I contemplated sharing this incident publicly and decided that if it helps anyone, then it was worth being vulnerable.

Inundated with COVID-19 talk in every direction, I became very stressed. Toward the end of April, I got sick and thought if I increased my Zinc intake, it would help. I couldn’t afford to miss training days for the Empire State Ride. The more vitamins and minerals I took, the better, right? WRONG!

I took one Zinc/Copper pill and 10 – 15 drops of pure concentrated liquid Zinc in my green tea every day, totaling more than 30 mg, a sharp contrast to the recommended daily dose of Zinc for women, which is 8 mg. My goal was to blast my infection away, but I ended up blasting my body.

I felt falsely better the first day and then started getting sicker—scary sicker. I was severely nauseous, fatigued, had bowel issues, chills, massive headaches, an intense metallic taste in my mouth, and became very weak.

During that time, I had a video appointment with my doctor. He asked what I was taking. My brain was thinking in terms of prescription-type medicine, so I replied nothing except my Synthroid. I never thought to tell him about the daily vitamins, minerals, and supplements I was taking—another mistake on my part. Days later, when I told him what was going on, I learned that I had Zinc toxicity and was poisoning myself but didn’t know it!

I’m still fighting to be out of the woods as my body continues to detox. I lost two key weeks of training for the cancer ride. Why? Because I falsely believed that more would be better to boost my health.

I understand with all of the overwhelming news about COVID-19, you want to protect yourself and ward off the virus as best you can by doing whatever possible. But I urge you to talk with your doctor first before you take anything, even if it’s something familiar and seemingly harmless, like vitamins, minerals, and supplements.

Stay well!