Biotin Supplements for Hair Growth: Fact or a Gimmick?
Clinically sound facts about hair loss and if biotin supplements have any clinical outcome in restoring hair growth: Hair loss can result from a variety of issues, example- stress, underlying health issues, hormonal imbalances, alcohol, smoking, nutritional deficiencies. among others. Therefore, if you think about it from a very clinical perspective, unless the underlying issues are identified and resolved, no amount of external/cosmetic/supplements can help overcome the issue. One of the biggest contributing factor towards hair loss: poor diets, crash diets, restrictive diets. Everything from eliminating good carbs to avoiding fruits, veggies, and solely consuming a processed diet will be the main reason why someone experiences hair loss. Crash diets and restrictive diets have been known to be the biggest culprit. Here's a fact- juice cleanses, juice diets, and so called detox diets can accelerate hair loss and damage hair growth tremendously. Additionally, over use of meds, especially dependency on pain meds, antibiotics, acid reflux meds, among others will cause issues with your skin, nails, and hair quality. Peak hair growth phases are typically at the mercy of your gut health and gut health inadvertently determines the health of your hormones which are responsible for hair growth and loss. Hair loss or slow/poor growth can happen for many chronic health reasons, however, one place to start with is ensuring you are consuming optimum levels of zinc and iron. Peak hair growth phase also known as the anagen phase is where hair grows approximately at the rate of 1cm per month. Therefore, adding sufficient healthy proteins, zinc, iron, and foods rich in B vitamins is crucial. Now on to biotin supplements: NO- biotin supplements have not shown to do much for hair growth in clinical studies, biotin is also called vitamin H and to date most studies have shown that the hype on biotin supplements is just that- misleading info to sell products. As long as your diet is rich in B vitamins, you don't need a biotin supplement. Instead ensure you get enough sleep, manage your stress, and consume the recommended amounts of zinc, iron, and proteins. As always, if your hair growth is affected due to chronic health issues, then by all means, addressing the root causes should be the primary goal. In Summary: there is NO clinical evidence that biotin supplements help with hair, skin, or nails. Companies simply prey on people's vulnerabilities and spin such gimmicks to increase sales. In fact, biotin is made mostly in the gut and the only way to improve biotin absorption is to heal the gut and/or consume foods that will support the gut and biotin production. Clinical data shows that the only people at risk for biotin deficiency are those who consume high quantities of egg whites, so moral of the story is that the only way to prevent hair loss is to consume a balanced diet, manage your stress, heal the underlying issues, and stop wasting your money on gimmicky biotin supplements. Disclaimer: Please be sure to check with your health care professional before you make any changes to your diet, lifestyle, medicine, and/or fitness routines. My podcasts are exclusively meant for educational purposes and at no point in time must be used in lieu of advise provided by your health practitioner. Should you use any information shared on my podcast, blogs, or social media platforms, please be sure to do so at your own discretion. Music by artdsigns from Pixabay --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/drsamndllc/support