thiamine - Page 11

An Unusual Treatment for Asthma

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I had a recent email from a 38-year-old lawyer to thank me for a treatment that was given to her when she was eight years of age. I do not know what prompted her to try to contact me after 38 years, but her story has to be of general interest because it is so unusual. This eight year old child had a history of crippling asthma and bronchitis for four years. She was so allergic that any kind of mattress exacerbated her symptoms and she was forced to sleep on a plastic lawn chair. When I examined her, her chest was full of the sounds that are typical of advanced chest disease. However, there was a curious observation that turned out to be important. Her body was covered with “goosebumps” and I will try to explain the importance of this later because it made me try an extremely unusual treatment.

I prescribed an oral supplement of 150 mg a day of thiamine hydrochloride. Her symptoms rapidly cleared and all medication was successfully withdrawn. During the next five months she had only two mild attacks of asthma and her weight increased by 6.4 kg (14 pounds). I lost sight of her until the email arrived recently. She told me that over the years she had had only two mild attacks of asthma in her 20s. She had participated in athletic pursuits in college with no problems. The question then is why four years of virtual crippling had been relieved so expeditiously with such a simple treatment. She is now married and has three children all of whom have recurrent episodes of asthma. On further questioning by email, she responded that one of her children develops “goosebumps” if and when she is ill.

More Aspects to the Child’s Medical History

When a patient visits a physician, the reason for the visit described by the patient is called the medical history. An important part of that history requested by the physician is about any illnesses in the family that may be relevant. So in this case the family history revealed that this child’s grandmother had advanced lung and liver disease “of unknown cause”. This suggested to me that the grandmother had an unusual genetically determined condition known as alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency. This disease originates in the liver because of the genetically determined failure to produce an important substance in the body knows as alpha-1 antitrypsin (A1AT). This is a protein that circulates in the patient’s blood and has an important part to play in preserving the health of the lung. Sometimes, the genetic abnormality in the liver leads to disease in that organ as well as the lung but liver disease does not always occur. However, the absence of the circulating A1AT would inevitably affect the normal function of the lung. It was therefore possible that the eight-year-old child had inherited the lung disease without the liver being affected. Also, this genetic effect can be “silent”, not causing any disease at all, making it possible for this child’s mother to have passed the gene while she herself had no chest disease.

Goosebumps and A1AT Deficiency

The technical name for this phenomenon is piloerection (pilo, a hair). At one time in our evolutionary history the human body was covered with hair like an ape. Some men still have quite a lot of body hair. All these hairs grow out of a tiny organ in the skin known as a follicle. The follicle is also equipped with a tiny muscle that makes the hair stand on end. It is the movement of the follicle by the action of the muscle, whether the follicle contains a hair or not, that creates the effect that we call “goosebumps”. It has been thought that the appearance of our ancestor, with all his body hairs raised, would make him look more aggressive and dangerous, because this action depends on activating the fight-or-flight reflex. Now, I was aware that this reflex is activated by environmental danger. However, thiamine deficiency is perceived by the brain as a source of danger and I concluded that the child’s “goosebumps” might be caused by that. There were other reasons for my suspicion but they involve much more detailed knowledge concerning A1AT deficiency.

The Possible Legacy

Asthma and asthmatic bronchitis are quite common in children today. Not all of them are as serious as a child that I have just described. However a simple test could be done to ascertain whether A1AT deficiency applies to a given child or even an adult with crippling asthma and bronchitis. The A1AT protein can be measured by a blood test and if it were found to be very low, a trial with megadose thiamine administration could do no harm and might have the dramatic effect that I have described in this child.

This case and many others are detailed in: Thiamine Deficiency Disease, Dysautonomia, and High Calorie Malnutrition.

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What is Thiamine to Energy Metabolism?

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What is Energy?

Energy is an invisible force. The aggregate of energy in any physical system is a constant quantity, transformable in countless ways but never increased or diminished. In the human body, chemical energy is produced by the combination of oxygen with glucose. This reaction is known as oxidation. The chemical energy is transduced to electrical energy in the process of energy conservation. This might be thought of as the “engine” of the brain/body cells. We have to start thinking that it is electrical energy that drives the human body. The production of chemical energy is exactly the same in principle as the burning of any fuel but the details are quite different. The energy is captured and stored in an electronic form as a substance known as adenosine triphosphate (ATP) that acts as an energy currency. The chemical changes in food substances are induced by a series of enzymes, each of which combine together to form a chain of chemical reactions that might be thought of as preparing food for its ultimate breakdown and oxidation. Each of these enzymes requires a chemical “friend”, known as a cofactor. One of the most important enzymes, the one that actually enables the oxidation of glucose, requires thiamine and magnesium as its cofactors. Chemical energy cannot be produced without thiamine and magnesium, although it also requires other “colleagues”, since all vitamins are essential. A whole series of essential minerals are also necessary, so it is not too difficult to understand that all these ingredients must be obtained by nutrition. The body cannot make vitamins or essential minerals. There is also some evidence that thiamine may have a part to play in converting chemical energy to electrical energy. Thus, it may be the ultimate defining factor in the energy that drives function. If that is true, its deficiency would play a vital role in every disease.

Energy Consumption

Few people are aware that our lives depend on energy production and its efficient consumption. A car has to have an engine that produces the energy. This is passed through a transmission that enables the car to function. In a similar manner, we have discussed how energy is produced. It is consumed in a series of energy requiring chemical reactions, each of which requires an enzyme with its appropriate cofactor[s]. This series of reactions can be likened to a transmission, enabling the human body to function. If energy is consumed faster than it can be synthesized, or energy cannot be produced fast enough to meet demand, it is not too difficult to see that it would produce a fundamental change in function. Lack of function in body organs affects our health. The symptoms are merely warning the affected individual that something is wrong. The underlying cause has to be ascertained in order to interpret how the symptoms are generated.

Why Focus on Thiamine?

We have already pointed out that thiamine does not work on its own. It operates in what might be regarded as a ”team relationship”. But it has also been determined as the defining cause of beriberi, a disease that has affected millions for thousands of years. Any team made up of humans requires a captain and although this is not a perfect analogy, we can regard thiamine as “captain” of an energy producing team. This is mainly due to its necessity for oxidation of glucose, by far and away the most important fuel for the brain, nervous system and heart. Thus, although beriberi is regarded as a disease of those organs, it can affect every cell in the body and the distribution of deficiency within that body can affect the presentation of the symptoms.

Thiamine exists only in naturally occurring foods and it is now easy to see that its deficiency, arising from an inadequate ingestion of those foods, results in slowing of energy production. Because the brain, nervous system and heart are the most energy requiring tissues in the body, beriberi produces a huge number of problems primarily affecting those organs. These changes in function generate what we call symptoms. Lack of energy affects the “transmission”, giving rise to symptoms arising from functional changes in the organs thus subserved. However, it must be pointed out that an enzyme/cofactor abnormality in the “transmission” can also interrupt normal function.

