Low biotin associated with less acne, and side effects

[Kasper]

I've been thinking a bit about this the last couple of days, and suddenly this makes sense to me.
I was looking at some forums in the internet about biotin.
Some people use biotin supplements to let their grow faster, getting thicker hair and stronger nails etc.
What intrested me is this. The only side effect that is known on such forums (I haven't read a scientific study about it) is acne.
Some people there gradually increase the dosage, because a too high dosage can cause acne.
But not everybody, some people use a dosage of 5000 mcg without any side effects.

But how can this cause acne ?
Acne is caused by two things:
1. Water retention (binched off sebum canals)
2. High sebum production

Because not everybody get acne from it, it cannot cause water retention and high sebum production.

Biotin is involved in fatty acid synthesis and as sebum as partly composed of fat:
25% wax monoesters
41% triglycerides
16% free fatty acids
12% squalene

It could increase sebum production.
It has to be one of the two, and I can't think of a reason that it increases water retention.
While it is involved in fat metabolism and has been associated with a healthy skin (as sebum production has).

The threament I used for acne (3 years ago) accutane, decreases biotinidase activity:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10325581
Another threatment against acne (a high dosage of vitamin B5) is known to cause low levels of biotin.

Those threatments tough will always have side effects people don't like, because biotin has a function in the body. (hair, nails, skin etc.)
I think such threatments are trying to decrease sebum production by lower levels of biotin and so stop acne.
This makes sense to me. Because you would say, just eat a low biotin diet and you will have the same effects.
But in most people intestinal bacteria produce biotin in excess of the body's daily requirements.
So changing diet mostly won't really lower biotin levels.

Maybe people who are really senstive to acne have a huge amount of those intestinal bacteria.
And therefore really much sebum production.
Of course this isn't problem at all, if you don't have water retention.
Actually, wai-theory would say that if you don't have acne but you have water retention, you have a low sebum production.
And so, the production of biotin from your intestinal bacteria might be low, and you might want to get more biotin externally.

[RRM]

Yes, there are several nutrients involved in sebum production,
so that there are several pharmaceutical opportunities to combat acne.
Low biotin levels can be detected by blood tests.

[Kasper]

Yes, there are several nutrients involved in sebum production,
so that there are several pharmaceutical opportunities to combat acne.

Which nutrietns are involved in sebum production?
Is the lack of certain nutrients known to lower sebum production ?

[Kasper]

I've taken 5 mg biotin a day for 10 days now.
Just out of curiousity, to check it out what effects it have.

So far, I can say:
My skin feels more fatty than before. I don't know if it's oil or sebum, but it really feels more like how it was, before I start roaccutane cure.
Especially my nose is more fatty.

[RRM]

Which nutrietns are involved in sebum production?

At least vitamin B5 and fatty acids, but there are more, though i dont know them by heart.

Is the lack of certain nutrients known to lower sebum production ?

No, in the case of B5 its excess B5 that lowers sebum production.

[Kasper]

Aaaaahh..

I ate some dirty proteins .. And my whole skin looks so bad... it's unbelievable.. I don't like this experiment at all...
My whole forehead is with very tiny little red things.. They are not painfull tough
I didn't had to look so close, made me feel really bad.

I'm going back to 100% raw..

[RRM]