Craving, tired and blue: do you recognize this cycle? You're craving carbs, gaining weight, fighting fatigue and mild depression. Duke University takes a look at the root conditions within this cycle of atypical depression and finds hope in nutritional therapy - Research

American Fitness, Jan-Feb, 2004 by Meg Jordan

Evidence of chromium's impact on health and disease was first discovered in the late 1950s. Studies in the 1960s and 1970s confirmed its relationship with impaired glucose tolerance. Then, in 1997, Dr. Richard Anderson of the Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center in Maryland, published a landmark study demonstrating the efficacy and safety of chromium picolinate supplementation in people with Type 2 diabetes. Since then, the effect on glucose metabolism has been studied in retrospective epidemiological and prospective clinical studies.

The body poorly absorbs chromium in food and supplements. Factors influencing absorption include health status, stage of glucose intolerance or diabetes as well as absorption and stability of the chromium compound used. Stresses which affect chromium status include high sugar intake, acute exercise, pregnancy, lactation, infection and physical trauma. Chromium loss and the risk for Type 2 diabetes also increase with age. Not only are chromium levels easily attacked by stress, many supplements lack good absorbable sources. Some supplements contain carbohydrate fillers, which bind to chromium pilynicotinate and chromium chloride, making them essentially inert. Chromium glutathrione is another type of chromium that is not absorbed and does not affect glucose metabolism. Only chromium picolinate has been shown to be effective in these early trials.

Frank Hu, M.D., Ph.D., Harvard School of Public Health, points out that one of the most notable studies was done in China, where researchers found consuming 500 to 1,000 micrograms of chromium picolinate per day improved glucose, insulin and lipid levels in Type 2 diabetics. Anderson emphasizes the adaptogen quality of chromium picolinate--it seems to benefit in the most needed direction. For instance, if you give chromium to people with high blood glucose, their blood glucose will decrease. If you give it to people with low blood sugar, both insulin and blood glucose levels improve. This adaptogen quality is something often found in botanicals as well as natural sources and not a feature of pharmaceutical interventions.

Chromium and Atypical Depression

As for the research on chromium picolinate and the atypical depression cycle, Davidson investigated Zeramax[TM], a chromium picolinate-based supplement from Nutrition 21, as a proprietary nutrition therapy for depression. The study was conducted on 15 patients with atypical depression. During the eight-week trial, patients received either a placebo or 400 micrograms of chromium picolinate per day. The dose was increased to 600 micrograms after two weeks. The results suggest chromium picolinate provides relief from symptoms in 70 percent of cases, in some cases rapid relief with minimal side effects. None of the patients on placebo responded.

The good news is depression possibly caused by a metabolic disturbance or mineral deficiency could be lifted with a nutritional approach. This beats the odds of treating depression with the usual monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) or selective serotonin reputake inhibitors (SSRIs), both commonly prescribed and causing side effects often severe enough to convince about 44 percent of people to stop taking them within four to six weeks.