Is biotin only needed for skin, hair, and nails? The understanding nutrients series
We’re back with another edition of the understanding nutrients series! You can find all the other nutrients covered here. This time we're looking at biotin.
Biotin is a water soluble vitamin, also known as vitamin B7.
It’s well known in the cosmetics industry for helping your skin, hair, and
nails grow better. But this vitamin does a lot more than that.
Fun fact! Before biotin was known as vitamin B7, it was
called vitamin H. But then scientists realised it was actually one of the B
vitamins.
Roles of biotin:
Biotin has many roles in the body, although it’s probably
most well-known for helping your skin, hair, and nail health.
Hair, skin, and nails: biotin is a major player in the creation of
proteins, namely keratin. Keratin is the main protein that makes up your hair,
skin, and nails. Keratin keeps these body parts strong and less prone to
damage/breakage. Biotin helps keratin synthesis and so supports the healthy
functioning of these body parts. This helps with growth and development also.
Digest nutrients: biotin also helps your body metabolise the
nutrients in food. This means it helps break down carbohydrates, fats, and
proteins into energy that our cells can use. This is obviously a key role that
biotin plays in the body, but it’s not well known. This links to another key
role of biotin in that it helps brain function. Our brain runs on glucose and
as biotin helps to break down carbohydrates (and other compounds) into glucose,
it supports brain function.
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Blood sugar control: another lesser known function of biotin
is its role in blood sugar control. Biotin works with other micronutrients such
as chromium to manage your blood sugar levels. If you haven’t eaten food in
some time, your liver can create glucose from the stored glycogen. And will send it to
your blood so your cells can use it as energy. Biotin plays a role in the
breakdown of glycogen into glucose and so can help with blood sugar control.
How much biotin do we need?
Biotin is a bit unusual in the sense that there's not much
known into how much we should be having a day. And the bacteria that live in
our guts can make biotin, but it’s not clear if we can use all of it. But generally,
an adequate intake of biotin is between 30 - 70 micrograms (ug) a day. And you
should be able to get all the biotin you need from a balanced diet.
The biotin molecule in food is normally bound to protein
which then gets broken down and absorbed by our body.
Foods that are sources of biotin:
- One cooked* egg - 10ug
- 100g stewed beef liver - 25ug
- 25g almonds – 16ug
- 100g of baked cod - 3ug
- 100g of boiled soybeans – 25ug
- 100g steamed sweet potato - 2.4ug
- 100g grilled chicken breast - 2ug
*Eating raw eggs regularly can actually prevent you from
absorbing biotin. There’s a protein in raw eggs called avidin which binds to
biotin very tightly and means your body can’t digest it. Cooking eggs breaks
down this avidin protein and means you’re able to absorb the biotin.
What happens if you don’t get enough biotin?
Biotin is a water soluble vitamin, meaning it isn’t stored
in the body when there’s excess. This means you have to regularly eat sources
of biotin in your diet to maintain your levels. A healthy balanced diet should give
you all the biotin you need. However, some conditions can increase the risk
that you don’t get enough biotin to meet your requirements such as liver diseases
or pregnancy.
It’s rare to be deficient in biotin but if you are, it can
lead to brittle nails, hair loss or thinning, and dry or cracked skin. It can
also lead to lethargy and depression. It’s treated with biotin supplementation.
It’s important to note that biotin only has positive effects on
your hair, skin, and nails if you’re deficient in it. A healthy person
supplementing biotin is unlikely to see any difference, even though there’s
many products, such as biotin hair gummies, that promise results.
Biotin is a crucial nutrient that plays a role in helping you get energy from food, and supporting your hair, skin, and nail health. I hope this blog post has given you some facts about your food.
Key points:
- Biotin plays many roles. It helps produce keratin which is the main protein in your hair, skin, and nails, it helps you get energy from food, and it supports normal blood sugar levels.
- An adequate intake of biotin is 30 – 70 micrograms a day. and you should be able to get all you need from a healthy balanced diet.
- Foods that contain biotin include: cooked eggs, nuts, meat, fish, and beans.
- A lack of biotin can lead to depression, and weak hair, skin, and nails. But supplementing biotin when you're not deficient is unlikely to have any effects.
I hope you enjoyed this post!
Bye for now 👋
References:
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vitamins-and-minerals/vitamin-b/
https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Biotin-HealthProfessional/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2646215/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5582478/
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