Chromium in diabetes

What is Chromium?
Chromium is an essential nutrient for the human body. It’s required for metabolism of
carbohydrates and fats, and It acts by regulating insulin action and help cells respond
properly to insulin.

Which foods contain chromium?
The best source of chromium is brewer's yeast. Other good sources of chromium are-
beef , liver, eggs, chicken, oysters, wheat germ, green peppers, apples, bananas, spinach,
black pepper, butter, and molasses.

What are the functions of

chromium in body?

Chromium is a component

of the glucose tolerance

factor (GTF), which

involves in normal

carbohydrate and lipid

metabolism.

It increases insulin binding

to cells due to increased

insulin receptor numbers.

The receptor is present in

essentially all cells, but its

concentration varies from

approximately 40 receptors

per cell for erythrocytes to

more than 200,000

receptors for adipocytes

and hepatocytes (1)

Since chromium acts by increasing insulin efficiency so lower amount of insulin is required
in presence of chromium

Who is likely to be deficient?
Normal dietary intake of Cr for humans is suboptimal. However, most diets contain less
than 60% of the minimum suggested intake of 50 microg.(3)
Insufficient dietary intake of Cr leads to signs and symptoms that are similar to those
observed for diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.
Supplemental Cr given to people with impaired glucose tolerance or diabetes leads to
improved blood glucose, insulin, and lipid variables.

How much chromium should be taken (recommended daily allowance of chromium)
The estimated safe and adequate daily dietary intake for Cr is 50 to 200 microg.(3)
Trivalent Cr has a very large safety range and there have been no documented signs of Cr
toxicity in any of the nutritional studies at levels up to 1 mg per day. (4)

What is the role of chromium in diabetes?

Chromium supplementation improves glycaemic control in type 2 diabetic patients due to
an increase in insulin action rather than stimulation of insulin secretion (2)

Suboptimal or less dietary intake of chromium is linked with increased risk factors
associated with diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

Studies have that chromium improves glucose and related variables in subjects with glucose
intolerance and type 1, type 2, gestational and steroid-induced diabetes.

Chromium increases insulin binding to cells, insulin receptor number and activates insulin
receptor kinase leading to increased insulin sensitivity.

Chromium and Diabetes

References -
1. Am J Clin Nutr 2002;76:148–55.
2. J Nutr Biochem. 2002 Nov;13(11):690-697
3 Diabetes Metab. 2000 Feb;26(1):22-7
4. Regul Toxicol Pharmacol. 1997 Aug;26(1 Pt 2):S35-41
5. Diabetes Technol Ther. 2006 Dec;8(6):677-87

Chromium

A review article published in Diabetes Technol Ther. 2006 Dec has mentioned
that 13 of 15 clinical studies involving a total of 1,690 subjects reported
significant improvement in at least one outcome of glycemic control.

Beneficial effects of CrPic supplementation included reduced blood glucose,
cholesterol, and triglyceride levels and reduced requirements for drugs for
diabetes.

Absorption of chromium picolinte is more compared to other chromium forms
which explains its better efficacy in sugar control & lipid control compared to
other chromium forms

The pooled data from studies using chromium picolinate supplementation for
type 2 diabetes mellitus subjects has shown substantial reductions in blood sugar
& improvement in insulin sensitivity, which result in decreased risk for disease
complications.