My favorite way to eat chopped liver is on fresh rye bread with lettuce, tomato and raw onion. I'm assuming you know a good recipe for chopped liver. If you don't, ask or find one online.
Mar 7, 2023·edited Mar 7, 2023Liked by Chris Masterjohn, PhD
I really enjoyed going through your test results. I see some similarities with my own, ie SAMe/SAH , biotin etc. I appreciate you being so open and posting, it's so helpful.
Fascinating article. My 22 year old son has been on a quest to treat his health issues in order to stay off the Humira (prescribed for suspected psoriatic arthritis) and Dupixent, prescribed for systemic eczema. The Dupixent worked well but caused eye issues and, of course, at 22 he does not want to be on medication rather than potentially solving the root cause of his problems. His exposure to mold in a crappy dorm room triggered a worsening of symptoms. But, like you, he had eczema in infancy. He’s also developed chronic conjunctivitis. He has had an extremely restricted diet (autoimmune, verging on carnivore at times) for years. But he stumbled upon info relating to Pyrrole Disorder/Pyroluria which is caused by high hydroxyhemopyrrolin-2-one (HPL). The “cure” is supposed supplementation with zinc, B6 and Biotin. He’s already improving and I’m realizing many in our family have had the symptoms of Pyroluria. He was more focused on supplementing zinc and B6 but after ready your article I’m wondering if biotin is more of a root cause. Thanks again for all you do.
Very interesting, well, lab work and symptomatic response to treatment are more important to interpretation than symptom cluster. Very interested to see what you find.
Good afternoon Chris! Excellent article! Thanks for being so candid. Perhaps you mentioned how much Biotin you are taking. If not, could you kindly tell us? I've suspected that I also have a difficulty clearing oxalates (eating foods high in oxalate promotes body pain). Additionally, your comments on Biotin & Pyruvate Carboxylase have hit home as I experienced a significant insult to the Myelin Sheath in my Thoracic vertebrae 7 years ago. Although my body was able to re-generate the myelin sheath in 2 years, I'm still experiencing neural deficits. I take a methylated B complex, but not high dose and regularly eat eggs. I would eat organ meats weekly if I could find a good source. Unfortunately, I haven't found organ supplements to be helpful. I had a number of the labs that you discussed, but now I can look at them in a different light.
In case you missed it, Chris mentioned in the comments below that he's currently using 5 mg twice a day.
As far as organ meats, I've had good success with US Wellness Meats: https://grasslandbeef.com/ I personally enjoy their liverwurst. I also believe there's an affiliate discount through the Masterpass program as well.
Thanks JP! I must have missed it in the entry. Also, thanks for reminding me about US Wellness Meats. I've actually exported their products overseas (some time ago). I'll order their liverwurst, that's one of my favorites!
I am experimenting with biotin after reading some of your stuff. About a month now, the persistent dandruff I had around my eyebrows has cleared up, as well as the flaky bits behind my ears. Still have a bit of alligator skin on my ankle, but it's gotten noticeably smaller, and now looks pink, rather than a dry grayish purple. Noticeably less scalp dandruff. Also unexpectedly lost 8 pounds and one pants size. In that same timeframe I have gotten my fasting blood sugar down from the 100-110 range to about 89-93, though it's not clear whether that's due to the biotin, tightening up my diet, or both. Have been lax about exercise regimen lately, so it's not that.
Looking back, I wonder if this might've helped when I was in college 20-odd years ago. I had grown up in a vegetarian household-- meat was not forbidden us and we ate it at other people's houses, but it was a luxury item. In college, I went full vegetarian for four years. Nearly killed me. I thought it must have been a thyroid problem, but now I'm not so sure. I was dreadfully cold all the time, despite being in central florida, my hair was shedding at an alarming rate, I had the brittle, heavily-ridged nails and scaly ankles, and was hallucinating movement in my peripheral vision. Developed PCOS (insulin resistance). And I was tired. So very tired. Felt like I was dying. Ended up dropping out and taking several years to recover, during which time I stopped being a vegetarian, some of those things got better, but some recurred, and I acquired a couple other oddities-- such as a facial melasma, despite not ever being pregnant. But my hair stopped falling out and my nails got better, and I went on a low carb diet to control the PCOS, which worked. I stopped being cold. The scaly skin came and went, though, and the melasma stuck around for years (it's gone for the last decade though). The worst episode of the skin issues didn't happen until age 28-ish: that year it was not just my ankles, but also the backs of my hands, around the knuckles, down in between fingers, on the tops of my toes, and the eyebrow dandruff spread all the way down the center of my face, around the sides of my nose, and the corners of my mouth cracked. Probably a lot of reasons for that. Most stressful year of my life.
