Chromium side effects

At the doses used in trials, chromium's most-reported side effects are mild and gastrointestinal — loose stools, headache, dizziness or a skin reaction in a small share of people, no more often than placebo in most reviews. Serious harm — kidney and liver injury — has been documented, but only in case reports involving doses far above what a typical supplement serving provides, taken for months.

What trials actually reported

A 2013 meta-analysis of 11 randomized trials in overweight and obese adults listed adverse events including watery stools, vertigo, headaches and urticaria (hives) among people taking chromium versus placebo. A 2014 meta-analysis of 25 randomized controlled trials in people with diabetes reported that the risk of adverse events did not differ between chromium and placebo groups at the doses those trials used. Across this literature, at ordinary supplement doses, chromium reads as generally well tolerated, with mild GI symptoms the most consistently reported issue.

What case reports describe at much higher doses

Separately from the trial data, a small number of case reports describe serious organ injury in people who took chromium picolinate at doses well beyond typical servings, for months at a time. One report described a woman who developed anemia, liver dysfunction and kidney failure requiring hospitalization and dialysis after taking 1,200-2,400 mcg/day — roughly 2 to 12 times a typical single serving — for four to five months; she recovered with treatment. Another described acute kidney injury in a young man after two weeks of a multi-ingredient supplement containing chromium picolinate alongside other stimulant compounds, which makes it hard to attribute the injury to chromium alone. These are individual case reports, not controlled trials, and can't establish how often this happens — but they're the reason "no upper limit has been set" isn't the same as "any dose is safe." See how much chromium should you take a day for where those numbers sit against ordinary supplement doses.

A note on "chromium 6"

Some searches for chromium side effects are actually about hexavalent chromium ("chromium 6"), the industrial and environmental-contaminant form regulators classify as a carcinogen by inhalation. That's a different substance from the trivalent chromium in food and dietary supplements — see what is chromium for how the two differ. Nothing on this page is about the industrial form.

Questions people ask

What are the side effects of chromium picolinate?

Mild gastrointestinal effects — loose stools, headache, dizziness — are the most commonly reported, at rates not clearly different from placebo in most trial reviews. Serious effects have appeared only in case reports of doses far above a typical serving, sustained for months.

Can chromium cause an allergic reaction?

Urticaria (hives) was reported as an adverse event in at least one meta-analysis of chromium trials, though it wasn't broken out by how many people it affected. If you develop a rash or hives after starting any new supplement, stop and talk to a doctor.

What are the long-term effects of chromium?

Most trials run weeks to a few months, so long-term data at ordinary supplement doses is limited. The serious harm that has been documented occurred at doses several times higher than a typical serving, sustained for months — not at AI-range or standard label amounts.

Is chromium 6 dangerous?

Hexavalent chromium is a different, industrial form from the chromium in dietary supplements, and it's the one regulators classify as a carcinogen by inhalation. It isn't the form discussed on this page or found in supplements.