thiamine deficiency Archives - Page 7 of 14

Thiamine Deficiency Gaining Recognition: New Book

Published on June 2, 2022

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In the 5 years since Dr. Lonsdale and I published our book: Thiamine Deficiency Disease, Dysautonomia, and High Calorie Malnutrition (and 50 years since Dr. Lonsdale first began working with thiamine) recognition of the role of thiamine in health and disease have increased steadily year over year. Sales of the book double each year. Admittedly, the numbers were low and remain low in comparison to other popular topics, but the increase in awareness is heartening. Unfortunately, much of this awareness has not reached the medical profession. We regularly see reports in the medical literature boasting recognition of ‘rare’ cases of thiamine deficiency diseases like beriberi and Wernicke’s. If only physicians knew how common these conditions were and that they are only rare because we are not looking. Insufficient thiamine is Hiding in Plain Sight.

A New Book

In 2020, a UK physician by the name of Jo Dixon published a new book on thiamine deficiency, a personal account of her declining health, her discovery of thiamine, and her efforts to get treatment and spread the word. The book, called The Missing Link in Dementia, A Memoir, documents her journey. Unfortunately, she neither mentions thiamine in the title, the description, or even in the text until halfway through. One would not know the book is about thiamine until one reads it or unless it is recommended, so I will recommend it here. This would be a great starter book for someone beginning their health journey.

She has a second book listed on Amazon, Swimming in Circles that I have not read, but I suspect it details thiamine deficiency in fish in other animal populations.

While I would have preferred her to mention thiamine deficiency in the title or introduction, I found the book quite telling of the lengths one has to go to uncover this deficiency, even as a physician. Her case, unfortunately, is highly typical of what we see in patients everywhere. She had longstanding bowel dysfunction, which limited her ability to eat and maintain nutritional status. She led a busy life as a physician and mother of four children, which put pressure on thiamine stability. Even so, she functioned quite well for a long time. It wasn’t until her health took a severe turn for the worse that thiamine deficiency was recognized. Like others who develop issues with thiamine, she was forced to diagnose herself. No other physician, and she saw many, could provide any answers to her declining health. She had to figure it out herself. She was also forced to treat herself. Fortunately for her, she convinced a physician friend to provide IV thiamine, a protocol that was not accepted by her hospital and one she could not readily provide to other patients when she identified their deficiencies.

All of this is typical. We believe that thiamine deficiency was solved and thus any cases that do appear must be rare (to a tee, most case reports include ‘rare’ in the title or introduction). In reality, they are only rare because we do not look for them. We believe falsely that thiamine deficiency emerges acutely, and while it does in some cases, mostly it sits in the background, quietly and insidiously destroying one’s health. We have cases of high functioning individuals whose health begins to decline and whose thiamine levels are tested as low and should merit treatment but ignored for years as not being pertinent. And those are the lucky ones. Most physicians refuse to test for thiamine.

Thiamine deficiency is easily treatable if recognized early. It becomes more complicated as the years pass, and it is impossible if we never bother to look.

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Photo by Alif Caesar Rizqi Pratama on Unsplash.

Thiamine Insufficiency Relative to Carbohydrate Consumption

by Chandler Marrs, PhD

Published on April 13, 2022

20154 views

Thiamine (vitamin B1) is an essential micronutrient responsible for key reactions involved in the conversion of the foods we consume into the chemical energy substrate requisite for cellular function, adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Absent sufficient ATP, all sorts of metabolic functions become disordered leading to the disease processes that dominate western medicine. Chronic inflammation, altered immune function, hormone dysregulation, cognitive and mood disorders, and dysautonomias, all can be traced back to insufficient thiamine > inefficient mitochondrial function, reduced ATP, and the compensatory reactions that ensue.

Among the most common but least well-recognized contributors to thiamine deficiency is the regular consumption of a high carbohydrate/highly processed food diet. Although most of these foods are enriched or fortified with thiamine, perhaps staving off more severe deficiencies, the density of sugars overwhelms mitochondrial capacity to process these foods, both the thiamine and any other potential nutrients are excreted, while the carbohydrates themselves are stored as fat for future use. High-calorie malnutrition is a common contributor to thiamine deficiency in obesity but also may develop in presumed healthy athletes whose diets focus heavily on high carbohydrate intake.

Thiamine, along with other B vitamins is often deficient in vegetarian and vegan diets as well. Not only do fruits, vegetables, and carbohydrates contain minimal, if any, thiamine, but some have anti-thiamine factors and are high in what are called oxalates. Anti-thiamine factors found in some fruits and vegetables interfere with the absorption or digestion of thiamine. Oxalates are mineralized crystals of sorts that tend to build up and store in places like the kidneys (kidney stones), but also may store and cause problems anywhere in the body like bones, arteries, eyes, heart, and nerves. Effective oxalate metabolism and clearance requires thiamine. Since vegetarian and vegan diets are also carbohydrate intensive, thiamine deficiency and oxalate issues may be compounded. Thus, a number of common diets not only contain reduced thiamine content but cause an increased need for thiamine by at least three mechanisms; higher carbohydrate consumption overwhelming capacity, which is then magnified by poor carbohydrate and oxalate processing.

Add daily coffee, tea, and/or alcohol consumption to any diet, and whatever thiamine that is consumed is either inactivated by enzymes before being used or is unabsorbable. Add a medication or four and thiamine availability will tank simultaneously with an increased need. Medications both block nutrient uptake and/or increase the need for nutrients by inducing mitochondrial damage. Given that 70% percent of the US population takes at least one medication regularly, while 20% take four or more, it is safe to say, that a good percentage of the population is consuming insufficient thiamine to maintain mitochondrial function and health.

Are We Really Thiamine Deficient?

As an essential nutrient, thiamine must be consumed regularly to maintain sufficient concentrations. The question is how much thiamine is sufficient to maintain health? Current RDA values for daily thiamine intake suggest a little over a milligram per day is adequate for most adults. If this is true, then the minimum value can be attained through just about any diet including those dominant in highly processed, carbohydrate-dense foods, which are commonly either enriched or fortified with thiamine. Everything from bread to cereals and even junk food like Oreos have thiamine. Per the RDA values, none of us ought to be thiamine deficient and none of us ought to require thiamine supplementation, and yet, many of us are and do. Indeed, several studies, across disparate populations show that even by this minimum standard, deficiency is a serious health problem. From our book:

76% of diabetics (type 1 and type 2)
29% of obese patients, 49% of post-bariatric surgery
40% of community-dwelling elderly, 48% of elderly patients in acute care
55% of cancer patients
20% ER patients (random sample, UK)
33% of congestive heart failure patients
38% of pregnant women, more with hyperemesis
30% of psychiatric patients

It takes approximately 18 days to completely abolish endogenous thiamine stores in a diet that is completely devoid of thiamine. Except under total starvation, medical or industrial food production mishaps, and experimentally contrived situations, thiamine consumption is never completely abolished. It waxes and wanes by dietary choices and life stressors. According to rodent studies, it takes a reduction of greater than 80% of thiamine stores before the more severe neurological symptoms are recognizable. In humans, these symptoms include those associated with Wernicke’s encephalopathy, the various forms of beriberi, and dysautonomic function. These include but are not limited to: ataxia, changes in mental status, optic neuritis, ocular nerve abnormalities, diminished visual acuity, high-output cardiac failure with or without edema, high pulse pressure, polyneuropathy (sensorimotor), enteritis, esophagitis, gastroparesis, nausea and vomiting, constipation, hyper- or hypo-stomach acidity, sympathetic/parasympathetic imbalance, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), cerebral salt wasting syndrome, vasomotor dysfunction, respiratory distress, reduced vital capacity, and/or low arterial O2, high venous O2.

With a less severe thiamine deficiency, symptoms are rarely recognized as such and often attributed to psychological manifestations. A not entirely ethical study done in 1942 involving 11 women on a low thiamine diet over a period of ~3-6.5 months found striking symptoms.

During this time all subjects showed definite changes in personality.
They became irritable, depressed, quarrelsome, and uncooperative.
Two threatened suicide. All became inefficient in their work, forgetful, and lost manual dexterity.
Their hands and feet frequently felt numb.
Headaches, backaches, sleeplessness, and sensitivity to noises were noted.
The subjects fatigued easily and were not able to vigorous exertion.
Constipation was the rule, but no impairment, of gastrointestinal motility, could be demonstrated fluoroscopically.
Anorexia, nausea, vomiting, and epigastric distress were frequently observed.
Low blood pressure and vasomotor instability were present in all patients.
At rest, pulse rates were low (55 to 60 per minute) but tachycardia followed moderate exertion. Sinus arrhythmia was marked.
Macrocytic, hypochromic anemia of moderate severity (3.0 to 3.5 million red cells) developed in 5 cases.
A decrease in serum protein concentration occurred in 8 subjects.
Basal metabolic rates were lowered by 10 to 33 points.
Fasting blood sugar was often abnormally high.

