Chromium supplements may not lower blood sugar

Are you taking chromium supplement to lower your blood sugar? Prod your doctor again as an alarming research indicates that chromium is not effective at lowering fasting blood sugar in healthy individuals or diabetics.

After analysing nearly three decades of data on the effect of chromium supplementation on blood sugar, a University of Miami (UM) researcher has concluded that chromium supplements are not a good idea.

"Some previous research reported that chromium supplements lower the levels of fasting glucose. However, the effect may have been exaggerated or mistaken for the effects of other concurrent treatments, such as exercise training," explained Christopher H. Bailey from department of kinesiology and sport sciences at UM.

Chromium is a mineral required by humans in minute concentrations and is obtained naturally in the diet.

Actually, few cases of deficiency have been documented.

Although chromium supplementation does not lower fasting blood sugar, there may be other beneficial effects on the body that require more research, Bailey added.

Fasting blood sugar is only one aspect of human health.

The chromium supplements included in the analysis were chromium chloride, chromium picolinate, chromium nicotinate, chromium dinicocysteinate and chromium yeast.

The study was published in the journal Biological Trace Element Research.