What brand of chromium should I use?

Q: Is any brand of chromium picolinate ok to use? I know all the research used chromax brand. Thank you in advance for answering my question, and I look forward to reading your book when it arrives. I feel I have suffered from atypical depression all my life. I had a bad experience with a high dose antidepressant (Prozac) I took 10 years ago. I don't want to suffer anymore, but I don't want any more prescription drug side effects

A: There is more than one good brand of chromium. There are, however, some brands that are not effective. After much trial and error, the brand that I'm most comfortable recommending, the brand that works the best, is Chromax chromium picolinate made by Nutrition 21. It has been the most extensively researched and is the brand currently being used in several major, NIH-sponsored trials. It is far less expensive than pharmaceutical drugs and it has no serious side effects.

For more information on Chromax chromium picolinate and how to order it, go to www.chromiumconnection.com and click on "About Chromax chromium picolinate."

Good luck, and please let me know if Chromax chromium picolinate helps you.

Combination of SSRI and chromium for PMS (PMDD)

Q: My sister suffers from the extreme form of PMS a.k.a. PMDD and has tried various antidepressants to treat it with varying but always minimal success (and lots of side effects). Most recently her Dr. prescribed birth control pills to artificially "force" her hormones in line and hopefully relieve some of her PMDD, it's early with this treatment though and carries its own side effects like headache and nausea. When I read about chromium and your case studies with the women who had depression and severe PMS I immediately thought of my sister. I have been searching for something, anything to help ease her symptoms. I have also noticed that my own PMS is continuing to worsen every year, although not to the extreme (yet) that she has it. I am very excited to try chromium for myself and suggest it to my sister.

May I ask, would chromium be taken every day in the case of PMS/PMDD or just at the time of cycle when the symptoms are ocurring?

A: Thank you for your question. Unfortunately, your sister's experience is usual. Large-scale, well-designed studies have demonstrated that a class of antidepressant medications - known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRIs for short - is more effective than placebo for relief of symptoms of severe PMS. But, as is the case with your sister, these medications usually causes annoying side effects with the result that many women stop taking them.
In an excellent study of Prozac (fluoxetine) for PMS, 4 out of 10 women dropped out of the study, presumably due to undesirable side effect. In a study of Zoloft for PMS, 2 in 10 women dropped out of the study, again probably due to medication side effects. Dr. Thwe T Htay has written an excellent review article on PMDD.

In my practice, I have given dozens of women combination chromium picolinate and an antidepressant medication. Often they have reported complete and dramatic absence of symptoms of PMS. I have found that regular dosing throughout the month is better than half-cycle dosing.

Dr. Anna L. Stout (Director of Women's Behavioral Health at Duke University Medical Center) and I decided to test my theory under rigorous scientific conditions. We conducted a small, placebo-controlled, double-blind study in which we administered the combination of 400 micrograms of chromium picolinate per day and 50 mg of Zoloft per day for one month. The next month, we administered Zoloft and a placebo. The results of the study supported my theory that chromium boosts the efficacy of Zoloft and and reduces side effects. We are presently writing up this clinical study.

The Duke study was a pilot study and was too small for calculation of statistical significance. More data is needed.

Please take my general advice to your healthcare professional for further guidance. If you decide to try an SSRI and chromium for sever PMS, please let me know the results. I hope other women will report their experience of combination of chromium and an SSRI for PMS. Perhaps I can use your story and that of other women to support a large study. Thank you.

I wrote Lifting Depression:The Chromium Connection because . . .

Q: Several people have asked me why I wrote Lifting Depression: The Chromium Connection.

A: There are several reasons. Among them are:

• I want to bring relief to people who are suffering from atypical depression. I want them to know how dramatically chromium has lifted the symptoms of atypical depression in many of my patients
• I want to raise public awareness of atypical depression. Most people and many healthcare professionals do not understand that atypical depression is the most common type of depression.
• I want to help people identify atypical depression by knowing its symptoms, which include carb cravings and or weight gain, unexplained exhaustion with a feeling heaviness of the arms and legs, excessive sleepiness, and excessive sensitivity to rejection. (Note: For a discussion of how atypical depression was recognized, see my blog, "Who coined the term 'atypical depression.'")
• Psychiatrists often prescribe antidepressant medications for atypical depression, but they backfire due to side effects. Chromium has no serious side effects.

Just this morning I read a book review of Lifting Depression: The Chromium Connection at amazon.com which reflects the points I have made above. By the way, as far as I know, the reviewer is not biased. I've never met or talked with her. In the second paragraph, she wrote,

“I am grateful to Dr. McLeod for writing this book for 2 reasons. First, I didn't even know that atypical depression existed before this book; and yet I've been seeing a psychiatrist for 8 years and taking antidepressants for 5 years. If you have symptoms such as fatigue for no reason, excessive craving of sweets & carbs, sleeping too much, heaviness in arms or legs, extreme sensitivity to rejection and onset of symptoms early in life (before age 30), Dr. McLeod might suggest you have atypical depression. Secondly, I can't believe a solution as simple and as natural as chromium could possibly work. And yet it IS working for me. Zoloft has been helping me for several years to cope with the daily task of living; but not without side effects. Chromium has no known side effects! "

Obviously I am thrilled to learn that yet another person with atypical depression has responded to chromium. I'm grateful to the reviewer for helping spread this information. It's catching on.