The study above demonstrated a rapid and dramatic onset of symptoms relative to a diet with limited thiamine. Depending upon caloric intake, the amount of thiamine allowed was approximately 1/3 to 1/5 of the amount recommended by the RDA. Admittedly, the RDA for thiamine is low, to begin with, but even so, this was not a complete absence of thiamine. Since the study took place in the early 1940s, it is difficult to ascertain the specifics of the diet. Nevertheless, it demonstrates a clear association between general health and one’s ability to function, and thiamine insufficiency.

High Carbohydrate Diets Equal Lower Thiamine

More recently, a short and very small study (12 days and 12 participants) of active young men and women (ages 25-30) investigated the relationship between carbohydrate intake and thiamine status. Thiamine was measured in blood, plasma, urine (creatinine), and feces at four time points: at baseline, before the study began, during an adaptation phase where carbohydrate intake represented 55% of the total caloric intake, and during the two subsequent intervention phases, where carbohydrate intake was increased to 65% and 75% of the total caloric intake, respectively. Both caloric and thiamine intake was held constant throughout the study despite the increased intake of carbohydrates. Activity levels were also held constant. Across this short-term study, as carbohydrate intake increased, plasma, and urinary thiamine decreased. Excretion through feces remained unchanged. Transketolase enzyme activity was also measured but remained unchanged. Given the short-term nature of this study, the fact that transketolase remained unchanged is unexpected. In addition to the decreasing thiamine values, there were several changes in lipid profile as well. Despite the short duration of this study, however, the results show a clear relationship between carbohydrate intake and thiamine status; one that would likely be magnified over time and certainly if other life stressors and medical and environmental toxicants were added to the mix.

It is important to note current dietary guidelines suggest carbohydrate consumption should fall between 45-65% of total calories, percentages which, per this study would decrease thiamine availability significantly. From the baseline diet to the 55% adaptation phase, thiamine dropped precipitously, only to drop even further at the 65% phase. A recent study surveying macronutrient consumption showed that average carbohydrate consumption across the US population represented approximately 50% of total caloric intake. Importantly though, the study found that 42% of the carbohydrate consumption came in the form of what researchers termed ‘low-quality carbs’ e.g. sugary processed foods with no nutritional value. Thiamine is only found in pork, beef, wheat germ and whole grains, organ meats, eggs, fish, legumes, and nuts. It is not present in fats/oils, polished rice, or simple sugars, nor are dairy products or many fruits and vegetables a good source. Indeed as mentioned previously, some fruits and vegetables may contain anti-thiamine factors. A diet that is 42% empty calories, that contains limited to no nutritive value, save except what has been added post hoc via enrichment, begs for mitochondrial damage and the illnesses that ensue. And yet, that is precisely the nutritional landscape in which most of us exist.

Admittedly, both studies were very small, but the research connecting thiamine deficiency to ill-health and carbohydrate consumption to thiamine loss is clear. Given the dominance of ultra-processed carbohydrate-dense foods in the modern diet, is likely that high-calorie malnutrition underlies much of the chronic illness that plagues western medicine. To learn more about thiamine deficiency and the havoc it wreaks on health: Thiamine Deficiency Disease, Dysautonomia, and High Calorie Malnutrition.

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Beriberi: The Great Imitator

by Derrick Lonsdale MD, FACN, CNS

Published on April 12, 2022

33185 views

Because of some unusual clinical experiences as a pediatrician, I have published a number of articles in the medical press on thiamine, also known as vitamin B1. Deficiency of this vitamin is the primary cause of the disease called beriberi. It took many years before the simple explanation for this incredibly complex disease became known. A group of scientists from Japan called the “Vitamin B research committee of Japan” wrote and published the Review of Japanese Literature on Beriberi and Thiamine, in 1965. It was translated into English subsequently to pass the information about beriberi to people in the West who were considered to be ignorant of this disease. A book published in 1965 on a medical subject that few recall may be regarded in the modern world as being out of date and of historical interest only, however, it has been said that “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it”. And repeat it, we are.

Beriberi is one of the nutritional diseases that is regarded as being conquered. It is rarely considered as a cause of disease in any well-developed country, including America. In what follows, are extractions from this book that are pertinent to many of today’s chronic health issues. It appears that thiamine deficiency is making a comeback but it is rarely considered as a possibility.

The History of Beriberi and Thiamine Deficiency

Beriberi has existed in Japan from antiquity and records can be found in documents as early as 808. Between 1603 and 1867, city inhabitants began to eat white rice (polished by a mill). The act of taking the rice to a mill reflected an improved affluence since white rice looked better on the table and people were demonstrating that they could afford the mill. Now we know that thiamine and the other B vitamins are found in the cusp around the rice grain. The grain consists of starch that is metabolized as glucose and the vitamins essential to the process are in the cusp. The number of cases of beriberi in Japan reached its peak in the 1920s, after which the declining incidence was remarkable. This is when the true cause of the disease was found. Epidemics of the disease broke out in the summer months, an important point to be noted later in this article.

Early Thiamine Research

Before I go on, I want to mention an extremely important experiment that was carried out in 1936. Sir Rudolf Peters showed that there was no difference in the metabolic responses of thiamine deficient pigeon brain cells, compared with cells that were thiamine sufficient, until glucose (sugar) was added. Peters called the failure of the thiamine deficient cells to respond to the input of glucose the catatorulin effect. The reason I mention this historical experiment is because we now know that the clinical effects of thiamine deficiency can be precipitated by ingesting sugar, although these effects are insidious, usually relatively minor in character and can remain on and off for months. The symptoms, as recorded in experimental thiamine deficiency in human subjects, are often diagnosed as psychosomatic. Treated purely symptomatically and the underlying dietary cause neglected, the clinical course gives rise to much more serious symptoms that are then diagnosed as various types of chronic brain disease.

Thiamine Deficiency Related Mortality. The mortality in beriberi is extremely low. In Japan the total number of deaths decreased from 26,797 in 1923 to only 447 in 1959 after the discovery of its true cause.
Thiamine Deficiency Related Morbidity. This is another story. It describes the number of people living and suffering with the disease. In spite of the newly acquired knowledge concerning its cause, during August and September 1951, of 375 patients attending a clinic in Tokyo, 29% had at least two of the major beriberi signs. The importance of the summer months will be mentioned later.

Are the Clinical Effects Relevant Today?

The book records a thiamine deficiency experiment in four healthy male adults. Note that this was an experiment, not a natural occurrence of beriberi. The two are different in detail. Deficiency of the other B vitamins is involved in beriberi but thiamine deficiency dominates the picture. In the second week of the experiment, the subjects described general malaise, and a “heavy feeling” in the legs. In the third week of the experiment they complained of palpitations of the heart. Examination revealed either a slow or fast heart rate, a high systolic and low diastolic blood pressure, and an increase in some of the white blood cells. In the fourth week there was a decrease in appetite, nausea, vomiting and weight loss. Symptoms were rapidly abolished with restoration of thiamine. These are common symptoms that confront the modern physician. It is most probable that they would be diagnosed as a simple infection such as a virus and of course, they could be.

Subjective Symptoms of Naturally Occurring Beriberi

The early symptoms include general malaise, loss of strength in knee joints, “pins and needles” in arms and legs, palpitation of the heart, a sense of tightness in the chest and a “full” feeling in the upper abdomen. These are complaints heard by doctors today and are often referred to as psychosomatic, particularly when the laboratory tests are normal. Nausea and vomiting are invariably ascribed to other causes.

General Objective Symptoms of Beriberi

The mental state is not affected in the early stages of beriberi. The patient may look relatively well. The disease in Japan was more likely in a robust manual laborer. Some edema or swelling of the tissues is present also in the early stages but may be only slight and found only on the shin. Tenderness in the calf muscles may be elicited by gripping the calf muscle, but such a test is probably unlikely in a modern clinic.

In later stages, fluid is found in the pleural cavity, surrounding the heart in the pericardium and in the abdomen. Fluid in body cavities is usually ascribed to other “more modern” causes and beriberi is not likely to be considered. There may be low grade fever, usually giving rise to a search for an infection. We are all aware that such symptoms come from other causes, but a diet history might suggest that beriberi is a possibility in the differential diagnosis.

Beriberi and the Cardiovascular System

In the early stages of beriberi the patient will have palpitations of the heart on physical or mental exertion. In later stages, palpitations and breathlessness will occur even at rest. X-ray examination shows the heart to be enlarged and changes in the electrocardiogram are those seen with other heart diseases. Findings like this in the modern world would almost certainly be diagnosed as “viral myocardiopathy”.

Beriberi and the Nervous System

Polyneuritis and paralysis of nerves to the arms and legs occur in the early stages of beriberi and there are major changes in sensation including touch, pain and temperature perception. Loss of sensation in the index finger and thumb dominates the sensory loss and may easily be mistaken for carpal tunnel syndrome. “Pins and needles”, numbness or a burning sensation in the legs and toes may be experienced.