In fact, because of inefficient energy production, the symptoms caused by thiamine deficiency occur in so many human diseases that it can be regarded as the great imitator of all human disease. We now know that nutritional inadequacy is not the only way to develop beriberi. Genetic changes in the ability of thiamine to combine with its enzyme, or changes in the enzyme itself, produce the same symptoms as nutritional inadequacy. It has greatly enlarged our perspective towards the causes of human disease. Thiamine has a role in the processing of protein, fat and carbohydrate, the essential ingredients of food.

Generation of Symptoms

Here is the diagnostic problem. The earliest effects of thiamine deficiency are felt in the hindbrain that controls the automatic brain/body signaling mechanism known as the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The ANS also signals the glands in the endocrine system, each of which is able to release a cellular messenger. A hormone may not be produced in the gland because of energy failure, thus breaking down the essential governance of the body by the brain. Hypoxia (lack of oxygen) or pseudo-hypoxia (thiamine deficiency produces cellular changes like those from hypoxia) is a potentially dangerous situation affecting the brain and a fight-or-flight reflex may be generated. This, as most people know, is a protective reflex that prepares us for either killing the enemy or fleeing and it can be initiated by any form of perceived danger. Thus, thiamine deficiency may initiate this reflex repeatedly in someone that seeks medical advice for it. Not recognizing its underlying cause, it is diagnosed as “panic attacks”. Panic attacks are usually treated by psychologists and psychiatrists with some form of tranquilizer because of the anxiety expressed by the patient. It is easy to understand how it is seen as psychological, although the sensation of anxiety is initiated in the brain as part of the fight-or-flight reflex and will disappear with thiamine restoration. It may be worse than that: because the heart is affected by the autonomic nervous system, there may be a complaint of heart palpitations in association with the panic attacks and the heart might be considered the seat of the disease, to be treated by a cardiologist. The defining signal from the ANS is ignored or not recognized. Because it is purely a functional change, the routine laboratory tests are normal and the symptoms are therefore considered to be psychological, or psychosomatic. The irony is that when the physician tells the patient “it is all in your head”, he is completely correct but not recognizing that it is a biochemical functional change and that it has nothing to do with Freudian psychology.

A Sense of Pleasure

A friend of mine has become well aware that alcohol, in any form, or sugar, will automatically give him a migraine headache. He still will take ice cream and suffer the consequences. I have had patients tell me that they have given up this and that “but I can’t give up sugar: it is the only pleasure that I ever get”. They still came back to me to treat the symptoms. We have come to understand that we have no self-responsibility for our own health. If we get sick, it is just bad luck and the wonders of modern medicine can achieve a cure. The trouble is that a mild degree of thiamine deficiency might produce symptoms that will make it more difficult to make the necessary decisions for our own well-being. Let me give some examples of symptoms that are typically related to this and are not being recognized.

  • Occasional headache
  • Occasional heartburn or abdominal pain
  • Occasional diarrhea or constipation
  • Allergies
  • Fatigue
  • Emotional lability
  • Insomnia
  • Nightmares
  • Pins and needles
  • Hair falling out
  • Heart palpitations
  • Persistent cough for no apparent reason
  • Voracious or loss of appetite

The point is that thiamine governs the energy synthesis that is essential to our total function and it can affect virtually any group of cells in the body. However, the brain, heart and nervous system, particularly the autonomic (automatic) nervous system (ANS) are the most energy requiring organs and are likely to be most affected. Since the brain sends signals to every organ in the body via the ANS, a distortion of the signaling mechanism can make it appear that the organ receiving the signal is at fault. For example, the heart may accelerate because of a signal from the brain, not because the heart itself is at fault. Hence, heart palpitations are often treated as heart disease when a mild degree of thiamine deficiency in the brain is responsible. We have known for many years that sugar in all its different forms can and will precipitate mild thiamine deficiency. It is probably the reason why sugar is considered to be a frequent cause of trouble. If thiamine deficiency is mild, any form of minor stress may precipitate a much more serious form of the deficiency.

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Connecting the Symptom Dots: Discovering My Thiamine Deficiency

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As a registered dietitian nutritionist (RDN), I was surprised to find out that I had a thiamine deficiency in December 2015. My diet wasn’t perfect, but it was close. I never imagined I’d spend so much time trying to treat my own deficiency, but it’s been over a year the first lab work showed the deficiency and I’m still struggling with it. I’ve been asked to share my symptoms and experiences, so I’ll start back around the initial diagnosis.

Let me preface my story by sharing some information about myself. I’m a 46 year old female and I’ve always considered myself fairly healthy. I’m active, and I complete a minimum of 12,000 steps/day and often much more. That includes some form of aerobic activity daily. I’ve dealt with some annoying health problems, but nothing I considered major. I’ve had issues with insomnia, depression, nerve problems, migraines, hypoglycemia and GI distress (mostly diarrhea) for years or decades. I’ve also had some discomfort on the left side of my chest, on and off, which goes unexplained. I’ve seen many different types of doctors, including cardiologists, neurologists, gastroenterologists, psychiatrists, sleep specialists, endocrinologists, allergists, etc. Also, I have very early visual symptoms of glaucoma, but my doctor said there aren’t any signs of disease in my eye. No familial history of glaucoma, and I’ve never been diagnosed with diabetes. Separately, all of these symptoms seemed minor. Only within the last few years or so, did I begin to wonder if there was some sort of connection.

In the fall of 2014, I started a post-bachelors program in dietetics. I had returned to school almost two decades after completing my bachelors, and the road to this program was a long one. My insomnia seemed to be severe the night before exams. Sleep eluded me, even with the prescription sleeping pills. Anxiety, right? It never occurred to me that it was something else. After all, I’ve had insomnia issues for at least a decade. Sometime during the semester, I had seen a neurologist for some nerve testing. I had numbness and tingling in my feet, hands and arms. It would wake me up at night. I began seeing a doctor of osteopathy for manipulations to help with the nerve problems, too. Also, I had noticed some garbled speech and numbness in my tongue, but thought I was imagining it.

During finals week in December, my insomnia became severe. My physician prescribed Xanax, but I hated the way it made me feel. I felt my anxiety actually increased.  Even after finals were over, sleep eluded me. I was piecing 3-5 hours of sleep together, if that. I had trouble eating a full meal and was losing weight. In addition, I was having discomfort on the left side of my chest, something that I had experienced in the past but was yet unexplained. All of this was attributed to anxiety. By the end of December, my physician prescribed a daily anti-anxiety medication. This medication made me nauseous and I had diarrhea. Of course, these symptoms didn’t help the weight loss. At no time did my physician do any lab work while this was happening. I was so miserable that I emailed my advisor to inquire about dropping out of the dietetics program. Fortunately, she wouldn’t entertain the idea and encouraged me to continue, noting that I could take an Incomplete if necessary.

