Prenatal vitamins with chromium?

[pittsburrito]

I'd like to share a recent prenatal vitamin experience to see if anyone knows more about this phenomena:

My husband and I have been planning for pregnancy very carefully before TTC. Since February, I have been working to lower my A1c from 6.6% before my next endo appt. Recently, my blood sugars have been absolutely golden--for example,
my BG results were between 61-117 for an entire week straight (testing 8+ times per day). I thought, "Hey, I'm getting really good at this!" Then came these past 2 weeks, when my BGs have been all over the place--for example, waking in the 200's, bolusing between meals several times to get BGs down, etc. It's been rough.

So, today I stopped to carefully reflect and think about what has been different these last 2 weeks that could have so disrupted the absolute zen BG weeks I was having earlier. The only thing I could think of was that I had finished my small bottle of over-the-counter prenatal vitamins and started trying out the various Prescription prenatal vitamin sample packs my OB had given me in order to choose one for the pregnancy. (Gesticare, CitraNatal, Tandem, etc.)

So, this evening I went into my local Whole Foods store and asked the young clerk in the vitamin aisle, "Is it possible that these (over-the-counter) prenatal vitamins could be affecting my blood sugar?"
"Well, is there any chromium in it?" she asked, as I handed her the bottle. After a quick glance, she said, "Yup. There's 150 mcg of chromium. That'll do it."
"Do what?" I asked.
"Chromium stabilizes blood sugar." she answered.

(Inside my head, I'm thinking, "Are you KIDDING me?! I've been diabetic 26 years and no one ever told me that!!"

A brief internet review confirms that chromium is, indeed, known to increase insulin sensitivity and stabilize BGs (exactly as I had experienced) Diabetes In Control Dot Com. (http://www.diabetesincontrol.com/features/i158_2.shtml), and that pregnant women need more chromium than the general population--but that many prenatal vitamins do not contain it. (None of the Prescription ones I had been trying out had it.)

By completely random luck, I had (for one month previously) been taking an over-the-counter prenatal vitamin that DID contain chromium and noticed a significant improvement in my BG control during that time. (As well as a significant decline in BG control after switching to prescription prenatal vitamins.)

So, I plan to go back to using the over-the-counter "Rainbow Light" brand "Complete Prenatal System" vitamins until my next doctor's appointment--when I'll be asking a lot more questions!

Does anyone else know something about this?

Elizabeth
T1 26 years
pumping for 13

[sumi]

I have absolutely no details, but was told that it works very well for a small percentage of the population who are chromium deficient. For the rest of us, nothing. I hope this turns out to be your 'magic bullet'

[Subby]

Personally for my body, what I have found is that it is technically correct a chromium supplement may help BGs, it's a pretty small influence for me (like, about 2 - 5% better absorption/action, at a guess). Here's a meandering log type thread I posted when I took it to show my experience. http://www.diabetesforums.com/forum/other-medications/35355-taking-chromium-bit-log.html. Some do claim/find a big benefit. Others try it to no effect. Others are against it regardless of whether they've tried it.

There are a few threads on chromium, using search will reveal. Not saying this out of annoyance or anything, just that a lot of the issues, positions and personal experiences, are already mapped out waiting there for you.

Here's one to start: http://www.diabetesforums.com/forum/other-medications/34734-chromium.html

[pittsburrito]

Thanks for the search suggestion, Subby, but what I was really asking (and realize I did not express my question well in my first post) was if anyone knows anything about "chromium taken during pregnancy." Obviously it works very well for me, but is it safe for the baby? Has anyone had experiences with this while pregnant? (I couldn't find any info on that in previous posts.) Many thanks!

[Subby]

Not specific to pregnancy, but a health risk I know of is a question mark around chromium picolinate, the most common form. I'm thinking that may be worth checking out for sure.

In that link to the chromium discussion above, and in my long and rambling log, you'll see a discussion of the potential health issues with the picolinate form. I searched out a source of chromium chloride instead, myself. David Mendosa discusses it on his site, you can find that site by web searching "Mendosa".

If you have difficulties finding the relevant part of his site, you can pm me, I will send you links there. Sometimes I don't know what links are kosher to post publicly so I just err on caution.