Chromium
It was known by the 1950s that chromium was
needed in humans to control blood
sugar, but it wasn't until the 1970s that
chromium's main role in humans was
found out. It came accidentally, as a
result of a new procedure that had been
introduced to nourish hospitalized
patients who could not take in food by
eating. This method of nourishment was
designed to give patients all the things
people need to maintain health until
they could eat normally and get these
nutrients from food. Some of the
patients who had been fed intravenously for
months developed a high blood
sugar level just like diabetics (even though they
weren't). Then the doctors
had to start insulin therapy to treat this
diabetes-like condition and even
then the insulin didn’t work right! People
already knew that Chromium was
needed to keep normal blood sugar levels, so when
they added the Chromium to
the food solutions, there was an immediate
improvement! The people didn’t
need insulin injections, and their blood sugars
and other problems went back
to normal. After a while doctors everywhere figured
out that Chromium was
needed in humans and they didn’t make the old mistakes
anymore. Trivalent
chromium works with insulin to move glucose into cells, we
don’t know how
else it works but we think it has to do with the insulin
binding to their
receptor sites. Chromium and Diabetes Three of the 17 good
studies showed
that there wasn’t any benefit of chromium with diabetics, 14
did show blood
glucose improvements in the patients. The results were
impressive: blood
glucose, insulin levels, and cholesterol all decreased, with
the higher dose
(but not always). No one knows how tiny amounts of chromium
could have such
big effects on insulin’s actions and no one knows why this is
so but they
believe that chromium strengthens some things that happen between
insulin and
the body. In other words, it doesn't work by making the body make
more
insulin, but instead chromium makes the insulin that is there work better
in
the peoples cells. For all the Health Nuts! An area of interest lately is
the
possible effect of chromium on body composition; or, how chromium affects
the
relative amounts of lean body mass (mainly muscle) compared to the amount
of
body fat. There have been positive results from studies with four
separate
animal species, pigs, lambs, rats and chickens. They were given
chromium
picolinate. In all of these species, there were increases in muscle
mass and
decreases in fat. And, in the case of pigs, the results have been
confirmed by
many other studies. Unfortunately, for humans, the evidence was
not as clear
until just recently. Earlier Studies were not even conducted
properly so we
could not go by their results. But later studies used a large
group of about
average people and conducted a controlled experiment. After a
while there seemed
to benefits to the control group and it showed to be a
result of the extra
Chromium intake! (I wish this was, totally the case
because I myself am kind of
a health nut) Humans Daily Intake of Chromium
Info from U. S. government shows
that most Americans get less chromium a day
than the amount recommended by
nutrition experts (the RDA Committee
recommends 50-200 mcg of chromium/day; the
vast majority of Americans get
less than 50 mcg/day). Not many foods have a lot
of chromium. The best foods
are organ meats, mushrooms, wheat germ, broccoli and
processed meats. It is
thought that Stone Age people ate more chromium than
modern people because
they might have always eaten organ meats from the animals
they hunted. And it
is most likely that they lost less chromium in their pee
than we do. This is
probably because Stone Agers didn’t eat nearly as much
simple sugars as
modern people and simple sugar intake causes chromium to be
lost in the
urine. Americans consume about 120 pounds of sugar per year from
regular
eating! Another interesting thing is that in large numbers of people in
the
U.S.-- chromium levels in our tissues lower over our lifetimes. In fact,
the
highest chromium levels are found in babies! Conclusion Chromium is an
essential
trace mineral for humans, as far as we know chromium deficiency
might have
direct effects on a societies obesity, diabetes, abnormal blood
lipids,
hypertension, and even coronary artery disease. Even though it is
all
controversial, many sources show that this information is correct. Other
Uses -
To harden steel, manufacture stainless steel, form alloys. - Used
in plating to
form a hard, beautiful surface that is corrosion proof - Used
to give glass an
emerald green color (responsible for the green in Emeralds
and the red in
Rubies!). - Use as a catalyst - Tanning leather - Pigment
(lead chromate [as
chrome yellow]). - Compounds are used in the textile
industry as Mordants. ß? -
Used in the manufacturing of aircraft to
anodize aluminum. - The refractory
industry ß? uses chromite for forming
bricks and shapes (it has a high melting
point, moderate thermal expansion,
and a stable crystal structure).
Bibliography
-
elements.nb.ca/index1.htm/ - chemicalelements.com/ - dayah.com/periodic/
-
library.thinkquest.org/3659/pertable/