Diabetes symptoms linked to acute thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency

Wednesday, June 19, 2013 by: Paul Fassa
Tags: type 2 diabetes, vitamin B, thiamine deficiency

(NaturalNews) Stuart Lindsay is a PharmD (PhD in pharmacy) who contributed an article to orthomolecular.org entitled "Confessions of a Frustrated Pharmacist."

He wrote of his frustrations of being ostracized from members of the medical community as he became aware of how drugs were not working to cure much of anything.

Orthomolecular medicine involves the appropriate application of high dose nutraceutical supplements for treating diseases.

As a pharmacy manager, Stuart was observing people on pharmaceutical drugs not getting better, and he was hearing vitamin users talk of their improved health conditions. He began reading more about supplements and questioning his superiors at the New Mexico pharmacist's graduate school he was attending.

Stuart managed to obtain his PharmD degree despite occasional conflicts and disagreements with the teaching staff. (1)

Then he was diagnosed with diabetes 2. His vision was good and other common diabetes 2 symptoms were not unbearable. His main symptom of concern was the neuropathy affecting his feet, sometimes numb and sometimes painful.

The frustrated pharmacist takes another path

Realizing the pain pills for his feet and other drugs prescribed by his doctor wouldn't help his condition, Stuart decided to go with his non-mainstream medical research and use supplements.

After researching several studies, most importantly UK Dr. Paul Thornalley's theory of diabetes as an acute thiamine deficiency, Stuart started taking 300 mg three times a day using benfotiamine, a fat soluble or lipid form of thiamine.

Having researched Dr. Thornalley's theory of diabetes being an acute thiamine deficiency and other supporting studies, he started a regimen of vitamin and mineral supplements.

He told his doctor that if it didn't work out, he'd succumb to the doctor's list of prescriptions, which included pain killers and statin drugs. But that didn't happen. Within a week the intense foot pain was gone, and withing three weeks all peripheral neuropathy sensations had ceased.

They would come back when he stopped taking them, but he wasn't suffering from the side effects of expensive drugs' temporary relief. Diabetics lose thiamine with their usually increased urination issues.

Stuart states, "If you go to PubMed and enter the keywords "thiamine deficiency" and "diabetes" you will get dozens of references that describe how many symptoms of diabetes are caused by a thiamine deficiency it generates." (2)

An integrative MD concurs

Dr. Jeffrey Dache, a holistic MD based in South Florida, concurs with Stuart's decisions except for one item, Stuart's rejection of Metformin, which Dr. Dache asserts is a rare "good drug" for diabetics.

He lists the supplements used with Stuart's nutraceutical approach:

* Benfotiamine thiamine - 300mg 3X daily
* Pyridoxal-5-phosphate - 100 mg daily
* Magnisium citrate - 300 mg 3X daily with meals
* Acetyl-L-Canitine - 1,000 mg between meals daily
* Buffered vitamin C - 2,000 to 3,000 mg with meals

Dr. Dach added a few of his own recommendations:

* Alpha Lipoic Acid
* Vanadium with Chromium
* Dietary Fiber
* Tocotrienol Vitamin E
* Exercise and weight reduction program, for which he advises calling his office

Dr. Dach concludes in his article linked below that benfotiamine thiamine should be included for all diabetes patients. He cites several academic sources in addition to his report on the diabetic symptom reduction by the "frustrated pharmacist". (3)

Both Stuart and Dr. Dach refer to the ACCORD (Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes) five year study failure that proved the opposite of their stated aim. (4) (5)

Essentially they agree that diabetes or it's symptoms are not sufficiently handled by mainstream medicine, and that nutritional medicine does at least handle the symptoms that even lowering blood sugar does not.

Sources for this article include:

(1) http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v08n05.shtml

(2) http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v08n19.shtml

(3) http://jeffreydach.com

(4) http://www.diabetes.org

(5) http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/07/health/07diabetes.html?_r=1&

About the author:
Paul Fassa is dedicated to warning others about the current corruption of food and medicine and guiding them towards direction for better health with no restrictions on health freedom.

You can check out his many non-compromising cutting edge, non-fluff articles here https://www.naturalnews.com/Author712.html

And you can visit his blog at http://healthmaven.blogspot.com