By February of 2015, I was down to 103 pounds, (I’m 5’ 4” and 130 pounds currently). I was dragging myself to school. I had lost a lot of muscle mass, and couldn’t sit for long in class because of the lack of muscle. My face looked quite thin and my temples were hollowed out. In March 2015, I was weaned off the medications and began taking 7.5 mg Remeron, and Ambien as needed. The Remeron helped my appetite and I began regaining weight and strength. With the support of my professors, I was able to complete the semester, and even maintained a high grade point average!

Early in the fall semester, I listened to a lecture by an RDN who is an integrative and functional medicine certified practitioner (IFMCP). Based on her lecture, I knew my instincts about an underlying connection to all of my symptoms was correct. In November 2015, I had an appointment with that RDN. She recommended some blood work, which my primary care physician (PCP) reluctantly agreed to do. It was a lot of blood work, and fortunately my insurance covered it. There were many positive or problematic results, but among them was low thiamine (whole blood) at 29ug/L, a positive ANA test, TPO 693, as well as magnesium and ferritin were in the low normal range. After further autoimmune testing, it was determined that I have Hashimoto’s disease, too.

The low thiamine level could explain many of my symptoms, including, insomnia, nerve issues, migraines, precordial pain, weight loss and problems processing carbohydrate. The question is why was my thiamine level low? I had always thought my diet was relatively healthful. For years, I watched my added sugar intake because of trouble with hypoglycemia. My fiber, protein and water intake seemed adequate. I’m very careful with my fat intake because I had a cholecystectomy in 2009 and still have problems with lipid digestion. I rarely drank alcohol because of the hypoglycemia and insomnia. The only other beverage I consumed was tea, usually 1-3 cups per day. Furthermore, because of my hypoglycemia, I ate mostly whole grains and very little gluten, if any.

In January 2016, I began taking a B vitamin complex, magnesium, lipothiamine and some other supplements, including Ortho-Digestzyme to aid in lipid digestion. I made changes to my diet, including dairy free and gluten free. I began seeing some health improvements. Eventually, I added yogurt and cheese back into my diet, but remained gluten free. I was having fewer migraines and began sleeping without Ambien. That spring I was taken off the lipothiamine, but continued the B vitamin complex and magnesium. I graduated from the dietetics program in May 2016, something I feared wouldn’t happen only one year earlier.

At the end of October 2016, I had an infection (perhaps, due to an insect bite) on my outer ear which wouldn’t go away. My PCP prescribed a cephalosporin antibiotic for 10 days. Towards the end of November and into December, I was having increased nerve issues, occasional insomnia, mild apathy and anxiety, which was strange given I had nothing to be anxious about. Also, I had the same chest discomfort again. My thiamine level was tested and it was low at 32 ug/L. I was taking the B vitamin complex and magnesium all along, so my PCP was unsure what to do. I’ve since learned that some antibiotics, like the one I took, can deplete thiamine.  I saw the RDN again and began taking lipothiamine again on 12/23/2016. I was taking 50 mg, twice a do with magnesium, in addition to the B vitamin complex.

My PCP planned to retest in a month to see if it was working. However, on January 20, 2017, I had an emergency appendectomy. During the surgery, I was given a cephalosporin antibiotic, but it was only during the surgery, not afterwards. It should be noted that I only missed one day of supplements because of the surgery. By the end of the first week, I strongly suspected my thiamine level had bottomed out, because my symptoms of anxiety, insomnia, nerve pain, etc., reminded me of what happened two years earlier. During that week, I was taking 50 mg lipothiamine twice a day, 200 mg magnesium and a potent multivitamin. Personally, I think the antibiotic, surgical procedure and recovery, and resulting diarrhea contributed to the low thiamine despite supplementation. I almost went to the ER in hopes that they’d give me a thiamine injection or IV, but decided to wait until Monday to see my PCP. Her suggestion was that I continue my supplements, then we’d retest in a month. One month later, my thiamine level was low still at 32 ug/L. My PCP said she isn’t comfortable giving intramuscular thiamine injections and suggested I see a gastroenterologist. I mentioned information I found on Hormones Matter, but I don’t believe my PCP was interested in reading the material.  I feel like I’m being bounced around from one doctor to another. I’m going to see the gastroenterologist, whom I’ve seen before but I’m not hopeful that she’ll be able to help. I saw a neurologist recently, who was very kind and listened intently, but could only suggest an MRI and a DO, who “might” be able to help me, but that DO’s office is 1.5 hours away. Next week, I’ll go back to the cardiologist for a check-up because of the ongoing discomfort on the left side of my chest.

For now, I’m sleeping at least 6 hours a night, which feels like a lot to someone who’s experienced severe insomnia. My hypoglycemia is under control. I’m not sure if that’s because of the thiamine supplementation, the gluten free diet or both. The last time I had gluten, I experienced both mild insomnia and hypoglycemia, but again, my thiamine was likely low too. I feel I still have occasional memory issues, but maybe that’s age related. Also, the numbness and tingling in my extremities continues. Migraines occur much less and are less severe, usually. The mild vision problems linger, as well.

The RDN I’m seeing is uncomfortable with me taking more than 100 mg lipothiamine per day. At this time, she is recommending supplements to treat continued GI inflammation too.  Here is my current regimen: 100 mg lipothiamine/day, 200 mg magnesium/day, multivitamin 1/day (RDN wants me to take 2/day), 28 mg iron w/vitamin C, sodium butyrate 600mg 4/day, NAC 600mg 2/day, Ortho-Digestzyme 2 capsules before each meal to help with lipid absorption, and about 4000 IU vit D3.

Unfortunately, I feel I’m just one missed dose of my supplements away from problems all the time now. I’m not sure how to find a physician who can help me solve this ongoing thiamine problem and don’t know where to turn next. Again, I’m going to see a gastroenterologist and cardiologist this month, but feel it may be more of the same. My father died at 45 years old of cardiovascular disease. I know thiamine deficiency can lead to cardiovascular problems too, which is why I’m going back to the cardiologist.

Any suggestions are welcomed!

