Chromium Supplementation Reduces Resting Heart Rate in Patients with Metabolic Syndrome and Impaired Glucose Tolerance

Abstract

Chromium (Cr) is considered as an important mineral, involved in biochemical reactions in human metabolic pathways. Organically bound Cr supplementation has been suggested to improve glycemia especially in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus, but there are conflicting reports on efficacy. Effect of Cr is not clear in prediabetes status. Seventy patients with metabolic syndrome and impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), who are observed and treated in the Center of Preventive Cardiology of the University Hospital in Pilsen, were included in the prospective, randomized, double-blind, and placebo-controlled clinical study. Effect of Cr-enriched yeast (200 μg of elementary Cr in the morning and 100 μg in the evening) on glucose, lipid metabolism, fat tissue hormones, oxidative stress, and DNA damage markers was analyzed. There were no significant changes in glucose and lipid parameters, oxidative stress, or other laboratory markers. Only resting heart rate was significantly reduced in patients treated by Cr yeast, reflecting reduced sympathetic activity. This could represent an important cardiovascular risk reduction in patients with high cardiometabolic risk.

A meta‐analysis of the effect of chromium supplementation on anthropometric indices of subjects with overweight or obesity

“…Different forms of chromium were used in the included trials. Of all included trials, 17 trials administered chromium picolinate, two trials administered the intervention as chromium‐enriched yeast and three trials used the nicotinate form of chromium as the interventional compound . Duration of chromium supplementation varied between 9 and 24 weeks with a median of 12 weeks.…”

“…Changes in BMI were reported in eight trials and 19 trials reported changes in body weight . The reported mean BMI of all included trials was over 25 kg/m 2 , therefore all included participants were considered as subjects with overweight/obesity.…”

“…The reported mean BMI of all included trials was over 25 kg/m 2 , therefore all included participants were considered as subjects with overweight/obesity. Of the 21 RCTs, 12 reported body fat percentage, eight RCTs measured waist circumference and only three studies specified the waist to hip ratio . In terms of study quality, 13 trials were categorized as high‐quality with Jadad score of ≥3; and eight as low‐quality studies with Jadad score of <3 (Table ).…”

“…The studies were published from 1996 to 2017, in which 10 studies were conducted in United States, [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26] two studies in Iran 27,28 and one was conducted in Brasil 29 , Canada, 30 Denmark, 31 Greece, 32 Norway 33 , Taiwan 34 and New Zealand. 26 Twelve of the included studies were conducted on both males and females 12,[18][19][20][22][23][24][25][26][27]29,31,32 and the remaining studies on females. 17,21,28,30,33 The number of participants ranged from 9 to 70 with a sum of total sample size of 1316 (a sum of 666 in the intervention and 650 in the control groups).…”

“…17,21,28,30,33 The number of participants ranged from 9 to 70 with a sum of total sample size of 1316 (a sum of 666 in the intervention and 650 in the control groups). Of the 21 trials, 19,20,25,28,29,31,33,34 and only three studies specified the waist to hip ratio. 20,25,32 In terms of study quality, 13 trials were categorized as high-quality with Jadad score 12 of ≥3 17,19,[22][23][24][25][26][28][29][30][31][32] ; and eight as low-quality studies with Jadad score of <3 12,18,20,21,27,33,34 (Table 2).…”