USDA Press Release
CHROMIUM SUPPLEMENTS
MAY BE BENEFICIAL FOR DIABETICS
San Francisco,
CA (June 9, 1996)- People in China with type II diabetes had
marked reductions in their blood sugar and insulin levels
after two to four months of taking chromium picolinate supplements.
And the most sensitive measure of diabetic control-hemoglobin
A(ic)-dropped to normal, according to a U.S. Department of
Agriculture study presented June 9 at the annual scientific
meeting of the American Diabetes Association.
Chromium expert
Richard Anderson of USDA's Agricultural Research Service said
that "the results are preliminary and need to be reproduced
in the United States before chromium can be recommended for
the treatment of diabetes. But they're better than we had
hoped for. Even those getting 200 micrograms (mcg) of chromium
daily improved in several indices of diabetes." That's the
upper limit of the estimated safe and adequate intake.
In the U.S., it's
possible that people with diabetes would need higher levels
of chromium to realize similar improvements because Americans
are larger than the Chinese and eat more fat and sugar. All
of these factors raise the requirement for chromium. "No other
studies have seen consistent improvements with 200 mcg." He
noted that some people with diabetes won't respond to chromium
supplements at all for reasons that are still unclear.
Anderson and Nanzheng
Cheng, a physician, spearheaded the four-month study. Cheng--a
former visiting scientist in Anderson's laboratory--and her
sister Nanping Cheng, a physician in Beijing--recruited 180
people with type II diabetes through three Beijing hospitals
and assigned them to three groups of 60 each. All of them
produced insulin; none was in an advanced stage of the disease.
One group got 100
mcg of chromium as chromium picolinate at two different times
each day, while a second group got 500 mcg twice daily. Dividing
the supplement into two doses allows the body to absorb more,
Anderson explained, because the two don't saturate the system
as much as a single dose. A third group got look-alike placebos.
To ensure objectivity in the study, neither the volunteers
nor the researchers knew who got which capsules.
The volunteers
getting a total of 1000 mcg--or one milligram (mg)--daily
improved significantly compared to the placebo group after
only two months, Anderson said. By the end of four months,
their average hemoglobin A(ic) was 6.6 percent compared to
8.5 for the placebo group. A normal level is usually less
than 6.2 percent. The value is a measure of how much hemoglobin
has sugar bound to it he said. It's considered the "gold standard"
of diabetes tests.
The low-chromium
group--those volunteers getting a total of 200 mcg daily-ended
the study with a hemoglobin A(ic) level of 7.5 percent--also
significantly below the placebo group. But there was no significant
difference in blood glucose between the low-chromium and placebo
groups.
In the high-chromium
group, however, blood glucose after an overnight fast was
down to 129 milligrams per decaliter (mg/dL) versus 160 mg/dL
in the placebo group. And it averaged 190 mg/dL two hours
after eating a meal versus 223 mg/dL in the placebo group.
In nondiabetic people, blood glucose is around 100 mg/dL after
fasting and 120 mg/dL after a meal, said Lois Jovanovic-Peterson,
a physician specializing in diabetes and a senior scientist
at the Sansum Medical Research Foundation in Santa Barbara,
Calif.
"These are improvements
to the level of good control," she said. "It's as good as
what we currently have available--oral hypoglycemic agents,
diet and exercise. If further research confirms these numbers,
chromium supplements could be an add-on therapy to current
treatments to further lower blood glucose."
In addition to
improvements in blood glucose, the high-chromium group had
a significant drop in total cholesterol. And both the high-
and low-chromium groups had a significant drop in plasma insulin
just two months after beginning the supplements and a further
drop at four months. People with type II, or maturity-onset,
diabetes produce more insulin than normal in the early stages
of the disease, Anderson explained, because the hormone is
less efficient at clearing glucose from the blood. Chromium
apparently makes the hormone more efficient.
"We controlled
diabetes with a nutrient--given at higher levels than can
be gotten from the diet," said Anderson. He said people with
type II diabetes absorb more chromium. But they also excrete
more, so their tissue levels are lower, indicating that the
body has trouble using what it absorbs.
Anderson also
said he has maintained rats on daily doses of chromium picolinate
or an inorganic form of the mineral several thousand times
above the highest suggested intake for humans with no adverse
effects on the sensitive organs.
There
is no Recommended Dietary Allowance for chromium. The estimated
safe and adequate dietary intake is between 50 and 200 mcg
daily. Most Americans consume less than 50 mcg, Anderson said.
He has analyzed well-balanced diets prepared by dietitians
and found them to contain only about 33 mcg per day.
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