new thread
Hi,
I'm just creating a new thread to respond to you, as the original has slid quite a ways down the page. I don't think it would hurt for you to try the 5000 mcg capsules, if you ready have them. If you notice skin blemishes occurring, you could try taking one every other day instead of daily, and see if that helps. If it is still too much, I'd say just cut your losses and pick up a bottle of the 1000 mcg capsules... in my opinion, it's a minor but valuable investment. For what it's worth, in my experience, most physicians don't know as much about nutritional supplements as they think they do, but you might be lucky enough to have a good one. Good luck and please be sure to share your thoughts on and experience with biotin here!
Cheers,
Val
Right now I'm taking 500mcg a day. From what I remembered of the last conversation on here about biotin, the general consensus was buying the 1000mcg tablets and taking half of one a day (which is what I currently do).
I've only been taking it for less than a month though. I wish I had started taking it a long time ago. I definitely notice my facial hair growing faster.
I think most adults could tolerate 1000-2000 mcg daily, and many people up to 5000.
--Val
I've been taking 5000 mcg Biotin for a year or more now - I get mine from Puritan on line - very inexpensive and good quality. I've noticed that my hair is stronger and I do not shed hair - nothing to speak of in the shower drain - I've also noticed short hairs growing on the thinning parts on the top of my head - so I definitely think there is something good about the Biotin with the 3 zeros...
thanks, Val! Go for it, guys!
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I took up to 10,000 mcg per day to offset shedding caused by warfarin. I did this along with a high dose of herbal hair blend. Thank God, I am off that poison.
Scott
Yeah, I've been put on both warfarin and xarelto. Also colchicine. I lost a lot of hair. I was getting a lot in my comb daily, and you could begin to see my ears through my mane. I am now off all of them, the last I quit in September. My hair is already much denser already. It looks normal again up top. It will take longer for that look to grow on down lower.
Bill
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I am going to consume natural herbs to prevent future blood clots instead of warfarin. Tumeric is good for this.
Scott
Scott,
As I am likely to require an aortic valve replacement in my lifetime (due to a congenital bicuspid aortic valve... just like Arnold), I am very interested in the topic of natural "blood thinners," as opposed to the rote prescription of warfarin. Below is a post I found online that I found enlightening and worth investigating. If and when the time comes, I will certainly explore the issue further with my cardiologist. Maybe you will find some of this intriguing or worthwhile, as well.
--Val
Source: http://forum.lef.org/default.aspx?f=40&m=45494
Original post (with link to post and comments below):
I am currently taking Coumadin (Warfarin) at 7.5 mg daily to foil any possible blood clot formations should I have an episode of atrial fibrillation. I am 69 years old and in otherwise good health, but have had three short bouts of AF in the past three months...nothing life threatening, but certainly distracting, to say the least.
I have learned that Coumadin is an "anticoagulant" (blood thinner) which decreases the ability of the blood to clot by slowing the production of specific proteins in the Liver. Those proteins, if left alone, would have acted with other substances in the blood to promote normal clotting. The Warfarin also inhibits vitamin K, which if left alone, would also promote the normal production of these specific proteins to allow normal clotting.
Now, we also have other "medications" which apparently are called "antiaggregates," or platelet aggregation inhibitors. These are also called blood thinners, but they seem to work in another way...by making the blood's platelets so slippery that they cannot stick together, or to blood vessel walls. A well-known platelet inhibitor is Plavix (Clopidogrel).
To me...it would seem that any so-called "blood thinner" would accomplish the mission of preventing clots, no matter if it started in the liver or worked within the blood itself and platelets. "Thin blood" is thin blood...in my opinion.
However, my cardiologist does not agree and says that Coumadin, as an anticoagulant is the way to go...as opposed to substances that work on platelets.
But, after a lot of research, I have come up with a couple ideas which I would like to propose to my doctor. He is very open-minded and seems to appreciate that I take a close interest in my own treatments and am well-read about medications and treatments.
In the Coumadin literature, it mentions that I need to be very careful about the introduction of vitamin K foods (green leafy, asparagus, etc) because vit K increases clotting and thwarts somewhat the anticlotting action of the Coumadin.
On the other hand...there are foods (and some medications) which increase blood THINNING and makes the anticlotting properties of the Coumadin work even better. This can be dangerous because very serious bleeding can occur if the blood's clotting factor is decreased too much.
However...my proposal to my cardiologist will be that we use a mixture of easily-measured, "blood-thinning" foods in combination with the daily Coumadin. By slowly increasing the amount of "natural thinners" each day...we would then be able to DECREASE the daily amount of Coumadin. Perhaps I would not be able to completely do away with Coumadin, but it would seem it could be substantially reduced.
My research has found the following foods to have "blood thinning" properties and the Coumadin literature even mentions some of them as foods to avoid because they increase the anticlotting effect of the Coumadin. They are:
Cranberry Juice (Cranberries)
Garlic
Ginger
Turmeric
Papaya
Grapefruit juice
Vitamin E
Cod liver oil and other fish oils
Aspirin
NOTE: The Cod liver oil apparently makes blood platelets so slippery they cannot stick to each other or vessel walls.
In my proposal, I would have to be very specific as to what foods I ingested each day and the EXACT amounts. This would affect the prothrombin time (PT) of my blood clotting as measured by an international standard called "INR." Once a week, I go to the doctor to have a drop of blood measured for the time it takes to clot (PT/INR). The doctor wants to keep it at an INR number of between 2 and 3. (0 being normal clotting and 10 being blood like water!)
