ABSTRACT
Chromium and Human Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 Signs and Symptoms of Chromium Deficiency in Humans . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Chromium and Lean Body Mass and Body Weight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 Chromium Intake and Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Trace Levels of Chromium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182 Form of Chromium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Safety of Chromium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Trivalent chromium (Cr) is essential to human health. The essentiality of Cr has been known since the late 1950s from animal studies, and conclusive documentation in humans was not provided until 1977, when it was reported that a lady on total parenteral nutrition developed severe signs and symptoms of diabetes that were refractory to insulin.1 Addition of Cr to her total parenteral nutrition solution led to a normalization of the signs and symptoms of diabetes, and exogenous insulin was no longer required. This work has subsequently been verified in the literature on three separate occasions.2-4 Since these studies, there have been numerous studies documenting the role of Cr in human and animal nutrition, and the reader is urged to consult recent reviews5-7 as well as those that question the essentiality and safety of Cr.8,9
Human studies suggest the following:
1. Healthy normal subjects with good glucose tolerance do not respond to supplemental Cr. This is to be expected because Cr is a nutrient and not a therapeutic agent and will, therefore, only be of benefit to those who are showing signs of deficiency.
