Chromium and glucose homeostasis in diabetic patients: Review of current evidence

Insulin resistance is one of the metabolic syndrome symptoms. This syndrome is progressive and can lead to diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Several studies have indicated that chromium supplementation is effective in increasing the insulin sensitivity and control hyperglycemia in patients with diabetes. Therefore, current study aimed to review the available evidence regarding the relation between chromium and glucose homeostasis. This review study was done by searching on PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct and Web of Science by entering “diabetes mellitus”, “insulin sensitivity”, “insulin resistance”, “chromium” and “metabolic syndrome” as keywords. In this study, clinical trial, cross-sectional, retrospective and prospective studies which were published during 1995 to 2014 were reviewed. Studies show that the consumption of high dose of chromium supplement (1000 µg) during more than 12 weeks not only improves insulin sensitivity, but also alters body fat distribution and reduce weight gain trends in patients with diabetes. In addition, chromium consumption decreases insulin requirements to the anti-diabetic drugs in patients with diabetes. However, there are contradicting results that show intake of low doses of chromium (400 µg) during 12 weeks did not show any significant change in insulin sensitivity. So, due to few studies and conflicting results in this regard, more research is suggested.