Biotin is a water-soluble, B-complex vitamin. It’s found in all living cells and is essential for cellular metabolism. Biotin is also known as vitamin H, coenzyme R, and vitamin B7. Biotin is used by all living creatures—plants, animals, and even single-celled organisms.
In animals, biotin is essential for metabolizing proteins and converting sugar into usable energy. It’s necessary for hormone production and helps maintain healthy blood sugar levels. Biotin promotes healthy hair, skin, and nails. Mammals, including humans, cannot synthesize biotin and must obtain it from dietary or supplementary sources.
Biotin deficiency can be very dangerous. The vitamin is crucial for normal fetal development and a deficiency during pregnancy can result in birth defects. Symptoms of biotin deficiency include brittle nails, hair loss, muscle pain, nausea, fatigue, anemia, and dry skin. Most men turn to biotin supplements as it has been proven to promote the growth of healthy hair, skin and nails – 3 very important areas to any man’s appearance.
How can I get biotin without supplements?
Here are the foods that have the most biotin content, if you are regularly eating around 500 grams of these foods a day then your levels of biotin should be normal:
| Food | Biotin Content (mcg/100 grams) |
|---|---|
| Sunflower seeds | 66 |
| Rice bran | 66 |
| Green peas, fresh | 40 |
| Green peas, dried | 70 |
| Lentils, fresh | 40 |
| Peanuts | 37 |
| Walnuts | 37 |
| Barley | 31 |
| Oatmeal | 24 |
| Pecans | 28 |
| Carrots | 25 |
| Cauliflower | 17 |
| Mushrooms | 16 |
| Avocados | 4-12 |
How much biotin do I really need?
Compared to other vitamins, much is still unknown about biotin. There is currently no official daily recommended intake of biotin and hypotheses of what it should be vary drastically. The U.S. National Library of Medicine recommends a daily allowance of as little as 30 micrograms. At the other end of the spectrum, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) recommends a daily allowance ten times higher—300 micrograms for adults.
As a water-soluble vitamin, biotin doesn’t accumulate in your body like a fat-soluble vitamin. That means you need to replenish your supply regularly. If you take in more than you need, your body will simply excrete the excess biotin through urine. Individual requirements vary, but is always better to have more of something like biotin, than less.
The key for a lot of men and women seems to be biotin supplements, these can be easily obtained and provide the biotin your body may well need – alongside a balanced diet.
The Bear Grooming Biotin capsules contain a high dosage at 10,000µg in addition to coconut oil and can have many benefits such as stronger nails (important for all you handy men out there), the support of hair growth and has even been seen to increase energy levels.
There is no need to bother with a biotin shampoo or cream as it can only be absorbed by being ingested – so if you are focussed on your features looking their best, don’t forget to look after your inside, just as much as your outside and unleash your inner bear!
