Few people know that Chromium and insulin play an important role in their life and health. Without chromium , the hormone insulin would not work properly. Insulin controls blood sugar levels and many other aspects of carbohydrate breakdown and storage. Insulin also directs your metabolism involving how you break down fat, protein and obtain energy.

Many people will not think about chromium unless a doctor recommends it but its easential in the body.

Because insulin requires chromium to function properly, chromium must have very important biological effects in your body. The exact way in which chromium and insulin work is not known but is under scientific investigation. There is evidence that supplementation of people with type 2 diabetes with chromium improves their glucose intolerance. This supports that chromiun plays an essential role in the prevention of insulin resistance and diabetes.

We know that insulin mainly works in muscle, fat and the liver, and exerts profound effects on many other body tissues. Insulin is the primary hormone that controls how the body’s cells absorb, use and store nutrients and energy. It is therefore essential that insulin should be allowed to work efficienly to its its role to be accomplished in the body.

How chromium and insulin work together

There are more than 16 clinical studies, which have tested specific chromium compounds in diabetics to establish how chromium and insulin may work and if there is a significant benifit of chromium supplements.

While 13% of these studies showed no benefit of chromium supplementation in diabetics, 87% showed blood glucose improvements in the patients tested. Taking supplemental chromium is therefore useful to the body.

Chromium probably strengthens certain effects of insulin on the body’s cells. What this means is that chromium doesn’t work by stimulating the body to make more insulin, but rather chromium makes the insulin, which is present to function more effectively in the cells of the body. When the body does not respond to insulin in the normal manner, physicians refer to this as insulin resistance. Insulin resistance shows that the insulin, which is circulating in the blood, is not able to have its usual effects on various tissues in the body.

Chromium and insulin in your metabolism

Chromium has significant effect on insulin levels. Subsequently chromium is associated with health concerns attributed to insulin. Emotional stress and physical stress can deplete our bodies of chromium. This suggests that we should either reduce stress or take chromium supplements.

When your body does not have enough of chromium it produces more insulin. This creates abnormal levels of insulin in the blood and deranges several physiological processes. Therefore if you have less than optimum level of chromium in the blood your body responds to this by producing more insulin. when a normal person’s chromium is normalised the insulin level is also normalised.

People with insulin resistance tend to have cravings for carbohydrates. As carbohydrates cravings increase additional insulin is released. At the same time organs and muscles, which already are resistant to a certain extent to insulin first convert blood sugar into fat which is distributed in the body and especially in the visceral organs leading to additional belly fat.

Chromium deficiency and plaque in the arteries

Chromium deficiency has been shown to result in abnormal blood glucose levels and fat levels. Chromium deficiency leads to formation of plaque in the arteries and may induce heart attack. The you get the more your body appears to need more chromium. Supplementing our chromium in take with a single dose may prove to be very beneficial as it would keep the insulin levels in balance. However there are chromium dangers if you take too much of it.Too much chromium in supplements may harm your kidneys and even the nerves.

How much chromium do you need

The National Academy of Science’s recommends a range of 50–200 mcg per day. When deciding which chromium to buy always choose GTF (Glucose Tolerance Factor) chromium without anything else added to it as it may affect chromium absorption. Before you buy please read the label to ensure that each tablet contains 200 mcg of chromium.

You may not notice the effects of taking chromium immediately. It may take several months to be observable but your body will already be responding to it long before you notice it. Take the chromium tablets without food and without medications or supplements.