Since thinking through all that, reading more about B7 deficiency, and realizing that all of my kids have had horrible dandruff practically since they were born, I checked them over, and realized 2 out of 3 also have a little bit of scaly, discolored patches around the neck and armpits, so we are going to supplement them for a while and see what happens-- even if it does not help, it is unlikely to hurt and seems worth a try.
Very interesting. The symptoms themselves aren’t intrinsically biotin, but if the biotin helped you and there are familial similarities you might have stumbled on a genetic issue where biotin helps the whole family, sort of like my mom and I seem to have collided into doing this past year.
I found biotin to by the only thing that resolved my mold related numbness in my hands and feet. Scary when you don’t know what the hell is going on with your own body and modern medicine is zero help as well. When it stopped being as effective I realized biotin uses chromium as a cofactor as well.
Also, when I had massive skin issues from mold I found Undecylinic acid by Thorne to be curative. I had tried everything else, including many pharmaceuticals as I can direct order through my office. Keep up the crusade, you’re awesome!
I can relate to much of your story. I was a vegetarian for 10 years so initially after reading this I thought aha that was the fault of many of my issues. Then I remembered that certain issues such as anxiety and insomnia have persisted as long as I can remember, well before becoming a vegetarian but I do think the vegetarian years has made things a lot worse. I also had skin issues, some exema but most dermatitis which was usually reactions to products.
I have tried to find relief through supplements but sadly many exacerbated my systems. Magnesium glycine, biotin, carnitine, selenium as well as others, all made my insomnia and anxiety worse. For some reason I have a hard time with supplements in general. I also don't respond well to fasting, very low carb or very low calories. It increases cortisol too much thus making symptoms worse.
After some clues I started considering a histamine intolerance as well as oxylates. It started with reactions to wine - insomnia, mind racing, fast heartbeat to name a few. Hard liquor didn't give me insomnia, so that was a clue that it must be the sulfites in wine. Plus I was alergic to sulfa. Are you? I have met others who are and have the same reaction to wine. Those chemicals are different but I read the body reacts similarly to both. Even orgainic wine is sprayed with sulfur to deter mold. Plus I don't trust organic that much anymore. Some say it doesn't hold the meaning it once did. I read an article about how people think wine is the nectar of the gods but they have no idea it is loaded with chemicals. There are usually over 70 chemicals in wine that don't have to be disclosed.
I cut out all liquor, chocolate and coffee, even decaffeinated, nuts, all offending vegetables, dried cured meats and cheeses, all preservatives and chemicals. I noticed msg, sodium benzoate and anything ending in 'fite' were worst offenders. Artificially carbonated beverages also bothered me. Not sure why... maybe carbon dioxide getting absorbed throwing off a balance?
I started to eat breakfast again since of course I was intermittent fasting, get early morning sun in my eyes albeit just briefly, drink mineral waters, eat high protein diet but from fresh foods only, and upped calcium foods a bit. I also stopped exercising for a while to let my body heal. I was walking strenuously an hour a day plus weight training. I take magnesium citrate now at night, calcium and vitamin D3 in the morning because my vitamin D is low. I take K2 maybe twice a week. I am sleeping at night now which is almost unheard of for me, feel calm and have no anxiety.
I even started adding a little aged cheeses back and even bacon with no reaction. I will always stay away from the chemical laden foods though; sadly the liquor, coffee and chocolate as well.
I don’t seem to have a classical reaction to sulfites (which is not an allergy, but rather sulfite degranulation of mast cells) but wine does make me tired in a way that vodka doesn’t. Beer isn’t as clean as vodka but I don’t think beer makes me as tired as wine either.
I’ve gone on very, very restrictive diets (once I was doing FAILSAFE and GFCF at the same time!) to little if any benefit.
From your story it sounds like your intolerances were secondary to putting too much stress on your metabolism from IF and exercise, with the metabolic problem being primary.
I really enjoyed reading this article! Im starting to think that some people with dandruff may be deficient in biotin.
I'm wondering if having issues with pyruvate carboxylase can make women be more susceptible to PMS. You mentioned before that manganese can help with PMS, and there is evidence that giving women oxaloacetate can help with PMS. It stands to reason that biotin may also help with PMS in women deficient in it due to various reasons.
I also wanted to add that my friend started taking biotin (I think a few mg) and her eczema started to go away.
I agree. I haven’t mentioned it anywhere but I’m actually putting on a black shirt every morning and ruffling my fingers through my hair for exactly one minute and taking pictures of my shoulders and chest to quantify the dandruff that comes out during the biotin repletion period.
