The conditions of your skin, hair, and metabolic functions which involve fat and glucose rely heavily on your body’s ability to synthesize protein. One of the key players in protein synthesis is biotin.
This B vitamin plays a huge role in many important bodily functions and is often referred to as vitamin H or vitamin B7. So if you are looking to improve the condition of your skin, hair, or nails, or even to promote proper metabolic health, then it is possible that biotin might be the vitamin you are looking for.
Currently, biotin research is in very early stages and there aren’t any clear-cut clinical trials which point to biotin as the go-to supplement to improve your skin, hair, and nails drastically, but those who have done a little bit of research have noticed significant improvements and believe that this vitamin is the solutions to their problems.
Just as with many other supplements that are capable of drastically improving your health, the market is heavily saturated with biotin supplements, and figuring out which one is the best for your specific situation can be a daunting task.
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10 Best Biotin Supplements
Thankfully, we have already done this for you and picked out some of the best biotin supplements out there. Hopefully, this information will provide you with the knowledge you seek to pick the right supplement for you. Keep in mind that these products are listed in no specific order.
1. Sports Research High Potency Biotin
Sports Research is one of the high-quality vitamin manufacturers on the market, and the biotin formula they offer is definitely one of the best we have ever seen. Their blend of biotin supplement offers 10 milligrams of biotin and has the backing of the United States Pharmacopeia mark, which essentially means that their dosage is very accurate and the purity of their ingredients is top of the line.
Sports Research High Potency Biotin supplement comes in the form of gel tablets with the main compounds dissolved inside of beeswax and coconut oil. The company promises that their product is gluten-free, contains no preservatives, fillers, or artificial colorings, and is fully GMO-free. Additionally, they seem to offer a 90-day money-back guarantee with which you can get a full refund if you do not see results you expected within 90 days of using the supplement.
2. Zhou Hairfluence
While many biotin supplements focus on vitamin H as the key ingredient, Zhou Hairfluence has taken a different approach and decided to add in a few extra ingredients to ensure that your hair is as thick and full as it can possibly be, so it’s more of a complete solution for your hair. MSM, pantothenic acid, pure keratin, various B vitamins, and collagen hydrolysate are some of the additional ingredients that are used in this hair-targeting formula.
Their approach is rather simple: add everything your body could possibly need to grow thick, luscious hair. The addition of biotin definitely helps with this task, especially since each dose contains 5 milligrams of it. However, you do have to keep in mind that each dose is equal to two tablets rather than just one.
If you are searching for a complete solution for your hair then Zhou Hairfluence is definitely a very well-known solution. If biotin is your primary focus and you are seeking to get a boost from this specific supplement then we think there are other alternatives out there. Nonetheless, this is an excellent supplement for your hair.
3. Zenwise Health Extra Strength Biotin
If you want a simple, middle of the road biotin supplement then Zenwise Health Extra Strength Biotin is a great choice for you. It doesn’t contain any additional ingredients and focuses solely on delivering biotin and nothing else. Each dose offers 5,000 micrograms of biotin and comes in the form of a vegetable-based capsule that is free of many commonly known allergens.
This is one of the more commonly used supplements on the biotin market. We think it’s due to its simplicity and affordability. There isn’t any medical jargon involved in their formula, everything is as clear as a diamond.
4. VitaFusion Extra Strength Biotin
Some you out there might enjoy gummies instead of the traditional tablets or capsules that many supplements come in. VitaFusion Extra Strength Biotin is an excellent choice for you. It is literally the only biotin supplement on the market that is gummy-based.
Unfortuantley, these gummies are gelatin-based and there is a bit of artificial flavoring included. As far as biotin delivery goes they offer a pretty decent 5,000 microgram of biotin per dose. This supplement product is nothing too extraordinary but also pretty simple and straight to the point.
