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Vitamin B1 may prevent diabetes complications
New research may provide an early warning sign that someone is developing diabetes and a means of reversing the damage it causes
People with diabetes – there are currently around 2.2 million In the UK alone, with up to 750,000 more undiagnosed - face a range of health problems connected with the disease.
Now a discovery by researchers at the University of Warwick Medical School sheds new light on complications caused by damage to the vascular system that carries blood around the body. These problems, including kidney, retina and nerve damage, are common in people with this condition.
The researchers, led by Professor Paul Thornalley, have found a new way to test accurately for levels of vitamin B1 (thiamine), and discovered that people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes have low levels of thiamine. In a paper published in the journal Diabetologia, the study showed that the thiamine concentration in blood plasma was 76% lower in people with type 1 and 75% lower in people with type 2 diabetes.
"We are currently involved in four separate clinical trials, studying whether thiamine can reverse early stage vascular disease", explains Professor Thornalley. "The body seems to be washing it out at 24 times the normal rate, so we have to put it in at 24 times the normal rate. In the trials we’re giving the vitamin in high doses, it’s being used as a therapy, rather than a nutritional supplement." The results of the clinical trials will be published later in 2007.
The new research may have other benefits for people with this condition. "The low rates of this vitamin are a marker for diabetes," explains Matt Hunt, Science Information Manager at Diabetes UK, which helped to fund the study.
"If a test was available, it might provide an early warning sign, before diabetes has developed. Most people who develop diabetes go through a lead-in period, they remain undiagnosed for quite a long time.
"If a test was carried out on people who are at high risk – smokers, people who are overweight or obese, who have high cholesterol or blood pressure – you could advise them to change their habits.
"Studies have shown that if you can intervene with people who are showing glucose intolerance and get them to stop smoking, exercise more, bring their blood pressure and cholesterol down and lose weight, you can stop diabetes developing."
"Around 80% of people with diabetes die of cardiovascular disease and diabetes is the leading cause of blindness in the UK's working age population. Therefore, any research that could help must be looked at seriously."
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