I'm interested in this question also, as my kids, in addition to the awful cradlecap that turned into awful dandruff, all have KP on their legs and upper arms. Since we've just begun experimenting with biotin, I'll keep an eye on both the dandruff and the KP and report back if anything changes.
Or just start taking liver and heart capsules from either HeartandSoil.com or AncestralSupplements.com and now Tom Cowan is carrying them, but I have yet to try his.
Wow. This was a very intriguing story, and I couldn't help but draw parallels to my own experience. Very different from yours, but I've definitely been thinking a lot lately about how there is something in my cellular metabolism processes that aren't quite right. I was raised very strict vegan, mostly raw, very low calorie and very low protein. I hit a wall at 14 (during a 2-week pneumonia episode) that I haven't been able to fully recover from, even though I'm now 39. I've spent my entire adulthood sleuthing, experimenting, and trying all kinds of things. Animal foods have helped the most - my hypoglycemia attacks I had on a daily basis as a child + vegan adult now only happen once in a blue moon if I wait too long to eat, and even then it's not even kind of as bad as it used to be. But my chronic fatigue has only let off a little, despite trying a zillion things over the years. Any exercise beyond leisurely walks lands me on the couch exhausted for the day. I can tell that something in the way my body deals with energy production isn't quite right, even though it is well-fed now (and has been for years). I need to sit with your story some more and do some biochemistry digging. I think this stuff can be molecularly specific (perhaps genetic, or at least for me vegan childhood-caused environmental), and requires some serious investigation to figure out for those of us who just always feel off. Thank you for the inspiration. Hope your experiment works for you!
Yes I strongly suspect most of this type of thing is a heterogeneous group of many different mild genetic disorders, many of which have solutions, but most of which will not be solved in the current environment due to the limitations of the medical diagnostic model.
When I hear about numerous intolerances like this, it makes me think of oxalate toxicity. I think you should consider getting serial urinary oxalate levels. Like 4 days in a row. Maybe one day take a bunch of calcium supplements. For a lot of people this precipitates some oxalate dumping.
I definitely have an oxalate issue, but I also think that’s rarely the root cause of anything. For example, if I am right that biotin helps detox oxalate, then biotin is at the root cause, not oxalate.
For those people reading the comments, two days into 3g of beta-alanine I noticed I almost cramped in my left calf without any kind of exertion. I checked the reviews on Amazon and, sure enough, beta-alanine can cause cramps but taurine should prevent them.
Been a month and I'm still thinking about this. I think my husband (and kids) have the opposite problem - biotin overload. Symptoms are extremely thick skin, hair, nails, and severe acne, as well as generalized digestive issues. I know that biotin depletes B5 and therefore Coenzyme A and you'd be left with hyperkeritinization and an inability to deal with oils in the skin - a perfect recipe for cystic acne. I have one daughter who just started megadosing B5 and is having noticeable results already on day 4. Interesting.
Saying biotin “depletes B5” has very strong potential to be misleading.
Biotin can compete for absorption of B5, but is unlikely to do so significantly because the SMVT has much stronger affinity for B5, and B5 is present in the diet at about 100x the concentration as biotin. This can, in any case, be completely avoided by separating biotin from meals on an empty stomach.
Biotin can lead to CoA sequestration directly, if and only if there is some other underlying metabolic problem that biotin indirectly aggravates by supporting a different sector of energy metabolism that revs up beyond the problematic part’s ability to match.
I had the same low globulins (2) and high A/G ratio (2.4) as you and supplemented with 10 mg per day of biotin for a month. Follow up testing showed my globulin levels unchanged.
I then tested my copper levels which are low-normal at 72. Is it possible low copper is the cause of low globulins?
Maybe low copper increases oxidative stress in the kidney which damages tubules causing globulins to get lost in the urine? Albumin levels have remained consistent, which I suppose contradicts this hypothesis.
Sure, that might be possible. I would never have supplemented biotin on the basis of the A/G, which I found to be among the least interesting side notes within my data.
Yeah, I actually started taking the biotin due to oxalate issues but developed the globulin deficiency before starting biotin. I was curious to see if the biotin would fix it. Thought I'd note that it did not.
When I went to get tested to see if my globulins had normalized the woman at the front desk sneezed and by 5pm I had a sore throat. So I was able to confirm that I was immune deficient even before receiving the results of my bloodwork. Sure enough the globulins were still low. A few days later I got my copper results back suggesting I'm deficient.
I started supplementing 4mg/day of copper in addition to 1 ounce of liver. I will report my results back here in two months, in case it might be helpful to anyone reading this.