In the modern world, this would be studied by a test known as electromyography and probably attributed to other causes. A 39 year old woman is described in the book. She had lassitude (severe fatigue) and had difficulty in walking because of dizziness and shaking, common symptoms seen today by neurologists.

Beriberi and the Autonomic Nervous System

We have two nervous systems. One is called voluntary and is directed by the thinking brain that enables willpower. The autonomic system is controlled by the non-thinking lower part of the brain and is automatic. This part of the brain is peculiarly sensitive to thiamine deficiency, so dysautonomia (dys meaning abnormal and autonomia referring to the autonomic system) is the major presentation of beriberi in its early stages, interfering with our ability for continuous adaptation to the environment. Since it is automatic, body functions are normally carried out without our having to think about them.

There are two branches to the system: one is called sympathetic and the other one is called parasympathetic. The sympathetic branch is triggered by any form of physical or mental stress and prepares us for action to manage response to the stress. Sensing danger, this system activates the fight-or-flight reflex. The parasympathetic branch organizes the functions of the body at rest. As one branch is activated, the other is withdrawn, representing the Yin and Yang (extreme opposites) of adaptation.

Beriberi is characterized in its early stages by dysautonomia, appearing as postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS). This well documented modern disease cannot be distinguished from beriberi except by appropriate laboratory testing for thiamine deficiency. Blood thiamine levels are usually normal in the mild to moderate deficiency state.

Examples of Dysfunction in Beriberi

The calf muscle often cramps with physical exercise. There is loss of the deep tendon reflexes in the legs. There is diminished visual acuity. Part of the eye is known as the papilla and pallor occurs in its lateral half. If this is detected by an eye doctor and the patient has neurological symptoms, a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis would certainly be entertained.

Optic neuritis is common in beriberi. Loss of sensation is greater on the front of the body, follows no specific nerve distribution and is indistinct, suggestive of “neurosis” in the modern world.

Foot and wrist drop, loss of sensation to vibration (commonly tested with a tuning fork) and stumbling on walking are all examples of symptoms that would be most likely ascribed to other causes.

Breathlessness with or without exertion would probably be ascribed to congestive heart failure of unknown cause or perhaps associated with high blood pressure, even though they might have a common cause that goes unrecognized.

The symptoms of this disease can be precipitated for the first time when some form of stress is applied to the body. This can be a simple infection such as a cold, a mild head injury, exposure to sunlight or even an inoculation, important points to consider when unexpected complications arise after a mild incident of this nature. Note the reference to sunlight and the outbreaks of beriberi in the summer months. We now know that ultraviolet light is stressful to the human body. Exposure to sunlight, even though it provides us with vitamin D as part of its beneficence, is for the fit individual. Tanning of the skin is a natural defense mechanism that exhibits the state of health.

Is Thiamine Deficiency Common in America?

My direct answer to this question is that it is indeed extremely common. There is good reason for it because sugar ingestion is so extreme and ubiquitous within the population as a whole. It is the reason that I mentioned the experiment of Rudolph Peters. Ingestion of sugar is causing widespread beriberi, masking as psychosomatic disease and dysautonomia. The symptoms and physical findings vary according to the stage of the disease. For example, a low or a high acid in the stomach can occur at different times as the effects of the disease advance. Both are associated with gastroesophageal reflux and heartburn, suggesting that the acid content is only part of the picture.
A low blood sugar can cause the symptoms of hypoglycemia, a relatively common condition. A high blood sugar can be mistaken for diabetes, both seen in varying stages of the disease.

It is extremely easy to detect thiamine deficiency by doing a test on red blood cells. Unfortunately this test is either incomplete or not performed at all by any laboratory known to me.

The lower part of the human brain that controls the autonomic nervous system is exquisitely sensitive to thiamine deficiency. It produces the same effect as a mild deprivation of oxygen. Because this is dangerous and life-threatening, the control mechanisms become much more reactive, often firing the fight-or-flight reflex that in the modern world is diagnosed as panic attacks. Oxidative stress (a deficiency or an excess of oxygen affecting cells, particularly those of the lower brain) is occurring in children and adults. It is responsible for many common conditions, including jaundice in the newborn, sudden infancy death, recurrent ear infections, tonsillitis, sinusitis, asthma, attention deficit disorder (ADD), hyperactivity, and even autism. Each of these conditions has been reported in the medical literature as related to oxidative stress. So many different diseases occurring from the same common cause is offensive to the present medical model. This model regards each of these phenomena as a separate disease entity with a specific cause for each.

Without the correct balance of glucose, oxygen and thiamine, the mitochondria (the engines of the cell) that are responsible for producing the energy of cellular function, cannot realize their potential. Because the lower brain computes our adaptation, it can be said that people with this kind of dysautonomia are maladapted to the environment. For example they cannot adjust to outside temperature, shivering and going blue when it is hot and sweating when it is cold.

So, yes, beriberi and thiamine deficiency have re-emerged. And yes, we have forgotten history and appear doomed to repeat it. When supplemental thiamine and magnesium can be so therapeutic, it is high time that the situation should be addressed more clearly by the medical profession.

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More people than ever are reading Hormones Matter, a testament to the need for independent voices in health and medicine. We are not funded and accept limited advertising. Unlike many health sites, we don’t force you to purchase a subscription. We believe health information should be open to all. If you read Hormones Matter, like it, please help support it. Contribute now.

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This article was published originally on November 4, 2015.

Talking About Thiamine

by Chandler Marrs, PhD

Published on April 4, 2022

11011 views

Thiamine Deficiency Disease - Episode_163

Do you suffer from a chronic, treatment-refractory illness that no physician or medical treatment seems to be able to fix? Are you constantly fatigued, have weak or painful muscles, or have coordination difficulties? Do you have brain fog, memory, or language processing issues? How about GI symptoms like IBS, gastroparesis, SIBO, or other dysmotility or dysbiotic syndromes? If any of these things ring true, you might have a problem with thiamine.

Thiamine (vitamin B1) is critical for the metabolism of food into cellular energy or ATP. Without sufficient thiamine, cellular energy wanes, and with it, the capacity to maintain the energy to function declines. Chronic, unrelenting fatigue is a common characteristic of insufficient thiamine. At its root, fatigue is the physical manifestation of poor energy metabolism.

Why is this nutrient such a problem? Two reasons. First, it is the gatekeeper to energy metabolism and so if it is low, everything downstream gums up and does not work well. Second, modern diets, medicines, and other chemical exposures contain numerous anti-thiamine factors that derail thiamine absorption and metabolism. This pushes many people into states of chronic deficiency, one that is simple to correct if identified. Unfortunately, however, patients can go years before the deficiency is recognized.

Last week, I had the great pleasure of speaking with Scott Scott Forsgren, FDN-P, the BetterHealthGuy, about the myriad of ways thiamine deficiency expresses itself in modern illness. If you or someone you know might be deficient in thiamine, have a listen.

Thiamine Deficiency Disease – Video Link

For Audio Only

To find other listening platforms, view show notes, and review the transcript, visit https://betterhealthguy.com/episode163

And if you would like a more in-depth look at this issue: Thiamine Deficiency Disease, Dysautonomia, and High Calorie Malnutrition.

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More people than ever are reading Hormones Matter, a testament to the need for independent voices in health and medicine. We are not funded and accept limited advertising. Unlike many health sites, we don’t force you to purchase a subscription. We believe health information should be open to all. If you read Hormones Matter, and like it, please help support it. Contribute now.

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Breathing Easy With Thiamine Pyrophosphate

by John Rybicki

Published on March 28, 2022

7009 views

This is a strange and somewhat disgusting story about how a few B vitamins have worked better than a wide range of antifungals for chronic diarrhea and a long list of other symptoms that developed over time. In addition to chronic diarrhea, air hunger/difficulty breathing, foot drop, other classic symptoms of thiamine deficiency were present but not recognized by physicians. I discovered and have begun correcting my thiamine deficiency on my own with some success. Hopefully, the reader will see some unique solutions in the account, as I’ve had very significant degrees of success with the various treatments in the attempt to overcome this condition. For anyone else who thinks there is a better way, I’m all ears in the comment section. I’m not recommending anyone try what I did, I’m just providing an account of my situation and what I regard as some success.

Raw Veganism and My Slide Into Poor Health

When I was in college I read a recommended book called “fit for life.” It recommended a radical shift to all raw veganism. It advocated dropping meat for cashews, addressing concerns for protein adequacy with quotes such as “and if (as a result) your fingernails fall out, they will grow back in even better.” I was extremely healthy, athletic, and had everything to lose, and I did lose everything following that advice. Mind you, I wasn’t doing it to spare the animals, I just thought I’d have some crazy edge on being healthy.

At some point while on this diet, I developed chronic diarrhea. Maybe some of those fantastic raw veggies were contaminated or maybe my immune system was compromised from other possible resulting nutrient deficiencies. Whatever the reason, I was stubborn and foolishly didn’t take the obvious net result of that lifestyle choice into consideration and I got used to living with severe diarrhea. By the time I had shifted gears and started getting things like salt, heme iron, complete protein, etc., I discovered that the symptoms remained.

