November/December 2021
I found this information on VItamin B1 and was surprised how much a Vitamin B1 deficiency relates to ALS. Much of this information came from www.draxe.com. This is a very valuable website for health information.
Vitamin B1 – Thiamine
1. Helps with energy
Thiamine is used to help extract energy from the foods you eat by turning nutrients into useable energy in the form of “ATP.” Foods with thiamine help convert molecules found in carbohydrates and proteins so the body can utilize these macronutrients to carry out various functions.
2. Protects Your Nerve Endings
Your nerves are delicate and vital to sending messages from your brain to other parts of your body. Each nerve is protected by a myelin sheath that is replenished with thiamine or B1. A vitamin B1 deficiency can allow the myelin sheath to break down, leaving the nerve vulnerable to permanent damage and atrophy of the organ or the limb around it. Proper levels of thiamine help your body communicate better.
3. Improves Cardiovascular Health
Thiamine helps produce a chemical called acetylcholine, which relays messages between the brain and the cardiovascular system. Plenty of vitamin B1 can help those with congestive heart failure by restoring some of the communication between the muscles and blood vessels that support the heart. A deficiency in this vitamin can lead to irregular heart function, including palpitations and fluctuating heart rate.
4. Protects Vision
Thiamine plays a role in preventing or slowing the onset of cataracts and can protect you from this degenerative condition. It's also useful in preventing glaucoma. The vitamin does this by influencing muscle and nerve signaling, which is crucial for conveying information between the eyes and the brain. Thiamine helps preserve these special cells and maintain their healthy function.
5. Vital Anti-aging Properties
Thiamine contains antioxidant properties that help your cells renew and protect them from damage by free radicals. The body needs to replace cells that wear out and die; free radicals are molecules that inhibit this regrowth and the formation of new cells. When the population of free radicals is too high, visible signs of aging occur, including dull and dry skin, wrinkles, and age spots. Antioxidants help reduce the amount of damaging free radicals, allowing your cells to renew naturally and keeping cancerous growths from forming.
6. Aids Digestion
Vitamin B1 helps your body produce the hydrochloric acid your gut needs to digest your food. It's crucial to have a healthy balance of acids -- many digestive complaints are a result of such an imbalance. Problems in the stomach mean when your food passes through your digestive system in larger chunks, your gut isn't able to fully extract all the nutrients. This can lead to malnourishment or a deficiency in other vitamins and minerals. A good amount of hydrochloric acid can also improve appetite, enabling those who have difficulty eating to nourish themselves.
7. Reduces Alzheimer's Risk
The antioxidant properties of thiamine can help slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease and dementia. Experts believe free radical damage is part of what causes these memory conditions and a healthy amount of antioxidants could improve the prognosis. Some successful studies supplemented the diets of people with Alzheimer's with 100 mg of thiamine. Many of the subjects reported symptom relief after taking vitamin B1 over the course of several weeks.
8. Stimulates Memory
Thiamine can help clear your mind and improve your short-term memory. The boost the vitamin offers your nerves and nervous system communication also benefits the brain. Studies have shown thiamine can improve certain nervous conditions such as multiple sclerosis and Bell's palsy, as well. Vitamin B1 can help reduce cognitive memory loss and promote better communication within the brain.
9. Enhances Red Blood Cell Production
Vitamin B1 plays an important role in the production of red blood cells. It stimulates proper function of the liver and kidneys, which supplies the hormones necessary for your bone marrow to create red blood cells. A healthy balance of red blood cells allows more oxygen to be delivered to all parts of your body, improving skin and hair texture, boosting energy levels and concentration, and promoting the healthy function of your systems.
10. Aids Those with Metabolic Disorder
Thiamine can help people with metabolic disorders, pre-diabetes, or type 2 diabetes manage their symptoms and slow the progression of these diseases. It can regulate metabolism and help your body digest food more easily, avoiding blood sugar spikes and crashes and thereby reducing cravings. The vitamin also helps preserve tissues that might be affected by these conditions. Nerve damage is common in people with diabetes; consuming vitamin B1 can help prevent or slow this symptom. It can also boost eye health; vision deterioration and blindness is another potential side effect of diabetes.
