Zinc Picolinate 15 mg

Thorne Zinc Picolinate 15 mg is a single-ingredient zinc supplement: each small capsule delivers 15 mg of elemental zinc as zinc picolinate (136% of the Daily Value), with leucine, microcrystalline cellulose and silicon dioxide as the only other ingredients. It is gluten-, dairy- and soy-free, it appears in NSF's dietary supplement certification listings for Thorne, and the Amazon listing describes it as NSF Contents Certified.

The dose is the sensible part. The adult RDA is 11 mg for men and 8 mg for women and the tolerable upper intake level is 40 mg a day, so one capsule plus a typical diet stays under the limit. Taking two capsules a day, as the label permits, or choosing Thorne's 30 mg version pushes intake toward that ceiling. NIH notes that 50 mg a day or more for weeks can inhibit copper absorption, and Thorne itself advises pairing long-term zinc with copper in a 15:1 ratio.

Thorne describes picolinate as a highly absorbable form, but NIH's zinc fact sheet does not rank zinc forms and lists sulfate, acetate and gluconate as the forms most commonly found in supplements. Zinc can reduce absorption of quinolone and tetracycline antibiotics, and iron supplements of 25 mg or more taken at the same time can reduce zinc absorption.

The capsule has a big TikTok following: one creator's video crediting it with clearing her skin drew about a million plays, though such stories are individual anecdotes rather than evidence. The capsules are small (18 mm), and at $15 for 60, about 25 cents a day, it costs more than drugstore zinc but less than many practitioner brands.