Benfotiamine

Benfotiamine is a unique synthetic variant of vitamin B1 and it was recently reported by Michael Brownlee, M.D., as showing much promise in preventing nerve and blood-vessel damage in diabetics.

People with diabetes often suffer from circulatory difficulties and vision problems etc. These effects are acquired from a build-up of sugar in the tissues. Now researchers have reported that Benfotiamine halts much of that sugar accumulation, which may lead to a vastly improved quality of life for many.

Four major pathways have been highlighted as causing much of the damage of diabetes, in-essence because they help glucose-derived compounds, called triosephosphates, accumulate in vascular and nerve cells.

But the activation of the enzyme transketolase, turns triosephosphates into harmless chemicals. As transketolase is a thiamine-dependent enzyme, it was thought that thiamine, (also known as vitamin B1) could activate them. However, thiamine only activates it about 20 percent, (which isn't enough to stop the glucose-derived compounds accumulating in healthy cells). But recent research has found that Benfotiamine increases the levels of transketolase by 300 percent, and also blocks three pathways completely. While its action has not been tested on a fourth pathway that controls nerve cells, it is thought that it may work similarly there. At any rate, blocking three pathways is believed to be enough to help prevent many diabetes-related complications.

As we all become more 'diabetic' with age (i.e. we lose our sensitivity to insulin) Benfotiamine is a useful natural agent in the struggle for balanced 'blood sugar control.'