Original observation? Chromium deficiency impairs alcohol tolerance

Q: You wrote in Lifting Depression: The Chromium Connection that chromium supplementation changed the way alcohol affected one of your patients. Are you the first person to make this discovery?

A: No.

In the 1990s, when I first observed that chromium supplementation decreases craving for alcohol and softens hangovers, I thought I had made an original observation. Moreover, I inferred that chromium deficiency impairs the body's ability to metabolize alcohol. Recently, I learned that my observation was not original.

I was talking by phone with my friend-in-science, Patrick Holford, in England. He is Director of The Institute for Optimum Nutrition and author of a must-read book on nutrition.

During our talk, Patrick and I exchanged various ideas and facts relating to natural treatments of depression. He asked if I was familiar with a chapter on chromium in a book titled Mental and Elemental Nutrients: A Physician's Guide to Nutrition and Health Care by Dr. Carl C. Pfeiffer, Ph.D., M.D. that was published in 1975. Although I had read thousands of articles about chromium, I had somehow missed this one. Patrick generously agreed to send it to me. In the chapter, Dr. Pfeiffer wrote that one of the earliest signs of chromium deficiency in pregnant women is "complete alcohol intolerance"(p.290).

So much for my original observation!

I would like to repeat here that chromium is not THE treatment for alcoholism. Alcoholism is a complex disorder that requires multiple treatments including but not limited to AA, medical treatment, and nutritional supplementation. You must not say to yourself, "Oh. Now all I have to do is take chromium and I can drink without a hangover." Please don't do that.

Does chromium reduce craving for alcohol?

Q: You've written that chromium reduces cravings for carbs. Does it also decrease the craving for alcohol?

A: What an interesting and important question!

George, the first person I describe in Lifting Depression: The Chromium Connection, reported that chromium - in addition to lifing his mood and reducing his appetite - definitely decreased his craving for alcohol. Before taking chromium, on those rare occasions when he drank, he would gulp alcohol, become rapidly intoxicated, drink too much, and feel awful the next day. After he started chromium, he felt less compelled to gulp alcohol, he drank slowly, he drank less, and he didn't have a hangover the next day.

Common knowledge

First of all, it is common knowledge among clinicians (healthcare professionals who see patients) that craving for carbohydrates is common among alcohol-dependent people, especialy when they stop drinking alcohol.

Scientific study

Registered dietitian Mona Moorhouse, working at the Addiction Program at the Royal Ottawa Hospital, scientifically studied this clinical impression. She measured the effects of diet on alcohol craving, and mood. She and her colleagues documented that about 50 percent of alcoholics also crave carbohydrates, especially when sober. This suggests there is some underlying biochemical imbalance that both conditions have in common. Since chromium curbs cravings for carbs, it makes sense that it would also curb the craving for alcohol in some people.

Nutritional deficiency

I agree with Dr. Abram Hoffer that certainly people with an alcohol problem should supplement their diets with chromium, as well as with vitamin C, L-glutamine, lecithin, and a multi-vitamin. In Dr. Hoffer’s words, “Chromium greatly reduces carbohydrate mis-metabolism, and greatly helps control blood sugar levels.”

Don't over simplify

If you have a problem with alcohol, chromium probably will help you. But don't expect chromium to do the job alone. Expecting chromium alone to treat alcoholism is as farcical as expecting one person to play a symphony.

Alcoholism is a complicated disorder that requires multiple treatments, including spiritual/psychological counseling, attendance at Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), nutritional supplementation, and evaluation of underlying medical/psychiatric contributory conditions, and that doesn't include all treatments. I would never want a person to ignore the complexity of alcoholism and its multiple treatments and say "Ah, ha. I can drink now if I take chromium." Please don't do that.

Studies proves chromium reduces carb cravings

Q: I recently read that chromium reduces carb cravings in people with depression. Is there any evidence to support this?

A: Yes. I first made this observation in the early 1990s.

In 1999 my finding—that chromium controls appetite in some patients—first appeared in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry .

In the year 2000—after the appetite of more patients in my practice had responded to chromium—Dr. Robert Golden and I wrote an article in which we stated, "Most of the patients [who responded to chromium) described carbohydrate craving . . . " (p 312). And we commented on chromium's "dramatic impact on normalizing appetite" (p 313).

In 2002, a report of a double-blind, placebo-controlled study, conducted at Duke University Medical Center was published. In that article we reported that "Of the eight patients who were overeating at baseline [and who received chromium picolinate], four experienced complete disappearance of the symptom" (p. 262).

In 2005, the results of a study of 113 patients, conducted by Comprehensive Neuroscience, were published. This double-blind study further demonstrated chromium's role in reducing crbohydrate cravings in people with the most common type of depression.