplements.