My success story. Tons of biotin.

[Gondwanaland]

Good find, @Eastman! Every time I try keto, I lose a ton of my hair! I was hoping to try a few weeks of Keto in January as I have been trying to slowly lose some weight without over stressing my body, I made myself a note to add biotin! Wonder if biotin deficiency is part of why I feel so bad on keto?

If you eat a lot of eggs, I personally have found that sulfites are probably to blame for hair loss.

 

[BadBadBear]

I can't eat a lot of eggs, would one or two a day cause hair loss? I did 12 weeks of keto this year and lost tons of hair (and 15 lbs.).

 

[Gondwanaland]

would one or two a day cause hair loss?

Yes . I do not eat eggs anymore, but recipes containing eggs from which I eat only a slice daily are OK. To stop hair loss I need topical B6 on the scalp though.

 

[BadBadBear]

Interesting. I eat eggs sometimes when not keto and no hair loss. Sometimes I can't eat eggs at all, viral flares make them inedible at times.

 

[BiotinJunkie]

Perhaps this has something to do with why OP said he felt better with carbohydrates.

Carbohydrates is good for me only if I am taking a lot of biotin sublingually.
But without biotin, carbohydrates is far worse for me than ketogenic diet.

 

[Gondwanaland]

Both Biotin and vitamin A increase my appetite = allow me to eat more calories, which I desperately need (underweight)

 

[MissMarple]

My success story. Tons of biotin.

(...)

If you have similar symptoms and my solution helps you - please let me know.

Hi, I also discovered a few months ago biotin had a strong positive effect on me. Good to know I am not the only one. I am trying to find out why. If there is a deficiency and what causes it? Any ideas?

Greetings, Marple

 

[BiotinJunkie]

Hi, I also discovered a few months ago biotin had a strong positive effect on me. Good to know I am not the only one. I am trying to find out why. If there is a deficiency and what causes it? Any ideas?

Greetings, Marple

Hi Marple. What I can say:
1) your case is very different from mine
2) but there is some information in the discussion above that might be useful for you.

 

[Runner5]

I do supplement with 6g lysine, 2g beta-alanine and 2g B5 daily. Must be really dumb that I don't feel any adverse effects from antagonism to bile acid synthesis.. Also get almost 70% of my calorie-intake from fats, healthy fats.

I was about to try some beta-alanine how has your experience?

Interesting. I eat eggs sometimes when not keto and no hair loss. Sometimes I can't eat eggs at all, viral flares make them inedible at times.

Yeah, I got hair loss too on that by the handful, it was really bad. My hair is finally growing back and looking healthy again but I am not restricting calories or what I eat, besides trying to cut out wheat and whole grains (which put me to sleep within 20 minutes of eating them, not in a good way). I'm try to just eat one main meal a day, I guess that's my 'diet'. hmmm. Weight is such an issue because I just am about as active as moss. Maybe less active then moss.

 

[pamojja]

I was about to try some beta-alanine how has your experience?

Take it for the carnosine raising properties, since I rarely eat meat. Canosine and organically grown meat both is rather expensive for me. At that dose it might cause some kind of harmless tingling in some. Personally I don't feel most supplements. I rather mention that symptoms of illnesses decrease (PAD, COPD, T2D) gradually over years, where I only can pin it to the combined synergistic effects of all I'm taking. And I'm taking all vitamins, most minerals along with amino-acid short on a mainly plant-based diet.

 

[Eastman]

Apparently, there may be a risk to biotin supplementation.

From Examine.com's review of biotin:

A study in mice demonstrated that chronic, high-level biotin supplementation decreases insulin sensitivity and lipolysis by reducing the activity of the deacetylase enzyme, SIRT1. Although the reciprocal relationship between SIRT1 and biotin levels is an important factor for energy homeostasis, relevance of this work to humans is not yet clear, where biotin requirements and equivalent typical daily intakes are much lower.

