Hi everyone
I was having lunch with my friend who is a bio-chemistry student at UC Irvine and he was telling me about biotin deficiency. Biotin deficiency is extremely rare. He said there is approximately one reported case every thirty years. The symptoms include all sorts of neat things like bleeding out of your pores and at excessive levels of deficiency (odd turn of phrase) the cessation of cellular respiration. How does one become biotin deficient? The most often quoted reason: a diet consisting solely of egg whites. Egg whites possess a protein called avidin which is shaped kind of like a barrel. When the biotin molecule comes in contact with the avidin it gets sucked inside and a flap on the avidin closes locking the biotin inside. The combined molecule is then flushed through your system and goodbye biotin. Here's where the supplement comes in, in the event that you become biotin deficient and find yourself shuttled from doctor to doctor with nary a clue as what to do, one specialist will remember reading about biotin deficiency and finally prescribe, after who knows how many thousands of dollars of medical expenses, a biotin supplement that you could pick up at any vitamin shoppe for less than thirty dollars. Isn't it ironic? So I thought I would share that with this forum, it was interesting to me and I'm sure someone else will read it and go hmmm....
Here's a link by the by:
eMedicine Biotin Deficiency
Thanks all
Brandon
