Re: Biotin

["Susan Evans Garlinghouse" <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>]

>So what exactly IS Biotin (I thought it was a B vitamin?) and in what
>way am I not getting enough of it in The Basic Diet?

Yes, biotin is a B vitamin, and probably, your horse is getting "enough",
either through the diet (although neither grass hay nor beet pulp are
particularly high in B vitamins, at least not compared to grains), and also
as an excreted by-product (in other words, bugsh*t) from the microbes in the
gut.

However---what we ask our horses to do is not natural.  They don't work at
this level of exertion in the wild, at least not unless something big is
chasing them.  Also, the level of exertion itself, and accompanying stress,
has a detrimental affect on the microbes that supply B vitamins---so when
the demand is increasing, the supply is decreasing.  That's why for any
reasonably active horse eating less than about five pounds of a complete
grain mix, I recommend supplementing with ONE good complete vit/min mix,
that will include the B vitamins, among others.

OK, so back to biotin.  Although the body may be able to supply "adequate"
levels, biotin is one of the nutrients that provides an additional benefit
at higher-than-adequate levels.  In other words, there's a difference
between "adequate" and "optimal", and frankly, science is still largely in
the dark about what ARE optimal levels for many, many nutrients (this is
true in human nutrition as well, not just animal nutrition).  The NRC
recommendations are still the best source of information available, but
they're still guess-and-by-golly to some extent.

Anyway, a lot of nutrients can't or shouldn't be fed at higher-than-adequate
levels, because then they will start to interfere with some other
nutrient---high phosphorus interfering with the absorption of calcium is a
good example of that.  But high biotin levels doesn't interfere with any
other nutrients, so THAT'S not a concern.  The only limiting factor is that
the body doesn't store excess biotin---anything beyond about 15-20 mg a day
just gets dumped into the pee puddle.  But according to the research,
supplementing with a bit more biotin than is naturally supplied in the diet
apparently boosts it from "adequate" up to the "optimal" levels---which is
generally what we're looking for in caring for our ponies.

>Why is it the more I know the more I realize I know nothing?!? It's very
>frustrating.

Welcome to the club. :-)

Hope this helps.

Susan G




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