At the height of my illness, I would have to run to the bathroom seven times a day. I’ve had plenty of jobs where that causes a lot of problems. I finally went to the doctor because it was so bad. My stools were bright yellow, so they were submitted for a stool pathogen test. It came up negative. He made an appointment for me to see a specialist in 6 months at the earliest. I was desperate, but I took the 6 months to wait and did not try and fix the problem myself. Maybe that was a mistake, but then again, I was never loaded up with antibiotics on a whim, so who knows maybe it was a blessing.

The Progression of Thiamine Deficiency Symptoms

Diarrhea and discolored stools began 20 years ago when I began the raw vegan diet. I was on this diet for a little over two years, before I changed course and began eating meat again. Since starting the raw vegan diet, and over the course of time, either more symptoms developed, or I just became more aware of them. The symptoms included breathing difficulty or air hunger, seemingly less sweat, and very frequent urination at times. In addition, I seemed to get cold easily despite having very high concentrations of the thyroid hormone triiodothyronine (T3) on lab tests. I also have bleeding gums, very sore soles of my feel (it is almost impossible to walk on a beach covered in seashells), significant loss of visual acuity in my left eye, a pronounced sense of difficulty keeping my eyes straight when tired, and an occasional sense that my feet are dragging. My foot would occasionally drag on the ground as if I had neglected to move it properly. I feel that I have a greater sense of the right side of my body over the left. During this time, I also noticed a reduction in earwax, particularly in my left ear, a reduction in fingernail growth, at least compared to when I was in college, and I sense a dullness where either my spleen, pancreas, or stomach is. My skin was dryer, and no longer oily. Often, I would have dandruff. For a long time, I could get dizzy upon standing. Also, I realized the constant body aches I felt were always present and not the result of delayed onset muscle soreness from my regular training. I was tired all the time. People would tell me it’s healthy to sleep if I was tired, but I found I felt just as bad sleeping 12 hours as I did after sleeping 4. I could sleep 17 hours, get up to eat, and go back to sleep. It was ridiculous, not to mention I had to economically survive, so instead of sleeping all day I began working 2 and 3 jobs at a time and resolved to spend the money experimenting on supplements.

Discovering Thiamine Deficiency

In addition to the stool test for pathogens that came up negative, I got a Spectracell test to assess my vitamin status. I was beginning to believe that nutrient deficiency was involved in my illness. After all, two years of a raw vegan diet, I lacked a number of critical B vitamins. I chose a Spectracell test, as opposed to a standard blood test because it is supposed to be more accurate. The makers of Spectracell argue that standard nutrient blood tests are inaccurate because they only show what’s in your blood at the moment, whereas the Spectracell method feeds nutrients to a culture of your white blood cells and extracts nutrients one at a time. If the culture dies too early from withdrawing a nutrient, they say that you need that nutrient. My test said I needed thiamine and vitamin B5. I don’t know if the usual vegetarian deficiencies were present at any time, because I had long since thrown supplements such as methyl folate, methylcobalamin, and Albion iron in a bid to resolve the problem, none of which had any effect after extended use. My testosterone, as of 2 years ago, was at 650 ng/dL. Every blood sugar test I take at the supermarket, says I’m in the normal range, but I exercise regularly. Supermarket blood pressure readings are never high, always in the low to normal range.

Successes, Failures, and Odd Results

If you managed to make it through the symptoms section, this part should be a relief as I’ve had a lot of success, some of which helped but had to be discontinued for one reason or another. That said, I’m not advocating anything I tried here, and people should discuss things with their open-minded health professionals before trying anything.

Antifungals and Herbs

Some herbal measures of note were undecanoic acid. This worked for the breathing but was intolerable to the GI tract. Tudca, and a particular standardized artichoke extract normalized stool color, helped tremendously with breathing, helped with energy but caused tremendously unbearable diarrhea. Turpentine mixed with olive oil taken with meals helped with breathing a little but reduced my energy and worsened diarrhea.

At one point, I took a black-market antifungal after I read how it acted on the cholesterol portion of a fungal infection and didn’t pose a threat to the healthy gut biome (if I had any left.) It helped a lot on the digestion, only as long as I took it. It didn’t help with the breathing but slowed the bowels. My stools were better formed, but for some reason, the last portion of them was still yellow. I took a meningitis dosage of fluconazole for 8 weeks and a few days after stopping it, the digestive symptoms totally returned. I tried another cycle some months later and stopped after a few weeks when it didn’t work anymore.

Probiotics

Mega-dosing probiotics helped a little. There is a site that sells powder with doses of 400 billion (compared to the 1-60 billion in stores). Acidophilus helped the most, but also aggravated the breathing problem severely. Other strains had no negative effect on my breathing. An example of a probiotic that had a semi-stabilizing effect on my digestion would be acidophilus at 1600 billion CFU’s/day. Unfortunately, it became extremely difficult to breathe when taking it. Not sure if it is the d-lactate content or the fact that some strains are histamine producers and others are histamine degraders. An example of a probiotic that didn’t cause breathing difficulty at any dose would be l-Plantarum. The manufacturer who sells these bulk probiotics describes acidophilus as a strain that produces d-lactate, and as I never developed air hunger from, say, a histamine-producing strain like thermophilus (although thermophilus never improved my digestion). I’m more inclined to think the issue is one of d-lactate and not about histamine. That said, below is an interesting chart from the book “Fix your Gut” by John W. Brisson.

histamine modulators — Histamine modulators and degraders from: Fix Your Gut by John W. Brisson.

Probiotics stopped me from running to the bathroom several times a day, even after discontinuing them, but they weren’t a fix. I don’t take them anymore.

Digestive Enzymes

One of the biggest things to help was the digestive enzymes that I took but it took some trial and error to figure out which ones worked best and at what dose. When I took too much or the wrong ones, it worsened my GI symptoms. I tried a very high-dose amylase pill (4 x 200mg per meal) and then incorporated the full dose of lipase from the same brand. I realized that there was definitely a lack of digestive enzymes, but that I reacted poorly to protease, which is included in most enzyme products. I can’t underemphasize how helpful taking enzymes in high doses without protease has been. I’ve tried to incorporate protease on several occasions. It is available in a 400k potency strength down to around a 50k potency. After reading the success of one reviewer on Amazon, I tried to power through the bad symptoms caused by several high potency proteases, because I believed it would be effective against infection and probably a premier defense against pathogens in the bowels, but it always resulted in diarrhea, lots of slime, and eventually, I would start to see specks of blood.

Strangely, at a lower dose of protease, the outer edge of my thumb and index finger would dry up. It’s a weird reaction considering all kinds of people can take a lot of proteases without any issues. For an extended period of time, I backed down to the one brand that has 50k potency, which I can tolerate somewhat, although it caused a rushed bowel sensation. Ironically, the one I’m happiest with is the strongest one I’ve taken, as it doesn’t seem to cause any of the side effects. The problem with tolerating a protease might be like what the protease-producing fungi were fed to produce protease in response to. I don’t believe trace elements of fungus are causing a problem in widely circulated brands in my case, as I can tolerate fungal lipase and amylase with no problems, but a probiotic protease cultured to digest wheat and milk proteins caused big problems for me. The high potency brand of protease I’m taking is tasteless, reduces bloating, and unlike the other proteases I’ve taken, it helps digestion, particularly with stool formation.

Navigating Nutrient Repletion

I became more interested in thiamine when I took a supplement called N02, which was a bodybuilding supplement consisting of a large dose of arginine that resulted in more vasodilation and more carbohydrates going toward glycogen. It provided a very pronounced benefit for me in terms of muscle-pump/glycogen storage, but the label said: “not for those who are thiamine deficient.” While I wanted to enjoy the benefits of the supplement, or now something I like better such as citrulline peptides or a 20-gram dose of beet powder, it made me unusually sleepier, and it caused extreme dryness on the left side of my neck every time. I wondered if I had this unusual reaction because I was low in thiamine. I now attribute the complications I noticed taking “pump” products to be the result of improved circulation causing an increase of infection into my bloodstream, as the problem is greatly reduced by the high potency protease I’m taking. I had tried thiamine several times, but in pill form at 100mg doses, which may not have been enough. I began looking for a good coenzyme thiamine powder, which I found. At that time, I also found acetyl coenzyme A powder at $2000/kilo -seriously. I bought them both.

