Chromium Picolinate
Chromium Picolinate - Another Flawed Study
Recently an article appeared in the New York Times, written by Jane Brody, which claimed that chromium picolinate caused DNA changes in ovarian cells. These changes could led to cancer or birth defects according to the article. Since then many people and physicians have expressed their concern about taking chromium picolinate. The article was based on a study conducted by Dr. Diane M. Stearns.
In this study, Dr. Stearns reported that chromium picolinate exhibited a clastogenic effect on hamster cells in vitro. Lets take a closer look at this study.
Dr. Stearns' study is very flawed when examined closely. To begin with, Dr. Stearns reports, that the minimum concentration of chromium picolinate required to produce this clastogenicity, is 6000 times the human serum concentration level that exists during ordinary supplementation of this nutrient . In fact, almost any constituent of normal serum including nutrients, given at 6000 times their normal serum concentration, would be damaging to cells, especially in vitro.
Chromium picolinate has been found to be very safe when administered orally. Oral trivalent chromium has never been shown to be carcinogenic, mutagenic, or clastogenic in animals. In fact the LD50 of chromium picolinate cannot be measured, because animals can tolerate extremely high doses, when measured in toxicological evaluations. Chromium picolinate has been shown to increase the lifespan of animals in laboratory studies. Chromium picolinate shows no mutagenicity in the Ames test at any concentration. And clinical studies have failed to show any adverse effects.
The concentrations used in Dr. Stearn's study illustrate that everything is safe and everything is poisonous - even oxygen and water, depending upon the dose. It was observed by Paracelsus in the 16th century "The dose makes the poison".
Clearly, high dosages in vitro assays for mutagenicity or clastogenicity are virtually meaningless for assessing toxic risk unless they are compared to clinical observations, data from animal studies, or epidemiological findings that likewise raise concern.
To further show the safety of chromium picolinate, we need to read the FDA's own findings. This was published in the Toxicity of the Essential Minerals - Information Pertinent to Establishing Appropriate Levels of Single-Mineral Dietary Supplements. Quote,"No adverse effects were observed in either mice or rats given an inorganic salt supplying 5 ppm chromium in drinking water throughout their life." This level would be the equivalent, of a human consuming about 10,000 micrograms of chromium picolinate daily for life. Tri- valent chromium has been clearly shown to be virtually nontoxic, even in high doses, and has never been found to exert mutagenic, or carcinogenic effects.
Dr. Gary Evans, who has been studying the effects of chromium for over fifteen years, has observed the effects of lifelong chromium supplementation in rats; three groups of rats received either chromium picolinate, chromic dichloride, or chromium dinicotinate. This study showed a substantial prolongation of both median and maximal lifespan in the rats receiving chromium picolinate.
A study conducted by Dr. Merlin Lindemann, at the Department of Animal and Poultry Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, showed conclusively that chromium picolinate supplementation in fact produced larger litters of healthy piglets - hardly consistent with ovarian damage as reported by Dr. Stearns.
The mutagenic potential of chromium picolinate has been assessed by the Biodevelopment Laboratories of Cambridge Massachusetts, using the standard Ames salmonella mutagenesis assay. The studies concluded that chromium picolinate has no mutagenic activity, in concentrations up to and exceeding its solubility limit.
Mutagenicity is a problem because, some mutagens, even in very low concentrations, can produce changes in the DNA code that potentially can give rise to cancer or birth defects. The Ames assay results with chromium picolinate indicate that chromium picolinate is not a mutagen, and that the clastogenic effect does not reflect mutagenesis, but rather, some interference with chromosome structure at very high concentrations. Therefore, there is no reason to believe, that within the doses taken by most people, chromium picolinate is anything but safe.
The abstract written by Dr. Stearns also reports, that picolinic acid is clastogenic in those absurd. concentrations. The idea that chromium picolinate may exhibit an adverse effect evolving free picolinic acid is just plain wrong. A recent study has found, that young men, not receiving any picolinate-based supplements, excreted an average of 14 milligrams of picolic acid daily. This would indicate, that picolinic acid is metabolized by the body naturally. The ingestion of 200 micrograms of chromium picolinate would associate with a picolinate absorption of about 40 micrograms. This corresponds to only 0.3% of the minimal estimate of the amount to which the body is exposed naturally to picolinic acid without supplements. It is therefore inherently absurd to place any potential adverse effect of chromium picolinate to its picolinate content.
I think that after reading this, you can see that chromium picolinate as a nutritional supplement, is very safe and beneficial to our health. It would be nice, if people like Jane Brody, would look before they leap into the world of biochemistry, and would do their homework before writing their much read columns.
Posted
by Dr. Steven Felder
