Chromium - The Anti Aging Hormone

By : Rajen M.

Dr. Gary Evans, Bemidji State University, Minnesota

Anti Aging
If there is an anti-aging mineral is probably chromium. It seems to save you from the accelerated aging effects of the insulin. Remember the Zone Diet? Remember the culprit hormone that was behind the so called fatal four - diabetes, high cholesterol, hypertension and obesity. The whole objective was to keep this hormone in check. When you got the insulin down, everything dramatically normalized. Well, chromium is your ally - a powerful one at that.

Here is the amazing news : blood insulin levels (which corresponds to blood sugar) soar and wreck havoc when your chromium levels fall. It seem that chromium revs up insulin action. Thus, you need less to do the job. A pioneering chromium researcher, Dr. Walter Mertz, Ph.D, formerly at the United States Department of Agriculture, review at studies of chromium and found that fully 80 percent of the controlled studies showed that improved blood sugar, cholesterol and triglycerides. We do not quite know how the hormone works. At least in test tube experiments, it attaches tightly to insulin, enhancing up to 100 times the hormones ability to convert glucose to carbon dioxide. Put simply, taking chromium can help save you from the ravages of aging by optimizing insulin activity.

Normal Aging?
It is alarming to note that initial effects of chromium deficiency are generally mistaken for "normal aging". It quickly shows up in the blood chemistry. As chromium levels fall, cholesterol goes up, insulin goes up, HDL (high density lipoprotein - helpful cholesterol) goes down and you are in trouble. The increased blood insulin level normally lead to reduction in muscle mass and accumulation of fat especially in the abdominal area. Most people think this is because you are older. Actually, this is because your diet has too much sugar and too little chromium!

Anti Aging Hormone
Chromium may actually curb the ravages of aging by promoting the rise of the all important anti-aging hormone, DHEA, (dehydroepiandrosterone). Research has shown that high levels of insulin actually decrease the production of DHEA. It seems that DHEA dwindles with age along with declining insulin efficiency. At age seventy five you only have one tenth the level of hormone that you did at the age of twenty five. Evidence indicates that DHEA may play a vital role in improving brain function, memory loss, immunity, muscle fatigue and bone fragility.

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