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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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Sandro K., CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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Back Pain and B Vitamins: Notes from Personal Experience

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Back pain and B vitamins

Throughout the history of medicine, performing research on oneself has been time-honored. Before I describe the experiment on myself, I must digress. As many readers on this website know, I have written a great deal about thiamine and its use in therapy. In particular, I have long been interested in a derivative of this vitamin that is to be found naturally occurring in garlic. It has been synthesized and sold under various trade names. Its chemical name is complex, so I use the initials TTFD. Without going into details, its action is superior to that of the thiamine from which it is derived. I have used TTFD for the treatment of hundreds, if not thousands, of patients. Over the years, I became certain that there was no bad side to its use, whatever the dose. My experiment proved me wrong but in a way that I should have anticipated.

Vitamins Work Together

Vitamins work as a team and thiamine is a member of a group of vitamins known as the B complex that is vital to energy metabolism. We are however beginning to learn that vitamins, either singly or given in a group, can be used as drugs and it requires a great deal of research in order to understand completely these relationships if they are used therapeutically. As I have a particular condition that is precancerous, I have been attempting to find ways and means of preventing the possible onset of cancer by the daily use of a variety of nutrient supplements. We now know that thiamine is implicated in many conditions, including cancer.

For some time I had been taking 100 mg of TTFD a day and one tablet of B complex. I raised the dose of TTFD to 200 mg a day without raising the dose of B complex to see if I could perceive any difference in what I experienced. After about a month with this dose, I was getting into bed one evening and was suddenly afflicted with the worst pain in my left leg that I had ever experienced. It appeared to be muscular pain because any movement would sharply increase the pain and often cause me to cry out involuntarily. Sleep was of course impossible and at about 3 AM, one night last week, I remembered a manuscript that I had come across that purported to relieve pain by an injection of vitamins B1, B6, and B12, administered separately or in combination. I took three tablets of B complex (three times the previous daily dose) and about 15 minutes later I noticed some diminution in the pain. I waited a while before repeating the dose of B complex twice more and within about 45 minutes I was pretty well pain free. It was a shattering experience that demanded some form of explanation, if possible.

The Mechanics and Biochemistry of B Vitamins

My personal explanation is as follows. Each member of the B group of vitamins has a vital part to play in energy metabolism and I had produced an artificial balance between them that severely decreased the efficiency of their combined action. An analogy may help to explain what I am talking about. Imagine a machine that relies on cogwheels, such as a clock. The motor, whether it be clock-work or electric, passes the energy via the cog-wheels to the hands of the clock. The very first cogwheel in the series is the master, because without it nothing happens. The rest of the cogwheels are just as important but only function because of the first one.

The energy that our cells require is passed through a series of enzymes that are the equivalent of the cogwheels. Each enzyme requires one or more cofactors that can be thought of as a special lubricant that differs for each cogwheel. Imagine now that the first cogwheel is an enzyme that requires thiamine and you have added so much lubricant that it causes the meshing with the next cogwheel to slip. The motor keeps running but the transmission breaks down. Like all analogies, this is imperfect. Thiamine is known as the rate limiting factor in the enzyme complex that demands the presence of all the B vitamins. You can think of thiamine as being the dominant member but no less essential than the others.

Vitamins as Drugs

A drug is  “a substance that, when ingested, alters physiological actions in the body”. That definition automatically excludes each vitamin and essential mineral, such as magnesium, as a drug under normal healthy circumstances because each is essential to normal human and animal physiology. However, we are completely dependent on appropriate nutrition in order to acquire the vitamins and essential minerals. Because we no longer obey the life rules of Mother Nature, it has become exceedingly easy to develop (non-caloric) nutrient deficiency. It particularly applies to the B complex because of its essential role in liberating energy from glucose. We know from studies of thiamine deficient diets in human subjects that the earliest symptoms are “emotional” in character and may be classified as “psychosomatic”. If the symptoms are not recognized and go on for years, we can assume that the structure of the enzymes deteriorates. If and when clinical and biochemical recognition occurs, it would seem logical to assume that the vitamin cofactor would have to be increased drastically in order to reconstitute the enzyme. The vitamin is therefore used under those circumstances as a drug until reconstitution is complete. When the normal activity of the enzyme is restored, the vitamin returns to its state as a nutrient and its therapeutic dose needs to be reduced.

Prevention Versus Recovery

In my case, the explanation may be different. I was taking a colossal dose of TTFD with insufficient concentrations of the B complex, perhaps causing an imbalance in the selective activities of each. If that is the mechanism, I can only guess that it interfered with oxidative metabolism. Also, I can no longer state that there is no “toxicity” from taking large doses of TTFD. It does seem to imply that the remainder of the B complex should always be used with TTFD. We know that beriberi patients required 100 mg of thiamine three times a day for months. If blood sugar was normal they always responded. If there was hyperglycemia the response was slower. If there was hypoglycemia, some did not respond at all. We can be sure that the thiamine dependent enzymes were sick and that they were being reconstituted by thiamine being used as a drug. Thus, my situation is quite different than treating a thiamine deficient patient. High doses are required only for sick thiamine dependent enzymes that have long been lacking sufficient concentrations of their cofactor(s). Preventive therapy is different than long-term deficiency.

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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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A Question of Responsibility in Health and Disease

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responsibility in health

Self-responsibility is much needed in the quixotic culture that surrounds us today. It should begin to be acquired even in infancy as we learn to navigate life. The difficult job of parenthood, perhaps the most important one of all, has to be undertaken without previous experience or training. In former years the wisdom of grandparents was sought avidly when families tended to remain in the same locality. Geographic separation has caused them to be largely discarded.

This post states that there is no more important example of self-responsibility than in maintenance of health. When we are struck down by disease, we have been taught that it is purely an act of nature: that it has nothing to do with our own actions. It is regarded as bad luck or an inevitable effect of genetic predisposition. We have also been taught that when we get sick, whatever the cause may be, that the wonders of modern medicine will take care of it. We accept a prescription as a birthright, often without seeking why it is being prescribed or how it is expected to cure us. Is that really how we want to live?

Self-Responsibility is Critical to Health

When I emphasize dietary indiscretion as the harbinger of ill health, some readers will say, “oh yes, we’ve heard all that stuff before. It is so boring”, not even bothering to read further. So let us use an analogy that I have used before in posts on this website. You have bought a car and the owner’s manual tells you that the engine uses regular gas. However, a friend has told you that high octane gas increases acceleration and makes the car livelier. You have decided that the feel of the car with high octane gas appeals to you, even though you have also been told that it increases the wear-and-tear on the engine, possibly leading to an eventual breakdown. With that knowledge, you are faced with a choice. If your decision is to continue using a fuel for which the engine has not been designed, it might be referred to as indiscretion, or even lack of self-responsibility. When the forecast of breakdown becomes a reality you might even blame the car maker. Cursing the necessary expenditure, you might expect a skilled mechanic to repair the damage, even forgetting that it may have been your own fault. Could this be compared with dietary indiscretion? Of course, you need to have the knowledge of how and why the “wrong choices” do, in fact, result in health breakdown. If you persist in making those “wrong choices”, are you in fact exercising self-responsibility towards your own health?

