Often times we are alerted to an oncoming cold with a scratchy or sore throat. Many of us disregard this early warning sign and take little or no action.

What I found that works for sore throat!

I take a zinc vitamin tablet and cut off a portion equal to about 12mg of zinc and suck on it until dissolved. I then take one echinacea tablet and add that - sucking it until dissolved. Now these don't taste great but they do work. After dissolved I take 1K mg of vitamin C in liquid form. If I don't feel like dealing with a slightly bitter taste I track down cough drops that contains zinc and echinacea (they will likely contain sugar and flavor also - not a big fan of either - especially when I'm trying to heal.) One brand I know of is Halls Zinc and Echinacea cough drops. Here I take one Halls and 12mg of zinc and suck on them together.

But speaking of the taste of zinc, the simplest form of deficiency testing is the zinc taste test . If it has no taste or is just slightly bitter you need more, if it taste absolutely bitter, your ok.  

How important is zinc? Here is a short list of zinc deficient indicators: 

• White spots on finger nails.
• Skin lesions, slow healing or persistent skin problems like rashes or seborrheic dermatitis.
• Slow healing of wounds.
• Atherosclerosis.
• Hair loss or brittle.
• Chapped lips
• Immune system weak and impaired.
• Diarrhea.
• Acne.
• Deteriorating eyesight, taste, smell or memory. Night blindness.
• Poor digestion of proteins, weak stomach acid.
• Being gaunt and wasted.
• Poor appetite.
• Depression, cognitive decline, abnormal behavior.
• Low birth weight, poor mental and physical development in children.
• Dysmenorrhea (or - dysmenorrhoea) - pain during menstruation.
• Long term chronic zinc deficiency causes dwarfism and delayed sexual maturation.
• Decreasing testosterone

For more information Google "zinc deficiency" and you'll quickly learn how being zinc deficient will impact your immune system (and so much more!)

You may also find these two links helpful:

http://www.growyouthful.com/remedy/zinc-sulphate.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinc_deficiency