Chromium is an essential trace element, and the word trace is doing real work: the whole body holds only a few milligrams of it. Interest in the mineral began in the late 1950s, when Walter Mertz and Klaus Schwarz identified a dietary factor in brewer's yeast that supported normal glucose metabolism and traced its activity to chromium. They called it glucose tolerance factor.
The difficulty with chromium has always been absorption. Inorganic chromium salts are taken up poorly — a small single-digit percentage at best. Binding the mineral to picolinic acid, a natural metabolite of tryptophan, produces a stable, neutral complex that crosses the intestinal wall more readily than the salt does. The form is the point.
Chromium plays a role in normal carbohydrate and lipid metabolism and in maintaining healthy insulin sensitivity — that is, in helping cells respond to the insulin they already produce. It is used to support blood sugar already within a normal range. Dietary intake is often modest, particularly on refined diets, since refining strips the mineral from grain.
Available in 60 tablets, 200 mcg each.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