According to cronometer my daily intake of copper was 5 mg/day from food. Pretty sure I developed the copper deficiency because I was eating my liver in the same meal as my oatmeal.
So I ended up in the emergency room on the 13th due to a nose bleed that wouldn't stop. The low copper led me to suspect low platelets. The hospital ran a CBC and everything came back normal.
Now I suspect a deficiency in the fat soluble vitamins caused by a low fat diet. My cholesterol levels have dipped from 190 to 130 so there may be some issues with bile and fat absorption in addition to the low fat diet.
A deficiency in Vitamin K would help explain why I wasn't able to clot enough to stop the bleeding. Another possibility is problems forming collagen due to low copper.
A follow up visit with my doctor the next day revealed the protein in my blood had risen from 6.6 to 7.4, albumin from 4.6 to 4.8, and globulins form 2 to 2.6.
The morning of the blood test I supplemented with 25,000 IU of vitamin A and 900 mcg of Vitamin K2 with a high fat meal. The blood test was 8 days after I began supplementing 4mg/day of copper.
So either 4mg/day of copper was enough to correct a marginal deficiency in 8 days or a high dose of vitamin A about 5 hours before a comprehensive metabolic profile was enough to correct the globulin deficiency.
Did you get total and ionized serum calcium? Calcium is the activating factor for platelet aggregation.
The movements in proteins are very small. I would be careful of over-interpreting them, especially if you only have one previous lab measurement for them.
Serum calcium from the CBC is 9.8, which is consistent with past results that fluctuate between 9 and 10. No ionized serum calcium.
I've had four CMP's run this year.
1/5/23: protein 7.1, albumin 4.7, globulins 2.4. This is typical for me.
2/28/23: protein 6.7, albumin 4.7, globulins 2.
4/3/23: protein 6.6, albumin 4.6, globulins 2.
4/14/23: protein 7.4, albumin 4.8, globulins 2.6.
The first three were taken in the morning after an overnight fast of 12 hours. The last one was taken in the afternoon 2-3 hours after breakfast, so that may be artificially increasing the values?
I'll get another CMP run when I retest my copper levels in a few weeks.
As of right now the nose bleed has been fixed with a few days with nasal packing they put in at the hospital.
Alkalinity can drive the calcium into albumin, which can lower the ionized fraction.
Yes I think eating is a huge confounder and you should always measure labs you are comparing in the same state.
Fasting makes things easier because so many labs do require fasting, and because most literature values are from the mornings after an overnight fast.
When I see these values it looks to me like you were in the 2.4-2.6 range and temporarily dipped to the 2.0 range, or perhaps that you are always in the 2.0-2.4 range during an overnight fast and nothing changed.
Oh wow, I can relate to so much of this - eczema on my hands in the winter months (bad episodes previously), neurological problems that come and go leading to an autoimmune diagnosis when they couldn’t find a reason for it…feel like I can’t go very long without food, unexplained anxiety. I even tried the vegetarian route, which made everything worse. I have long suspected that I need more B vitamins but when I try to take B supplements, they make me really agitated and jittery. I think this is partly due to poor methylation pathways, but I haven’t found any lasting solutions to all of this despite working with several practitioners, partly because I have adverse reactions to most of the supplements they give me. Could Biotin perhaps help me synthesize the other B vitamins and supplements better? Thanks for sharing!
I’ve written a bit about paradoxical reactions to B vitamins. I think you should test individual B vitamins and different forms and document your reactions till you know exactly which supplements are causing those reactions.
If that’s too difficult I think running a comprehensive set of labwork listed in the “work with me” section that includes (among the others) the Genova Methylation Panel is probably your best bet to finding answers without provoking negative reactions.
Went and got some chicken livers when I read the original article. Better now. Hadn't had them since forever.
Yums!
Nice. I'm doing a raw beef liver smoothie tomorrow morning. Who needs coffee! 💪
My favorite way to eat chopped liver is on fresh rye bread with lettuce, tomato and raw onion. I'm assuming you know a good recipe for chopped liver. If you don't, ask or find one online.
Thanks for the recipe. However I like to get it over with as I don't really enjoy it...): so I drink it down raw.
I really enjoyed going through your test results. I see some similarities with my own, ie SAMe/SAH , biotin etc. I appreciate you being so open and posting, it's so helpful.
Awesome! Hoping this helps a lot of people, especially as I start showing how things can be fixed!
