The RDA recommends 50-200 mcg which is way too low . I believe it is way too low. The minimum I use for sugar stabilizing is 200 mcg or more to start , and goes up much more. Niacin-bound chromium such as chromium polynciotinate is also more bioavailable than chromium picolinate. There is a big difference in different forms of chromium.

Excerpt from my paper:

Dietary Intake of Chromium

Few foods are rich sources of chromium in the Western diet, the best being organic meats, mushrooms, wheat germ, broccoli and processed meats. Data from U. S. Government sources show that the great majority of Americans get less chromium in their daily diets than the amount recommended by nutrition experts. The RDA Committee recommends 50-200 mcg of chromium/day; the vast majority of Americans get less than 50 mcg/day. It is estimated that as many as 80% of all Americans are deficient in this mineral and may not know it.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to get enough chromium by food alone without excessive calories and obesity. To obtain 200 mcg by food alone, one has to take in over 8,000 calories a day. A large part of the problem has to do with processed food and the increase consumption of sugar. The modern American consumes an average of 120 pounds of sugar per year from all sources. These ingested sugars (such as table sugar and products made with it) bring insulin and chromium into the blood and cause chromium to be excreted in the urine after it's through working with the insulin on the increase in blood sugar.

Inadequate chromium intake from processed food, increased chromium losses due to increased sugar consumption, decreasing chromium tissue levels as we age are the main reasons why the majority of Americans and diabetics are deficient in chromium. Studies show an improvement in blood sugar in significant numbers of diabetics and pre-diabetics with modest chromium supplementation. It should, however, take place alongside the two other proven ways of normalizing sugar: low-fat, high complex-carbohydrate of low glycemic index type diets for weight loss/weight maintenance and regular exercise.

Assessment of Chromium Status

Deciding whether or not someone is chromium deficient cannot be done easily. Routine blood tests are generally not accurate. The only generally accepted method for the assessment of chromium status is to supplement an individual who has abnormalities of either blood sugar, cholesterol, triglycerides or all three with the trace element. If the laboratory values improve, then chromium insufficiency is presumed.


Safety of Chromium

Chromium comes in various forms. The dietary form is called chromium tri-valent. This is non-toxic and necessary for essential bodily functions. Chromium in its hexa-valent form is used in industries and that is highly toxic.

It is extremely difficult to poison laboratory animals with oral dietary tri-valent forms of chromium. For example, cats fed 1,000 mg of trivalent chromium per day showed no signs of toxicity. The equivalent daily dose for a 150 lb person would be approximately 35,000 mg per day or 3.5 million mcg per day. In terms of the number of 200 mcg tablets, this would be 175,000 tablets per day for a human.

"Trivalent chromium has such a low order of toxicity that deleterious effects from excessive intake of this form of chromium do not occur readily. Trivalent chromium becomes toxic only at extremely high amounts - chromium then acts as a gastric irritant rather than as a toxic element interfering with essential metabolism or biochemistry." Modern Nutrition In Health and Disease, Eighth Ed., 1994. Shils, Olson and Shike, eds.

The safety issue had been questioned by a study published in December 1995, which attempted to link chromosomal damage in the test tube to oral supplementation of chromium picolinate. Researchers in this study added unnaturally high amounts of chromium picolinate to cultured Chinese hamster ovarian cancer. Some of these cells showed chromosomal damage. This was not particularly surprising, since this concentration applied was 3,000 times the blood level of people who are ingesting chromium picolinate as supplements. It is interesting to note that another form of chromium, chromium polynicotinate, did not have this toxic effect.

It is important to note that very few essential minerals tested in this way would be found to be without toxicity. For example, merely doubling the blood concentration of the mineral calcium is fatal to humans.

A further study was conducted by Dr. Richard Anderson, the lead scientist for trace minerals at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Human Nutrition Research Center, Beltsville, Md., His research team fed rats a stock diet . Added to the diet was 0, 5, 25, 50 or 100 micrograms (mcg) of chromium per gram of feed for a period of six months. The supplements were added to the feed in the form of chromium chloride or chromium picolinate. The highest supplemented level measured approximately 1500 mcg/day per kilogram of body weight. Translated to a human equivalent would mean that a 150 lb (70 kg) individual would have to consume 1.05 million micrograms, or more than 5,000 tablets containing 200 mcg of chromium each daily for six months to equal the rat intake. This study found no harmful effects in animals supplemented with two widely used forms of dietary chromium: chromium chloride and chromium picolinate.

Forms of Chromium

There are various forms of dietary chromium. These vary in bioavailability (absorption and retention) and biological activity (ability to potentate and harmonize insulin). Inorganic chromium such as chromium chloride is unfortunately poorly absorbed (0.5-2%) and has little effect on insulin because it must first be converted into a biologically active form, which the body has a limited ability to do.

The two most popular forms of organic chromium are niacin-bound chromium (also called chromium polynicotinate) and chromium picolinate. Although picolinate and polynicotinate sound alike, there are significant differences between the two compounds.

Chromium Polynicotinate is actually a family of niacin-bound chromium compounds. Niacin-bound chromium strongly potentiates insulin - chromium's most vital function - while chromium picolinate is less effective comparatively speaking.

Niacin-bound chromium such as chromium polynciotinate is also more bioavailable than chromium picolinate. An Animal study at the University of California found that chromium polynicotinate is better absorbed and retained up to 311% better than chromium picolinate and 672% better than chromium chloride. Such high bioavailability means that chromium polynicotinate can deliver more of the benefits that chromium has to offer.


complete article on this address this issue specifically:

http://www.drlam.com/opinion/insulin_and_aging.cfm


The exact dosage for each person varies greatly , depending on the underlying body structure and clinical history. More is not necessarily better, so you want to have enough to get the job done. Chromium is one of many tools to balance insulin, which is ultimately the issue here.

I cannot comment on specific dosages for each person without more details, as everyone is different. If you want to know the specific dosage for you, sent me a pvt message.