Chromium Picolinate: Your Secret Weapon to Weight Loss

By Kendall Lou Schmidt

Are you at war with your weight loss? Are you struggling through an uphill battle to control your appetite and carb cravings? Does it feel like your brain and body are sabotaging your success? Chromium Picolinate is the Trojan Horse you need to finally be victorious. Chromium is an essential mineral necessary to function properly. Without it, fundamental life processes such as cell division, differentiation and protein synthesis suffer, glucose function and lipid metabolism are impaired so fats and carbs are poorly managed, insulin regulation and sensitivity are less efficient⁴, body fat and cholesterol levels rise¹², and hunger signals in the brain go haywire¹. All of which are symptoms or risk factors for various health concerns ^3,4. Taking products that contain chromium picolinate, like Blackstone Labs Trojan Horse, is your secret weapon against these serious conditions⁴, and the game changer that will finally turn the tables in your war of body fat.

So now you know what warrior to send into battle, let’s look at the four main obstacles chromium picolinate will help you overcome.

The Battle to Control Blood Sugar

When your blood sugar is out of whack, your whole battle plan is ruined. Your blood sugar swings to dramatic highs and lows, your energy is zapped, your insulin is thrown off, and your hunger shoots through the roof. This downward spiral only worsens as you crave more carbs to compensate for low lows, and all the while your body is storing more fat. Chromium picolinate is exactly what you need to snap out of it.

Chromium has an important and sophisticated relationship with your metabolism that roots deep into our DNA and the nucleic acids that form it. Studies on supplementation of dietary chromium picolinate have shown a direct effect on the ratio of RNA to DNA is muscle tissue. After only 80 days the levels of RNA in the muscle increased significantly, insulin levels were reduced and insulin sensitivity improved⁶.

On a molecular level, chromium is an essential component of chromium phenylalanine. This molecule activates enzymes that work on proteins (protein kinase B and/or AMP-activated protein kinase) which in result, leads to a more sensitive cell signaling pathway of insulin⁹. The more sensitive your cells are to insulin, the better your body can regulate blood sugar and energy.

Chromium picolinate supplementation is a proven way to increase your bodies insulin response to glucose⁵. Clinical trials have shown that supplementation can significantly reduce fasting glucose levels³, and has shown tremendous benefit in treating insulin resistant and controlling blood sugar in patients with poorly controlled type to diabetes¹⁰.

Beating Binge Eating Behaviors

Everyone who has ever dieted has had a moment (or many moments) where that monster inside takes over and the binging begins. Binging on unusually large amounts of food, or feeling out of control while eating, is a sign that your food intake regulation is failing. Binging can range in severity from an occasional slip up, to a full blown disorder. Either way, chromium picolinate can help keep that monster at bay.

Chromium picolinate plays an important role in regulating when and how much we eat.This effect on our food intake may be mediated chromium picolinate working directly on the brain¹.  Chromium treatment has been shown to improve mood, appetite, and glucose regulation in various populations of psychiatric and medical patients³. In a 6-month double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial on 24 patients with binge eating disorder, a decrease in binge frequency, weight, and symptoms of depression were observed in those treated with chromium versus placebo³. In addition to improving glucose regulation, chromium picolinate reduced food intake, hunger levels, and fat cravings¹. For some, chromium picolinate supplementation may be a successful alternative to other prescription drugs commonly used to regulate the insulin, or control the serotonin and dopamine levels can that trigger binge eating, cause weight gain, and worsen depression³.

The War on Fat

Perhaps the best reason to keep chromium picolinate in your arsenal: it will help improve your body composition by reducing body fat and increasing lean mass. In experimental models, chromium picolinate supplementation had a positive effect on the quality of both protein and fat in tissue. Adipose areas with high body fat showed a significant decrease in fatty acid concentration and better deposition of the essential amino acids that make up all the various types of protein in our bodies¹².  Better metabolism of the lipids that fill up our fat cell, paired with a more stable blood sugar, less hunger cravings  and reduced food intake is a sure fire way to decrease body weight 1 and finally win the war on fat.

