Taking zinc lozenges for 5 days raises zinc levels in your blood, showing your body absorbs it, but it doesn't help with cold symptoms.

Taking zinc lozenges many times a day for about a week doesn't help adults feel better faster or less sick when they have a cold caused by a specific virus.

When adults with cold symptoms take zinc gluconate lozenges, their colds might get better faster, but this only worked in a special test setting and not with real-world colds or different zinc types.

Taking zinc lozenges doesn't make cold symptoms less severe, according to a study with 273 people who were given cold viruses.

Taking zinc lozenges several times a day for about a week doesn't help reduce how often or how long people with colds shed the virus, meaning it doesn't stop the virus from copying itself or spreading to others.

Zinc lozenges might help with cold symptoms, but lab tests show zinc doesn't really fight cold viruses directly, so there's probably another reason they work.