Chromium Polynicotinate is used in the CORE™ formula, the foundation of the entire CardioTrim health supplement line.

Chromium is an essential trace element required for normal protein, fat and carbohydrate metabolism. Chromium levels are known to decrease with age and marginal chromium deficiencies appear to be widespread. Chromium is important for energy production and plays a role in regulating appetite, reducing sugar cravings and increasing lean body mass. Chromium helps insulin metabolize fat, turn protein into muscle and convert sugar into energy. Chromium supplementation can favorably influence glucose/insulin metabolism in chronic hemo-dialysis patients.

The ability to absorb or convert inorganic chromium to the active form appears to decrease with age. Studies show children respond to inorganic chromium within 24 hours whereas adult subjects require one to three months. Studies show that chromium has a direct effect on insulin resistance and diabetes. Furthermore, chromium lost and excreted from the human body increases with age and is related to diabetes. The alterations in the insulin metabolism, due to increased insulin resistance can lead to many forms of hypertension and increased blood pressure. Hypertension, a major public health problem, becomes more prevalent during aging. It is commonly accepted that blood pressure (BP) increases steadily in most individuals with aging. Preuss et al. (1997) has shown that hypertension is found in 50% or more individuals above age 55 and 63% of those age 65-74. The rate is high as 76% among African Americans over 65. Chromium has been shown to reduce levels of harmful LDL cholesterol, a form of cholesterol that increases with age and leads to heart disease and hypertension. Chromium has been shown to increase beneficial HDL cholesterol.

Exercise induces chromium losses in athletes and may lead to chromium deficiency resulting in impaired insulin function. As the biologically active component of glucose tolerance factor (GTF) the essential trace mineral chromium is important to athletes. GTF potentiates insulin activity and is responsible for normal insulin function. Thus, insulin effects on carbohydrate, fat and protein metabolism are dependent upon the maintenance of adequate chromium stores. Due to excessive chromium loss and marginal chromium intake, athletes may have an increased requirement of chromium. Therefore, in some circumstances the dietary supplementation of a chromium compound may be efficacious. Optimal insulin efficacy can be achieved through the restoration and maintenance of chromium storage, which is necessary for high level athletic performance.

According to the American Heart Association, nearly 100 million Americans have cholesterol levels above average 200mg/dl or higher. Blood cholesterol levels are influenced by a number of factors including diet, exercise, weight, genetics, stress, sex and age. Low tissue chromium levels have been implicated in most of the known factors of cardiovascular risk. Tissue chromium levels are known to decrease with age as the risk of high blood cholesterol and heart disease increases.

Numerous animal experiments have shown that chromium can prevent and even reverse atherosclerosis. In rats, chromium deficiency has been shown to increase serum cholesterol levels and formation of aortic plaques. However adding chromium to the diet prevented both the formation of aortic plaques and the rise of serum cholesterol. Other animal experiments have shown that high sucrose, chromium deficient diets cause severe atherosclerosis, which is wholly preventable with a dietary chromium supplement. Abraham et al. reported that rabbits on a high cholesterol diet followed with chromium showed a significant regression of atherosclerosis plaques while rabbits without chromium showed no improvement. A strong association exists between chromium deficiency, high blood insulin and elevated blood cholesterol levels.

It has been known for almost four decades that chromium is involved in the control of glucose and lipid metabolism. Addition of chromium to the total parenteral nutrition fluids of a patient displaying life threatening signs and symptoms of diabetes that were refractory to insulin resulted in the reversal of diabetic symptoms. Exogenous insulin requirement decreases from 200 ?g daily to zero following chromium supplementation with a normalizing of blood glucose. In the last five years, chromium has been shown to play a role in Type II diabetes mellitus, gestational diabetes, steroid-induced diabetes and glucose tolerance. In summary, supplementation with chromium had beneficial effects on people with varying degrees of glucose intolerance, ranging from marginal glucose intolerance to uncontrolled diabetes. Chromium also reduced the amount of insulin required for the people with diabetes. There have been no side effects with chromium supplementation.

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