CHROMIUM MAY HELP YOU LIVE LONGER
While it works for rats, researchers can’t say for certain that dietary supplements of the metal chromium can extend a human life span. But, according to the researchers from Bemidji State University in Minnesota, the findings are promising.
During the study, researchers gave a special chromium supplement to ten rats and compared them to 20 rats that received chromium in a form less readily absorbed. After almost 3 1/2 years, the researchers reported that 80 percent of the rats that received chromium picolinate. Were still alive, while all the other rats were dead. The results show that the rats that received the supplements lived an average of one year longer than the others.
Until now, research had uncovered only one factor which could produce substantial increases in life span in animals— a significant reduction in caloric intake. The new information about chromium supplements changes all of that because the supplements can produce an equally large increase in life span without any dietary restrictions.
According to one expert, more than 90 percent of adult Americans have a chromium deficiency, mostly because it is not readily absorbed from many foods. Recently, researchers from the USDA developed and patented a form of chromium, called chromium picolinate that is easily absorbed. That’s the form the researchers used in the 3 1/2 year study.
*238\27\8*