Fascinating article. My 22 year old son has been on a quest to treat his health issues in order to stay off the Humira (prescribed for suspected psoriatic arthritis) and Dupixent, prescribed for systemic eczema. The Dupixent worked well but caused eye issues and, of course, at 22 he does not want to be on medication rather than potentially solving the root cause of his problems. His exposure to mold in a crappy dorm room triggered a worsening of symptoms. But, like you, he had eczema in infancy. He’s also developed chronic conjunctivitis. He has had an extremely restricted diet (autoimmune, verging on carnivore at times) for years. But he stumbled upon info relating to Pyrrole Disorder/Pyroluria which is caused by high hydroxyhemopyrrolin-2-one (HPL). The “cure” is supposed supplementation with zinc, B6 and Biotin. He’s already improving and I’m realizing many in our family have had the symptoms of Pyroluria. He was more focused on supplementing zinc and B6 but after ready your article I’m wondering if biotin is more of a root cause. Thanks again for all you do.
Very interesting, well, lab work and symptomatic response to treatment are more important to interpretation than symptom cluster. Very interested to see what you find.
Good afternoon Chris! Excellent article! Thanks for being so candid. Perhaps you mentioned how much Biotin you are taking. If not, could you kindly tell us? I've suspected that I also have a difficulty clearing oxalates (eating foods high in oxalate promotes body pain). Additionally, your comments on Biotin & Pyruvate Carboxylase have hit home as I experienced a significant insult to the Myelin Sheath in my Thoracic vertebrae 7 years ago. Although my body was able to re-generate the myelin sheath in 2 years, I'm still experiencing neural deficits. I take a methylated B complex, but not high dose and regularly eat eggs. I would eat organ meats weekly if I could find a good source. Unfortunately, I haven't found organ supplements to be helpful. I had a number of the labs that you discussed, but now I can look at them in a different light.
Thanks!
Hello Elliott,
In case you missed it, Chris mentioned in the comments below that he's currently using 5 mg twice a day.
As far as organ meats, I've had good success with US Wellness Meats: https://grasslandbeef.com/ I personally enjoy their liverwurst. I also believe there's an affiliate discount through the Masterpass program as well.
Thanks JP! I must have missed it in the entry. Also, thanks for reminding me about US Wellness Meats. I've actually exported their products overseas (some time ago). I'll order their liverwurst, that's one of my favorites!
I couldn't eat it raw and I have grown up loving and eating chopped liver with HB eggs and garlic, onions.
Nature’s multivitamin.
I am experimenting with biotin after reading some of your stuff. About a month now, the persistent dandruff I had around my eyebrows has cleared up, as well as the flaky bits behind my ears. Still have a bit of alligator skin on my ankle, but it's gotten noticeably smaller, and now looks pink, rather than a dry grayish purple. Noticeably less scalp dandruff. Also unexpectedly lost 8 pounds and one pants size. In that same timeframe I have gotten my fasting blood sugar down from the 100-110 range to about 89-93, though it's not clear whether that's due to the biotin, tightening up my diet, or both. Have been lax about exercise regimen lately, so it's not that.
Looking back, I wonder if this might've helped when I was in college 20-odd years ago. I had grown up in a vegetarian household-- meat was not forbidden us and we ate it at other people's houses, but it was a luxury item. In college, I went full vegetarian for four years. Nearly killed me. I thought it must have been a thyroid problem, but now I'm not so sure. I was dreadfully cold all the time, despite being in central florida, my hair was shedding at an alarming rate, I had the brittle, heavily-ridged nails and scaly ankles, and was hallucinating movement in my peripheral vision. Developed PCOS (insulin resistance). And I was tired. So very tired. Felt like I was dying. Ended up dropping out and taking several years to recover, during which time I stopped being a vegetarian, some of those things got better, but some recurred, and I acquired a couple other oddities-- such as a facial melasma, despite not ever being pregnant. But my hair stopped falling out and my nails got better, and I went on a low carb diet to control the PCOS, which worked. I stopped being cold. The scaly skin came and went, though, and the melasma stuck around for years (it's gone for the last decade though). The worst episode of the skin issues didn't happen until age 28-ish: that year it was not just my ankles, but also the backs of my hands, around the knuckles, down in between fingers, on the tops of my toes, and the eyebrow dandruff spread all the way down the center of my face, around the sides of my nose, and the corners of my mouth cracked. Probably a lot of reasons for that. Most stressful year of my life.
Since thinking through all that, reading more about B7 deficiency, and realizing that all of my kids have had horrible dandruff practically since they were born, I checked them over, and realized 2 out of 3 also have a little bit of scaly, discolored patches around the neck and armpits, so we are going to supplement them for a while and see what happens-- even if it does not help, it is unlikely to hurt and seems worth a try.
Very interesting. The symptoms themselves aren’t intrinsically biotin, but if the biotin helped you and there are familial similarities you might have stumbled on a genetic issue where biotin helps the whole family, sort of like my mom and I seem to have collided into doing this past year.
