2.11a Start of Vitamins -Intro; Biotin and Choline

Physician's Notebooks 2 - http://physiciansnotebook.blogspot.com - See Homepage
2.11a: Vitamins - Update 27 Novenber 2021
 

Biotin, or Vitamin B-7

Its deficiency is seen in prolonged intravenous nourishment without oral intake or with habitually eating raw egg, which has avidin, a chemical that bonds to the biotin molecule and blocks it in foods. Volunteers fed a diet without biotin for more than 5 weeks got pains in the muscles, nausea, and mental changes due to high propionic acid (3-carbon fatty acid) and, after 7 weeks a scaly rash of hands and feet and loss of hair. Giving daily 150 mg biotin cleared it in 3 to 5 days.

   Inherited deficiency of Biotin is called Propionic Acidemia and is due to deficiency of the mitochondrial enzyme propional CoA carboxylase; the victim needs higher than normal biotin. If not detected and treated quickly from birth, it causes mental deficiency.

   Biotin >50 mg a day is used hoping to prevent and treat hair loss, dandruff, and seborrheic dermatitis. No cases of toxicity yet reported. No set upper limit of intake.

   Largest source of biotin is peanuts (An excellent pre main course snack I used with reading until I lost my upper teeth), liver, egg yolk (cooked), and yeast; cereal and bean contain moderate amount. Biotin is made by intestinal bacteria so taking antibiotic by mouth for >10 days, or prolonged diarrhea, could lead to low biotin.

 

Choline, also known as Vitamin B4

Can be synthesized from glucose in food but in 2001 the U.S. Food & Nutrition Board (FNB) called it a vitamin and set an Adequate Intake. Healthy humans fed a choline-deficient diet show low blood choline. Deficiency is seen in patient fed intravenously (IV) for long period without oral intake; its sign is fatty liver.

   The human cell's ability to produce choline is limited; if liver is damaged as in alcoholism, then choline deficiency makes the liver prone to fatty change, cirrhosis and cancer.

   Choline is important as precursor of acetylcholine, a major neurotransmitter whose depletion in brain is part of Parkinson disease and is connected with Alzheimer memory loss. Because choline is in many foods, its deficiency is rare. In foods, it is high in peanut, iceberg lettuce, cauliflower and coffee. Egg has it. It is much higher in human milk than in cow milk or formula milk and there has been some worry that choline deficiency in newborns could cause adult poor memory but not proven. Nevertheless, formula-fed babies are advised to have choline added and the pediatric multivitamin you use on your child should have choline.

   Choline is used experimentally to improve or prevent memory loss in old age and in Alzheimer disease and also for prevention and protection against liver disease in alcoholics and in women on oral contraceptives at risk for liver disease. Several clinical studies suggest choline pills give an anti-manic effect in bipolar depression For experimental megavitamin use, the suggested max daily dose is 1 gram a day. 

      Next, to read now, click 2.11b Folic Acid - Why I take a Mega Dose