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.