X-Message-Number: 12424
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 1999 12:13:25 -0700 (PDT)
From: Doug Skrecky <>
Subject: biotin, chromium for diabetics 

 High-dose biotin, an inducer of glucokinase expression, may synergize
 with chromium picolinate to enable a definitive nutritional therapy for
 type II diabetes

 Medical Hypotheses (1999) 52(5): 401-406

 M. F. McCarty

 Summary  Glucokinase (GK), expressed in hepatocyte and pancreatic B
 cells, has a central regulatory role in glucose metabolism. Efficient GK
 activity is required for normal glucose-stimulated insulin secretion,
 postprandial hepatic glucose uptake, and the appropriate suppression of
 hepatic glucose output and gluconeogenesis by elevated plasma glucose.
 Hepatic GK activity is subnormal in diabetes, and GK may also be
 decreased in the B cells of type II diabetics. In supraphysiological
 concentrations, biotin promotes the transcription and translation of the
 GK gene in hepatocytes; this effect appears to be mediated by activation
 of soluble guanylate cyclase. More recent evidence indicates that biotin
 likewise increases GK activity in islet cells. On the other hand,
 high-dose biotin suppresses hepatocyte transcription of
 phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase, the rate-limiting enzyme for
 gluconeogenesis. Administration of high-dose biotin has improved glycemic
 control in several diabetic animals models, and a recent Japanese
 clinical study concludes that biotin (3 mg t.i.d. orally) can
 substantially lower fasting glucose in type II diabetics, without
 side-effects. The recently demonstrated utility of chromium picolinate in
 type II diabetes appears to reflect improved peripheral insulin
 sensitivity - a parameter which is unlikely to be directly influenced by
 biotin. Thus, the joint administration of supranutritional doses of
 biotin and chromium picolinate is likely to combat insulin resistance,
 improve B-cell function, enhance postprandial glucose uptake by both
 liver and skeletal muscle, and inhibit excessive hepatic glucose
 production. Conceivably, this safe, convenient, nutritional regimen will
 constitute a definitive therapy for many type II diabetics, and may
 likewise be useful in the prevention and management of gestational
 diabetes. Biotin should also aid glycemic control in type I patients.


 Additional note by poster:

   The dramatic effects of oral megadose biotin in diabetes have been
 largely ignored by medical doctors, perhaps partly because some of the
 research papers investigating this effect are not available in medline.
 Also biotin is not a patentable drug and so there exists no motivation
 for drug companies to promote this as a possible therapy.
   Also note that supplemental magnesium (500 mg/day) has also been found
 to reduce insulin requirements in type I diabetics. (Magnesium 1988 7:
 117-122)
   IMHO - I expect that biotin/chromium picolinate/magnesium
 supplementation could eliminate the use of insulin by most type II
 diabetics who try combination. Needless to say, don't expect either drug
 companies selling insulin, or doctors to recommend this. If you want to
 try this - you're on your own.
   Also note that 16 mg/day biotin has been found to eliminate the need
 for insulin in some type I diabetics. (Annals of the New York Academy of
 Sciences June 24 1985 447: 389-392 - note that this citation is not
 included in medline's database even though other papers from the same
 issue are)

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