I decided to only use coenzymated B vitamins – vitamins that are in their active form used by the enzyme – after reading this study on PubMed: The vitamin B6 paradox: Supplementation with high concentrations of pyridoxine leads to decreased vitamin B6 function – PubMed (nih.gov)

Vitamin B6 is a water-soluble vitamin that functions as a coenzyme in many reactions involved in amino acid, carbohydrates and lipid metabolism. Since 2014, >50 cases of sensory neuronal pain due to vitamin B6 supplementation were reported. Up to now, the mechanism of this toxicity is enigmatic and the contribution of the various B6 vitamers to this toxicity is largely unknown. In the present study, the neurotoxicity of the different forms of vitamin B6 is tested on SHSY5Y and CaCo-2 cells. Cells were exposed to pyridoxine, pyridoxamine, pyridoxal, pyridoxal-5-phosphate or pyridoxamine-5-phosphate for 24h, after which cell viability was measured using the MTT assay. The expression of Bax and caspase-8 was tested after the 24h exposure. The effect of the vitamers on two pyridoxal-5-phosphate dependent enzymes was also tested. Pyridoxine induced cell death in a concentration-dependent way in SHSY5Y cells. The other vitamers did not affect cell viability. Pyridoxine significantly increased the expression of Bax and caspase-8. Moreover, both pyridoxal-5-phosphate dependent enzymes were inhibited by pyridoxine. In conclusion, the present study indicates that the neuropathy observed after taking a relatively high dose of vitamin B6 supplements is due to pyridoxine. The inactive form pyridoxine competitively inhibits the active pyridoxal-5′-phosphate. Consequently, symptoms of vitamin B6 supplementation are similar to those of vitamin B6 deficiency.

I honestly don’t know if complications with non-coenzymated B6 occur similarly with other non-coenzymated b vitamins. With B1, I know that we do have extracellular coenzymated thiamine circulating in our blood. So-called coenzymated B complex supplements contain an unknown mix of coenzymated B’s with a majority of those same B vitamins in their non-coenzymated forms. Some B vitamins are never, or rarely, sold purely in their coenzymated forms, such as with thiamine and B5. Thiamine pyrophosphate bulk powder is hard to get. When someone writes about how they tried thiamine pyrophosphate and it didn’t help, I’m skeptical because it sells in tiny doses and I imagine people rarely give it a fair shake in large dosing protocols. Nobody sells coenzyme A, not even a brand ironically named “Coenzyme A Technologies” which just sells a precursor pantetheine in a very small amount.

Adding Acetyl-Coenzyme A, Thiamine, and Other B Vitamins

Initially, I worked with acetyl-coenzyme A. I ended up taking an estimated 600mg transdermally several times throughout the day with great success. To do this, I would splash some water on a thin-skinned area such as my shin or forearm and pour the powder onto the wet area before rubbing it in. There is a trick to make sure that there isn’t too much water being used and to also make sure the dose doesn’t splash everywhere. I would follow that with a DMSO cream. For those of you who don’t know, DMSO supposedly drives nutrients through your skin better. There are products that claim 99% absorption when DMSO is added, whereas without it the area would eventually lose the ability to keep absorbing a targeted nutrient after a few days, and it would just evaporate. DMSO smells horrible, so much so that this procedure isn’t possible unless you use the brand that has mixed it with a rose scent, which doesn’t smell bad at all. This basically resolved the exhaustion problem I have, particularly with regards to wakefulness/motivation.

Typically, I wake up more tired than when I went to sleep, but I have to work out at 7 am. I rub this into my skin and within 20 minutes I’m totally awake. It’s not a stimulant feeling, it’s just that suddenly sleep isn’t an option and attempting to sleep becomes annoying. I’ve also benefited from this during what may have been a thiamine paradox reaction, which in my case manifested as extreme tiredness and a definite drop in mood. It has taken 1-2 doses of acetyl coenzyme A about 1 hour apart to climb out of that, which otherwise could have easily lasted 4 hours. I can’t speak as to whether this overcomes normal tiredness, as again I have otherwise abnormally extreme tiredness. Unlike caffeine though, acetyl coenzyme A is a big part of the Krebs cycle, and niacin is too inflammatory for me; even niacinamide causes my nose to get very runny and I just don’t feel like inducing a histamine reaction is a good idea. Acetyl coenzyme A gets around that. Also, I remember a book called the Ultimate Healing Guide by Donald Lepore who was administering 9 grams of B5 a day in some cases, which always made me question how effective calcium pantothenate or pantethine is. That said, I can see why people don’t sell Acetyl coenzyme A. Long story short, it has to be sealed and at the very least refrigerated.

I also began using thiamine pyrophosphate powder. I take this transdermally as well. It has profoundly improved my breathing and given me a lot more oil or moisture to my skin. I’ve noticed sporadic increases in saliva, which I regard as healthy given that I produced a lot when I was a healthy kid. I’ve noticed my workouts have improved as well. I lift weights and my sets are a lot closer together now and I have more of a muscle-pump/glycogen storage during my workout which buffers the unpleasantry of moving all that heavyweight around. I’m taking approximately 600mg 4 times a day following meals and protein shakes. I don’t take it on an empty stomach. I believe a higher dose would further improve saliva production and breathing and I am presently taking it slow getting to that higher dose.

I noticed I don’t have improved breathing if I stop taking the high potency protease and interestingly, my breathing is terrible if I take the protease without the thiamine. I’m speculating that the protease is having a huge antipathogenic effect, which may reduce hydrogen sulfide gas and possibly compromise the thiamine I’m taking. Another possibility I’ve considered is that the protease causes enough of a reduction in the pathogens that the thiamine effects can be observed and are otherwise drowned out by an overwhelming amount of histamine or whatever is causing the breathing shortage. I’ve noticed also that any drowsiness or drops in mood seemingly caused by high doses of thiamine pyrophosphate (perhaps due to improvements in circulation and which an infection is also able to take advantage of) are negated when I take the high potency protease. Thus, I would attribute those symptoms to the infection I likely have.

I’m also taking p5p, which has a kind of nerve stimulation benefit to it for me. I take 20mg sublingually every three hours. At one point early on, I couldn’t tolerate 40mg without feeling like the contents of my bowels were sliding through me (followed by diarrhea), 20 mg wasn’t a problem though. I feel the p5p is synergistic with the acetyl-coenzyme A.

I also take R5P at 50mg 4x a day with meals. Not sure it helps, but I read it helps with the coenzymation of the other B vitamins.

In total, these four B vitamins have reduced my bleeding gums to less than 2-percent of what it was. They have reduced the soreness in the bottoms of my feet, drastically improved my energy and motivation, drastically improved my breathing, and improved my athletic endurance/muscle glycogen. I noticed a pronounced reduction in the frequency of urination, earwax production has increased, particularly in the left ear where it was reduced.

Theories

I have listed some theories below with my own observations notating them. I’d like to hear other opinions. Disagreements are definitely welcomed.

Was my problem a result of too much flora lost from chronic diarrhea, which led to fungal overgrowth, which led to hydrogen sulfide, which then continuously degraded my thiamine?
- There is a book online Fix Your Gut by an author I felt has some insight that says fungal infections reduce both thiamine and b5. My Spectracell test showed I wasn’t low in anything else but those two nutrients.
Was the paradoxical effect from thiamine that resulted in exhaustion and a drop in mood from the improved circulation generated by an increase in nitric oxide or other means? Did this then allow the already-present fungal infection to enter the blood and cause mood problems and exhaustion?
- I would support this theory by mentioning how taking nitric oxide supplements (i.e., citrulline peptides, beet powder standardized for nitrates) also resulted in this exhaustion as well, where it becomes difficult to keep my eyes straight. I would also support this saying that the high-potency protease I take, which I regard as a strong anti-fungal, negates that complication.
Is the acetyl-coenzyme A is only helping because it is circulating pathogens or their chemical excretions from my blood? I’ve been doing it for many months, and it isn’t like I’m needing less of a dose or less frequency, which I would imagine someone would see if they were addressing a deficiency. I suppose it is possible the extra amount is needed due to possible ongoing fungal problems.
Was the lack of enzymes caused by an infection in this case and not by a lack of vagus nerve stimulation? Ultimately, I’d like to be producing my own enzymes and I feel being able to do so gets me closer to the cause of all this. I suspect a fungal infection can somehow offset the necessary stimulation nerves normally receive, and ultimately compromised my pancreas if it wasn’t compromised in other ways by an infection. I don’t have any sharp pains consistent with severe pancreatitis, just a reoccurring dullness in the area. I’ve tried a number of nutrients to increase nerve stimulation with no effect and imagine if there is an issue here with the vagus nerve, it is more directly caused by complications from an infection.

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Why Do We Use Nasal Oxygen?

by Derrick Lonsdale MD, FACN, CNS

Published on March 10, 2022

6760 views

I live in a retirement home and I see many residents who are receiving nasal oxygen, so I am going to try here to address the reason. They may have been diagnosed with either heart disease or lung disease and they have probably been observed clinically to be “short of breath”. Of course, I do not know the specific reason for a given individual receiving this treatment, but does the average patient understand why he or she has to tolerate this inconvenience? I strongly suspect that they have merely been told that they need oxygen administration without explaining the underlying reason. Generally speaking, most people take for granted that they are alive and have little interest in why or how, unless their health becomes threatened. Obviously, when nasty things start to occur, they ask a physician why it is happening to them and the physician tries to diagnose the affliction. It usually winds up by the patient being told that it is disease A or B and a superficial description of the disease is provided. Each disease is regarded as having a specific treatment and a specific cure that is usually being sought by a drug company. The most up-to-date drug is offered. Unfortunately, with the exception of bacterial infection, most drugs only treat the symptoms and do not address the underlying cause. Modern research focuses almost exclusively on genetics and for the most part little consideration is given to prevention other than making a diagnosis of early disease. So why are these people receiving nasal oxygen?

