Scientists once hoped that supplemental chromium would be the magic bullet to cure diabetes. Yet, after decades of research, the usefulness of chromium in treating diabetes is still unclear. Taking additional chromium may improve your diabetes symptoms by helping insulin work more effectively. Unless you are deficient in chromium, supplemental chromium is unlikely to improve your diabetes significantly.
Forms
Supplemental chromium is available in many different forms. All contain trivalent chromium bound to another molecule for stability. In chromium polynicotinate, the chromium ion is bound with nicotinic acid, known more commonly as niacin or vitamin B-3. Chromium polynicotinate and other organic formulations of chromium such as chromium picolinate are more readily absorbed than inorganic forms of chromium such as chromium chloride.
Dietary Chromium
Most whole foods contain small amounts of chromium. Good sources include broccoli, mushrooms, grape juice, meats and whole grains. The chromium content of food depends on how the food is processed and the quality of soil in which it was grown. In 2001, the National Institutes of Health established adequate intakes for chromium of 25 micrograms per day for men and 35 micrograms per day for women. Eating a diet founded on unprocessed whole grains, vegetables and meats is the best strategy for getting adequate dietary chromium.
Chromium and Insulin
Your body needs chromium to help the hormone insulin work effectively. According to a review article from 2004 published in "Diabetes Care," chromium is bound in your body as a complicated organic structure that makes your body's cells more sensitive to the hormone insulin. Insulin shuttles glucose from your blood into your cells to be used for energy. For this to happen, your cells have to recognize insulin; the degree of recognition is called insulin sensitivity. Chromium appears to improve insulin sensitivity by activating a number of critical enzymes required for insulin to bind your cells. It may even increase the number of insulin receptors on the surface of your cells.
Chromium Deficiency and Diabetes
There is no clinical definition for chromium deficiency and levels are difficult to measure in the body as they are influenced by many factors. Age, physical stress, exercise, infection and a diet high in simple sugars all reduce the amount of chromium in your body. The hypothesis that chromium deficiency may contribute to the development of diabetes is not without some evidence. A 2004 study published in "Diabetes Care" reported that men who developed diabetes and heart disease had lower chromium levels when compared to similar healthy men.
Potential as Treatment
The usefulness of supplemental chromium in the treatment of diabetes is unclear. Two conflicting meta-analysis of double blind, randomized controlled studies on chromium supplementation frame the debate. One, published in the "American Journal of Clinical Nutrition" in 2002, found the data on chromium supplementation to be inconclusive. The other, published in "Diabetes Care" in 2007, found a significant improvement from chromium supplementation on blood glucose control in people with diabetes but cautioned that further study was necessary. Summing the matter up quite succinctly, the Office of Dietary Supplements states, "Overall, the value of chromium supplements for diabetics is inconclusive and controversial."
Safety
The Institute of Medicine has not set a tolerable upper intake level for chromium and the National Institutes of Health report that toxicity from chromium is rare. However, there has been a report of chromium supplementation being associated with kidney failure. Yet, studies evaluating the safety of chromium supplements have used doses of up to 30 times the recommended intake for up to 64 months with no evidence of toxicity.
References
- "American Journal of Clinical Nutrition"; Glucose and Insulin Responses to Dietary Chromium Supplements: A Meta-Analysis; Althuis et al; July 2002
- "Diabetes Care"; Role of Chromium in Human Health and in Diabetes; Cefalu et al; November 2004
- "Diabetes Care"; Effect of Chromium Supplementation on Glucose Metabolism and Lipids: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials; Balk et al; August 2007
- Office of Dietary Supplements: Dietary Supplement Fact Sheet: Chromium
- "Biological Trace Element Research"; Mass Spectrometric and Spectroscopic Studies of the Nutritional Supplement Chromium(III) Nicotinate; Rhodes et al; January 2009 ; DiSilvestro et al; March 2007
- "Diabetes Care"; Lower Toenail Chromium in Men With Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease Compared With Healthy Men; Rajpathak et al; September 2004