Foods with Vitamin B1
Eating a variety of thiamine foods has many benefits, both for physical and mental health. The human body does not produce its own thiamine; therefore it must be ingested from foods in the diet. Unlike other nutrients that can sometimes hard to get enough of, such as vitamin D or magnesium, thiamine is usually pretty easy to acquire from foods, assuming you eat enough calories overall — making thiamine deficiency easy to overcome.
What is the best source of thiamine? Some of the healthiest thiamine-rich foods include yeasts (like nutritional yeast), sea vegetables, certain whole grains, green veggies like asparagus and peas, seeds, beans, and fish. Benefits of eating thiamine foods include gaining more energy, staying focused and alert, protecting your memory, lifting your mood, and protecting your heart.
What Is Thiamine?Thiamine (sometimes spelled as thiamin) is also known as vitamin B1 and is a water-soluble vitamin that’s commonly found in many plant and animal-derived foods. As a water-soluble vitamin, thiamine rapidly breaks down once it’s consumed and is flushed from the body more easily than fat-soluble vitamins, which can accumulate. Thiamine is stored primarily in the liver, but storage only lasts at most 18 days — which is why you need to consume thiamine foods regularly.
How is thiamine used in the body? It is involved in many of the most important metabolic processes of the body. Like most of the B vitamins, thiamine helps our bodies use energy from foods and is vital for cellular functions. When you eat thiamine-rich foods, they help the body convert carbohydrates to energy, which is important for your metabolism, focus and overall strength. It also plays a role in healthy liver function and is needed for healthy skin, eyes, hair and nails.
How much thiamine/vitamin B1 do you need per day? Most foods are a good source of thiamine. The recommended daily allowance for thiamine is 1.2 milligrams a day for men and 1.1 milligrams a day for women. (2) Breastfeeding and pregnant women need more, about 1.4–1.5 milligrams per day. For adults with low levels of thiamine, the usual dose of thiamine is five to 30 milligrams daily in either a single dose or divided doses for one month. The amount that you need depends on your sex, age and level of activity. Factors like stress, exercise, illness and pregnancy all increase your need for thiamine foods.
The absorption of thiamine occurs in the duodenum, a part of the digestive system, by an active process that converts to its active form called thiamine pyrophosphate. Some of the reasons you might need higher amounts of thiamine are if don’t get typically get enough thiamine from your diet, if your body eliminates too much or if you absorb too little.
Top 15 Thiamine FoodsWhat foods contain thiamine? Here is a list of the top thiamine-rich foods to include in your diet:
Are high-protein foods like meat, fish and pork a good source of thiamine? Most foods high in protein do provide some thiamine — plus they are good sources of other B vitamins, like B12 and B6. Fish and pork are especially high in thiamine. I don’t recommend eating much or any pork products, considering pork is usually found in processed meats and can contain additives, lots of sodium and contaminants. A better option is to get thiamine from wild-caught fish, especially types like herring and salmon.
Final note from Kay: Certainly you don't need to eat all of these foods some of which are not recommended for those with ALS, but there are many to choose from to help improve your thiamine intake.
You are always in our prayers to find success in healing.
Kay
I found this information on VItamin B1 and was surprised how much a Vitamin B1 deficiency relates to ALS. Much of this information came from www.draxe.com. This is a very valuable website for health information.
Vitamin B1 – Thiamine
1. Helps with energy
Thiamine is used to help extract energy from the foods you eat by turning nutrients into useable energy in the form of “ATP.” Foods with thiamine help convert molecules found in carbohydrates and proteins so the body can utilize these macronutrients to carry out various functions.
2. Protects Your Nerve Endings
Your nerves are delicate and vital to sending messages from your brain to other parts of your body. Each nerve is protected by a myelin sheath that is replenished with thiamine or B1. A vitamin B1 deficiency can allow the myelin sheath to break down, leaving the nerve vulnerable to permanent damage and atrophy of the organ or the limb around it. Proper levels of thiamine help your body communicate better.
