Biotin is great!!

Very interesting, I’m taking a truck load of supliments too. Along with a multi vitamin pack for men. Almost 8 grams of arginine, 2.5 grams lysine, VitD3, 100 mg zinc, 500mg ginger, 300mg cayennee pepper, 200mg green tea, testosterone boosters, and started on a hemopathic growth hormone called humagro. Just want to lean out as quickly as I can, boost test levels as high as possible. Have a erection that is hard as a hammer.

I lift heavy again, eat decently. I’m going through some changes and some very stressful times right now. Still no hammer head erections….

Hey Behemoth,

First off congrats on getting some good thickening of your hair, that’s awesome. I just wanted to ask you a couple of things …

What do you take the turmeric for? I know it’s good for lots of things. I took it a few years back to help with my skin, but I’m just curious to know what other people take it for. And secondly, I notice you take pepper to help make all the nutrients more bioavailable … how much pepper do you add to that teaspoon? A sprinkle? Half a spoon? And do you do that every time you take a supplement during the day? And does it have to be any particular kind of pepper (black or white?), or is it just the regular stuff you get for the dinner table?

And also, when you took the biotin, did you notice any hair shedding?

Cheers for any help on this Behemoth.

Hi Chard,
The Biotin is doing great things I just love it (taken with a B complex and a 250mg C several times a day, that’s important). As for hair shedding I’d say there is less turning up in the brush these days and much more on my head. :)

Turmeric, ok why do I take turmeric, well for a start it is a fantastic anti-inflammatory and it’s natural, I combine it with Cumin and Cinnamon, mostly I take it for an adjunct to post workout nutrition (strength training that is), and cutting inflammation helps the body heal. I have noticed that it has helped a great deal with other minor problems as well though, you would be surprised how much the body has to deal with. I take it twice a day on workout days (straight after a Gym session) and once on non-workout days.

The Pepper, well it needs to be freshly cracked black pepper, and I would have about half a teaspoon in each shake but I flood everything with pepper throughout the day, I have it in Green tea which makes the polyphenols much more available, I even have it in my grapefruit juice of a morning pre breakfast with supplements, which is another bio-availability thing (the grapefruit juice that is), mainly for the CoQ10, (be aware grapefruit juice can mess with prescription medication, Google it). Really it is ridiculous how much pepper I have but it’s all about the Piperine and what it does, and sometimes I just prefer the natural source rather than synthetic or extract.

Feel free to ask anything else I’m more than happy to help, health is our number one asset, feeling good about ourselves is part of that, if taking Biotin helps with hair there is no reason to not start when you are young. I wish I had started twenty years ago.

Hey Behemoth,

Thanks heaps for the info, very helpful. I agree with you completely about health being the number one asset. I don’t take a huge amount of supplements, just a daily multi-vitamin, vit-c 1000mg, a couple of teaspoons of Brewers Yeast, and some Apple Cider Vinegar with honey. Like I said, I used to take Turmeric, but I haven’t done so recently, so it’s good to hear of others using it. I had read about Biotin a few years back for hair, and Brewers Yeast is supposed to be a good source of B complex vitamins and Biotin, though after reading the info on this post I am thinking that I should get a dedicated Biotin pill of a higher dose, because I doubt the Brewers Yeast contains anywhere close to 5000mcg of that. That’s cool about the pepper, I vaguely remember reading that a long time ago, but it slipped from my mind. I’ll definitely look into that a bit more. as that makes complete sense.

Just one more question for you though, do you put all of these supplements together in your shakes? or do you just take some of it direct? If you put in in a shake, what do you use as a base to make it more palatable, i.e. milk, juice, water, a protein mix or something?

Well the biotin, b complex and c, I take four or five times a day. I make sure I take a hit with my Bcaa’s during workouts (more absorption of the Bcaa’s), the body dumps excess b group pretty quick so I just make sure I keep the supply optimal.

Turmeric, Cumin and Cinnamon go in a milk based shake with Fenugreek, Macca, Raw Cacao, powder and Whey protein, Hydrolysed casein, Spirulina and of course the cracked pepper, for after workouts.

I take loads of other supplements for health which I’m thinking of starting a new thread for at some stage, but the biotin is great. My Girlfriend has just today commented on how she no longer needs so many hair products for her once dry hair as the biotin has given it a rich lustre and shine (and yes I have noticed it big time).