The study cited is this:

Selective overexpression of human SIRT1 in adipose tissue enhances energy homeostasis and prevents the deterioration of insulin sensitivity with ageing in mice

Then there is this follow-up paper:

Calorie Restriction Prevents Metabolic Aging Caused by Abnormal SIRT1 Function in Adipose Tissues

Abstract
Adipose tissue is a pivotal organ determining longevity, due largely to its role in maintaining whole-body energy homeostasis and insulin sensitivity. SIRT1 is a NAD-dependent protein deacetylase possessing antiaging activities in a wide range of organisms. The current study demonstrates that mice with adipose tissue–selective overexpression of hSIRT1(H363Y), a dominant-negative mutant that disrupts endogenous SIRT1 activity, show accelerated development of metabolic aging. These mice, referred to as Adipo-H363Y, exhibit hyperglycemia, dyslipidemia, ectopic lipid deposition, insulin resistance, and glucose intolerance at a much younger age than their wild-type littermates. The metabolic defects of Adipo-H363Y are associated with abnormal epigenetic modifications and chromatin remodeling in their adipose tissues, as a result of excess accumulation of biotin, which inhibits endogenous SIRT1 activity, leading to increased inflammation, cellularity, and collagen deposition. The enzyme acetyl-CoA carboxylase 2 plays an important role in biotin accumulation within adipose tissues of Adipo-H363Y. Calorie restriction prevents biotin accumulation, abolishes abnormal histone biotinylation, and completely restores the metabolic and adipose functions of Adipo-H363Y. The effects are mimicked by short-term restriction of biotin intake, an approach potentially translatable to humans for maintaining the epigenetic and chromatin remodeling capacity of adipose tissues and preventing aging-associated metabolic disorders.

 

[BiotinJunkie]

During the winter holidays I discovered that now I can eat normal foods (soup, fish, meat, mushrooms, salad with sour cream; raw, boiled, salted, or baked in the oven) without any pain. Just taking 1 banana and 1 glass of water before meal. And eating 1-2 bananas with water between meals if I feel acidity in the stomach. That means that my stomach feels considerable better than year before.

 

[BiotinJunkie]

Two weeks ago I added Coenzymated B6 (25 mg pyridoxal-5'-phosphate), swallow it just before bed-time and it makes my night symptoms much softer (night symptoms it is short periods of each time, when I wake up with feeling of "low biotin" and take new dosage of biotin under the tongue to sleep again). So biotin in combo with Coenzymated B6 works better in my case, and the effect is stable (comparing one night versus another).

Before it, I found a better way to take biotin powder under the tongue.
My night time biotin protocol now is 8 capsules of 10 000 mcg Solgar biotin (instead of 4) sublingually WITH few drops of water, to make the place under the tongue wet enough. This brings me more stable results and also makes my night symptoms softer (but not as well as adding b6).

Considering what I have said about a cheese recently: effect of a cheese was not stable, and usually not as good as in the day I described it. But I do not need it now (with all new improvements). But still swallow 60 capsules of 10 000 mcg Healthy origins biotin with dinner)

My sleep pattern now is:
1) Take biotin sublingually (8 capsules as described), sleep good for 4-6 hours and then wake up with symptoms associated with not enough biotin.
2) Take fresh dosage of biotin sublingually. Strangely but the same 8 capsules in this step usually allow me to sleep comfortably more than 4-6 hours (for example, 8 hours).
3) Wake up fresh and with no symptoms (just to mention: still taking biotin sublingually in day time also).

 

[Hip]

Extremely high dose biotin at 100,000 mcg (= 100 mg) three times daily is being tested in multiple sclerosis clinical trials where it helps with myelin repair. A pharmaceutical called MD1003 which contains 100 mg of biotin is used.

The likely mechanism of action in multiple sclerosis is explained in this paper:

Biotin is a cofactor for four essential carboxylases:

acetyl-CoA carboxylase (expressed in oligodendrocytes) generates malonyl-CoA, the building block for fatty acid synthesis, whereas pyruvate carboxylase, 3-methylcrotonyl-CoA carboxylase and propionyl-CoA carboxylase (expressed in neurons) produce intermediates for the tricarboxylic acid cycle.

MD1003 may thus be activating carboxylases to support myelin repair (by enhancing fatty acid synthesis) and protecting against hypoxia-driven axonal degeneration (by enhancing energy production in neurons).

