Do y'all remember in the past few years how Zicam and zinc logenges and zinc nose drops etc. were all the rage to treat cold symptoms? Well, there must be some flapdoodle over zinc now, because I heard Dr. Rick DeShazo from the University of Mississippi Medical School make an oblique mention of zinc nasal sprays causing some people to lose their sense of smell and taste, and cause "dry mouth syndrome." That is true, let me tell ya.
I bought zinc throat lozenges three years ago, and sucked on a couple for a scratchy throat. Right away my mouth got dry as a desert, and for several very uncomfortable weeks I thought I was condemned to a life of dry mouth syndrome, and loss of taste. Nothing I tried restored normal salivary function. Then  I bought some fresh jalapeno peppers and ate them till my eyes watered and my tongue burned, for two days in a row. That did the trick--the capsaicin in the peppers restored everything back to normal within a few days.
Anyway, the doctor said stay away from these zinc products. If anyone else has heard of this I'd like to know.
susil