New research results point to a
possible role for lipid soluble thiamine in preventing some of the most common
side effects of diabetes. Researchers reported that diabetic retinopathy damage
may be avoided through the use of high doses of lipid soluble thiamine.
High levels of glucose are
responsible for microvascular damage and the resulting blindness, nerve damage,
kidney failure and atherosclerosis often associated with diabetes.
Researchers at Albert Einstein
College of Medicine in New York and their colleagues in Germany recently
reported that this damage may be avoided through the use of high doses of lipid
soluble thiamine.
The scientists looked at the
development of diabetic retinopathy in a rat model of diabetes. Treating the
animals with high doses of lipid soluble thiamine for 36 weeks completely
blocked the development of retinal damage. They were also able to show that the
lipid soluble thiamine worked by activating the enzyme transketolase, a key
thiamine-dependent enzyme involved in carbohydrate metabolism.
The data indicates that treatment of diabetic patients with
benfotiamine or other lipid-soluble thiamine derivatives might prevent or delay
the development of diabetic complications." The key function that they believe
is important is the increase in the transketolase activity. As the researchers
reported, standard water soluble thiamine does not stay around in the
body long enough to provide the increase in activity needed to make a
difference. The lipid soluble forms of thiamine are much more bioavailable, thus
significantly increasing the transketolase activity.
Although these results have not
yet been confirmed in humans, they point to exciting new therapeutic
opportunities for diabetes patients, 20,000 of whom now go blind every year as a
direct result of diabetic retinopathy. There are lipid soluble forms of
thiamine available without a prescription.
Hammes HP, Du X, Edelstein D, Taguchi T, Matsumura T, Ju Q, Lin J, Bierhaus A, Nawroth P, Hannak D, Neumaier M, Bergfeld R, Giardino I, Brownlee M. Benfotiamine blocks three major pathways of hyperglycemic damage and prevents experimental diabetic retinopathy.
Source: Diabetes In Control Dot Com: Nat Med. 2003 Mar;9(3):294-9.
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