I love your content. Love it!
I found biotin to by the only thing that resolved my mold related numbness in my hands and feet. Scary when you don’t know what the hell is going on with your own body and modern medicine is zero help as well. When it stopped being as effective I realized biotin uses chromium as a cofactor as well.
Also, when I had massive skin issues from mold I found Undecylinic acid by Thorne to be curative. I had tried everything else, including many pharmaceuticals as I can direct order through my office. Keep up the crusade, you’re awesome!
Very interesting. One time I had pink mold in my bathroom ceiling and it gave me brain fog that was relieved by a high dose B complex.
Sounds in your case like biotin deficiency has been compromising your defense against cutaneous fungal infections acquired from your environment.
I can relate to much of your story. I was a vegetarian for 10 years so initially after reading this I thought aha that was the fault of many of my issues. Then I remembered that certain issues such as anxiety and insomnia have persisted as long as I can remember, well before becoming a vegetarian but I do think the vegetarian years has made things a lot worse. I also had skin issues, some exema but most dermatitis which was usually reactions to products.
I have tried to find relief through supplements but sadly many exacerbated my systems. Magnesium glycine, biotin, carnitine, selenium as well as others, all made my insomnia and anxiety worse. For some reason I have a hard time with supplements in general. I also don't respond well to fasting, very low carb or very low calories. It increases cortisol too much thus making symptoms worse.
After some clues I started considering a histamine intolerance as well as oxylates. It started with reactions to wine - insomnia, mind racing, fast heartbeat to name a few. Hard liquor didn't give me insomnia, so that was a clue that it must be the sulfites in wine. Plus I was alergic to sulfa. Are you? I have met others who are and have the same reaction to wine. Those chemicals are different but I read the body reacts similarly to both. Even orgainic wine is sprayed with sulfur to deter mold. Plus I don't trust organic that much anymore. Some say it doesn't hold the meaning it once did. I read an article about how people think wine is the nectar of the gods but they have no idea it is loaded with chemicals. There are usually over 70 chemicals in wine that don't have to be disclosed.
I cut out all liquor, chocolate and coffee, even decaffeinated, nuts, all offending vegetables, dried cured meats and cheeses, all preservatives and chemicals. I noticed msg, sodium benzoate and anything ending in 'fite' were worst offenders. Artificially carbonated beverages also bothered me. Not sure why... maybe carbon dioxide getting absorbed throwing off a balance?
I started to eat breakfast again since of course I was intermittent fasting, get early morning sun in my eyes albeit just briefly, drink mineral waters, eat high protein diet but from fresh foods only, and upped calcium foods a bit. I also stopped exercising for a while to let my body heal. I was walking strenuously an hour a day plus weight training. I take magnesium citrate now at night, calcium and vitamin D3 in the morning because my vitamin D is low. I take K2 maybe twice a week. I am sleeping at night now which is almost unheard of for me, feel calm and have no anxiety.
I even started adding a little aged cheeses back and even bacon with no reaction. I will always stay away from the chemical laden foods though; sadly the liquor, coffee and chocolate as well.
I don’t seem to have a classical reaction to sulfites (which is not an allergy, but rather sulfite degranulation of mast cells) but wine does make me tired in a way that vodka doesn’t. Beer isn’t as clean as vodka but I don’t think beer makes me as tired as wine either.
I’ve gone on very, very restrictive diets (once I was doing FAILSAFE and GFCF at the same time!) to little if any benefit.
From your story it sounds like your intolerances were secondary to putting too much stress on your metabolism from IF and exercise, with the metabolic problem being primary.
I’m glad you’re feeling better!
I really enjoyed reading this article! Im starting to think that some people with dandruff may be deficient in biotin.
I'm wondering if having issues with pyruvate carboxylase can make women be more susceptible to PMS. You mentioned before that manganese can help with PMS, and there is evidence that giving women oxaloacetate can help with PMS. It stands to reason that biotin may also help with PMS in women deficient in it due to various reasons.
I also wanted to add that my friend started taking biotin (I think a few mg) and her eczema started to go away.
Thanks again Chris, great article as always!
I agree. I haven’t mentioned it anywhere but I’m actually putting on a black shirt every morning and ruffling my fingers through my hair for exactly one minute and taking pictures of my shoulders and chest to quantify the dandruff that comes out during the biotin repletion period.
Oh also, do you think Biotin deficiency could be involved in keratosis pilaris? I know thats typically said to be a vitamin A deficiency.
Well, I have a gut feeling my high need for vitamin A is a compensation for the biotin thing. I’m not 100% sure how to explain the biochemistry yet.