Sources for high dose biotin:

MS-Biotin Boost 100 mg x 90 capsules of biotin for £54.

Natural Creations High Dose Biotin 100 mg x 90 for $60

Biotin powder (purebulk.com) 25 grams $42. Or 10 grams $20.

Biotin powder (bulksupplements.com) 25 grams $41. Or 10 grams $23.

 

[BiotinJunkie]

I just remebered another thing that worked for me. One tablet of "Source Naturals, PQQ Mind" taken sublingually instead of biotin, also had effect (tested about 2-3 years ago). But the effect was not as good as from biotin. As far as I remember, the main drawback of PQQ was that it had fading too fast when taken out of mouth. I mean, for example, with biotin I can have a meal without a problem. But with PQQ tablet, each meal was giving me some symptoms because it impossible to eat and hold the tablet at the same time. I assume that PQQ powder (from capsule) would probably had better effect than PQQ tablet, but I have not tested this hypothesis. Symptoms during meal after PQQ, was not as cognitive fatigue but rather as feeling of many little fire sparks in the brain (but not as "hot" as to feel like pain). That symptom is not unique for PQQ, I had it sometimes before testing PQQ, for example.

That was the answer to someone in private message today. I think that it may be interesting for someone else, so I posted it in the thread.

 

[ScottTriGuy]

Just to add that 10,000 / day of biotin seems to really help with my seborrheic dermatitis.

 

[BiotinJunkie]

Just to add that 10,000 / day of biotin seems to really help with my seborrheic dermatitis.

By the way, I also have seborrheic dermatitis. And it used to be worse few years ago (without biotin).

 

[BiotinJunkie]

Few days ago I managed to make my sleep time without bad feelings at all! (I was afraid that those bad feelings between biotin dosages was damaging my brain).
The most important thing was to stop taking melatonin.
I realized it was bad for sublingual biotin absorbtion. There was the time when the melatonin was benefiting me in some way. But not now.

So my current protocol:
Day time:
Solgar biotin, 10 mg ( https://iherb.com/pr/solgar-biotin-super-high-potency-10-000-mcg-120-veggie-caps/47450 ) under the tongue, repeat each 30-60 minutes.
It is possible to repeat each 2-3 hours with relatively little decline of effect, but I want to ensure optimal perfomance.

With food: swallow 30 capsules of Healthy Origins 10 mg biotin ( https://ru.iherb.com/pr/healthy-origins-biotin-ultra-potency-10-000-mcg-360-vcaps/64504 ) (cheaper than the Solgar) with breakfast, 30 capsules with lunch and 60 capsules with dinner.

Before sleep, swallow 1 tablet of "Source Naturals, Coenzymated B-6, 300 mg". Not sure how important it is now. ( https://ru.iherb.com/pr/Source-Naturals-Coenzymated-B-6-300-mg-30-Tablets/12216 ).

Night time: just one capsule of 10 mg Solgar biotin under the tongue (before taking, make some quantity of saliva in the mouth). Repeat when awaken in the night (the effect is lasting 3-5 hours).

So my current sleep pattern is.
1) Sleep 3-5 hours
2) Wake up in the middle of the night, because I can not sleep without biotin, take another dosage without delay, and fall asleep very fast.
3) Sleep another 3-4 hours and wake up because of good morning.

Now my usual sleep time is 7-8 hours (instead of 10-12).
This is miracle. That was never the case in my life to sleep so little and to wake up naturally and freshen up. Now I have x2-x3 more time for work.

 

[Murph]

With food: swallow 30 capsules of Healthy Origins 10 mg biotin ( https://ru.iherb.com/pr/healthy-origins-biotin-ultra-potency-10-000-mcg-360-vcaps/64504 ) (cheaper than the Solgar) with breakfast, 30 capsules with lunch and 60 capsules with dinner..

I am sitting here mouth agape. And I thought I took a lot of pills.

 

[Learner1]

Yeah, I know. However, I've found I also need things like B1, B2, folate, MB12, amino acids, magnesium, manganese, molybdenum.

Taking that much of one nutrient doesn't make sense. Eventually, one must run out of cofactors.