Mind your thiamin
If you're diabetic, you should stock your grocery cart with navy beans, nuts, wheat germ, lean beef, spinach, oranges, oatmeal and fresh peas. They're the best food sources of B1, also known as thiamin.
And if you're diabetic, you're in short supply—and your blood vessels could be suffering.
Recently, a study concluded that diabetic's blood plasma is deficient in vitamin B1, which is essential for maintaining the health of the nervous system.
In this study, researchers discovered that the concentration of thiamin in blood plasma was decreased 76 percent for type 1 diabetics and 75 percent in type 2 patients. They concluded that the lower levels of thiamin were not due to a lack of eating enough thiamin-rich foods. Rather, the body was excessively excreting thiamin from the body through the urine at a rate 15 times greater than normal.
Diabetics are plagued with health problems resulting from damage to their kidneys, retinas and the nerves in their arms and legs. The research team has been able to link these medical complications to the thiamin deficiency. They believe it's due to an effect on endothelial cells, which are found in the lining of our entire vascular system, and also due to chronic arterial inflammation.
I recommend you boost your intake of thiamin-rich foods. Not only is thiamin important for maintaining vascular health, it's also good for keeping your energy level up by helping to metabolize carbs and fats. Thiamin is a water-soluble vitamin, so whatever your body doesn't take up, it will get rid of in the urine. For this reason, taking high daily doses (50 to 100 mg) of oral thiamin as a supplement may not be of much help to diabetics, because they'll just lose it in their urine.
However, there is a fat-soluble form of thiamin, called benfotiamine, which does not have this problem. Nutrition-savvy doctors and patients with diabetes frequently use this form to ensure that healthy levels of this key nutrient are achieved. Benfotiamine is used to treat diabetic neuropathy, which is painful nerve damage. Most studies on benfotiamine for diabetics use 150 mg twice per day, although you can use as little as 80 mg a few times per week and still enjoy some benefit. By the same token, doses of up to 1200 mg per day have been used to treat more severe case of diabetic neuropathy.
You can directly purchase high-quality benfotiamine from Life Extension at 800-544- 4440. Many nutritional doctors also work with specialty supplement companies that offer high-quality benfotiamine, as well. In addition, many special combination supplements designed specifically for diabetics will include benfotiamine.