5. SBR Nutrition Biotin
Yet another biotin supplement with a unique delivery method. This time it’s not through the help of gummies but instead through a dropper. While this is an excellent solution for those of us who can’t or absolutely won’t take pills or capsules, there is a problem with this delivery method. The dropper isn’t very precise; this means that your dosage will drastically vary from one day to the next which makes it nearly impossible to ensure you are getting the right amount of biotin every day.
The liquid itself is flavored with vanilla and stevia to make it tolerable. However, unless you have a really good reason not to take the more traditional biotin supplements that come in a pill form; it’s probably a good idea to stay away from this particular product.
6. Natrol Biotin Maximum Potency
If you are interested in a high dosage of biotin in your supplement product then Natrol Biotin Maximum Potency might just be what you are looking for. Their formula is pretty simple; it contains 10 milligrams of biotin with an addition of a little bit of calcium. This product comes in a vegetable cellulose capsule which is free of most common allergens.
The dosage for this particular product is somewhat on a high end. If you are looking for something that is lower in biotin content Natrol does also make other biotin supplements with lower dosages but for some reason, they aren’t as popular as this one.
7. Solgar Super High Potency Biotin
Some companies approach supplements with utmost simplicity, just add the key ingredient, some fillers to hold everything together and put it into a capsule. That’s exactly what was done with Solgar Super High Potency Biotin. Besides the compounds needed to hold everything inside together and the vegetarian-friendly cellulose capsule, this product contains nothing but pure biotin, 10 milligrams per dose to be exact.
Solgar is one of the companies which is well-known for the purity of their supplements. Many people trust their supplements and look for them whenever they are seeking top quality stuff.
8. NOW Biotin
The company that is well regarded as an excellent supplement manufacturer, NOW also jumped on the biotin supplement boat. Their version of this supplement contains 10 milligrams per dose and excludes extra unnecessary ingredients. Common allergens are also avoided. In case you don’t need such a high dose of biotin they also offer 1,000 and 5,000 microgram capsules. Otherwise, this supplement is very straightforward.
9. OmegaBoost Biotin
Some biotin supplements contain additional ingredients which are designed to help improve your health alongside the effects of biotin on your body. OmegaBoost Biotin is one of these supplements. They have decided to add a whopping 222 mg of calcium to their biotin supplement formula.
The use of this high amount of calcium is somewhat uncommon because there isn’t any actual evidence that calcium and biotin go hand in hand when consumed together, although there are some speculations that both of these ingredients are capable of further improving the condition of your skin, hair, and nails.
10. Nature’s Bounty Biotin
While Nature’s Bounty does offer a high dosage of 10 milligrams of biotin in this supplement, they did decide to cut some corners when making it. The main reason we think so is that they used soybean oil to dissolve the biotin in. Furthermore, the capsules are colored with titanium dioxide which they claim was done for aesthetic purposes.
If you are looking for a cheap, no additional ingredients biotin supplement then this one is the right option. However, if you have issues with soy-based products or are looking for something with a bit more quality and thought put into it then there are other biotin supplements out there which might be a better choice.
Benefits And Side Effects of Taking Biotin Supplements
We know that biotin plays a huge role in ensuring that our skin, hair, and nails develop healthy and strong. Additionally, B vitamins also influence a variety of our body’s functions; they are a very important and versatile nutrient. Furthermore, vitamin B7 is also greatly responsible for helping your body process any fats and sugars that you intake through your diet.
Even though we have collected all of this information and know the importance that this vitamin represents, its use as a nutrient in the health and wellness market is still somewhat new. Essentially this means that we don’t yet know biotin’s full capabilities and the extent of its function.
Even so, many people are putting a lot of faith in biotin and method that can help you control your body weight and sugar while providing the necessary nutrient for development of thick hair, strong nails, and excellent skin.
Benefits
Biotin was noticed as a potential supplement when its effects on the body were portrayed in people who had a biotin deficiency. These effects are well witnessed in a small percentage of people who are born with a genetic defect which prevents their body from metabolizing biotin.
