Effect of Vitamin B1 - Thiamine

Based on the few references/websites on effectiveness of thiamine on stuttering and relieving the symptoms of Parkinson's disease, I decided to take thiamine and try. I could get only thiamine mononitrate not thiamine hydrochloride. I got thiamine mononitrate 100 mg tablet. As per the thaimine protocol by Martin F. Schwartz, 300 mg of thiamine hydrochloride is recommended.  Despite this difference, I decided to take thaimine mononitrate. I took 100 mg per day in the morning. At this time, I was not taking any other medication. I intentionally avoided all supplements to study the effect of thiamine alone in by body and brain. Thiamine mononitrate 100 mg/day produced good feelings of affection and reduced irritability. It increased the energy levels little. Not much. But it produced mild stuttering. The stuttering was of the type that I could not complete the sentences. The breathing broke down spontaneously towards end of the sentence and unable to complete the last word. So, I decided to lower down the dose and splitted the tablet. I tried with 50 mg twice a day, one in the morning and one in the night. This also produced mild stuttering. So, I down the dose to 25 mg twice daily. This produced less stuttering and stuttering was manageable. So, totally I took 25 mg twice daily for last three weeks.

Positive effects:
1. Increased feelings of affection towards family members and reduced irritability. This led to reduced number of fights with wife.
2. Slightly increased energy.

Negative effects:
1. Intolerance to cold - I was unable to sit in my air conditioned office. I had to wear a jacket to cover my body to avoid shaking of my muscles due to cold. Normally I don't feel much cold in my office. Even without air conditioning at my house also, I had to cover myself with blankets.
2. Seems to decrease the libido and early morning erections.
3. Could not focus or concentrate on any work during the day (This happened during the fasting.)

I need to use 300 mg of thiamine hydrochloride and observe the effects.

Update on 17/08/2015:

On 26 July, 2015, I tested for a complete health check up. Surprisingly, my cholesterol levels became normal. My total cholesterol was below normal, HDL-C was little decreased from normal, LDL-C was slightly increased from normal. TG was almost normal. My blood pressure was also normal (tested on two occasions; one by a doctor and another one by a nurse (130/80 at 11 am). My blood sugar (fasting and postprandial) and HbA1C were also within normal range.

The possible reasons:

1. I avoided rice completely during the fasting month. I took only chapathis and parottas. But I took mutton and chicken twice per week.
2. I avoided tea and coffee totally during the fasting month. Instead I took only green tea in the evening. This caused defecation issues. No regular defecation occurred. Incomplete feeling was there after passing stools.
3. I took 1 or 2 eggs daily in night.
4. I continued the thiamine mononitrate 25 mg in morning and 25 mg in night.

Update on 28/08/2015:

For the last 1 week, I have been taking benfotiamine. I tried to get thiamine hydrochloride 100 mg in India. But, I could not get it. Instead, I could obtain only benfotiamine 100 mg (Benalgis 100 mg). So, I decided to give it a try. I took 100 mg in the morning for few days. It gave me good mood. But mild stuttering was there. So, I split it into 50 mg in morning and 50 mg in night. During this time, I was taking tea without milk two times daily. I was taking supradyn recharge 1 tablet on alternate days. I felt very tired and less motivated. But I was not feeling much cold in my office when compared to thiamine mononitrate. But still, I felt little cold and tired. After reading some literature on benfotiamine and NFkB, I decided to reduce the dose to 50 mg and take at night time. This gave me good mood and manageable stuttering. Also, I was taking chapatis and parottas for breakfast and dinner during this time. But it appears to me that wheat based products stimulate some kind of inflammation in my brain. So, I need to try with only rice-based products.

Positive effects:

1. Good mood
2. Slightly increased motivation
3. Slightly increased concentration
4. Reduced irritation
5. The libido increased for few days (able to fantasize) and become stable afterwards
6. Manageable stuttering
7. Got early morning erections every day. I used to feel erection probably after every REM sleep stage

Negative effects:

1. Sleeping time slightly increased.
2. Inertia is still there.

Possible mechanism:

1. Benfotiamine may reduce the activation of NFkB. This may lead to increased GnRH secretion. Because, activated NFkB may reduce GnRH secretion.

