Trip Answers

Question answered:04/10/07 Warning! this question is over two years old.

We conducted a search for type 2 diabetes and vitamin B1 (thiamine) and found a number of articles.  For the sake of brevity we will give minimal details below but will supply the URLs so that you can read any articles you feel are of interest.

 

Is there evidence supporting the use of thiamine or benfotiamine to reduce complications in diabetics? If there is what dose would be recommended?
NLH Q&A Service, 2007
http://www.tripanswers.org/Answer.aspx?QuestionId=4059

 

High prevalence of low plasma thiamine concentration in diabetes linked to a marker of vascular disease
Diabetologia, 2007
http://pmid.us/17676306
Conclusions: Low plasma thiamine concentration is prevalent in patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes, associated with increased thiamine clearance. The conventional assessment of thiamine status was masked by increased thiamine transporter content of erythrocytes.

 

Thiamine (vitamin B1) improves endothelium-dependent vasodilatation in the presence of hyperglycemia.
Ann Vasc Surg, 2006
http://pmid.us/16741654
Conclusions: Routine administration of thiamine might improve endothelial function and therefore slow the development and progression of atherosclerosis, especially in patients with IGT and NIDDM who are prone to develop accelerated atherosclerosis.

 

The Potential Role of Thiamine (Vitamin B1) in Diabetic Complications
Current Diabetes Reviews, 2005
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/ben/cdr/2005/00000001/00000003/art00008
Conclusions: More immediately, given the emerging multiple benefits of thiamine repletion, even mild thiamine deficiency in diabetes should be avoided and thiamine supplementation to high dose should be considered as adjunct nutritional therapy to prevent dyslipidemia and the development of vascular complications in clinical diabetes.

 

Blood thiamine levels in outpatients with diabetes mellitus.
J Nutr Sci Vitaminol (Tokyo), 1987
http://pmid.us/3451944
Conclusions: From the above findings it was concluded that diabetic outpatients tend to have a low blood thiamine level, with low erythrocyte transketolase activity and high erythrocyte TPP effect, and showed marginal thiamine deficiency.

 

Finally, the Diabetes UK website comments on thiamine with a recent report [1] commenting on the Diabetologia paper.  This included the following:

 

“This Diabetes UK funded study could potentially have very exciting outcomes.

 

“More research needs to be done into the link between vitamin B1 deficiency and people with diabetes developing complications such as kidney and retina damage, heart disease and stroke. Researchers are already looking into the effect of giving people the vitamin in tablet form to see if early kidney damage can be reversed.

 

“From there, work could be done to see what effect supplementing vitamin B1 levels could have on other complications of diabetes such as nerve and eye damage.

 

“The reasons behind why the body removes such a staggering amount of vitamin B1 in people with diabetes also need to be investigated to see if it's a problem that can be tackled.

 

“Around 80 per cent of people with diabetes die of cardiovascular disease and diabetes is the leading cause of blindness in the UK's working age population. Therefore, any research that could help must be looked at seriously.

 

“We should note that the vitamin supplement research is still at trial stage. We would not advise that people look to vitamin supplements to reduce their risk of complications at this stage.

 

“Eating a healthy balanced diet, taking regular physical activity and managing blood glucose levels are key to good diabetes management.”

 

References

1) http://www.diabetes.org.uk/About_us/News_Landing_Page/Vitamin-deficiency-linked-to-complications/
 

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