3. Improves Cardiovascular Health
Thiamine helps produce a chemical called acetylcholine, which relays messages between the brain and the cardiovascular system. Plenty of vitamin B1 can help those with congestive heart failure by restoring some of the communication between the muscles and blood vessels that support the heart. A deficiency in this vitamin can lead to irregular heart function, including palpitations and fluctuating heart rate.
4. Protects Vision
Thiamine plays a role in preventing or slowing the onset of cataracts and can protect you from this degenerative condition. It's also useful in preventing glaucoma. The vitamin does this by influencing muscle and nerve signaling, which is crucial for conveying information between the eyes and the brain. Thiamine helps preserve these special cells and maintain their healthy function.
5. Vital Anti-aging Properties
Thiamine contains antioxidant properties that help your cells renew and protect them from damage by free radicals. The body needs to replace cells that wear out and die; free radicals are molecules that inhibit this regrowth and the formation of new cells. When the population of free radicals is too high, visible signs of aging occur, including dull and dry skin, wrinkles, and age spots. Antioxidants help reduce the amount of damaging free radicals, allowing your cells to renew naturally and keeping cancerous growths from forming.
6. Aids Digestion
Vitamin B1 helps your body produce the hydrochloric acid your gut needs to digest your food. It's crucial to have a healthy balance of acids -- many digestive complaints are a result of such an imbalance. Problems in the stomach mean when your food passes through your digestive system in larger chunks, your gut isn't able to fully extract all the nutrients. This can lead to malnourishment or a deficiency in other vitamins and minerals. A good amount of hydrochloric acid can also improve appetite, enabling those who have difficulty eating to nourish themselves.
7. Reduces Alzheimer's Risk
The antioxidant properties of thiamine can help slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease and dementia. Experts believe free radical damage is part of what causes these memory conditions and a healthy amount of antioxidants could improve the prognosis. Some successful studies supplemented the diets of people with Alzheimer's with 100 mg of thiamine. Many of the subjects reported symptom relief after taking vitamin B1 over the course of several weeks.
8. Stimulates Memory
Thiamine can help clear your mind and improve your short-term memory. The boost the vitamin offers your nerves and nervous system communication also benefits the brain. Studies have shown thiamine can improve certain nervous conditions such as multiple sclerosis and Bell's palsy, as well. Vitamin B1 can help reduce cognitive memory loss and promote better communication within the brain.
9. Enhances Red Blood Cell Production
Vitamin B1 plays an important role in the production of red blood cells. It stimulates proper function of the liver and kidneys, which supplies the hormones necessary for your bone marrow to create red blood cells. A healthy balance of red blood cells allows more oxygen to be delivered to all parts of your body, improving skin and hair texture, boosting energy levels and concentration, and promoting the healthy function of your systems.
10. Aids Those with Metabolic Disorder
Thiamine can help people with metabolic disorders, pre-diabetes, or type 2 diabetes manage their symptoms and slow the progression of these diseases. It can regulate metabolism and help your body digest food more easily, avoiding blood sugar spikes and crashes and thereby reducing cravings. The vitamin also helps preserve tissues that might be affected by these conditions. Nerve damage is common in people with diabetes; consuming vitamin B1 can help prevent or slow this symptom. It can also boost eye health; vision deterioration and blindness is another potential side effect of diabetes.
Foods with Vitamin B1
Eating a variety of thiamine foods has many benefits, both for physical and mental health. The human body does not produce its own thiamine; therefore it must be ingested from foods in the diet. Unlike other nutrients that can sometimes hard to get enough of, such as vitamin D or magnesium, thiamine is usually pretty easy to acquire from foods, assuming you eat enough calories overall — making thiamine deficiency easy to overcome.
What is the best source of thiamine? Some of the healthiest thiamine-rich foods include yeasts (like nutritional yeast), sea vegetables, certain whole grains, green veggies like asparagus and peas, seeds, beans, and fish. Benefits of eating thiamine foods include gaining more energy, staying focused and alert, protecting your memory, lifting your mood, and protecting your heart.