Update on 29 April 2016:

For the last 1 month, I was taking pharmaton capsules which contains ginseng (1 tablet daily in morning). This gives me good working memory to juggle between multiple tasks with less perceived stress. I am able to remain motivated to continue with the tasks and still focus on other tasks. I think this may be due to the ginseng's effect and the presence of lecithin. I added zinc 15 mg, one tablet daily in night (Amino zinc, 21st Century). This was giving me good sustained focus and concentration to do tasks. Along with this combination, when I took vitamin C 500 mg (Celin 500) in the morning, it increased my libido very much.

The ginseng produced little stuttering. With vitamin C, the stuttering was less and more manageable. But, in the afternoon, after the lunch, the stuttering was worse. So, I stopped vitamin C. The ginseng produced stuttering probably due to increased dopamine. So, I added thiamine mononitrate 25 mg daily at night. It effectively reduced stuttering and anxiety especially when one more dose (25 mg) was taken in the morning. Strikingly, the effect of thiamine is consistent and similar to that of previous observations in 2015 July. Similar to the positive effects, it produced the negative effects (unable to focus or concentrate on academic work, intolerance to cold temperature, reduced libido) also with the same consistency. These effects are noticeable approximately after 5-7 days of daily dosing. The efficacy of thiamine to suppress stuttering and induce fluent speech is remarkable.

Yesterday, I had to do interview a person through skype along with my dean and a person from HR. I was fluent in speech and without anxiety. I could ask questions to the interviewee and talk with other team members without any noticeable stuttering. The speech was clear. Amazing! Only a stutter will know how much stressful it is to talk over phone or other online chat applications. Yesterday, I did not take pharmaton capsule to lessen stuttering. Instead, I took 25 mg thiamine mononitrate after lunch. The night day before yesterday, I took 15 mg zinc (Amino zinc) 25 mg thiamine mononitrate. The breakfast was two bread slices (sandwich bread with wheatgerm) and the lunch was rice with chicken curry and chicken 3 pieces of chicken. The interview was at 3 pm.

Because of intolerance to cold and unable to focus on work, I stopped thiamine mononitrate yesterday. Instead, I took benfotiamine 50 mg at night. Today morning, I found my libido is good and I am able to focus on work. The stuttering is also little worse than yesterday. I don't know whether it is due to benfotiamine or stopping of thiamine mononitrate. I need to follow up for few more days and see.

It appears to me that the thiamine mononitrate may act by increasing GABA similar to Ashwagandha. So, the increased GABA may reduce dopamine, noradrenaline and serotonin possibly leading to all those symptoms observed. Contrastingly, benfotiamine appears to be acting with different mechanism than that of thiamine mononitrate. The long term effects of benfotiamine needs to be studied.

Update on 14 June 2017:

Recently, I was taking thiamine mononitrate 25 mg every night after dinner. It was not reducing stuttering much during the fasting month. So, I took 50 mg of thiamine mononitrate in night after dinner. The next morning, I observed increased salivation in the mouth and reduced stuttering and increased loudness of voice. This indicates possible increase of cholinergic or parasympathtic drive by thiamine mononitrate.

Update on 26 March 2018:

I did a blood check up on 2 Feb 2018. My total cholesterol (273 mg/dL) and LDL-cholesterol (191 mg/dL) were very high. Prior to the check up, I was taking L-thyroxine (25 mg) [Thyronorm] every night 2 hrs after dinner for 3-4 months. I don't know whether thyroxine consumption can increase LDL-cholesterol or not. After seeing the LDL-C levels, I stopped taking thyroxine. I remembered my 2015 experiment of taking thiamine and reduction in cholesterol levels. So, I wanted to repeat that experiment. So, I have started taking thiamine from 14 Feb 2018 similar to the 2015 experiment. I am taking 25 mg of thiamine mononitrate two times daily (morning and night, both after food). I am also taking multivitamin + minerals (Blackmore) 1 tablet daily in the morning after food. Along with these drugs, I used to take Vitamin D3 1000 IU (Cholecalciferol 25 mcg) (Blackmores) one capsule every day. But, after 3-4 days of taking Vitamin D3, my stuttering gets worst. So, I had to stop taking vitamin D3. If I take B+C (Blackmores) along with thiamine, it increases focus and concentration (suitable for research). However, it increases stuttering mildly. I am also doing 30 minutes of aerobic exercise (elliptical cross training) daily in the evening around 8.30 - 10.00 pm before dinner. I am planning to test my cholesterol levels around May 14. Surprisingly, this time, I am not feeling cold intolerance as I had before. Also, no lack of focus and concentration.

