Deficiency of thiamine or Vitamin B1 could be the key to various vascular problems in individuals suffering from diabetes - researchers at Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick have recently discovered.

We already know that diabetes is associated to various vascular complications:

• microvascular complications: damage to the kidney, retina and nerves in arms and legs
• macrovascular complications: heart disease and stroke

Led by Professor Paul Thornalley, the University of Warwick team was able to demonstrate conclusively that diabetic patients are thiamine deficient in blood plasma. The team found out what happens to thiamine in diabetic patients and was able to connect it more closely to vascular complications.

As published in Diabetologia on August 4, 2007:

"The team found that thiamine concentration in blood plasma was decreased 76% in type 1 diabetic patients and 75% in type 2 diabetic patients.

The researchers found that the decreased availability of thiamine in vascular cells in diabetes was linked to a marker of microvascular and macrovascular complications.

The researchers found that the decreased plasma thiamine concentration in clinical diabetes was not due to a deficiency of dietary input of thiamine. Rather it was due to a profound increased rate of removal of thiamine from the blood into the urine."

These findings open new areas for further studies. Bottom line is: that hopefully the correction of thiamine deficiency would benefit diabetics.

Source: University of Warwick

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