Why Do We Need Oxygen?

Of course, we all understand that our environment must supply us with oxygen, water and food, without any of which we die. Although I have written about oxygen utilization in many posts on this website, it bears repetition because of what I want to say about nasal oxygen administration as described above. First of all, it must be stated that the main three gases in air are nitrogen, oxygen and inert gases. Seventy-eight percent of air is made up of nitrogen, 21% is oxygen, just under 1% is argon and the remaining part is made up of other gases such as carbon dioxide and water vapor. In other words, our oxygen intake is dosed. Too much oxygen is as lethal as none at all, illustrating the wisdom that was propounded in ancient China called Yin and Yang, not too much and not too little. The thing that always amazes me is the concise nature of the natural world and how we should fit into it. The more I get to know about the human body the more I realize how little we know. However, we do know what we do with oxygen. It is called oxidation.

Understanding Oxidation

It is surprising to me that many people appear not to understand that when a fuel burns, it is because the fuel is combining with oxygen. The result is the production of energy in the form of heat, the simple physics that we learned in school. The word oxidation is defined as “cause to combine with oxygen”. But consider that a piece of newspaper will not burst into flame by itself. It has to be ignited. If we use a match, the heat generated from striking it on a rough surface is enough to make it burst into flame and that energy in the form of the flame is transferred to the newspaper. What we are looking at is simply the transfer of energy from one action to another. Even striking the match requires the energy of the individual who performs it. But there is another factor that comes into play here. The newspaper will produce what we call ash, representing the fact that the newspaper has not been completely consumed (oxidized). I am providing these simple principles to explain now that this is exactly what happens in the body. The principles are identical: the mechanisms are different.

Cellular Oxidation

Starting with first principles, as we breathe, our lungs are taking in air and extracting oxygen from it. The oxygen is transferred into the bloodstream and picked up by combining with hemoglobin that coats red cells. This represents a transport system and the oxygen has to be delivered to each of the 70 to 100 trillion cells. This in itself is an amazing representation of the blood circulation. The deoxygenated blood is transferred to the venous circulation and transported back to be re-oxygenated. It is now that the process of oxidation takes place in the cells that have received the oxygen. To put it as simply as possible, glucose, the primary fuel, combines with oxygen to yield energy that drives the function of the cell in which the oxidation takes place. Just like the analogy of the newspaper, the combination of glucose with oxygen has to be “ignited”. Thiamine and other vitamins and minerals are the equivalent of a match. Carbon dioxide and water are the equivalent of ash from the newspaper. They have to be got rid of and so they are expired in the breath. Gasoline in a car engine has to be ignited so the explosion in a cylinder might be referred to as oxidation. The smoke in the exhaust pipe is the “ash”.

Nasal Oxygen and Hypoxia

It is my experience is that the use of nasal oxygen, although completely correct in itself, seems to be associated with ignorance of the fact that the sufferer is probably lacking the vitamins and minerals that enable the oxygen to be utilized in the body. Indeed, the lack of vitamins and minerals may be the main issue in the underlying cause of the disease, a fact that is flatly denied by the vast majority of physicians. The word for lack of oxygen in medical literature is hypoxia. The effects of thiamine deficiency, because it causes exactly the same symptoms, is referred to as pseudo-hypoxia (false lack of oxygen). In reality, the symptoms of the patient are caused by lack of oxidation, resulting in lack of cellular energy and consequently, their loss of function. Using the above analogy, it would be like holding a piece of newspaper and expecting it to burst into flame spontaneously. The most recent medical literature is full of manuscripts reporting the relationship of thiamine deficiency with chronic disease, even cancer, and various forms of traumatic surgery. It is not sufficiently recognized that the widespread ingestion of empty carbohydrate calories easily induces inefficient oxidation. This is but another reason why Dr. Marrs and I have written our book “Thiamine Deficiency Disease, Dysautonomia and High Calorie Malnutrition“, available at Amazon books. ‘

Conclusion

Why do so many individuals require nasal oxygen? With the present thought process, the patient is considered to have a condition that would benefit from its administration, perhaps heart or lung disease, operating on the present disease model. Physicians are not really thinking in terms of oxidative metabolism as the underlying mechanism. The point that we are trying to make here is that no amount of extraneously supplied oxygen will be effective unless the vitamins and minerals are present in sufficient quantity for the oxygen to be used in the creation of energy. Oxidation requires the presence of glucose, oxygen and the requisite vitamins and minerals and deficiency of any one of the three will be responsible for the symptoms.

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This article was published originally on April 5, 2018.

The Appalling State of American Health

by Derrick Lonsdale MD, FACN, CNS

Published on March 1, 2022

5245 views

Mental Illness As Brain Energy Deficiency

The February 3 issue of Time magazine had an entry entitled “When Every Day is a Mental Health Day”. The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association reportedly found that in people between the ages of 24 and 39 in 2020, depression is the fastest-growing health condition. Fainting attacks, known as syncope, reportedly occur in 15-39% of the general population when they suddenly stand up from a chair.

It was also reported from Kaiser Permanente that “depression is a leading cause of illness among young people and anxiety is on the rise. Suicide ranks third as a cause of death for 15 to 19 year olds”. It is interesting that a picture of a young woman is shown whose anxiety level is described as medium-high. Her favorite pick-me-ups are described as “hugs, candy, conversation”. This is the cryptic message that invokes the methods which she uses to calm herself in the face of stress. Yes indeed, it is true that candy is often used as a kind of solace for the misfortune of stress.

I will show that far from helping an individual to adapt to stress, candy is often the underlying cause of the depression and anxiety that represents maladaptation to the stresses of daily life.

Stress: Anything That Demands a Physical or Mental Response

I turn to the work of Hans Selye who proposed that human diseases were the “diseases of adaptation”. Hans Selye was a Hungarian medical student. He was in a class where the professor was bringing patients into the classroom to describe the disease that was diagnosed in each of these individuals. Selye was not listening to the professor. He was engaged in looking at the facial expressions of each of the patients as they were brought in. He came to the conclusion that the facial expression was similar from patient to patient, irrespective of the disease that was being described, that they were all suffering from the stress of the disease, irrespective of its diagnostic category. He immigrated to Canada and set up an institution in Montréal to study the effects of stress. Of course, he was unable to study this in humans so he inflicted physical trauma to rats by the thousand and did laboratory studies to show the effects. He found that the laboratory showed changes in the blood that were similar to those found in human beings afflicted with chronic illness. He formulated his findings under the heading of “the General Adaptation Syndrome” and labeled human disease as “the diseases of adaptation”. The remarkable conclusion was that the resistance to whatever was responsible for causing the disease (stress) required huge amounts of energy in the brain for the process of adaptation. I am suggesting that the vulnerability of the American population is because so many people are unable to adapt to the everyday incidents encountered in just living.

This of course makes a world of sense because infections, trauma and prolonged mental pressures such as ugly divorce or business assignments (stress) are known to initiate disease and sometimes even death. At the time of Selye little was known about the way that the body manufactures the energy derived from food so his conclusion was the mark of genius. He actually did recognize his own genius and firmly believed that he would be the central figure in 21^st century medicine. I believe that he could have been right but his work has been largely ignored for at least two reasons. The cruelty to animals got him into trouble with the antivivisection league and the pharmaceutical industry captured the field.

Energy and Illness

We now know a great deal about the way this energy is produced and consumed in the body to produce function. The conclusions of Selye now make perfect sense in analyzing the cause of human disease. The only change that I would make would be to call human diseases “the diseases of maladaptation” because Selye pointed out that succumbing to stress was nothing more than the failure of energy production in adapting to whatever form of stress was being imposed. In order to understand this, you have to remember that infection, trauma, and problems involving mental work all come under the dominant heading of stress and that they all demand consumption of mental energy in the solution by adaptation.

Thus, we can begin to see that disease, irrespective of diagnosis, is nothing more than a combination of genetic risk coupled with a failure to meet the energy demands required. The initiation can be represented by the integrative action of one or more of three interlocking circles labelled Genetics/ Sress/Nutrition. There is now evidence that most genetically determined disease, including cancer, does not usually produce disease on its own. For example, diabetes is genetically determined but does not develop until middle age and often following a “stress event” such as an infection, trauma or a prolonged and nasty divorce. We have to recognize that the body’s ability to manufacture sufficient energy to meet whatever stress is imposed comes from the quality of the food. A relatively new science is called epigenetics and is the study of how our genes can be affected by nutrition and lifestyle.