When you can explain the biochemistry I would be very interested as I have the same struggle.
I'm interested in this question also, as my kids, in addition to the awful cradlecap that turned into awful dandruff, all have KP on their legs and upper arms. Since we've just begun experimenting with biotin, I'll keep an eye on both the dandruff and the KP and report back if anything changes.
Yes let us know what you find!
Or just start taking liver and heart capsules from either HeartandSoil.com or AncestralSupplements.com and now Tom Cowan is carrying them, but I have yet to try his.
If that were sufficient my entire line of inquiry would be pointless.
Wow. This was a very intriguing story, and I couldn't help but draw parallels to my own experience. Very different from yours, but I've definitely been thinking a lot lately about how there is something in my cellular metabolism processes that aren't quite right. I was raised very strict vegan, mostly raw, very low calorie and very low protein. I hit a wall at 14 (during a 2-week pneumonia episode) that I haven't been able to fully recover from, even though I'm now 39. I've spent my entire adulthood sleuthing, experimenting, and trying all kinds of things. Animal foods have helped the most - my hypoglycemia attacks I had on a daily basis as a child + vegan adult now only happen once in a blue moon if I wait too long to eat, and even then it's not even kind of as bad as it used to be. But my chronic fatigue has only let off a little, despite trying a zillion things over the years. Any exercise beyond leisurely walks lands me on the couch exhausted for the day. I can tell that something in the way my body deals with energy production isn't quite right, even though it is well-fed now (and has been for years). I need to sit with your story some more and do some biochemistry digging. I think this stuff can be molecularly specific (perhaps genetic, or at least for me vegan childhood-caused environmental), and requires some serious investigation to figure out for those of us who just always feel off. Thank you for the inspiration. Hope your experiment works for you!
Yes I strongly suspect most of this type of thing is a heterogeneous group of many different mild genetic disorders, many of which have solutions, but most of which will not be solved in the current environment due to the limitations of the medical diagnostic model.
When I hear about numerous intolerances like this, it makes me think of oxalate toxicity. I think you should consider getting serial urinary oxalate levels. Like 4 days in a row. Maybe one day take a bunch of calcium supplements. For a lot of people this precipitates some oxalate dumping.
I definitely have an oxalate issue, but I also think that’s rarely the root cause of anything. For example, if I am right that biotin helps detox oxalate, then biotin is at the root cause, not oxalate.
I found that when I'm exposured to mold that my oxalates markers go up. Mine are a combination of food and fungal. Still working on but much better.
Interesting. Well the mold could have oxalates but I also think mold toxins often destroy or interfere with B vitamins.
Is there a reason you chose to supplement beta-alanine instead of carnosine?
Carnosine is thought to be mainly or completely broken down to beta-alanine and histidine in the gut.
Is that also true of N-Acetyl L-Carnosine?
I’m not sure, I would have to research it.
Thanks.
For those people reading the comments, two days into 3g of beta-alanine I noticed I almost cramped in my left calf without any kind of exertion. I checked the reviews on Amazon and, sure enough, beta-alanine can cause cramps but taurine should prevent them.
Chris, what’s the name of the website that tracks your food,also breaks it down with good detail.
Something my food I think? You recommended it
https://cronometer.com/
Been a month and I'm still thinking about this. I think my husband (and kids) have the opposite problem - biotin overload. Symptoms are extremely thick skin, hair, nails, and severe acne, as well as generalized digestive issues. I know that biotin depletes B5 and therefore Coenzyme A and you'd be left with hyperkeritinization and an inability to deal with oils in the skin - a perfect recipe for cystic acne. I have one daughter who just started megadosing B5 and is having noticeable results already on day 4. Interesting.
Saying biotin “depletes B5” has very strong potential to be misleading.
Biotin can compete for absorption of B5, but is unlikely to do so significantly because the SMVT has much stronger affinity for B5, and B5 is present in the diet at about 100x the concentration as biotin. This can, in any case, be completely avoided by separating biotin from meals on an empty stomach.
Biotin can lead to CoA sequestration directly, if and only if there is some other underlying metabolic problem that biotin indirectly aggravates by supporting a different sector of energy metabolism that revs up beyond the problematic part’s ability to match.
These two things are very different problems.
There is no biotin overload syndrome.
I had the same low globulins (2) and high A/G ratio (2.4) as you and supplemented with 10 mg per day of biotin for a month. Follow up testing showed my globulin levels unchanged.
I then tested my copper levels which are low-normal at 72. Is it possible low copper is the cause of low globulins?