Natural Sugars versus Sugary Sweets

However we arrived on the face of the earth, we could not have survived if the fuel had not been available to us. Anthropologists tell us that our ancestors were “hunter gatherers”. The food (fuel) was provided by Mother Nature in the form of nuts, seeds, roots, leaves and fruits. In particular, there was no such thing as sugar in a free state. It was locked up in the fruit and leaves. There are at least 40 or more nutrients in natural food that are mandatory to the maintenance of health and many may not even have been discovered yet. None of them are contained in the highly processed, heavily sweetened substances we call food.

Where did we go wrong? Believe it or not, sugar is the villain. We can now go on the Internet and are told repeatedly that it is more addictive than cocaine and yet 80% of the artificial foods on the shelves of a groceries store contain sugar. In fact, these “foods” would not sell unless they were sweet to the taste. People are so bored with hearing this that it is virtually ignored. Because the characteristic symptoms develop slowly and do not produce abnormal conventional laboratory studies, the connection is almost invariably lost. When symptoms do emerge, they are often mistakenly diagnosed as psychosomatic, for which the standard treatment is a prescription for one of the many tranquilizer pills. Self-indulgence as the cause is never considered by patient or physician.

Of Different Fuels

Let’s try to keep it simple by turning once again to analogy. Gasoline in a car engine has to be ignited. The explosion that occurs represents a union of gasoline with oxygen. The resultant energy has to be captured in a cylinder in order to drive a piston. This connects with a flywheel that transmits the energy to the wheels through a transmission. Our bodies have exactly the same problems but the mechanisms are widely different. Glucose, derived from simple sugars, is the primary fuel of our cells, particularly in the brain. It is “ignited” by uniting it with oxygen and this is done by means of an enzyme. In order to function properly, this enzyme requires the presence of vitamin B1 (thiamine) and magnesium. You could say that thiamine and magnesium “ignite the glucose”, releasing energy in the form of electrons. The energy from electrons synthesizes a kind of energy currency known as ATP. This works a little like a battery. Chemical energy derived from “burning” (oxidizing) glucose must be transduced to electric energy for physical or mental function. If those nutrients are not present, the sugars remain unprocessed, free to evoke the host of modern disease processes that fall under the rubric of Type 2 diabetes.

Returning to our engine analogy, many car owners will remember that they had to use a mechanism called a choke when starting the cold engine. This resulted in a temporary high concentration of gas. Perhaps it will be remembered that if and when the choke was not released or discontinued when the engine had warmed up, the engine would run distinctly badly and black smoke would emerge from the exhaust pipe. The black smoke represents inefficient combustion of the gasoline. Therefore, there should be a much lower ratio of gasoline to oxygen when the engine has warmed.

Cellular Engines Need Fuel

Each of all our cells have “engines” called mitochondria that generate energy. They work constantly, do not have to be started like a car engine and are always warm. They do not need a choke. When we take an excess of calories that do not contain the necessary vitamins and minerals, it is exactly like choking our mitochondria, creating inefficiency of energy production. This is particularly true of sugar that overwhelms the ability of vitamin B1 to “ignite” it. Inefficient combustion (oxidation) gives rise to organic acids that are the equivalent of black smoke in the car exhaust and they can be found in the urine. This inefficiency of energy production affects the part of the brain that is responsible for our ability to adjust ourselves (adapt) to the changes that occur in our environment. We develop functional changes such as “brain fog”, palpitations of the heart, unusual or excessive sweating and “goosebumps” may appear on the skin. We may have a drop in blood pressure, associated with a fainting attack. Because the standard laboratory tests are normal, it is concluded that the symptoms are psychosomatic.

I remember the case of an adolescent whose diet contained a lot of “junk foods”. He climbed a rope in the gymnasium, entailing the consumption of energy. When he came down he passed out and was removed to the nearest hospital. Without knowing that he had vitamin B1 deficiency, they gave him intravenous fluids containing glucose. He had eleven bloodstained bowel movements and died. Giving sugar to somebody who is deficient in vitamin B1 is extremely dangerous and the trouble is that ingestion of sugar leads to vitamin B1 deficiency. There is considerable evidence that dietary indiscretion of this nature, continued over years, may eventually give rise to a brain disease that is given a name. Alzheimer’s, senile dementia, Parkinson’s disease and other well-known scourges may well be the legacy in your later years.

What We Eat and Drink Matters

In light of this discussion, who is responsible for the current health crisis? While it is tempting to blame others, and certainly the food and pharmaceutical industries benefit greatly from our incessant need to indulge, the blame ultimately must reside with each of us. We have abdicated our responsibility to manage our own health. Like the car owner who ‘likes the feel’ he gets from his car with high octane gas, we like the feel we get from when we eat sweets and other junk foods. Ultimately though, without the correct fuel, engines clog and sputter. Whether those engines reside in our vehicles or in our bodies, absent the correct fuel, damage accrues. It is a relatively simple equation, but one that requires a modicum of self-awareness and responsibility. Unfortunately, I am afraid self-responsibility seems to have disappeared from modern concepts of health and disease. I suspect that until it is found and embraced again as core human value, diseases of consumption and indulgence will continue to flourish.

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Kawasaki Disease

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Some years ago, I was confronted with a four-year-old girl as a patient. She had experienced repeated unexplained fever accompanied by a cough, sore throat, diarrhea, and croup. When she came to my attention she had an unusually severe episode of fever with an itchy rash, pain behind the knees and elbows, loss of appetite and abdominal pain. Her respirations were accelerated and the palms and soles were reddened and swollen. Her heart rate was 160 bpm and the blood pressure was 140/80, an extremely high blood pressure for a four-year old child. The laboratory changes were those that are generally associated with inflammation and there were changes in the electrocardiogram, indicating that the heart was affected. Chest X-rays chest showed inflammation in the lung. My interest in diet caused me to make specific inquiries and I found that she had been indulged with ad lib ingestion of sweets. I, therefore, requested the laboratory test known as red cell transketolase, a test for thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency. It was strongly positive, clearly indicating deficiency of this vitamin. She was subjected to pharmacological doses of vitamin B1 to which she responded clinically.

Kawasaki Disease

The changes in the electrocardiogram, indicating some effect in the heart, the itchy rash and particularly the swollen and red palms and soles, suggested that the disease was a manifestation of that described by a Japanese doctor named Kawasaki in 1974. Today the condition is called Kawasaki Disease. Although it is now known to be associated with inflammation of blood vessels and is often characterized by incomplete and atypical forms, the cause of the disease is still a medical riddle that has eluded scientists for some 50 years. It is reportedly the most common cause of acquired pediatric heart disease in developed countries and the number of cases continues to rise in many parts of the world. In the United States it is estimated that there are 5 to 6 thousand new cases a year, but its true incidence may be unknown. It is also said to be increasing decade by decade in Japan, where there are 12,000 new cases a year.

