ADA Press Release
New Research
on Chromium and Diabetes
San Diego, California
(June 21, 1999)- Chromium picolinate may be a useful addition
to standard combination drug treatment of Type 2, non-insulin
dependent diabetes, suggests a new clinical study presented
at the 59th annual scientific sessions of the American Diabetes
Association.
Austrian researchers
studied the effects of supplementation with chromium picolinate
(500 mcg, two times a day) for 4 months in 16 obese patients
with a mean age of 56 years. All patients were pretreated
with, and continued to receive stable doses of a sulphonylurea
and metformin, standard treatments for Type 2 diabetes, throughout
the study.
Babak Bahadori,
MD, of the University of Graz in Austria reported that chromium
picolinate appeared to enhance the effects of metformin and
oral sulfonylureas. The addition of chromium was associated
with significant reductions in fasting insulin levels, without
a detrimental effect on glucose control. Insulin resistance
assessed by the insulin suppression test was not affected.
"The ability of
chromium picolinate to lower fasting insulin levels in patients
already receiving diabetic medications is clinically important
because an elevated insulin level in the blood is an established
risk factor for cardiovascular disease. These findings provide
justification for the use of chromium picolinate as a nutritional
adjunct in the dietary management of diabetes," said Dr. Bahadori.
The positive effects
seen in this clinical study could be associated with an effect
of chromium picolinate on insulin clearance, he added.
Additional clinical
research on the "Insulin Assistance Factor"
Speaking at a breakfast
symposium, William T. Cefalu, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine
in the Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism Unit at the
University of Vermont College of Medicine described an improvement
in insulin sensitivity in obese people with pre-diabetic symptoms
who received chromium picolinate. Dr. Cefalu called for additional
work to be conducted in determining chromium picolinate's
ability to possibly delay the onset and/or progression of
type 2 diabetes.
In another presentation,
Alexander Ravina, MD, of the Diabetes Department at the Linn
Clinic in Haifa, Israel, presented the results of a study
published in Diabetic Medicine that showed that chromium picolinate
reduced or eliminated the symptoms in 41 out of 44 patients
with steroid-induced diabetes after standard drug therapy
failed. The 41 patients who had developed diabetes as a result
of undergoing steroid treatment and who benefited from chromium
picolinate were able to reduce or eliminate their diabetic
medication, such as insulin.
