Insulin resistance (IR) occurs when a person’s metabolism resists the effects of insulin, and the person is unable to handle sugar intake normally. IR can cause diabetes and high blood sugars (hyperglycemia). IR can even develop in people who have some severe illness unrelated to sugar metabolism.

The present case study was of a woman with severe IR who responded dramatically to chromium therapy. The trace element, chromium, is an essential nutrient received from a healthy diet which improves sugar metabolism in diabetes. Chromium can be taken as an oral supplement, and chromium picolinate is a good form to use at 200 micrograms/day.

This study reports on a 62 year old diabetic woman with “cardiac arrest and respiratory failure, leading to aspiration pneumonia and septic shock”. The patient developed extremely high blood sugars and went into a coma. She was treated with intravenous chromium for 5 hours and her blood sugars returned to normal.

NOTE: Some people with diabetes are found to have low chromium levels, sometimes due to nutritional deficiency. For example, eating large amounts of sugar depletes our chromium levels. This can be evaluated by doing a hair analysis for minerals. The symptoms of chromium deficiency are the same as the symptoms of diabetes, including lipid abnormalities.

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PMID: 23125907.

Summary #913. nutrientmedicine.