I know that I am repeating myself (for emphasis) when I write that the ability to adapt to any form of physical or mental stress depends on brain/body energy and that if bad news, injury, infection or a nasty divorce, has to be faced in the modern world, Selye would point to the need for brain energy in meeting and adapting to that stress. Of course, if we are healthy, the adaptation is automatic and we don’t even think about it. In short, we adapt. That has given rise to the idea of “good, and bad, stress”. However, if a person becomes sick at such a time we are most unlikely to think of it as mild to moderate brain energy deficiency. Without this, the brain “complains by initiating symptoms”. In other words, individuals developing mental disease have biochemical deviations in their ability to adapt. Depression and anxiety are merely examples of the way in which the brain shows energy failure, the result of simply being alive. Note that depression and anxiety are perfectly normal as we adapt to the appropriate stimulus. They are abnormal when they exist chronically for no apparent reason or stimulus. The underlying mechanism has been exaggerated and is a reflection of abnormal brain function.

The January 2020 issue of National Geographic magazine states that “stress plays a major role in many illnesses that kill us. It also drives unhealthy eating, poor sleep, alcohol and drug misuse, and other bad habits. Modern medicine really sucks (their word) at preventing chronic disease”. In the same issue, “food allergies have become so widespread that many schools restrict what kind of lunch kids can bring from home for fear of setting off a classmate’s allergic reaction. Oddly enough, allergy is a brain sensitivity, resulting in abnormal organ action, so it is in reality brain related. For example, a woman who was known to be allergic to rose pollen enters a room where there is a bowl of roses. She succumbs to an attack of asthma that requires hospitalization, only to find later that the roses were artificial. The point is that the asthma could be initiated by more than one sensory input.

In the United States 5.6 million children suffer from food allergies. This translates to two or three in every classroom”. I will illustrate the unifying concept of energy deficiency by discussing a number of diagnoses in which the medical literature supports it.

Energy and Brain Autonomic Function: Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s Diseases

The classic prototype for dysautonomia is beriberi, the vitamin B1 deficiency disease. Although this is not by any means the only cause of energy deficiency in the brain, it acts as a model for clinical expression. To put it as simply as possible, it represents an unbalanced ratio between calories ingested and the density of the micronutrients contained in the food source that catalyze the complex mechanisms of energy production. For example and contrast, the diet in Okinawa, Japan, that boasts a high concentration of centenarians, is nutritionally dense, meaning that it contains the vitamins and essential minerals that enable the calories to be burned (oxidized). It is also calorically poor, while in the US it is the reverse and where chronic disease is common. It has been shown in animal studies that a calorie poor diet correlates with the prolongation of youthful activity and even life itself.

In this presentation, I will try to show that brain energy deficiency is the major cause of disease. Because the controls of the autonomic nervous system in the lower part of the brain are quickly affected by energy deficiency, (the commonest cause in America is TD) it is not surprising that dysautonomia is common and occurs as part of other diagnostic categories. What I mean by that is that many diseases have been described in the medical literature associated with dysautonomia. For example, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases are in a group of conditions that have a causative relationship. Both are associated with dysautonomia.

Megadose thiamine treatment has been reported to be successful in Parkinson’s disease.This information comes from a physician in Italy and it amply supports the concept that this chronic disease is caused by brain energy deficiency. The importance of the word megadose means that thiamine is not simply replacing a dietary vitamin deficiency. It is being used as a drug. The multiple actions of thiamine are all known to be essential in energy synthesis. If two diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s have a common cause, you might well be asking how is it that they are different in character? I think that this is an extremely important point. The disease in the brain depends on the distribution of the deficiency and hence the function of the affected cells. There is always symptom overlap in the two diseases. Variations in the presentation of disease can be extraordinarily variable.

Panic Disorder, Autonomic Dysregulation, and Energy

Supposedly psychological in nature, it is really a sympathetically initiated fight-or-flight reflex, originating because of brain oxygen, or oxidation, deficiency. The association between panic disorder and cardiovascular disease has been extensively studied. Some of these studies have shown anxiety disorder co-existing with or increasing the risk of heart disease. Heart disease almost always occurs in vitamin B1 deficiency beriberi, because the heart functions continuously throughout life and requires a continuous supply of energy. But heart disease occasionally does not occur, depending on the severity and the cellular distribution of the deficiency.

Recent interest has focused on whether some modern heart disease is caused by energy deficiency. What is confusing to people is that tachycardia (accelerated heart), occurring for no specific reason, is caused by an erratic signal from the brain via the autonomic nervous system. If the heart muscle is also deficient, the autonomic signal may result (for example) in atrial fibrillation. The treatment would therefore be energy stimulus in both brain and heart. This is why beriberi, the disease that is the well accepted result of vitamin B1 deficiency, causes defective function in the controls of the autonomic nervous system and the heart as the commonest result of this disease.

It also raises eyebrows when I say that beriberi is common in America, but is unfortunately not recognized by physicians whose overall philosophy is that “any sort of vitamin deficiency simply never occurs in America because of vitamin enrichment of foods by the food industry”. The trouble with that philosophy is that the extraordinary ingestion of empty calories in this population overwhelms the vitamin dependent machinery that oxidizes the calories. The best analogy that I can offer is a choked car engine. The input of gasoline must match the capacity of the spark plug to initiate gasoline ignition.

Overall, results suggest that rates of epilepsy are elevated among individuals with panic disorder and that panic attacks are elevated among individuals with epilepsy. An article reviewing the causes of epilepsy includes recent reports on the effects of inefficient cellular use of oxygen as a causative factor. Hyperventilation (over breathing) occurred in 25% of a group of patients with a relatively common form of dysautonomia (POTS) associated with fainting attacks. The authors hypothesized that the hyperventilation in this condition arises because of brain hypoxia.

This is supported by the fact that people prone to panic disorder are known to develop one of their attacks when situated on the top of a mountain. One of my patients was an elderly lady who indulged in square dancing once every two weeks. Invariably she would develop a feverish illness lasting several days after returning home. Without going into the complex details I was able to conclude that her energy requirement was increased by the physical effort required for square dancing. Because her energy synthesis mechanism was depleted from thiamine deficiency, these episodes of fever were exactly similar to the condition called mountain sickness. With megadose thiamine she was able to continue her square dancing without suffering these repeated illnesses. This patient’s problem could not have been addressed by the orthodox assumption that each episode of illness was due to an infection; Because of a rigid concept that these recurrent episodes were only the result of an infection, we tend to forget that the “illness” is really an exhibition of the complex mechanisms of defense organized by the brain. Lacking in a full complement of energy, its organizational capacity is depleted.

Many examples of manuscripts appearing in the medical literature describe the presence of multiple diseases occurring in a single patient. We suggest that this stretches credibility because we cannot predict the incidence of one disease in a person, let alone the incidence of two or three at the same time. Rather we should be seeking a single causative factor to explain all the symptoms. In the reports of multiple conditions occurring in one individual, one of them is invariably described as dysautonomia, strongly suggesting that the cause in common is brain energy deficiency affecting the controlling mechanisms.

Energy Deficiency and Health Across Generations

Mental illness, including depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder, accounts for a significant proportion of global disability and poses a substantial social, economic and health burden. Treatment is presently dominated by pharmacotherapy that averts less than half of the disease burden and is purely treatment of symptoms. In the January 2020 issue of the National Geographic under the heading of “A World of Pain”, a case is described of a pregnancy in which the patient called Karen “begins bleeding profusely so is taken to the operating room, where doctors perform a hysterectomy. After the operation, she suffers multiple organ failure and has a cardiac arrest from which she does not recover. Karen dies of pre-eclampsia”. This is a high blood pressure disorder that is unfortunately all too common in pregnancy. I recently learned from a book written by an American Ob/Gyn specialist that this kind of tragedy could be completely prevented by the initiation of a megadose of thiamine routinely given daily during the pregnancy. It is indeed stunning to claim that pregnancy complications are all manifestations of beriberi and that this cheap and simple ingestion can prevent all pregnancy complications, a fact that most people would find hard to believe.

But this also makes sense. The food that the mother ingests must be able to provide the energy, not only for herself but for the rapidly growing infant that she has to support. It is no surprise to me that dietary indiscretion by the mother, such as the use of alcohol and the lunacy of smoking, provides a legacy to her yet unborn child that adds to the burden of child development both before and after birth. It is now well known that sudden death syndrome in infants can be a legacy of the pregnancy. Breast milk thiamine deficiency has long been known to be responsible for sudden death in a breast fed infant and breast fed infants are associated with a higher risk of autism in our modern world.