The Fight For Your Health

The less your energy your body has to waste working against illness, the more success you will have reaching your goals. There are dozens of studies that show promising benefits of chromium picolinate for patients suffering with several different health concerns.  So far, chromium supplementation has shown advantages pertaining to a variety of issues, including but not limited to:

• Diabetes – Data from studies on type 2 diabetes mellitus subjects showed substantial reductions in hyperglycemia and hyperinsulinemia, lowering the risk of complications and reducing the required amount of hypoglycemia medication².
• Inflammation– Growing evidence suggests that chromium complexes intervene with the chronic, low-grade inflammation that occurs in abdominal obesity, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes mellitus and related complications¹³.
• Cardiovascular Disease and High Cholesterol– Chromium picolinate supplementation can improve cholesterol metabolism lowering cardiovascular disease risk factors⁶.
• Metabolic syndrome – Metabolic syndrome is defined by various cardiovascular risk factors associated with insulin resistance, therefore chromium picolinate supplementation can also help alleviate metabolic syndrome¹¹.
• Depression and Anxiety -There is strong evidence indicating that deficiency of essential elements, like chromium, can lead to the development of depression and anxiety. Supplementation can reduce this risk and can enhance therapeutic effect of drugs used to treat these conditions⁷.
• Neurological disorders– Studies on chromium picolinate have show successful improvements in neurological functions, such as learning and memory⁸. This could prove to be very useful in alleviating some of the degeneration seen in dementia and alzheimers.

REFERENCES

1. Anton SD et. al. Effects of chromium picolinate on food intake and satiety. Diabetes Technol Ther. 2008 Oct;10(5):405-12. Accessed web 4.25.2018 at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18715218
2. Broadhurst CL, Domenico P. Clinical studies on chromium picolinate supplementation in diabetes mellitus–a review. Diabetes Technol Ther. 2006 Dec;8(6):677-87. Accessed web 4.21.2018 at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17109600
3. Brownley KA et. al. A double-blind, randomized pilot trial of chromium picolinate for binge eating disorder: results of the Binge Eating and Chromium (BEACh) study. J Psychosom Res. 2013 Jul;75(1):36-42. Accessed web 4.27.2018 at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23751236
4. Hummel, M et. al. Chromium in metabolic and cardiovascular disease. Horm Metab Res. 2007 Oct;39(10):743-51. Accessed web 4.21.2018 at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17952838
5. Iqbal N et. al. Chromium picolinate does not improve key features of metabolic syndrome in obese nondiabetic adults. Metab Syndr Relat Disord. 2009 Apr;7(2):143-50. Accessed web 4.27.2018 at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19422140
6. Jiajun Y et. al. Regulation of organic nucleic acids and serum biochemistry parameters by dietary chromium picolinate supplementation in swine model. J Trace Elem Med Biol. 2011 Apr;25(2):91-6. Accessed web 4.26.2018 at  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21511451
7. Młyniec K et. al. Essential elements in depression and anxiety. Part I. Pharmacol Rep. 2014 Aug;66(4):534-44. Accessed web 4.29.2018 at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24948052
8. Orhan C et. al. Combined oral supplementation of chromium picolinate, docosahexaenoic acid, and boron enhances neuroprotection in rats fed a high-fat diet. Turk J Med Sci. 2017 Nov 13;47(5):1616-1625. Accessed web 4.24.2018 at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29152944
9. Peng M, Yang X. Controlling diabetes by chromium complexes: The role of the ligands. J Inorg Biochem. 2015 May;146:97-103. Accessed web 4.28.2018 at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25631328
10. Piavan, AN et. al. Beneficial effects of oral chromium picolinate supplementation on glycemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes: A randomized clinical study. J Trace Elem Med Biol. 2015 Oct;32:66-72. Accessed web 4/23/2018 at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26302914
11. Power M, Pratley R. Alternative and complementary treatments for metabolic syndrome. Curr Diab Rep. 2011 Jun;11(3):173-8. Accessed web 4.26.2018 at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21336843
12. Untea AE et. al. The effects of organic chromium on adipose anatomical parts, using pig as experimental model. Vopr Pitan. 2016;85(2):51-4. Accessed web 4.25.2018 at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27455600
13. Zhou J, Xu H, Huang K. Organoselenium Small Molecules and Chromium(III) Complexes for Intervention in Chronic Low-grade Inflammation and Type 2 Diabetes. Curr Top Med Chem. 2016;16(8):823-34. Accessed web 4.26.2018 at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26311428