Did you know… that biotin may be affecting your thyroid results?

By Terri Fox, MD

Did you know that taking large amounts of biotin can falsely elevate your thyroid results?

Many people take biotin for hair and nail growth. In large quantities, biotin can falsely elevate or lower your thyroid numbers in lab results. This presents quite a problem for many thyroid patients, as one of the symptoms of hypothyroidism (low thyroid) is hair loss.

If you are taking biotin, more than 2000mcg, your thyroid results may

be inaccurate. Biotin can falsely elevate your T4 and T3 hormones, even

anti-thyroid antibodies.

So if you have fatigue, brain fog, insomnia, headaches, constipation,

hair loss, dry skin (low thyroid symptoms), I recommend you stop taking

any biotin for 3 weeks before getting your thyroid checked. And please

ask your doctor to check a Free T3 and a Free T4, not just the TSH.

For providers:

If the clinical picture does not match the lab results, ask your patient if they are taking biotin.

https://endocrinenews.endocrine.org/january-2016-thyroid-month-beware-of-biotin/

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Dr. Terri Fox is a holistic, integrative, functional medicine doctor in Boulder, Colorado. She works on your behalf as a medical detective searching for the underlying dysfunction, instead of just treating your symptoms. She has expertise in fatigue, bio-identical hormones, sleep disorders, gastro-intestinal dysfunction, and Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome from mold toxicity and Lyme disease.