Guest guest Posted March 2, 2004 Report Share Posted March 2, 2004 When my husband added chromium to his program his blood sugars went way down. They were usually over 100 and he was taking glipizide when they were over. After the chromium he never had to take the glypizide again. Coincidence???? He is still not on any meds. His blood sugars are normal. It might help me but I still need the Glucophage. I am seldom under 100. Last night I felt dizzy again and strange---blood sugar 112. The last time this happened it was 114. Can there be a reaction at these numbers? Dinner helped. After dinner I was no lounger walking around having to hold onto something and feeling faint. G Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 2, 2004 Report Share Posted March 2, 2004 HI My brother who is type 2 used chromium capsules for a time.Initially they appeared to reduce his resistance to insulin but eventually he went onto injections so the chromium was stopped.some pharmisists recommend its use . walk25miles wrote: Would appreciate any info on this mineral in helping control Type 2. Thanks willthered@... --------------------------------- Yahoo! Messenger - Communicate instantly... " Ping " your friends today! Download Messenger Now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 2, 2004 Report Share Posted March 2, 2004 walk25miles wrote: >Would appreciate any info on this mineral in helping control Type 2. > >Thanks > > Chromium is a bit controversial as a diabetic aid. Chromium itself is a necessary part of the biochemistry of glucose metabolism. For some reason, you chromium can't be given in it's pure form -- I suppose because metals aren't digestible -- so it's combined with picolinate. There was a famous study in China which found that chromium supplements improved glucose control. The thing that made the study questionable was that the Chinese diet tends to be deficient in chromium, so the improvement may have been simply treating a deficiency. As chromium is found in meat and a number of common vegetables, the American diet is not chromium deficient. Nevertheless, chromium is often recommended, especially by the alternative medicine and herbal sales web sites. People who have a phobia for prescription drugs and prefer " natural " remedies. In this context " natural " seems to mean untested and unregulated. For example, another " natural " remedy which is commonly recommended is Gymnestra Sylvestre, an asian herb. It actually seems to have some kind of glucose lower effect, but what is it? It's not approved by the FDA so we really don't know if it also destroys your liver while it's lowering your glucose. You also don't know the proper dosage. It's kinda byguessbygolly. Also, because it's unregulated, you really have no idea how much of the active ingredient is actually included in each box. There's no guarantee that there's even the same amount of in every box. It could vary depending on the quality of the Gymnestra Sylvestre the manufacturer purchased. As for chromium, it is a metal, so it's also possible to overdose. Metals are toxic. Another metal commonly recommended for diabetes is vanadium. Again, a metal so toxicity from over dose is easy. I read of an incident in which a woman taking the amount indicated on the side of the box developed toxicity anyway. There is also the problem that there have been some reports that the picolinate may be carcinogenic. Nevertheless, many diabetics take chromium and report their results to the newsgroups and mailing lists they subscribe to. The results are mixed. Some people report they see a lowering others don't. Some take the supplement for a while and then quit. The problem of course, is that none of us is running a scientific experiment. If we were, we'd be careful to see that there were no other changes in our lives while we're looking for any effects of the chromium. If we were really good scientists, we'd each make sure we had an identical twin who did not take chromium to act as our control group. Clearly, those kinds of things are not practical. So we take the chromium and wait to see if any changes happen. If they do, it's hard to be sure it's the chromium or some other factor in our lives. Another problem is wishful thinking. Before Minoxidil was found which actually did cause new hair to grow, all the baldness cures were bogus. Despite that, some of the bald men who bought those " cures " actually believed they saw new hair growth. It's hard to separate out that factor from taking chromium too. So when some people report their experiences taking chromium, what we see resembles what you would expect from a deficiency or from the baldness-cure effect. Some do, some don't. There's no clear trend. I suppose the bottom line is: try it. See if you like it. Take some and be sure to test a lot. If you see a decline in your glucose readings, then, by all means, continue taking it. If I began doing some new thing and my bgs dropped, I'd continue doing that thing. What I might also do, is stop that thing for a while to see if the improvement reversed itself; and then start it again to see if there really is some cause and effect going on. The world is a strange place. In yesterday's paper, a doctor, Gott, who has a regular column recommended placing a small bar of soap under a person''s mattress cover to prevent leg cramps during the night. That sounded about a close to bogus as anything I'd ever heard, and Dr. Gott said he had no idea why it would work, but because so many of his readers had written him telling him how successful this technique was, he decided to pass it along in his column. Now millions of people will be putting bars of soap under their mattresses. Was there ever a princess who had trouble sleeping on a pea? I remember a few years ago, people used to but plastic bottles of water at the corners of their properties to prevent dogs from going to the bathroom on their grass. What could there possibly be about water that frightens dogs? The world is a strange place. The above is just my opinion, and I'm sticking to my story. Edd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 2, 2004 Report Share Posted March 2, 2004 Glory33 wrote: >When my husband added chromium to his program his blood sugars went way down. They were usually over 100 and he was taking glipizide when they were over. After the chromium he never had to take the glypizide again. Coincidence???? He is still not on any meds. His blood sugars are normal. It might help me but I still need the Glucophage. I am seldom under 100. >Last night I felt dizzy again and strange---blood sugar 112. The last time this happened it was 114. Can there be a reaction at these numbers? Dinner helped. After dinner I was no lounger walking around having to hold onto something and feeling faint. G > If you've been accustomed to higher numbers or if you have a sudden drop, then you can get symptoms of lows even though you're not really low. Edd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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