Chromium Appears Safe, Even in Large Amounts

[Guest guest]

Hi folks:

For some years I have been supplementing once a week with 200 mcg

chromium in the form of picolinate. I believe I see benefit from

it. Some have raised questions about the safety of chromium

picolinate. While looking for something else I tripped over the

following, at a USDA, Agricultural Research Service, website. It

certainly suggests it is safe, at least in rats!

" Chromium Supplements Safe

People concerned about the safety of chromium supplements can breathe

far more easily. Every day during a 20-week study, rats consumed more

than 2,000 times the estimated safe limit of chromium for people. The

animals showed no signs of toxicity as assessed by body weight, blood

chemistry and tissue analyses. Twenty weeks is about one-seventh of a

rat's normal life span.

Researchers tested two widely used formulations of the mineral--

chromium picolinate and chromium chloride. While neither produced

toxicity, the animals stored more of the picolinate in their tissues,

indicating that they absorbed more. The findings, reported in the

Journal of the American College of Nutrition (vol. 16, pp. 273-279),

support earlier reports of very low toxicity in animals. And they

question the relevance of a study done two years ago using cultured

human cells that reported DNA damage. Cultured cells are far more

vulnerable than body cells because they lack the body's normal

protective mechanisms.

For example, people generally absorb less than 2 percent of the

chromium in the diet; 98 percent passes in the stool. By contrast,

the cultured cells were given increasingly larger doses of chromium

formulations until an effect was observed. Years of ARS chromium

studies with animals and people have not identified any toxic

symptoms, even when the chromium given was several times above the

suggested daily upper limit of 200 micrograms (mcg). In fact, the

highest daily exposure considered safe over the course of a lifetime

is 350 times this upper limit. This reference dose was established by

the Environmental Protection Agency.

For more information, contact A. , (301) 504-8091,

Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center, Beltsville, MD "

http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/np/fnrb/fnrb1097.htm#chromium

I am not advocating other people take chromium supplements. Rather

just reassuring any who do that some previous adverse publicity

apeears not to have been justified.

Rodney.