What about other nutrient deficiencies as a cause of disease? People suffering from depression, schizophrenia and dementia often have measurably lower levels of serum folate compared to people not experiencing psychiatric disorder. Even the use of methyl folate, an important part of the chemistry of folate, as a stand-alone monotherapy has been observed to exert antidepressant properties. Earlier in this presentation, I mentioned that sugar was the cause of anxiety, not a treatment for it. The fact is that the processing of sugar is extremely complex and can initiate energy deficiency in the brain. Obviously, energy deficiency represents a threat to the organism and so there is an automatic initiation of the sympathetic nervous system that results in the fight-or-flight reflex. In other words, under these circumstances the initiation of this reflex is because the sugar has caused thiamine deficient pseudo-hypoxia. The obvious safety measure, automatically governed by the brain, is to alert the organism to the perceived danger, however that interpretation or brain misinterpretation might arise.

Brain Energy Deficiency and Violence

There is a link between mental illness and firearm violence, reported to be a significant and preventable public health crisis. Hypoxia and hypercapnia (too much carbon dioxide in the blood from inadequate breathing) excite the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system. Excitation of this system generates the fight-or-flight reflex that is associated with aggression. Pseudohypoxia (imitates true hypoxia) is caused in the brain by thiamine deficiency. Therefore, there should be a serious look at the diet history of gun violence perpetrators.

Early Diet and Behavior

Many years ago, when I was in practice as a pediatrician, I saw many children who were brought because of emotional disease such as hyperactivity, learning disability, unusual temper tantrums and sleep problems. The current and false explanation for this was poor parenting, but on discussion with the parents I found that in almost every case the parenting was perfectly healthy. The diet of these children was appalling, however, very high in empty calories, particularly as those from sweets and I began to keep records of the dietary mayhem that was so common. In many cases I measured the intake of carbonated beverages in gallons per week. When I instructed the parents concerning an appropriate diet for their children, the emotional symptoms disappeared. This was so impressive and the children’s response to drugs so unpredictable, I decided to practice what has become known as Alternative Complementary Medicine. Please note that complementary is spelled with an ‘e’ not an ‘i’ and it indicates that it strives to take the best of orthodox medicine and complement it with the use of nutrients that represent the elements essential to energy metabolism. The two physician organizations that have developed are the American College of Advancement in Medicine (ACAM) and the International College of Integrative Medicine (ICIM).

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More people than ever are reading Hormones Matter, a testament to the need for independent voices in health and medicine. We are not funded and accept limited advertising. Unlike many health sites, we don’t force you to purchase a subscription. We believe health information should be open to all. If you read Hormones Matter, like it, please help support it. Contribute now.

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Photo by karatara: https://www.pexels.com/photo/male-statue-decor-931317/.

This article was published originally on February 24, 2020.

Severe Gut Dysbiosis, MCAS, and Oral Lichen Planus

by Russ

Published on December 29, 2021

13271 views

I have severe gut dysbiosis, and suffer from frequent urination, sensitive bladder, and functional dyspepsia. Testing shows that I have system-wide bacterial and fungal overgrowth, oral lichen planus, mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), histamine intolerance and severe food sensitivities. I also have problems with my feet. They are very dry, tend to swell up, and there are weird itchy red sores that may be related to athletes foot or to something else.

Over the last two decades my diet has become increasingly restricted and I now am only able to tolerate white sushi rice and lean animal meats. Whenever I stray from that diet, I get severe mouth/throat/upper gut inflammation. As a result, I am severely deficient in a number of vitamins, which I have to inject, as I cannot tolerate them orally. I must restore diversity to my gut, clear the infections and expand my diet so I can get nutrients, but given the reactions I have to most foods, I do not know how.

Early History of Poor Diet

As a kid I ate a lot of sweets and didn’t have the best diet. I took a normal amount of antibiotics as a kid but had a lot of strep throat and colds. In 1997, I had the chicken pox at age 23. It was a mild case. I became more health conscious in my mid 20s and after I got campylobacter food poisoning in 1998, from food purchased from the fast food restaurant Wendy’s. I was treated with ciprofloxacin and made a full recovery. After that, I completely stopped eating fast food. I would say my diet was pretty balanced up until 2002 when I got sick. I should note, I was first exposed to black mold in 2000 and again in 2015.

The Long Decline

In 2002, I was on a 6 month course of Levaquin for a prostate infection I didn’t even have. Shortly after, I contracted giardia on a kayak trip. I developed post-infectious gastritis and severe lactose intolerance. In 2004, I had mercury exposure from dental work and developed the early stages of histamine intolerance. I then developed gluten intolerance in 2006 and IBS symptoms with constipation.

Nevertheless, I was stable for a number of years and in 2007, I contracted Lyme, Bartonella, Babesis and Mycoplasma. I tested very high for mycoplasma as well as other infections like Epstein Barr Virus. From there, I then went on to develop frequent urination, sensitive bladder, and functional dyspepsia. I developed oral lichen planus in 2008.

In 2011, I was prescribed Xifaxan, a drug used to treat IBS with diarrhea or traveler’s diarrhea, and it gave me chronic bloating, which I have had ever since. I had walking pneumonia a few times (mycoplasma) and possibly whooping cough in 2012.

In 2015, I had the flu and was under a lot of stress and had a major autoimmune flare up. I developed geographic tongue and the lichen planus got worse, as did my histamine intolerance. I was exposed to black mold and aspergillus during this period as well. My digestive symptoms got worse.

Increasingly Restricted Diet

In 2018, I took a high dose of probiotics that I had been taking for years and doing well on and it triggered some kind of major mast cell reaction in my upper gut. I have had reflux and gastritis-like symptoms ever since. My MCAS got worse and since 2018 I have been losing the ability to eat more and more foods without a reaction. Last year I tried low dose naltrexone and I had a severe autoimmune reaction to it. I have become even more hypersensitive to environmental triggers like pollution and pollen.

Right now I am 40lbs underweight and survive on white sushi rice and lean animal meats every single day. If I try to eat any plant based food, I get severe mouth/throat/upper gut inflammation. I also believe I have hydrogen sulfide SIBO. In September, I did a nasal culture which showed large amounts of coagulase positive staphylococci. My throat culture showed large amounts of streptococcus A and pseudomonas. My gut also tested positive for actinomyces.

Multiple Vitamin Deficiencies

For years my Vitamin D was suboptimal and recently tested and its 19 ng/mL. I had been giving myself weekly vitamin D injections, as I can’t tolerate any supplements, but I have recently stopped because they caused some new symptoms including: headache, dizziness, off balance, visual disturbances and loss of appetite. I am still dealing with issues a few weeks after stopping the injections. I read this can be a common side effect when people do not respond well to cholecalciferol. My plan is to purchase a special UV light for vitamin D and will try to raise my levels naturally. This is an ongoing theme. Whenever I make a little progress, I always seem to get a setback in some form, which makes this very frustrating. I also inject B complex and B12 which seems to really help with my reactions. I am very nutrient deficient especially in fat soluble vitamins and vitamin C. Currently, I rub these vitamins on my skin and also use nasal resveratrol.

I must treat this severe dysbiosis somehow and am leaning towards antibiotics since I can’t tolerate probiotics or herbal formulas. I need to be extremely careful and have to come up with a really good protocol. I need to micro-dose and make sure I use the right antibiotic or combination of antibiotics. I also don’t want to flare up my gut or make my problems worse. If anyone can help me I would be grateful. I must restore diversity to my gut, clear the infections and expand my diet so I can get nutrients. Thank you.

Update

As of December 2021 I have not made the least bit of progress towards recovering my health. I went for Lyme treatment at the New York Center for Innovative Medicine this Summer and was extremely optimistic and hopeful that this would cure me. A close friend of mine went there and got her life back. Sadly, I am now 5 months post treatment and don’t feel even a tiny bit better in fact many of my old symptoms have resurfaced.

A year ago, I had black mold exposure which caused vestibular trauma and also gave me a visual processing disorder. So I now have to deal with visual and balance issues on top of debilitating daily gastrointestinal symptoms. For 18 months, I have been eating white rice, poultry breast, egg yolks and cod and my esophagus and stomach will flare up if I consume even a tiny piece of any vegetable. I have severe depression, anxiety, and am living in fear every day of my life. I spent $60,000 on medical expenses in 2021 and have absolutely nothing to show for it.

I am going to a special gastroenterology clinic in Ohio in March and will probably get an endoscopy. I am afraid this test will make me worse but I just have no options. I still think I have some kind of stealth infection or parasite in my gut that is causing all these issues. If anyone has recommendations for me I would be grateful.

Every single day I am losing more and more hope and am not sure how much longer I will survive. I am having my will drawn up because I just don’t see a future for myself. On top of this my stepfather was just diagnosed with stomach cancer and is going through chemotherapy now and the whole family is stressed out and this is taking a toll on me emotionally. Thanks for listening.

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More people than ever are reading Hormones Matter, a testament to the need for independent voices in health and medicine. We are not funded and accept limited advertising. Unlike many health sites, we don’t force you to purchase a subscription. We believe health information should be open to all. If you read Hormones Matter, like it, please help support it. Contribute now.

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This story was first published on February 4, 2021. It was updated on December 29, 2021.

thiamine deficiency - Page 7

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