THIAMINE DEFICIT CAN END ALL LIFE
Thiamine deficit can end all life. But only a few people even realize it exists or what it means.
“Amine definition is — any of a class of basic organic compounds derived from ammonia by replacement of hydrogen with one or more monovalent hydrocarbon radicals.” Amines vital to all life are known to us as “vitamins”: vital amines. We don’t think of them as “vital” but as maybe supplements for Wonder bread or as helpful if you have a cold. Many doctors scoff as daily vitamin pills as mostly pissed away, a waste of money.
And yet I was impressed decades ago when I attended the morning doctors’ seminar at the hospital where I did my chaplaincy when the autopsy of a old street addict found that his vascular system was free of any atherosclerosis. One of the older docs remarked that he was probably taking therapeutic levels of daily vitamin pills. Now I’m concentrating on thiamine, tagged B1 because it was the first of the “B” vitamins to be isolated.
“B vitamins are a class of water-soluble vitamins that play important roles in cell metabolism and synthesis of red blood cells. . . .Individual B vitamin supplements are referred to by the specific number or name of each vitamin, such as B1 for thiamine, B2 for riboflavin, and B3 for niacin, as examples.” . . . “Each B vitamin is either a cofactor (generally a coenzyme) for key metabolic processes or is a precursor needed to make one . . .
“A cofactor is a non-protein chemical compound or metallic ion that is required for an enzyme’s activity as a catalyst (a catalyst is a substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction). Cofactors can be considered “helper molecules” that assist in biochemical transformations. Cofactors can be divided into two types: inorganic ions and complex organic molecules called coenzymes. Coenzymes are mostly derived from vitamins and other organic essential nutrients in small amounts.
This information is at the level of organic chemistry molecules. These are the tiny bits that make life happen by interacting and forming. If a crucial bit is missing, there is trouble and even the impossibility of life itself.
https://rarediseases.info.nih.gov/diseases/9948/beriberi
“Beriberi is a condition that occurs in people who are deficient in thiamine (vitamin B1). There are two major types of beriberi: wet beriberi which affects the cardiovascular system and dry beriberi which affects the nervous system. People with wet beriberi may experience increased heart rate, shortness of breath, and swelling of the lower legs. Signs and symptoms of dry beriberi include difficulty walking; loss of feeling in the hands and/or feet; paralysis of the lower legs; mental confusion; speech difficulty; pain; and/or vomiting. Beriberi is rare in the United States since many foods are now vitamin enriched; however, alcohol abuse, dialysis and taking high doses of diuretics increases the risk of developing the condition.”
My Centrum one-a-day includes 1.5 mg and my One a Day brand includes 1.2 mg. In addition I take Mega Benfotiamine 500 mg. I started taking this supplement to address the stinging and burning of my feet because of bad peripheral circulation. It seems to be helping, which is crucial since — in the extreme — feet can need to be amputated because tissue has died. There is no evidence that one can overdose on B1, but it doesn’t stay in the system more than 24 hours or so.
The symptoms of thiamine deficit have a bit of overlap with Diabetes II, which is one of my diagnoses, and causes me to take Metformin, which is known to interfere with thiamine tissue delivery by competing for a “transporter” molecule in the walls of blood vessels. The research seems to be mostly Japanese. Other antagonists of thiamine are caffeine, alcohol, and glucose which suggests why thiamine deficit is almost universal in the US where these substances are treated like basic food groups. The deficit interferes with the proper work of the prefrontal cortex. I would like to see the thiamine levels of the fifty balking Repub senators.
Thiamine deficit famously killed a whole population of hatchery fish which went crazy and died. Putting thiamin in their water made them well again. I’m not a fish, but I’m not taking chances.
Outright beriberi from severe deficit is said to be rare, which means even if it were obvious, the doc might not think of it. But a subtle shortage of thiamine could be written off as “psychological” — meaning “you’re just not coping” — the way in our family we failed to recognize the decades long after-effects of our father’s concussion. In every defined community, I’ve been aware of — school, church, Civil Service — troublesome people were considered “just that way” without anyone investigating to see why.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm8Ntz95HvY
I like to look at the people who are making pronouncements, so I often go to YouTube. The doctor in this quick vid mentioned an oceanic deficit of thiamine because of oxidative and acidic burdens on the sea. I hadn’t heard of this, so I searched further and found this hair-raising article which I must quote from at length.
https://www.hakaimagazine.com/features/the-oceans-mysterious-vitamin-deficiency/
“Thiamine originates in the lowest levels of the food web, where particular species of bacteria, phytoplankton, fungi, and plants synthesize the compound de novo — meaning from anew — by assembling and linking existing compounds into vitamin B1, which naturally occurs in multiple forms. Thiamine then passes through the food chain and eventually finds its way into every animal and plant on Earth. No organism can live without it. In animals, thiamine interacts with several enzymes and helps generate energy within cells, making possible the most basic of metabolic processes. Without enough thiamine, cellular-level functioning begins to fail. Affected animals behave abnormally, suffer neurological and reproductive disorders, and can eventually die.” . . .
“Thiamine deficiency might not be limited to the water either. Balk says he has tested liver, brain, and blood samples from moose in southern Sweden and measured the levels of enzymes that correlate to thiamine activity. His results, he says, point toward “severe” thiamine deficiency.” . . .
“In the early 20th century, a small and invasive herring species called the alewife spread through the Great Lakes ecosystem, displacing the lakes’ native forage species. Alewife contains high concentrations of thiaminase [it destroys thiamin], and as it became a major food source for lake trout, and other native fishes, the larger fish developed chronic thiamine deficiency. Their natural reproductive success deteriorated, and the trout’s population cratered. The Great Lakes’ saga illustrates the outsized impact that one single nutrient can have on an entire ecosystem.” . . .
“The wider research community, though, is paying attention. In 2018, a group of 24 experts conducted a type of overview called a “horizon scan” of more than 100 emerging issues that could potentially affect the planet’s wildlife and natural systems. They published a paper focusing on 15 of them, including changes in the global iron cycle and the use of lasers in deep-water trawl fishing. First on the list was the section “Thiamine Deficiency as a Possible Driver of Wildlife Population Declines.” Observing that thiamine deficiency doesn’t usually kill affected individuals but causes sublethal impacts such as behavioral and reproductive problems, the authors suggested that the nutritional deficit could be quietly chiseling away at wildlife populations across the northern hemisphere.”
So this bit of research led me from a limited little investigation into why Benfotiamine helps my tingling and burning feet into a vast shift in molecular interaction that may end life on earth. The phenomemon can mean the end of horses, moose, curious cats, doctors and ministers. Why do doctors and ministers not know about this?
More to come.