Febrile Lymphadenopathy and Eosinophilic Esophagitis

The search for a cause in Kawasaki Disease is reminiscent of two cases in children that I encountered. They were both close to the age of six years and had had recurrent episodes of fever, sore throat and swollen glands in the neck, going on for several years. Would anybody in today’s concept of disease believe that it was due to something other than recurrent infection? Both of these children had been subjected to antibiotic treatment, in spite of the fact that there had never been any laboratory evidence of infection. One of the boys had been admitted to a prestigious hospital during a febrile episode and a lymph node in the neck had been removed. It was reported to be swollen, but with a normal structure. No previous questions had been asked concerning diet, but when this subject was addressed, it revealed that both children had been heavily indulged with sweets. Each had overt evidence of an abnormality in thiamine metabolism and no evidence of infection. One child was studied in detail and aside from laboratory evidence of thiamine deficiency he was found to have elevated levels of folate and vitamin B12 in the blood, both of which returned to the normal level when he was treated with thiamine, indicating the metabolic complexity that needed to be addressed. Both responded to pharmacologic doses of thiamine. The recurrent episodes ceased.

Another patient that I reported on this website was a 14-year-old boy whose symptoms for his first eight years of life were diagnosed as psychosomatic. Finally, at the age of eight, upper endoscopy had revealed eosinophilic esophagitis, an increasingly common disease throughout the world, marked inflammatory infiltration of the esophagus. He was addicted to sugar and his red cell transketolase test was highly abnormal, revealing severe thiamine deficiency. He responded clinically to pharmacologic doses of thiamine.

Discussion

We have three different conditions with widely varying symptoms, each nominated as a specific disease entity, but all coming under the umbrella of thiamine deficiency. At first sight this is so illogical in the light of our present understanding about disease that it would be considered a touch of madness. If, however, we look at it in a different light, it may begin to make sense. It is the cells in our bodies that cooperate to form a living person. Each cell has a vital responsibility within the group of similar cells that make up a given organ. I have used an orchestra as an analogy. Each instrumentalist knows exactly what he or she has to do in playing a Symphony. Each has to conform to the musical script and play according to the signals delivered from the conductor. If the conductor sends out the wrong signals, the performance could be a disaster. Conversely, if enough individuals in the first violin section or any other group of instrumentalists are absent or sick, the Symphony would also be a disaster.

To return to the subject of disease, the brain, particularly its lower part, is the conductor of the interplay between body organs and the brain that results in healthy action. It sends and receives signals from the body that enable us to function. A breakdown of energy metabolism in brain cells as depicted by thiamine deficiency, would create a chaotic distribution of signals to the body that might be likened to a breakdown of “the Symphony of Health”. Thiamine deficiency in the brain is exactly like being deprived of sufficient oxygen and it makes the “conductor” abnormally irritable. Some form of mild stress, such as a rapid change in environmental temperature gives a false impression that the subject is being attacked and it orders a full defensive reaction exactly like that initiated by the attack of a microorganism. In a sense, we might describe the whole thing as a “delusion” perpetrated by a sick brain driving the body to defend itself against a ghost.

We have known now for a long time that sugar is a dangerous substance that results in different manifestations of disease. We have also known from experiments that were done by Sir Rudolph Peters in Cambridge in 1936 that adding glucose to live pigeon brain cells caused these cells to start respiration (using oxygen). If those cells had been made thiamine deficient experimentally there was no respiration. Peters called this the catatorulin effect that shows how dangerous it is to take sugar in the presence of cellular thiamine deficiency. Is the explosion in these diseases seen in children a reflection of their being indulged with sweets, often starting in infancy?

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The Analgesic Effects of B Vitamins

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back pain and b vitamins

It appears that high doses of vitamins B1, B6 and B12, administered separately or in combination, can alleviate acute pain by potentiating the analgesic effect of non-opioid analgesics such as diclofenac (an NSAID), sold under various trade names. These facts were published in a German paper. In addition, a randomized, double-blind, controlled clinical study was reported in 378 patients with lumbago. The term lumbago is a relatively old one and it is now often referred to as “back strain”.

The patients were divided into two groups, half of them receiving diclofenac together with very large doses of vitamins B1, B6 and B12. The other half received only diclofenac . The investigators concluded that the addition of the B vitamins did indeed enhance the analgesic effect of the drug. The primary mechanism for the anti-inflammatory, anti-pyretic and analgesic action of diclofenac is thought to be by a biochemical mechanism that is well known in the body and described in the paper.

When I read this, I became aware that the mechanism they were describing was the same mechanism that has been described for one of the actions of thiamine tetrahydrofurfuryl disulfide (TTFD, Allithiamine, Lipothiamine) a thiamine derivative that I have mentioned a number of times in posts on this website. When I further researched the mechanisms of action of diclofenac, I read that “diclofenac also appears to exhibit bacteriostatic activity by inhibiting bacterial DNA synthesis”. Could it be that the drug has an effect on mitochondrial DNA in people using it to relieve their pain? If so, this would be a serious indictment on its use.

Mitochondrial DNA

We now have reason to believe that our mitochondria (cellular energy producing organelles) have evolved from an original bacterium millions of years ago, and we now know that they have their own genes. These genes, inherited only from the mother, are completely separate from the cellular genes that we inherit from both parents. They are vitally important in the function of mitochondria that are responsible for synthesizing ATP, the energy currency used by the body. The interesting thing is that mitochondrial DNA is like bacterial DNA, has a different conformation from that of cellular DNA, and could be expected to be sensitive to the “DNA related bacteriostatic activity” reported to be one of the effects of diclofenac.

Side Effects of Diclofenac

There are 50 side effects of diclofenac recorded online. It may surprise you to know that 20 of the symptoms reported as side effects are identical to those that are well known in relationship to the thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency disease, beriberi. Since thiamine is vital to the normal function of mitochondria, perhaps it suggests why three members of the vitamin B complex enhance the analgesic effect of the drug by protecting the patient from harm. This would enable it to be used with reduced dose, thus obviating the possible appearance of side effects.