Update on 14 May 2018:

I did a blood check up on 12 May 2018. My lipid profile is as below:

Total cholesterol (TC):  220 mg/dL
LDL-C: 148.10 mg/dL
HDL-C: 35.96 mg/dL

As expected, the TC and LDL-C values are reduced 19% and 22.46% respectively with the thiamine mononitrate therapy approximately for 3 months. The reduction is much less when compared with one month therapy with thiamine mononitrate during 2015. This suggests that the increased cholesterol synthesis may happen due to either milk consumption or multivitamin consumption. This requires further research.

Update on 27 June 2018:

I did a blood check up on 25 June 2018 after the fasting month. During this fasting month, I stopped the thiamine mononitrate due to an unexpected sudden occurrence of right knee pain (a very unique pain occurred. No pain was observed during normal walking or sitting but severe unbearable needles-like pain was observed when I kneel down only especially during prayer). So, I stopped all medications for nearly one month. After 45 days, the knee pain disappeared completely and did not return.

My lipid profile is as below:

Total cholesterol: 239.2 mg/dL
LDL-C: 175.7 mg/dL
HDL-C: 43.5 mg/dL

It appears that stopping thiamine mononitrate has significant impact on cholesterol levels especially on LDL-C levels even for 1 month time.





 
 

 
   

My Probable Conditions and Possible Treatment Options

Based on the observations and interventions I had so far, I may have one or more of the conditions below:


Also, I took the online tests at http://www.gethelpfordepression.info and based on my scores also I may have one or more of the following conditions.

1. Mild Autism - (Impairment of social skills)
2. ADD - characterized by occasional periods of intense focus followed by inability to focus and concentrate
3. Overmethylation
4. Genetic mutations - MTHFR/Methionine synthase/CBS
5. Chronic fatigue syndrome
6. Damage to prefrontal cortex
7. Demyelination disorders
8. Pyroluria
9. Dopamine deficiency
10. Testosterone deficiency (This may be the root cause of all problems)

Also, I took the online tests at http://www.gethelpfordepression.info and based on my scores also I may have one or more of the following conditions (indicated with red background)

S. No.	Condition	Score	Remarks
1	Serotonin deficiency	6	moderately low level of serotonin.
2	GABA deficiency	5	severely low level of GABA
3	Dopamine deficiency	6	severely low level of dopamine
4	Acetylcholine deficiency	3	moderately low level of acetylcholine
5	Pyroluria test	21	anyone who scores 15 or more should be tested for pyroluria
6	Histadelia, (undermethylation)	7	anyone who scores less than 10 probably doesn't have histadelia
7	Histapenia, (overmethylation)	11	anyone who scores 10 or more should be tested for histapenia
8	Hypothyroidism test	8	anyone who scores between 8 and 11 may have moderately low thyroid function
9	Fatty acid imbalance test	31	a score of more than 10 is very suggestive of fatty acid imbalance.
10	Trans fatty acid intake	2	a score of up to 4 is not bad
11	omega-3 fatty acid intake section	12	a score between 10 and 20 shows that you have a reasonable intake of omega 3. However a score of more than 20 would be ideal
12	Sugar Addiction (Unstable blood sugar) test	31	anyone who scores more than 12 may have a problem with blood sugar instability
13	Food intolerance test	41	strongly suggestive of problems relating to food intolerance
14	Adrenal fatigue test	168	severe adrenal fatigue
15	Addison’s disease test	18	According to Dr James L. Wilson, anyone who scores more than 12 should look at the following questions. The areas on my body listed below have become bluish-black in color: Inside of lips, mouth Vagina Around nipples I have frequent unexplained diarrhea I have increased darkening around the bony areas, at folds in my skin, scars and creases of my joints I have light coloured patches on my skin where the skin has lost its usual color I easily become dehydrated I have fainting spells (I don’t have any of these symptoms)
16	Candida test	159	almost certainly have yeast-connected health  problems

Also, following are the supplements which gave me increased energy and good mood at different times. So, I need to re look into these supplements and combine them in an effective manner to avoid the side effects.

