The popular supplement chromium picolinate may help people with type 2 diabetes better control their blood sugar, and possibly avoid the weight gain that comes with certain diabetes drugs, a small study suggests.

Chromium supplements are already marketed as a way to improve the body’s use of insulin, a hormone that regulates blood sugar. But their use in managing diabetes is controversial, said Dr. William Cefalu, a co-author of the new study and a researcher at Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Past research has yielded conflicting results on chromium’s insulin and blood sugar effects.

For their study, published in the journal Diabetes Care, Cefalu and his colleagues tested whether chromium supplements were useful in combination with a sulfonylurea medication - an older class of diabetes drugs that often spur weight gain.

The researchers randomly assigned 29 diabetic adults to take either the medication plus 1,000 micrograms of chromium picolinate per day or the drug plus a placebo (sugar pill) for 6 months. Nutrition 21, maker of the Chromax brand, supplied the supplements.

In the end, study participants who took the supplement showed greater improvements in insulin sensitivity and long-term blood sugar control. They also gained less weight and body fat than those on the medication alone.

“It did not induce weight loss,” Cefalu told Reuters Health, but the lesser weight and fat gain is an “interesting observation,” he added.

It’s still unclear what effects chromium supplements might have in combination with diabetes drugs that do not encourage weight gain, or with insulin, according to Cefalu. One study of obese diabetics taking high-dose insulin, often with oral medication, found no benefits.

With chromium supplements readily available over the counter, many diabetics have or will try them. Those who do, Cefalu said, should inform their doctors.

SOURCE: Diabetes Care, August 2006.