Side Effects of Pharmaceuticals

It is always wise for a patient who is taking a drug to know what the potential side effects are. With this story of diclofenac, I was reminded of a drug that was produced in the 1930s in order to stimulate weight reduction. The chemical name is dinitrophenol (DNP). The side effects were so severe and occasionally caused sudden death, so it was withdrawn in 1938. Its present use is in experimental research in animals because it inhibits mitochondrial function and enables the researcher to study energy metabolism. Believe it or not, DNP is still available for weight reduction. There is no doubt that it works but it certainly offends  the Hippocratic oath accepted by all physicians, “thou shalt do no harm”.

Genetic Susceptibility

We simply do not know the genetically determined susceptibility of an individual in the use of a foreign agent prescribed to relieve a given symptom. The body always recognizes a “foreigner” and sets about breaking it down and getting it out of the body as quickly as possible. If a vitamin is used in a much larger dose than merely replacing it as an essential nutrient, it may be thought of as a drug. This is really a new concept in medicine and has not yet reached the collective psyche of medical practice. Perhaps the body recognizes the huge dose, but uses what it needs and excretes the excess. The trouble with that is that the present concept is that vitamin replacement is thought to be confined to the tiny doses found in natural food that are required by a healthy individual. No thought has been given to the fact that a vitamin may have to be used in order to stimulate and restore the decayed effectiveness of the enzyme to which it must bind. It is as though the roles of the enzyme and the vitamin are reversed. In a sense, the enzyme becomes cofactor to its requisite vitamin rather than the normal enzyme/cofactor relationship.

Energy Metabolism is the Core Issue

What seems to be emerging from all this is that failure of energy metabolism, coupled with genetic risk and the imposition of individual life stresses, provides us with a new medical model for disease. Besides killing the “enemy”, the bacteria, viruses or cancer cells safely, the only real treatment possible is an educated use of nutritional components to coerce damaged cellular systems back into a state of functional efficiency. Healing takes energy and only the body knows how to do that. We should give it every possible assistance. There is much evidence that even cancer cells become maverick because of devious energy metabolism.

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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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Recurrent Fever With Swollen Glands: Febrile Lymphadenopathy and Thiamine

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fever swollen glands - Febrile Lymphadenopathy.

Every profession has its jargon and the medical profession is no exception. Perhaps it is even more addicted to jargon than other professions. The title used here refers to an extremely common disease, particularly in children. Febrile is the word used to describe fever. Lymphadenopathy simply means that lymph glands are swollen. The mechanism is as follows: the throat becomes infected, often with streptococcus and may affect the tonsils or adenoids. A message is sent from the throat to the brain that reacts to cause the body temperature to be raised. We will see why later. The lymph glands in the neck are stimulated to get bigger as part of the immune response. The child feels sick and accepts bed rest and these essentially defensive reactions are referred to as the “illness”. Often a treatment such as aspirin is given to the child to bring the temperature down under the mistaken concept that this is the dangerous part of the illness. A previous post on this website described a case of Reye’s syndrome, a deadly disease known to occur as a result of giving aspirin to bring the fever down. It is of course true that a very high temperature such as 106°F is considered to be dangerous. But this is because the brain mechanism that initiates this temperature is itself in an abnormal state and may be the actual source of the danger.

Understanding Fever as an Immune Response

If we look at this situation in the cold light of day, we can come to false conclusions. Yes, this is the expected situation with an infected throat and it is invariably treated with antibiotics. But let us see what is really happening in all cases of this common affliction. The brain has received a message from the throat that an attack by a microorganism is occurring. The brain sets up a defense mechanism and I refer to the microorganism as a “stressor” (the enemy). The brain is programmed to recognize the attack as dangerous to the organism. The physical aspects of the infection and the brain mechanisms that receive the message and activate the defense are in constant communication. The body temperature is raised by the brain as part of this defense.

Microorganisms, the stressors, are programmed by Mother Nature to operate at maximum efficiency at 37°C, the normal temperature of the human body. By raising the body temperature, the environment for the microorganisms is detrimental to its action and decreases its virulence. No rise in body temperature indicates that the brain is sick!

Inflammation Is an Immune Response: Resting Boosts Immune Function

The inflammation of the throat makes it harder for the microorganism to gain entrance and is also part of the defense. Strangely enough, we now know that inflammation is controlled and governed by the brain. A message to the lymph glands in the neck increases their size to cope with the expected passage and trapping of bacteria from the infected area and is part of the immune response.

The bed rest or fatigue that occurs with illness is yet another part of the immune mechanism. Bed rest conserves the cellular energy needed to activate the defense mechanisms.

You can readily see that all of these reactions that we call sickness are scripted and controlled completely by the brain. It may come as a surprise to many readers, but fever, inflammation and energy conservations are necessary immune reactions. Diminishing or overriding those reactions, usually by trying to reduce fever with a drug or failing to rest rather than assisting the body’s defense systems, may only prolong the illness and perhaps even create new ones.

The modern method of treatment is, of course, to kill the organism. Little thought is given to whether the supply of energy in the brain is sufficient to run the complex organization of defense. It also assumes that the genes that oversee the immune response are intact and functionally healthy.

Nutrient Interactions With Immune Response

Now I must tell you about two children, both of whom had suffered from repeated episodes of febrile lymphadenopathy (Lonsdale D. Recurrent febrile lymphadenopathy treated with large doses of vitamin B1: report of two cases). Each child had been treated by antibiotic therapy with their recurrent episodes over a two or three-year period on the assumption that they were caused by bacterial infection. Both were medical puzzles because evidence of bacterial infection was lacking and it was assumed that the recurrent episodes were viral in nature. I had the opportunity to study one of them in detail.

The child had been admitted to a prestigious hospital and a swollen gland in the neck had been biopsied under the impression that it might explain the disease. The pathologist had reported an enlarged but otherwise perfectly normal gland structure. The mother told me that at this hospital he had also had the concentrations of vitamin B12 and folic acid measured in the blood, presumably because they were looking for evidence of deficiency. She volunteered that “the doctors told me that I was giving him too many vitamins”, apparently because the two vitamins had been found to be in an unusually high concentration. She also volunteered that this was very strange to her “because I had not been giving him any vitamins at all. The doctors didn’t believe me”. This naturally intrigued me.

Without going into the technical details, I found that he had evidence of abnormal thiamine metabolism. The folic acid and B12 concentrations were indeed extremely high. When I gave him the big daily doses of thiamine, these two vitamins each fell into its range of normal blood concentration. I discharged him from the hospital where these studies had been carried out, continuing the high dose treatment with thiamine. Two or three months later, the mother called me to say that her child had not had any episodes of fever and was extremely well. I responded to her by asking if she was interested in stopping the thiamine in the interests of science. She did stop it and three weeks later he had an episode of sleep walking, spontaneous urination as he went down the stairs and another episode of febrile lymphadenopathy.

