Chomium picolinate causes cancer?

[Pylades]

Quote from BBC News:
The group concluded that people who consume no more than 10mg of chromium per day are unlikely to suffer any problems.

However, the FSA said it has consulted supplement manufacturers on proposals to ban chromium picolinate in Britain. Recent studies suggest it may damage DNA and increase the risks of cancer.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3007937.stm

 

[Dr. Pain]

To the best on my knowledge there was one key study against 1200 plus studies (they discounted the 1200 studies declaring its safety because many were funded by Nutrition 21, the license holders) This study was actually generated locally to me, and I got to meet some of the collegues of the scientist(s) that performed the study. They discounted the study based on dosages involved and the fact that it was not mammalian (I could be wrong on that, birds, rodents???) One however, was researching a new vegatable based form of chromium and admitted he was going nowhere near piccolinate.

I myself prefer polynicotinate, at low doses.....200mcgs

DP

 

[Pylades]

Quote from the EVM study:
In general,hexavalent chromium has given positive results in in vitro mutagenicity tests,whereas
trivalent chromium compounds have been egative.However,chromium picolinate,a synthetic chromium compound with a higher solubility and lipophilicity than other trivalent chromium compounds,has caused DNA damage in mammalian cells.The significance of these observations is unclear and no in vivo genotoxicity data are available.

What worries me is that chromium picolinate may be added to multivitamins and MRPs( In fact it is an ingredient of the popular Solgar multies).

Also there is a new Safe Upper Level for B6 at 10mg/day supplemental pyridoxine for a 60kg individual, much lower than the usual amount found in many multivitamins. This limit was based on animal studies.

Long-term use of pyridoxine (generally in excess of 200 mg/day)has been reported to result in paraesthesiae,somnolence and low serum folic acid levels.Large doses of pyridoxine (usually quoted as over 2000 mg/day)can cause nerve damage. coordination.Duration of pyridoxine use is important as well as dosage,with lower doses of pyridoxine (500 mg/day or less)consumed for many months or years also being associated
with neuropathy.

Despite the limitations in design of the human studies,the available data clearly indicate that pyridoxine causes neuropathy in humans and that the duration of exposure as well as dose is important.Therefore, in the absence of better quality data the reports of toxicity following long,low level exposure to vitamin B 6 cannot be entirely dismissed.Overall,the human data are inadequate to establish a Safe Upper Level,since the effect levels are unclear and the studies at low levels of intake are of limited
quality.
Using uncertainty factors of 300 (consisting of 3 for LOAEL to NOAEL extrapolation
of a histopathological change,10 for inter-species and 10 for inter-individual variation)a Safe Upper
Level of 0.17 mg/kg bw/day can be derived.

In humans,a supplementary dose of 10 mg/day represents a clear SUL,with no adverse effects being anticipated over a lifetime ???s exposure.Doses of 200 mg/day vitamin B 6 or more taken for long periods are associated with reports of neuropathy in some human subjects.The effect of taking vitamin B 6 at doses between 10 and 200 mg is unclear.The risk posed by such exposure in the short term may be negligible,but the available data do not allow identification of a dose or duration of exposure above the SUL that would be of negligible risk.

It is unfortunate that no reliable and controlled studies have been conducted in the past 5 years to
establish whether intakes between 10 and 200 mg/day are safe in the long term.

The full report can be found here: http://www.foodstandards.gov.uk/science/ouradvisors/vitandmin/120281
And the information papers used by the EVM here: http://www.foodstandards.gov.uk/science/ouradvisors/vitandmin/evmpapers