A study was done by The Lancet in 1979 which determined that delivering a biotin supplement to subjects who suffer from biotin deficiency quickly reverses the negative effects of biotin deficiency such as hair thinning and an imbalance of enzymes in the blood. Additional research also concluded that lack of biotin can lead to dry and scaling skin as well as increase the risk of developing yeast infections in the skin, furthermore, this deficiency can compromise the patient’s immune system.
This leads to a simple question, can increasing the amount of biotin in your body reverse the effects of biotin deficiency? Some studies have verified that yes this is indeed possible. For example, in 1993 a study was published about a group of patients who reported to the dermatologist office and were suffering from brittle nails. As a solution to their problems, a biotin supplement was prescribed to be taken over a period of a few weeks.
Out of all the subjects that were involved in this study, 63 percent showed great improvement in the condition of their nails, while the other 37 percent did display any changes. You have to keep in mind that nail brittleness can be caused by many different potential issues which might not be resolved by increasing biotin in the system.
The main effect that was observed in the patients whose nail condition was improved was an increase in nail thickness, this suggests that biotin supplementation can increase nail thickness. Other studies have confirmed this through the use of biotin in cattle by successfully increasing the thickness of their hooves with the help of biotin.
Oddly enough, even though it might not seem relevant, hair thickness and nail thickness might have more in common than most people think. Consider the following: nails and hair are made of the same exact organic material.
Thus it is safe to assume that those who suffer from thin or brittle hair could also greatly benefit from taking biotin supplements. Unfortunately, there haven’t been many experiments attempting to validate this theory but many still pursue attempting to improve the quality of their hair with the help of biotin.
While this is a complete possibility, one should not mistake improving the condition of your existing hair with preventing hair loss. There is absolutely no evidence that biotin is capable of preventing hair loss. The only thing that biotin might be capable of is making the shaft of the hair which you already have grown thicker and stronger, although even this is based on research on nail plate growth.
In addition to all of these positive effects on your hair and nails, biotin also has a significant influence on your blood sugar levels. In a 2008 study, the effects of biotin and chromium picolinate supplement were tested on people who had type2 diabetes, most of whom were overweight and obese.
Using a placebo control group, it was determined that the supplement was capable of significantly reducing blood sugar levels. If you plan on taking biotin for this specific reason, please talk to your doctor first, they will be able to determine if biotin is a useful solution for your diabetes problem.
Obviously, biotin doesn’t just influence your hair, skin, and nails. There are plenty other cellular functions which are heavily influenced by the amount of biotin in your body. Unfortunately, there hasn’t been enough extensive research done on biotin to determine its additional effects on our body.
Side Effects
Vitamin B is found in high amounts in many different foods, so it is pretty impossible to get too much biotin in your system, because of this there isn’t a clear side effect profile yet determined for biotin.
However, according to many studies, there haven’t been any side effect s witnessed which are directly related to biotin. Even at 10 mg of biotin intake per day, which is pretty much the highest amount of biotin you can get in over the counter supplements, no side effects were observed.
Even though there aren’t any determined side effects we still strongly suggest to not exceeding the 10 milligrams of biotin intake per day. There simply hasn’t been enough research done yet to ensure these super high doses don’t have any hidden undesired effects on your body, so for now, it’s best to play it safe.
Top Biotin Supplements of 2018 Final Words
It pretty clear that vitamin B is one of the safest supplements you can possibly take. Considering that its capable of instantly reversing the side effect s of biotin deficiency and there has been enough research to conclude that biotin does help with nail thickness and health, we think this is a good supplement to take if you are experiencing problems with unhealthy nails, poor hair conditions, and even complications with your skin.
Even though there might be plenty of reason why your hair, skin, or nails are in a troublesome state, taking a biotin supplement shouldn’t cause any problems but might help instead as long as you stay within a reasonable dosage amount.
If you plan on using biotin to help with any condition, please ensure that you have discussed this with your doctor, they have your medical history and will be able to determine the best course of action to remedy your problem. If you insist on taking biotin without consulting your doctor, please ensure that you are well within the recommended dosage on whichever supplement you decided to take.