If you are looking for better hair you might like to add some silica complex (now foods make a good one), however making sure you have adequate potassium in your diet and upping your water intake are necessary for this one, but it is an symbiotic nutrient (the building block for hair whereas biotin feeds the hair).

Glad you found this helpful let us know how things are going in a couple of months, as it takes two to three months to start seeing the effects and after six you’ll still be going wow.

Thanks once again, Behemoth. It seems you’re a fountain of knowledge on supplements! I admit that I had to google Bcaa’s and CoQ10, but I feel I’m wiser for it now.

I’m glad I found this thread, as it has set me on a bit of a mission to get some more good stuff inside me (although my wife already thinks I’m too much of a health nut as it is). I’ll definitely let you know how I get on with it all, especially the biotin.

Cheers!

Actually, one more question Behemoth … do you have any views on MSM (Methyl Sulfonyl Methane)?

Glad to help Chard, I eat plenty of red meat so I really don’t need to supplement MSM however if you are vegetarian or lean that way I think it can help.

As for the wife, I hope she swings around, my girlfriend was a bit the same till she saw wrinkles disappear from her face, her hair improve (with the biotin of course), anxiety lowered, sleep improved etc etc. Now I have her weight training and she loves it.

And I’m not really a fountain of knowledge, but when I find something good I read everything about it I can, everything from the blogs to Pubmed, and I filter out the crap but the evidence has to be pretty convincing for me to go with it (having said that I can dispel most of the standard warnings if they are standard warnings) and then trial it, if I strike problems I alter the dose or timing, change whether I take it with food or not before I give it the yes or no.

The thing is with supplementing, not everything works for everyone, many things are case specific, age specific. There are circumstances that occur that can make it difficult for the system to use the nutrient such as digestive disorders, circulation problems, even simple things like someone taking ground flax seed but not soaking it first which may block other nutrients being absorbed. I find many posts from people saying this or that doesn’t work but they don’t find out why it doesn’t work. Once again take Biotin, but if you take Alpha lipolic acid it competes for absorption so timing is important, Beta alanine competes with Taurine and the list goes on.

I’ll start a new thread to discuss supplements broadly in the next few days this is a great place for Biotin feedback and I’d like to keep it that way because I think most guys could benefit from what it does to hair

Good on you getting the girlfriend on the weights. I do a bit myself, and have managed to get the wife doing some more cardio, but she’ll be damned if she’ll take anything other than a vit-c tablet haha. But I don’t push it, as she’s super tolerant with everything I do really.

I’ll keep an eye out for your thread on supplements, it’s really easy to get lost in all the stuff out there on the net. Like you, when I’m interested in something I do a heap of research about it, but I find it hard to sift through it all sometimes, so it’s good to get anecdotal advice.

I found out that Biotin increases cGMP levels:
The hypotriglyceridemic effect of biotin supplementation involves increased levels of cGMP and AMPK activation - PubMed

" Biotin supplementation increased the levels of cGMP and the phosphorylated forms of AMPK and ACC-1 and decreased the abundance of the mature form of SREBP-1c and FAS."

Should improve erectile quality.

First of all, what is biotin? Biotin is actually a water-soluble B vitamin (which means it dissolves in water after entering the body). Dr. Margarita DE L Te ran-Garcia, an assistant professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Illinois, told me that biotin is basically the artist formerly known as vitamin B7 or vitamin H, and since it’s a vitamin, it’s necessary to live. It works by helping your body convert carbohydrates and fats from the foods you consume into energy that your body can use, according to Dr. Sarah E. Kelling, clinical assistant professor of pharmacy at the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy.

[QUOTE=harrymandlekar]
First of all, what is biotin? Biotin is actually a water-soluble B vitamin (which means it dissolves in water after entering the body). Dr. Margarita DE L Te ran-Garcia, an assistant professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Illinois, told me that biotin is basically the artist formerly known as vitamin B7 or vitamin H, and since it’s a vitamin, it’s necessary to live. It works by helping your body convert carbohydrates and fats from the foods you consume into energy that your body can use, according to Dr. Sarah E. Kelling, clinical assistant professor of pharmacy at the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy.

sutta