Significant Improvement Story -- Focus on Thiamine Deficiency

[Gondwanaland]

Are you familiar with boron for arthritic pain?

Never looked into it specifically but it might have been a missing link in my uric acid conundrum. I have found that fresh fruit high in Boron (pears) seem to help - except for avocados which make me feel awful (salicylates). I always thought that fruit flavonoids were the helpful part - e.g. guava cravings.

My integrative dr suggested the grated avocado pit trick for my inflammation, but I never tried it due to my avocado intolerance.

Now I have a mixed impression from Molybdenum, because my inflammation flares might have been due to low Moly or its co-factors, rather than high levels.

I suppose that a clear sign of sulfite issues would be neck and shoulder tightness, and I was having it after several months taking measures to lower uric acid. Until I saw a rheumato who told me that people with gout crises more frequently have lowered serum uric acid...

In any case, all my anti-uric acid measures really helped with the crises (which probably had more arachidonic acid rather than uric acid ). Then I suppose it resulted in Moly deficiency (neck+shoulder issues).

Then the most confusing thing happened... I ate a lot of foods high in Moly + high thiamine foods, and got signs of low thiamine So Moly is really tricky and can cause B1 depletion and fatigue, unless a really high intake of B1 occurs

 

[Gondwanaland]

The B1 is an issue because it detoxes estrogen but I am severely deficient so I feel as fast as I put estrogen in I am taking it out. I am barely maintaining

I can't tolerate B1 at all, I get a mix of low estrogen and low thyroid symptoms.

The articles I posted above from Hormones Matter on the estrogen feeding mitochondria are very interesting, especially as thiamine is also critical for mitochondria. I would be interested in your feedback on them. Maybe between us we can nut something out although my brain is definitely not fully firing!

Thanks for the links, I will try to read them today. If you start a thread on low estrogen, please tag me!

My blood pressure is too low to handle GLA. Occasionally I take a little spirulina. Any more is an issue.

Mmmm I get hypercoagulation from GLA. It was just great when I started it because I was taking Flax seed oil, which is a potent blood thinner, but both together tanked my Moly and caused severe insomnia, so I had to quit both.

For me the benefits of B1, B2, B6 outweigh the risks.

I am preparing to give a new go with Bs, because my endogenous estrogen is now improved with Manganese.

I sometimes take a little pantethine, choline and biotin but I can't tolerate niacin in any form.

I can' tolerate niacin or choline, and became intolerant to B5 (Moly or B1 deficiency?)

Estrogen and B1 are my saviors.

I will pair B1 with Mn and see what happens...

 

[tango]

@Gondwanaland is your blood pressure at the low or high end? Mine is very low and GLA and niacin lower blood pressure

 

[Gondwanaland]

@Gondwanaland is your blood pressure at the low or high end? Mine is very low and GLA and niacin lower blood pressure

90/60.
I read once that estrogen is so toxic to endothelium that the vessels go under extreme vasodilation to avoid clotting (Nitric Oxide). I seem to be deficient in it... Estrogen makes my blood clot... My body seems to have shut down hormone production since I had a DVT back in 2011. GLA makes me feel great but makes my blood clot.

 

[Ravn]

@Wayne and everybody else here who's been taking B1 really long-term, could you give an update on how you're doing with it now? And what you've learned in the process, eg how much improvement, best type B1 with doses, co-factors, any side effects, paradoxical effects, things not to do, .... Kind of a summary because this thread is getting long and some of the reports are a few years old now. That would be really helpful, thanks.

 

[tango]

90/60.
I read once that estrogen is so toxic to endothelium that the vessels go under extreme vasodilation to avoid clotting (Nitric Oxide). I seem to be deficient in it... Estrogen makes my blood clot... My body seems to have shut down hormone production since I had a DVT back in 2011. GLA makes me feel great but makes my blood clot.

Estrogen raises my blood pressure so I love it. Whether that's because it retains water or some other reason I have no idea.

GLA drops my BP (it's known for that) so I don't touch it any more.
I have von willebrands. It seems to be in remission but additional blood clotting probably won't harm me

 

[tango]

Has anyone sourced a lab that does the transketolase activity test? I saw mention that the European lab has a partner lab in Singapore that does the test. At this stage I would be happy to pay for the test and an international courier just to prove there is something real going on here. Most of my lab tests are frustratingly normal

 

[Wayne]

Thiamine as a possible treatment for tinnitus... Below the link is part of the fairly lengthy post...

Thiamine Pyrophosphate (TPP) Stopped My Tinnitus!

... I suspect that what I am about to share is related to helping decrease inflammation in the Eustachian tubes or nerves. -- The miracle substance that helped me is called Thiamine Pyrophosphate (TPP.) This is also known as Coenzymated Vitamin B1, Thiamine Diphosphate, and Thiamine Cocarboxylase. I bought this from a company called Source Naturals on Amazon. I think it was 11 bucks.

Brief primer on TPP:

Thiamine that you ingest in food or supplements is usually some sort of free thiamine compound. Most supplements are Thiamine HCl, and many foods are usually fortified with thiamine mononitrate (like flour and rice.) This is not the ACTIVE form of thiamine in the body, though. Your body needs to attach TWO phosphate groups to free thiamine; TPP then enters the Krebs (Citric Acid) cycle and can be used by the body.

Why did I decide to try taking this? -- Well, because of allergies, I don't eat a lot of fortified foods. I suspected I was deficient in thiamine. I figured this out years ago, and have been taking a thiamine supplement for many years---- Thiamine HCl, though. I did not notice much of a difference one way or the other, but was just taking it as a preventive measure.

Well, I ran out of that kind. I came across the idea of "activated" B vitamins somewhere in my research, and the logic behind them seemed to make sense to me. Because of genetics, some people can't process Folic Acid into active Folate, for example (those with the MTHFR gene mutation.) I thought "hey, maybe there's similar issue with Thiamine." Anyway, I decided to give it a try.

So, here's what I did. I ordered that supplement mentioned above. Each pill has 25 mg of thiamine, which is like 20 times the USRDA. I decided to start out super slowly, since I didn't know how I would react to it. I crushed the pill up into powder, put the powder into a dropper bottle, and added 200 drops of water. I started out taking 1 drop a day, which was like 0.08 mg of TPP (about 1/15 the USRDA.) Then over the course of a few weeks, I upped it to the USRDA.

Within about two days of starting this protocol, my tinnitus totally disappeared! After 31 years! -- The tinnitus remained gone a long as I was on this protocol, for about a month. Then, I stopped taking the TPP because I got a cold and thought that that might have had something to do with it.

Within two days the tinnitus came back. -- Three days ago, I started back on it, but the tinnitus has not disappeared yet. I'm still on a super low dose, and will slowly increase over the next week. I have hope that I will have a similar result the second time around.
​