Chromium is Safe

[anthrax]

There have been questions on wether chromium is safe ... this artickle tends to prove it is safe

but I am not sure it is efficient for non diabetic people

Chromium is an essential element required for normal carbohydrate and lipid metabolism. Lack of adequate chromium ingestion has been associated with increased risk factors for diabetes, such as elevated blood sugar and fasting insulin, in addition to impaired glucose tolerance. The benefits of chromium have been touted for many years and consumers have become aware of the important role this mineral plays in the body. But, is the ingestion of chromium safe? Does it have any toxicity? A 1997 study on rats gives us some clues.
Four-week old Sprague Dawley rats were fed a stock diet to which was added 0, 5, 25, 50, or 100 mg of chromium per kg of diet as chloride or picolinate. Thereafter, fasting blood samples of chromium were taken at 11 and 17 weeks and the animals were sacrificed at 24 weeks of age. The results showed lack of toxicity on tissues. All blood studies, including glucose, cholesterol, blood urea nitrogen, lactic acid dehydrogenase, transaminases, total protein and creatinine were within normal limits. Histological determination of liver and kidney tissues between control and rats fed 100 mg/kg of chromium did not show any detectable differences.

Dr. Richard Anderson and colleagues, from the Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center, US Department of Agriculture, in Maryland, say, "These data demonstrate a lack of toxicity of trivalent chromium, at levels that are on a per kg bases, several thousand times the upper limit of the estimated safe and adequate daily dietary intake for humans."

An interesting observation was that the rats fed the picolinate version of chromium has several-fold higher chromium concentrations in both the liver and kidney than those fed the chloride form.

Anderson RA, Bryden NA, Polansky MM. Lack of toxicity of chromium chloride and chromium picolinate in rats. J Am College Nutr 16:3:273-279, 1997.

Comments: I'm even more reassured that adding 100 to 200 mg of chromium to the vitamin regimen of diabetics appears to be safe. As to the form of chromium, picolinate seems to be better absorbed, and thus a lower dose of the picolinate would be required compared to the hydrochloride form.

© Ray Sahelian M.D. (healthy.net)

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[riskybizz007]

Keep the studies coming!

 

[chillin408]

I have been using Chromium Picolinate at a dose of 800 mcg per day for the last 3 weeks. I think it has been causing me to be less susceptible to having hypoglycemic episodes. Due to the fact that I've only been using it for 3 weeks and it's effects are subtle, it is difficult for me to arrive at an accurate judgment of it's benefits for me.

Regarding the controversy, I thought that some of the it is over the picolinate version. The study you cited used both chloride and picolinate versions. I didn't understand whether or not rats were fed a combination of chloride and picolinate or if there were two study groups of rats, one fed piconlinate and the other fed chloride?

It probably wouldn't matter since the dosage was so high(compared to the standard human doses) unless if the conductors purposely did this to make it seem as if the proportions of each chloride and picolinate were roughly equal. I have not followed the controversy over chromium closely, but because knowing it existed was making me a little squeamish over taking twice the recommended dosage that's marked on the label.