What Is Thiamine?Thiamine (sometimes spelled as thiamin) is also known as vitamin B1 and is a water-soluble vitamin that’s commonly found in many plant and animal-derived foods. As a water-soluble vitamin, thiamine rapidly breaks down once it’s consumed and is flushed from the body more easily than fat-soluble vitamins, which can accumulate. Thiamine is stored primarily in the liver, but storage only lasts at most 18 days — which is why you need to consume thiamine foods regularly.
How is thiamine used in the body? It is involved in many of the most important metabolic processes of the body. Like most of the B vitamins, thiamine helps our bodies use energy from foods and is vital for cellular functions. When you eat thiamine-rich foods, they help the body convert carbohydrates to energy, which is important for your metabolism, focus and overall strength. It also plays a role in healthy liver function and is needed for healthy skin, eyes, hair and nails.
How much thiamine/vitamin B1 do you need per day? Most foods are a good source of thiamine. The recommended daily allowance for thiamine is 1.2 milligrams a day for men and 1.1 milligrams a day for women. (2) Breastfeeding and pregnant women need more, about 1.4–1.5 milligrams per day. For adults with low levels of thiamine, the usual dose of thiamine is five to 30 milligrams daily in either a single dose or divided doses for one month. The amount that you need depends on your sex, age and level of activity. Factors like stress, exercise, illness and pregnancy all increase your need for thiamine foods.
The absorption of thiamine occurs in the duodenum, a part of the digestive system, by an active process that converts to its active form called thiamine pyrophosphate. Some of the reasons you might need higher amounts of thiamine are if don’t get typically get enough thiamine from your diet, if your body eliminates too much or if you absorb too little.
Top 15 Thiamine FoodsWhat foods contain thiamine? Here is a list of the top thiamine-rich foods to include in your diet:
- Nutritional Yeast — 2 tablespoons: 9.6 milligrams (640 percent DV)
- Seaweed (Such as Spirulina) — 1 cup seaweed: 2.66 milligrams (216 percent DV)
- Sunflower Seeds — 1 cup: 2 milligrams (164 percent DV)
- Macadamia Nuts— 1 cup: 1.6 milligrams (132 percent DV)
- Black Beans — 1/3 cup dried, or about 1 cup cooked: 0.58 milligram (48 percent DV)
- Lentils — 1/3 cup dried, or about 1 cup cooked: 0.53 milligram (44 percent DV)
- Organic Edameme/Soybeans — 1/3 cup dried, or about 1 cup cooked: 0.53 milligram (44 percent DV)
- Navy Beans — 1/3 cup dried, or about 1 cup cooked: 0.53 milligram (44 percent DV)
- White Beans --1/3 cup dried, or about 1 cup cooked: 0.53 milligram (44 percent DV)
- Green Split Peas — 1/3 cup dried, or about 1 cup cooked: 0.48 milligram (40 percent DV)
- Pinto beans — 1/3 cup dried, or about 1 cup cooked: 0.46 mg (39 percent DV)
- Mung Beans — 1/3 cup dried, or about 1 cup cooked: 0.42 milligram (36 percent DV)
- Beef Liver — 1 3 oz. piece cooked: 0.32 milligram (26 percent DV)
- Asparagus — 1 cup cooked: 0.3 milligram (25 percent DV)
- Brussels Sprouts — 1 cup cooked: 0.16 milligram (13 percent DV)
Are high-protein foods like meat, fish and pork a good source of thiamine? Most foods high in protein do provide some thiamine — plus they are good sources of other B vitamins, like B12 and B6. Fish and pork are especially high in thiamine. I don’t recommend eating much or any pork products, considering pork is usually found in processed meats and can contain additives, lots of sodium and contaminants. A better option is to get thiamine from wild-caught fish, especially types like herring and salmon.
Final note from Kay: Certainly you don't need to eat all of these foods some of which are not recommended for those with ALS, but there are many to choose from to help improve your thiamine intake.
You are always in our prayers to find success in healing.
Kay