Why do you need vitamin b1?

Answer 1

The B vitamins are eight water-soluble vitamins that play important roles in cell metabolism, and are essential to human health and proper cellular function:

* Vitamin B1 (thiamine) * Vitamin B2 (riboflavin) * Vitamin B3 (niacin, includes nicotinic acid and nicotinamide) * Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid) * Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine, pyridoxal, and pyridoxamine) * Vitamin B7 (biotin), also known as vitamin H * Vitamin B9 (folic acid), also, vitamin M * Vitamin B12 (various cobalamins; commonly cyanocobalamin in vitamin supplements) Thiamine

Thiamine, or thiamin, sometimes called aneurin, is a water-soluble vitamin of the B complex (vitamin B1), whose phosphate derivatives are involved in many cellular processes, especially those of the peripheral nervous system and/or the cardiovascular system.

Riboflavin

It is the central component of the cofactors FAD and FMN, and is therefore required by all flavoproteins. As such, vitamin B2 is required for a wide variety of cellular processes. Like the other B vitamins, it plays a key role in energy metabolism, and is required for the metabolism of fats, ketone bodies, carbohydrates, and proteins.

Niacin

Niacin is a precursor to NADH, NAD, NAD+, NADP and NADPH, which play essential metabolic roles in living cells. Niacin is involved in both DNA repair, and the production of steroid hormones in the adrenal gland.

Pantothenic acid

Pantothenic acid, also called vitamin B5 (a B vitamin), is a water-soluble vitamin required to sustain life (essential nutrient). Pantothenic acid is needed to form coenzyme-A (CoA), and is critical in the metabolism and synthesis of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats.

B6 vitamins

Pyridoxal phosphate (PLP) is the active form and is a cofactor in many reactions of amino acid metabolism, including transamination, deamination, and decarboxylation. PLP also is necessary for the enzymatic reaction governing the release of glucose from glycogen.

Biotin

Biotin is necessary for cell growth, the production of fatty acids, and the metabolism of fats and amino acids. It plays a role in the Citric acid cycle, which is the process by which biochemical energy is generated during aerobic respiration. Biotin not only assists in various metabolic reactions, but also helps to transfer carbon dioxide.

Folic acid

Folic acid and Folate is essential to numerous bodily functions ranging from nucleotide synthesis to the remethylation of homocysteine. It is especially important during periods of rapid cell division and growth. Both children and adults require folic acid to produce healthy red blood cells and prevent anemia.

B12 vitamins

Vitamin B12 plays a key role in the normal functioning of the brain and nervous system, and for the formation of blood. It is one of the eight B vitamins. It is normally involved in the metabolism of every cell of the body, especially affecting DNA synthesis and regulation, but also fatty acid synthesis and energy production.

Answer 2

Deficiency

Thiamine derivatives and thiamine-dependent enzymes are present in all cells of the body, thus a thiamine deficiency would seem to adversely affect all of the organ systems. However, the nervous system and the heart are particularly sensitive to thiamine deficiency, because of their high oxidative metabolism.

Thiamine deficiency can lead to severe fatigue of eyes and myriad problems including neurodegeneration, wasting, and death. A lack of thiamine can be caused by malnutrition, a diet high in thiaminase-rich foods (raw Freshwater Fish, raw shellfish, ferns) and/or foods high in anti-thiamine factors (tea, coffee, betel nuts)[32] and by grossly impaired nutritional status associated with chronic diseases, such as Alcoholism, gastrointestinal diseases, HIV-AIDS, and persistent vomiting.[33] It is thought that many people with Diabetes have a deficiency of thiamine and that this may be linked to some of the complications that can occur.[34][35]

Well-known syndromes caused by thiamine deficiency include beriberi and Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, diseases also common with chronic alcoholism.

[edit]

Beriberi

Beriberi is a neurological and cardiovascular disease. The three major forms of the disorder are dry beriberi, wet beriberi, and infantile beriberi.[13]

Dry beriberi is characterized principally by peripheral neuropathy consisting of symmetric impairment of sensory, motor, and reflex functions affecting distal more than proximal limb segments and causing calf muscle tenderness.[33]

Wet beriberi is associated with mental confusion, muscular atrophy, edema, tachycardia, cardiomegaly, and congestive heart failure in addition to peripheral neuropathy.[1]

Infantile beriberi occurs in infants breast-fed by thiamin-deficient mothers (who may show no sign of thiamine deficiency). Infants may manifest cardiac, aphonic, or pseudomeningitic forms of the disorder. Infants with cardiac beriberi frequently exhibit a loud piercing cry, vomiting, and tachycardia.[13] Convulsions are not uncommon, and death may ensue if thiamine is not administered promptly.[33]

Following thiamine treatment, rapid improvement occurs, in general, within 24 hours.[13] Improvements of peripheral neuropathy may require several months of thiamine treatment.[36]

[edit]

Alcoholic brain disease

Nerve cells and other supporting cells (such as glial cells) of the nervous system require thiamine. Examples of neurologic disorders that are linked to alcohol abuse include Wernicke's encephalopathy (WE, Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome) and Korsakoff's psychosis (alcohol amnestic disorder) as well as varying degrees of cognitive impairment.[37]

Wernicke's encephalopathy is the most frequently encountered manifestation of thiamine deficiency in Western society,[38][39] though it may also occur in patients with impaired nutrition from other causes, such as gastrointestinal disease,[38] those with HIV-AIDS, and with the injudicious administration of parenteral glucose or hyperalimentation without adequate B-vitamin supplementation.[40] This is a striking neuro-psychiatric disorder characterized by paralysis of eye movements, abnormal stance and gait, and markedly deranged mental function.[41]

Alcoholics may have thiamine deficiency because of the following:

Inadequate nutritional intake: Alcoholics tend to intake less than the recommended amount of thiamine.

Decreased uptake of thiamine from the GI tract: Active transport of thiamine into enterocytes is disturbed during acute alcohol exposure.

Liver thiamine stores are reduced due to hepatic steatosis or fibrosis.[42]

Impaired thiamine utilization: Magnesium, which is required for the binding of thiamine to thiamine-using enzymes within the cell, is also deficient due to chronic alcohol consumption. The inefficient utilization of any thiamine that does reach the cells will further exacerbate the thiamine deficiency.

Ethanol per se inhibits thiamine transport in the gastrointestinal system and blocks phosphorylation of thiamine to its cofactor form (ThDP).[43]

Korsakoff Psychosis is, in general, considered to occur with deterioration of brain function in patients initially diagnosed with WE.[44] This is an amnestic-confabulatory syndrome characterized by retrograde and anterograde amnesia, impairment of conceptual functions, and decreased spontaneity and initiative.<[33]

Following improved nutrition and the removal of alcohol consumption, some impairments linked with thiamine deficiency are reversed, in particular poor brain functionality, although in more severe cases, Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome leaves permanent damage. (See delirium tremens.)

Source : Wilipedia