Chromium deficiency
physiological finding
Chromium deficiency is described as the consequence of an insufficient dietary intake of the mineral chromium. Chromium was first proposed as an essential element for normal glucose metabolism in 1959, but its biological function has not been identified. Cases of deficiency were described in people who received all of their nutrition intravenously for long periods of time.
The essentiality of chromium has been challenged. Whereas the authorities in the European Union do not recognize chromium as an essential nutrient, those in the United States do, and identify an adequate intake for adults as between 25 and 45 μg/day, depending on age and sex. Dietary supplements containing chromium are widely available in the United States, with claims for benefits for fasting plasma glucose, hemoglobin A1C and weight loss. Reviews report the changes as modest, and without scientific consensus that the changes have a clinically relevant impact.
Signs and symptoms
The claimed symptoms of chromium deficiency caused by long-term total parenteral nutrition are severely impaired glucose tolerance, weight loss, peripheral neuropathy and confusion.
Diagnosis
According to the Dietary Reference Intake review, neither plasma nor urine concentrations can serve as useful clinical indicators of chromium status. Before chromium became a standard ingredient in total parenteral nutrition (TPN), people receiving TPN as their sole source of nutrition developed symptoms that were reversed within two weeks of chromium being added.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Chromium deficiency” is physiological finding. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Chromium, deficiency and physiological, not as a finished interpretation.
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This entry incorporates text from “Chromium deficiency” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.