You may well ask how the sleep disturbance could possibly be associated with the throat problem, so continue reading. I readmitted him to the hospital and clinical examination revealed the sore throat and a very large lymph gland in the neck. The folic acid and B12 concentrations were once more elevated. I restarted the thiamine and the two vitamin concentrations again fell into the normal range. The enlarged lymph gland disappeared and I discharged him from the hospital with instructions to continue the high dose thiamine. About a year later she reported that the episodes had begun again. I told her to add a multivitamin to the thiamine and again the episodes ceased. The other child also had evidence of abnormal thiamine metabolism that was resolved by the administration of large doses of thiamine, but unfortunately, I was not able to study him further. Please note that both children had been indulged with ad lib candy and soft drinks.

Nutrient Deficiency in the Face of High Sugar Intake: Altered Immune Responses

The explanation is construed from a rational approach to the genius of Mother Nature. I have already described the normal mechanism of defense to infection organized by the brain. Think of the body as being like an old-fashioned fortress. When an approaching enemy is spotted by soldiers on the Eastern battlements, a message is sent to the commander. The commander is then able to plan the defense and off duty soldiers are deployed to the scene of impending attack.  Imagine that the commander is drunk and he sends the reserve soldiers to the Western battlements. Or perhaps the commander imagines falsely that he has received a message and deploys his defensive soldiers throughout the fortress unnecessarily, a “May Day” without reason. Obviously the commander would be to blame.

This is an analogy for the brain/body response to infection. Messages throughout the body are automatically relayed through the autonomic (automatic) nervous system and by the hormones released from the endocrine glands. Hormones, carried in the blood stream, are messengers. White blood cells are “the defending soldiers”. Both the autonomic and endocrine systems are under the control of the more primitive lower part of the brain, the commander in the analogy and the part of the brain that is known to be peculiarly sensitive to thiamine deficiency. There is good scientific evidence that thiamine deficiency will make the “commander” much more sensitive to incoming signals from the “battlements”.  Like the “drunk commander”, it organizes a complete defensive reaction without there being any need.

To be a little more scientific, thiamine deficiency causes reactions in the lower brain that are exactly like a mild to moderate deprivation of oxygen. That is why thiamine deficiency is reported scientifically to cause pseudo-hypoxia (pseudo, false: hypoxia, deficiency of oxygen). These children had been indulged with ad lib. candy and soft drinks. Even if they had had the average intake of thiamine from the diet, essential to the processing of sugar, it was insufficient to metabolize the sugar. You might say that this was an increased sugar/thiamine ratio, equivalent to dietary thiamine deficiency with a normal healthy diet.

Microorganisms Attack: The Immune Response Defends

Each case of the usual form of febrile lymphadenopathy can be visualized as a hostile attack by a microorganism (a stressor) requiring a defense response. However, in the case of these two  children, when the brain ”commander” was exposed to thiamine deficiency  (pseudo-hypoxia), itself imposing  brain stress, it  became hypersensitive to virtually any form  of incoming signal from the environment. It is therefore possible that a change such as ambient temperature was being perceived falsely as a dangerous threat to the organism (the patient). Hence, it is hypothesized that any proposed minor form of stress initiated the defensive response, mediated and organized by the lower brain that is programmed to perceive danger. It is possible that a virus in each case may or may not have been responsible for being the “stressor” but it is more likely that the “commander” was initiating an unnecessary defense based on a false perception of a non-existent attack such as ambient temperature change.

I have to turn to analogy once more.  A car has an engine. Its essential function is to produce energy. The energy has to be transmitted to the wheels through individual mechanical parts that are connected together to form an energy consuming transmission. In the human body each cell has its own engines and they are called mitochondria. Their function is also to produce energy that has to be converted into mental and physical action. Thiamine is essential to energy production from the mitochondria and a series of enzymes are the equivalent of the mechanical parts of the transmission in a car and therefore can be thought of as an energy consuming biochemical device. Therefore, mitochondria produce energy; the transmission consumes it in mental and physical action. Folate (folic acid) and vitamin B12 are essential to this biochemical transmission. Because thiamine deficiency depletes cellular energy, the enzyme dependent (energy hungry) transmission developed problems. Folate and B12 accumulated in the blood simply because they were not being used. When thiamine was given to this boy, cellular energy improved and the two vitamins were consumed in their actions and their concentrations decreased in the blood.

Sleepwalking: An Example of Brain Dysfunction?

Sleepwalking has always been a puzzle. A sleepwalker is not consciously aware of what he or she is doing. I remember the case of a man who drove his car for 70 miles and had no recollection of doing it. I had found from my clinical experience that sleepwalking children would stop doing this with the administration of nutrients, particularly thiamine and magnesium. The fact that the subject of this discussion urinated as he descended the stairs indicated abnormal automatic autonomic nervous system activity. This was pretty good evidence that it was oxidative deficiency in the brain that was responsible for both physical and mental abnormal activity after therapeutic thiamine had been withdrawn.

The Use of a Multivitamin: Completing the Nutrient Team

As the story above indicated, the episodes of febrile lymphadenopathy began to return about one year after he had been discharged with instructions to take only thiamine. There is a particular relationship between thiamine and magnesium because both of them are cofactors together for the same enzymes. However, vitamins and minerals are non caloric nutrients that work as a complex team. There might still be nutrients in naturally occurring food that await discovery. Mother Nature knows how they all should be balanced. The further we move from our biologic origins by the introduction of artificial foods in our hedonistic pursuit of pleasure, the more illness can be expected. Our present medical model is concerned only with killing the attacking agent. Rather simple clinical research revealed an anomaly of this nature in the organization of defense, without knowing how common it is. It should surely focus our attention on the role of nutrition in providing the raw materials for this organization. An infection gives rise to a battle. There are only three possible outcomes: the enemy wins: the defense wins: there is stalemate. The stalemate possibility suggests that chronic long term infection can be tackled by the use of energy producing nutrients that improve the efficiency of a defensive program.

Unfortunately, there are problems with what appears to be a simple solution. Even natural food does not have the nutrient density that it used to have because of changes in farming practices. Also, whether we like it or not, evolution is going on all the time and in the modern world, the smartest brains have the greatest evolutional advantage. Those interested in following the numerous posts on this website will note that post Gardasil thiamine deficiency appears to affect the brightest and the best. I have suggested that relatively poor nutrition, coupled with a smart brain, creates a greater risk of succumbing to a risk from vaccination, mild infection or trauma.

I have seen several articles that state the uselessness of dietary supplements, claiming that the numerous vendors are cheating the public. My own library research reveals numerous papers on the subject of supplementary nutrients coming from many parts of the world other than America. Although they are not cheap, the expense is very much less than the drugs issued by pharmaceutical companies and their curative or preventive properties are huge. Humanitarian research in this area of relative ignorance is a modern necessity.

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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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