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ARS Home » Plains Area » Grand Forks, North Dakota » Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center » Dietary Prevention of Obesity-related Disease Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #75001
Title: RESPONSE TO LETTER TO THE EDITOR - CHROMIUM PICOLINATE (MCCARTY)

Author
item LUKASKI, HENRY

Submitted to: The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
Publication Type: Other
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/4/1997
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Recent findings suggested that chromium picolinate supplementation reduced transferrin saturation in healthy men participating in resistance training. Although the mechanism of this adverse effect is not known, we postulate two possible explanations. Chromium that is absorbed may compete directly with iron for binding sites on transferrin and thus decrease transferrin saturation with iron. Alternatively, picolinic acid may bind iron, thus making it unavailable for binding with transferrin. It is unclear at this time if one or both of the postulated interactions are responsible for the observed decrease in transferrin saturation. This question requires additional studies to confirm the initial observation of reduced transferrin saturation when chromium picolinate supplements are ingested, and further investigation of the mechanism(s) of chromium picolinate on iron metabolism.