Did you know that vitamin B-1 has two other widely used names? Thiamine is a name used in
US and Aneurin is popular name in Europe. Thiamin (without e) is also used to refer to B-1. Vitamin B-1 is important to your body’s health. You probably have heard of beriberi before. It can have pretty severe effects on your nervous system, heart, brain, cellular health and energy levels to name a few problem areas affected by a deficiency of B-1.
Interestingly enough, a person with beriberi that has reached point of barely being able to move, will often respond to a B-1 injection in just a few hours to point that they will be able to get up and walk again. Beriberi is truly a deficiency disease.
Thiamine is important to energy production system of every cell in your body. ATP or Adenosine Triphosphate is energy currency that powers your body. There are a few pathways that your cell uses to make ATP, major one being Kreb’s cycle. Without sufficient quantities of B-1, your body is restricted in being able to produce all necessary ATP.
Fortunately, especially in North America, you can get Thiamine from your diet. You can get B-1 from many foods. A few are pork, peanuts, whole grains and beans (legumes). There are other foods, this is just a short list for you convenience.
White rice has hull stripped from it which causes rice to become devoid of B-1. This leads to high incidence of beriberi in some Asian countries as rice is relied upon heavily upon as a staple food. Some seafood may actually inhibit absorption of B-1 in digestive tract. Heat and radiation will destroy thiamine and alcohol will interfere with it’s uptake from digestive track.