S. No.	Supplement	Positive effects	Negative effects	Remarks
1	Folic acid 2.5 mg, b.i.d. (morning and night) alone and in combination with multivitamin tablets	Increased energy, good mood, Increased ability to concentrate and remain in a task	Mild stuttering	The effect of folic acid is always apparent clearly. The effect is observable after 2-3 doses and disappears after 24 hours of stopping the dose. Suggesting a folic acid deficiency OR some error in the metabolic pathway of folate. Need to do genetic testing to identify any deficiency in MTHFR, methionine synthase and MTRR and plasma homocysteine and methyl malonic acid
2	Methyl folate 3.75 mg b.i.d. (morning and night) alone and in combination with multivitamin tablets	Increased energy, good mood, Increased ability to concentrate and remain in a task, development of super confidence feeling (grandiosity)	Mild stuttering but manageable	Suggesting a folic acid deficiency OR some error in the metabolic pathway of folate. Need to do genetic testing to identify any deficiency in MTHFR, methionine synthase and MTRR and plasma homocysteine and methyl malonic acid
3	Calcium around 300 mg – 500 mg b.i.d. (morning and evening) from Magcalzinc tablets and from Amul low fat milk	Increased energy, good mood, good interest to engage in conversations		This needs to be confirmed by taking calcium supplements alone preferably a calcium phosphate. Probably, the increased calcium levels may favour the release of neurotransmitters.
4	Phosphorous around 400 mg – 500 mg b.i.d. (morning and evening) from Amul low fat milk	Increased energy, good mood, good interest to engage in conversations		This needs to be confirmed by taking calcium supplements alone preferably in the form of calcium phosphate. Probably, the increased phosphorous levels may favour the formation of more ATP.
5	Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine HCl) 5 - 10 mg o.d. OR b.i.d. either alone or in combination with other multivitamin tablets	Very mild increase in energy, prevents headache	Increased stuttering, Increased daytime sleepiness	Suggesting increased serotonergic neurotransmission indirectly indicating near normal serotonergic system.
6	Vitamin B12 (Cyanocobalamin) 5 mcg – 15 mcg in the form of multivitamin tablets	No apparent observable effect	No apparent observable effect	May be some error in the cobalamin metabolic pathway
7	Methylcobalamin 250 mg b.i.d. OR o.d.	Able to sleep continuously without breaks, able to get up early in the morning with “completed my sleep” feeling, vivid dreams, No significant daytime sleepiness	Mild stuttering	May be some error in the cobalamin metabolic pathway. Need to do genetic testing to identify any deficiency in MTHFR, methionine synthase and MTRR and plasma homocysteine and methyl malonic acid
8	Zinc 15 mg o.d. alone (Biozinc – amino chelated zinc) and in combination with other multivitamin tablets/capsules	Faster wound healing, No easy bruising of skin (No peeling of skin at nail joints), No white spots on nails, disappearance of black pigmented rough skin spot at the nose joints, Faster acne healing and reduction in acne, Mild increase in focus and concentration	After few doses, lethargy and slowness of body movements started, slowness of body movements progressed with continuation of doses, stopped after stopping the dose	Suggesting zinc deficiency but may need reduced daily intake (< 15 mg). Need to test for plasma zinc levels.
9	Phosphatidylcholine 100 – 300 mg, o.d. OR b.i.d. alone or in combination with other multivitamin tablets	Increased working memory (can do multitasking very faster), reduced perception of stress	Sometimes, tight chest spasms occurred, mild stuttering	Suggesting reduced cholinergic neurotransmission
10	Vitamin D3 65000 IU, once in a week OR once in a month	No dropping of mood even when stressed, No muscle pains	Increased stuttering for first few days only	Vitamin D3 deficiency is confirmed in lab testing.
11	Vitamin D3 1000 – 2000 IU o.d. in combination with multivitamin tablets/capsules	No dropping of mood even when stressed, No muscle pains	Increased stuttering, incomplete sleep in night especially when taken at night, sleep debt occurring after few days, increased daytime sleepiness, reduced motivation	Not sure how to take vitamin D3 without getting side effects.
12	Ginger (Milk extract of ginger – skinless ginger cuttings are added to milk and boiled. This milk is used for making tea and coffee.) This type of ginger tea or coffee is consumed two times a day, in morning and evening.	Increased libido, slightly increased fluency of speech, good body warmth	Increased sleepiness, mild diarrhoea sometimes, increased stuttering sometime	Suggesting testosterone deficiency. Need to test for total and free testosterone, SHBG levels