Mito
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- Dec 10, 2016
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The Bottom Line
Doses of biotin greater than one milligram per day can interfere with dozens of different lab tests.There are reasons to believe that interference is worse in live humans than suggested by test tube studies and by the assay manuals published by lab manufacturers. There are not enough human supplementation studies to clarify how long interference lasts using different doses of biotin for different durations in different contexts. Therefore, we should err on the side of caution.
The worst thing you can ever, ever do regarding this issue is to take biotin the morning of a lab test. Never, ever do this.
While many lab tests will normalize hours after taking a biotin supplement for many people, many will take 24-48 hours, and some tests will take some people up to seven days. The tests that appear to be impacted the most are thyroid-related antibodies.
Therefore, we should approach this as follows:
- Never take any biotin supplement before a lab test on the same day as the test.
- Always stop taking biotin supplements that have doses larger than 1 milligram for at least two days and preferably four days before any lab tests.
- Before measuring thyroid-related antibodies, cut out the supplement if you have been taking it for months or years or if you have impaired kidney function.
- Physicians should always ask their patients about biotin supplementation, advise them to stop biotin for 2-4 days before lab tests, and be aware of biotin interference as an explanation for anomalous results.
- If you have been taking biotin in doses higher than one milligram per day, even if you have followed the above, do not make any major medical decisions without either repeating immunoassay tests with liquid chromatography to confirm their accuracy or cutting out the biotin supplement for 2-4 weeks to confirm the results are repeatable.
In High Protein? You Need More Biotin, I made the case that many people need 150-300 micrograms per day, depending on how much protein they eat. My simple food-based recommendations for getting enough biotin are found in my Cliff Notes (free for Masterpass members here).
Certainly milligram doses are needed for genetic metabolic disorders in biotin absorption and utilization. But do most people taking high-dose supplements need them?
Biotin Causes a Multitude of False Lab Tests | Here is What to Do
High-dose biotin supplements can cause a multitude of false lab tests, masking recent heart attacks, pregnancies, or allergies, giving false signals about tumors, and far more. Here is what to do.
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