Currently, I take one, 7.0 mg Coumadin tablet each day.
I would propose to my doctor, for instance, that he reduce my daily Coumadin to 6.0 mg and that I add to my diet, daily, 1 garlic clove / 1/2 glass cranberry juice / 1 tablespoon cod liver oil...perhaps a half aspirin...and see what my PT/INR reading is at the end of one week. If it's too low, I can add another clove of garlic, or more cranberry juice, etc. I could keep adjusting, each week...Coumadin down...natural foods up...all the while seeking to keep the PT/INR range in the 2-3 measurement range.
I mean...it makes absolute good sense to keep my blood thin enough so that if I should have an atrial fibrillation episode a clot will not form and be thrown off into my brain, or elsewhere. However, I feel it also makes good sense to possibly accomplish this goal by using well-measurable "natural" means if I can.
I know I have rambled on and on...but I have given this a lot of thought and now welcome your thoughts and ideas...professional or regular people. Maybe I'm just blowing hot air...wasting my time...and destined to be on Coumadin the rest of my life. I would hope not!
Thanks for your patience and your time.
Josephx2
COUMADIN vs. Natural Blood Thinners
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Cranberries, Garlic, Ginger, Turmeric, Vitamin E
These are in my diet now. I also consume fish (canned tuna and salmon) I haven't had my PT/INR checked while consuming these foods to verify effectiveness. Actually, from what I heard, 0.8 to 1.2 is normal range, not zero. 2 to 3 are the target numbers while on warfarin. I need to have mine checked to see what it is when eating the above foods.
Scott
Yeah, we all know about the garlic, Scott. [grin]
How much per day do you eat?
Bill
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Maybe 15 grams per day. Very good for the immune system. I want to avoid the flu this year. The flu terror alert level has already reached orange on its way to red. It was at blue just a few weeks ago.
Scott
I agree... garlic is a TREMENDOUS immune booster. I also increase my vitamin D3 supplementation to about 10,000 IU daily during the winter months (as we get very little sun exposure here in northern Wisconsin), along with a regimen of fish oil (2 grams) and vitamin C (2-3 grams).
Above is the CDC's influenza map, as of 12/21/13.
--Val
Yes Scott! Thank God you're off that poison!
Ted
Some meds, especially vitamins, are at times sold in micrograms, μg. A microgram is one thousandth of a milligram. In other words, 1mg = 1000μg. Some computer users have trouble making the μ symbol, and so do some doctors when they enter dosages into a computer or an e-mail. Thus, you'll see "mcg" or "meg" shown for "μg". I had one doctor tell me in an e-mail that I should take 500mg of a pill each day that came in 1000μg pills. I would have had to have wolfed down the whole bottle in one sitting to take that much! While he intended that I would break one pill in half. "Mcg" is a quirky way to put it, but "meg" is worse, because that means a million. 1meg thus is a million units of some kind of the stuff, and the base unit is grams. This suggests a thousand kilograms of the stuff, and 1000megs suggests a thousand tonnes of it. I've seen both mcg and meg on labels where the manufacturer did not understand the symbol for micro is μ.
Other vitamins are sold in IUs, which don't seem to relate directly to weight from one substance to another.
Take your pills with care!
Bill
Don't worry, I live in the states, but I do atleast understand metric (honestly, I'd prefer it). And I understand how and why things are abbreviated the way that they are. It wasn't an error in reading comprehension that took me, just an error in memory.
But all of this thread has been duely noted and I will be upping my dosage as of tomorrow
Americans use metric units for food and pill contents, so we are all talking the same language here. A reason for that is that customary units don't have units for small quantities. Anything less than an inch or an ounce takes you into using fractions. Like all people, we hate fractions.
Instead, we tend to use metric, i.e. millimeters and grams, for smaller quantities. I've heard people ask, "How many millimeters are in an inch?" or "How many grams are in an ounce?" just like they'd ask, "How many inches are in a foot?" That the answer is not an easy round number doesn't faze an American. After all, there are 16 ounces in a pound and 12 inches in a foot. When an American hears there are 25 millimeters in an inch or 28 grams in an ounce, those odd numbers are just as sensical as any other answer would be. (Yes, the numbers are not exact, but they are close enough for ordinary work.)
Mostly, in the United States, medications are shown in milligrams. Nobody thinks twice about that. It is expected. Otherwise, we'd be talking about dosages like 1/4000th of an ounce.
Micrograms, though, can throw someone off, especially if it's abbreviated. Both words start with "m". That was what we were talking about.
Bill
Thanks Val for starting a new thread, I just noticed that you had responded to my post and I did respond all the way down there.
I like Fitz, ordered them (5000 mcg)from Puritan.com... in hopes to add to the other multi-vitamins I take (only 50 mcg)....
I also take Metformin and Glimepiride, so family wants me to make sure it's ok with Doctor......(I am being asked,"what does it matter if your hair grows slowly, it is because you don't cut it, you have to cut it to make it grow...) that's why I never got anywhere...
Biotin is supposed to have other healthy results too, it looks like these are capsules, so I can't cut them in half, but even if I could take one every other day I hope it would help.
Also I went to a natural shampoo instead of Suave, I hope that helps... My hair is growing, just not near as fast as others with 4 years in. I am learning patience, and thanks to all of you for your input..
The Spaf Man
I get biotin in 7500 mcg tablets. I take a half tablet (~3750 mcg) every day.
- Oren