If I had to choose for the one mineral I could take as supplement for the rest of my life it would be zinc. I consider it the most important mineral in the human diet. I take 100mg a day. I have leukodynia and have had that since childhood (white flecks on the fingernails, considered zinc "starvation"), and am self-diagnosed with HemoPyrrolLactamUria. I learned about these conditions from Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt, researcher Trudy Scott, and various research articles. I have been taking 100mg on almost a daily basis, for more than 5 months now. Not only do I never get colds, and I got over Bronchitis in -one- day, but I have become a total extrovert! All my life I have been a "loner", had severe social anxiety, was indoorsy, with even the thought of talking to most people being torturous to me. For the first 20 years of my life, I did not eat much meat. I had no grass-fed meat whatsoever, and I ate an abundance of sugars, starches, grains, processed foods, additives, and the like. I had a very high-carb very Standard-American-Diet upbringing. So after learning all I did about zinc, it very much appealed to me to try to attain a sufficiency in this mineral, knowing that I hardly got any of it throughout my first 20 years of life. In addition to the 5 months of this mineral, I have been on a relatively low-carb, high animal meat diet for about a year. I strive for eating according to the Paleo Diet standards, but plenty of times allow myself beans, potatoes, and sometimes rice. I go out of my way to avoid wheat, corn, and soy. Sometimes I consume more sweeteners or more starch at once than the diet recommends. And I have a habit of drinking a lot of decaf coffee with cocoa >_>. What has zinc done for me? 1) I have -no- anxiety whatsoever. No more social anxiety at all. I do, however, take 100mg of B6 whenever I take my zinc. Both are said to be cofactors in abating anxiety and depression. 2) It has helped me get my life organized and to take on a changed high-energy lifestyle where I'm almost always doing some sort of responsibility. I started work as a dishwasher, and I have no fatigue or spaciness. Several people at work tell em I'm the quickest dishwasher they've ever seen. These days I just go about anything like I'm the energizer bunny! No stress, even on the first two days. I -never- feel stress any more, nor any form of anxiety. I find this impossible to overstate! I'm not sure I can thank the zinc enough for what it has done. It is like being in a weird worry-not-move-on mindset, all the damn time. Unsure whether someone might've said something mean to ya? Hardly care, move on. Narrowly avoided a car accident? Why worry? Move on. This is gonna take a long time to get done? Don't fret, keep chompin away! Gonna be late? Crunch time? No worries, just do what you can, live and learn. Had I not overcome my social anxiety, my life simply would not be what it is today or what it is becoming. It's like I've unlocked a giant game of "life mastery". Nothing is an exhausting chore. Everything is just order and routine, something building me up to help me to my awesome end goals. Nothing is exhausting. I imagine that if I had not been on the zinc and B6 for 5 months that I would have had my old fatigue, sore feet, exhaustion, lack of motivation, frustration, etc. while working my job. The same introversion, low confidence, low self esteem for a lack of friendships, extreme awkwardness, etc. 3) Sex drive up, volume up. I feel much more manly all the time. Indeed it deserves its reputation as the "masculinity mineral". 4) Consistency. While it cured my exhaustion, motivation is not quite cured for me just with the Zinc and B6. I'm still a procrastinator, still lazy a lot of the time. But the fact that I -can- tirelessly do anything is a real confidence boost! The factor of motivation is my next area of concern. Whether it's an issue of thyroid, adrenals, Iodine or some other deficiency, or a toxicity in heavy metals, halides, fire retardants, mycotoxins, pesticides, or whatever the hell else my toxicities may be, I am unclear on. I do think that the zinc has very gradually increased my motivation. But it is not the kicker. I'm torn between believing the copper-zinc balance debate and not. You can read about it here and decide for yourself: Weston A. Price site article titled "Copper-Zinc Imbalance: Unrecognized Consequence of Plant-Based Diets and a Contributor to Chronic Fatigue". Some say copper causes mental disorders. There are other good articles you can google as well. If just to look at the laundry lists, these articles are worth gauging your mineral balance status. When I started supps, my left hand reeked of copper and my stools were coated orange, something I'd never seen before. So whether or not copper toxicity is truly an epidemic, I'm sure I did excrete quite a bit at the start. Zinc is essential for hundreds of enzymes and the methylation cycle. It is essential for calming the adrenals and protecting other nutrients. It is in ideal ratio to copper when consumed through grass-fed red meats. I recommend using zinc and B6 to be ahead of the curve, to compensate to achieve sufficiency more quickly. Then when you have plenty of high-zinc foods in your diet, you shouldn't need to supplement anymore (though it may yet help you, perhaps in smaller doses). Point is, grain foods, processed foods, vegetarian diets, and feedlot meats do not give you your zinc