Maybe low copper increases oxidative stress in the kidney which damages tubules causing globulins to get lost in the urine? Albumin levels have remained consistent, which I suppose contradicts this hypothesis.
Do you have any insight on this?
Sure, that might be possible. I would never have supplemented biotin on the basis of the A/G, which I found to be among the least interesting side notes within my data.
Yeah, I actually started taking the biotin due to oxalate issues but developed the globulin deficiency before starting biotin. I was curious to see if the biotin would fix it. Thought I'd note that it did not.
When I went to get tested to see if my globulins had normalized the woman at the front desk sneezed and by 5pm I had a sore throat. So I was able to confirm that I was immune deficient even before receiving the results of my bloodwork. Sure enough the globulins were still low. A few days later I got my copper results back suggesting I'm deficient.
I started supplementing 4mg/day of copper in addition to 1 ounce of liver. I will report my results back here in two months, in case it might be helpful to anyone reading this.
According to cronometer my daily intake of copper was 5 mg/day from food. Pretty sure I developed the copper deficiency because I was eating my liver in the same meal as my oatmeal.
That’s possible, with the oatmeal. I look forward to seeing your results!
So I ended up in the emergency room on the 13th due to a nose bleed that wouldn't stop. The low copper led me to suspect low platelets. The hospital ran a CBC and everything came back normal.
Now I suspect a deficiency in the fat soluble vitamins caused by a low fat diet. My cholesterol levels have dipped from 190 to 130 so there may be some issues with bile and fat absorption in addition to the low fat diet.
A deficiency in Vitamin K would help explain why I wasn't able to clot enough to stop the bleeding. Another possibility is problems forming collagen due to low copper.
A follow up visit with my doctor the next day revealed the protein in my blood had risen from 6.6 to 7.4, albumin from 4.6 to 4.8, and globulins form 2 to 2.6.
The morning of the blood test I supplemented with 25,000 IU of vitamin A and 900 mcg of Vitamin K2 with a high fat meal. The blood test was 8 days after I began supplementing 4mg/day of copper.
So either 4mg/day of copper was enough to correct a marginal deficiency in 8 days or a high dose of vitamin A about 5 hours before a comprehensive metabolic profile was enough to correct the globulin deficiency.
Did you get total and ionized serum calcium? Calcium is the activating factor for platelet aggregation.
The movements in proteins are very small. I would be careful of over-interpreting them, especially if you only have one previous lab measurement for them.
Serum calcium from the CBC is 9.8, which is consistent with past results that fluctuate between 9 and 10. No ionized serum calcium.
I've had four CMP's run this year.
1/5/23: protein 7.1, albumin 4.7, globulins 2.4. This is typical for me.
2/28/23: protein 6.7, albumin 4.7, globulins 2.
4/3/23: protein 6.6, albumin 4.6, globulins 2.
4/14/23: protein 7.4, albumin 4.8, globulins 2.6.
The first three were taken in the morning after an overnight fast of 12 hours. The last one was taken in the afternoon 2-3 hours after breakfast, so that may be artificially increasing the values?
I'll get another CMP run when I retest my copper levels in a few weeks.
As of right now the nose bleed has been fixed with a few days with nasal packing they put in at the hospital.
Alkalinity can drive the calcium into albumin, which can lower the ionized fraction.
Yes I think eating is a huge confounder and you should always measure labs you are comparing in the same state.
Fasting makes things easier because so many labs do require fasting, and because most literature values are from the mornings after an overnight fast.
When I see these values it looks to me like you were in the 2.4-2.6 range and temporarily dipped to the 2.0 range, or perhaps that you are always in the 2.0-2.4 range during an overnight fast and nothing changed.
Oh wow, I can relate to so much of this - eczema on my hands in the winter months (bad episodes previously), neurological problems that come and go leading to an autoimmune diagnosis when they couldn’t find a reason for it…feel like I can’t go very long without food, unexplained anxiety. I even tried the vegetarian route, which made everything worse. I have long suspected that I need more B vitamins but when I try to take B supplements, they make me really agitated and jittery. I think this is partly due to poor methylation pathways, but I haven’t found any lasting solutions to all of this despite working with several practitioners, partly because I have adverse reactions to most of the supplements they give me. Could Biotin perhaps help me synthesize the other B vitamins and supplements better? Thanks for sharing!
I’ve written a bit about paradoxical reactions to B vitamins. I think you should test individual B vitamins and different forms and document your reactions till you know exactly which supplements are causing those reactions.
If that’s too difficult I think running a comprehensive set of labwork listed in the “work with me” section that includes (among the others) the Genova Methylation Panel is probably your best bet to finding answers without provoking negative reactions.