Chromium
μg/day
A chromium salt, usually picolinate, nicotinate, or chloride, at a few hundred micrograms a day. It is that salt alone.
Trials use a few hundred micrograms a day for six to sixteen weeks, often in people with insulin resistance or type 2 diabetes. Chromium stacked with carnitine, vitamin D, or vitamins C and E is a different mix.
Also called chromium picolinate, chromium nicotinate, chromium chloride.
Connected relationships
Randomized trial · Contested
Chromium→Insulin resistance (HOMA-IR)
Higher Chromium decreases Insulin resistance (HOMA-IR).
Jamilian 2016 found that 200 micrograms of chromium picolinate a day for eight weeks moved HOMA-IR by -0.8 versus +0.9 on placebo in 64 women with polycystic ovary syndrome (P<0.001). Kim 2012 saw a similar direction in 25 overweight children. Jain 2013's picolinate arm did not.
Sources
- M Jamilian et al. (2016). Chromium Supplementation and the Effects on Metabolic Status in Women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial.
- CW Kim et al. (2012). Effects of short-term chromium supplementation on insulin sensitivity and body composition in overweight children: randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.
- SK Jain et al. (2013). Effect of chromium dinicocysteinate supplementation on circulating levels of insulin, TNF-α, oxidative stress, and insulin resistance in type 2 diabetic subjects: randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.
- E Aghdassi et al. (2010). In patients with HIV-infection, chromium supplementation improves insulin resistance and other metabolic abnormalities: a randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled trial.
- RS Lucidi et al. (2006). Effect of chromium supplementation on insulin resistance and ovarian and menstrual cyclicity in women with polycystic ovary syndrome.