The Hidden Vitamin B1 Deficiency Epidemic: Signs, Symptoms & Who's Most at Risk

[00:00:00]Hey everybody, welcome to Pick Dr. Osborne's Brain.

[00:00:04]We've got a great show for you today.

[00:00:05]We're going to be taking your questions on vitamin B1. And if you'd like to get more information, make sure you check out our crash course that we did on Tuesday. And if you want to get those show notes and the slides and the graphics and everything I presented, just comment vitamin B1 below the video and my team will send that to you directly. So, welcome to the show. We've got some questions that have already come in and um we're going to go ahead and dive into those before I dive into your question. So, the first one, let's put it up on the screen for you.

[00:00:45]Sorry, I'm flying solo, so I'm not the best at tech.

[00:00:50]What are the signs of vitamin B1 deficiency?

[00:00:56]Um so very very simply this the biggest signs of vitamin B1 deficiency are brain fog and fatigue. Now a lot of people really struggle with constipation or bowel dysfunction. It's because vitamin B1 makes or helps your body to make the neurochemistry the the acetylcholine which is the chemical that allows your vagus nerve to talk to your bowels about motility. So if you're low in vitamin B1 that chemical messaging system is disrupted. It can really cause a lot of gas, bloating, constipation, aside from the brain fog, the fatigue.

[00:01:30]Now, in addition, a lot of people struggle with muscle aches and pains.

[00:01:35]Generally speaking, a lot of diseases mimic vitamin B1 deficiency, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue. Um, people with a just a general gastroparesis diagnosis sometimes are just vitamin B1 deficient. Congestive heart failure can actually vitamin B1 can mimic congestive heart failure, neuropathy. So there's not only are there signs early on, but there are actual disease states that vitamin B1 deficiency can begin to manifest into.

[00:02:05]And this is one of the reasons why th this problem being so prevalent as it is is one of the most commonly misdiagnoses in the medical community because doctors in America and in Europe believe predominantly that there's no such thing anymore as vitamin B1 deficiency and that our nutrition is so perfect and so great that no one could ever, you know, could manifest this in a modern diet.

[00:02:28]And the reality is vitamin B1 deficiency is rampant. There's estimations from like 20 to 90% of people are deficient in vitamin B1. So, if you struggle with those types of symptoms, you're going to definitely want to um want to get that looked at um and obviously um investigated because it could be just as simple as eating more vitamin B1 or supplementing with vitamin B1 more in your diet. Um second question that came in was um who is at greatest risk for vitamin B1 deficiency? In essence um what are the scenarios or the situations uh that could potentiate or increase the likely uh for likelihood rather for somebody to actually develop uh vitamin B1 deficiency. And so uh you know that being said uh this diagram that you can see here is some of the more common things that we see alcohol consumption and even that nightly glass of wine. I know a lot of people think that you know I don't drink a lot uh but alcohol consumption can cause a chronicity of vitamin B1 malabsorption and utilization. So it's very very common even in even in people that consider themselves to be conservative alcohol drinkers can drive vitamin B1 down. High carbohydrate diets or high sugar diets um particularly when you eat sugar that has empty calories like sodas um and processed sugar.

[00:04:07]And this is especially true of those of you who are on a gluten-free diet and eating all that garbage junk food that's labeled gluten-free. you know, the gluten-free package crackers and cookies and all that stuff because it's very high in carbohydrate.

[00:04:21]Um, which basically excessive carbohydrates tax your vitamin B1 storage. So, when you're eating a lot of carbohydrates, you're burning through vitamin B1 because part of B1's job is to convert carbohydrate into energy. And ultimately, when you're eating low uh low B1 foods that are high in carbohydrate calories, you're draining your B1 bank account internally and driving yourself toward a deficiency.

[00:04:48]So, high sugar diets, but also highly processed or ultrarocessed foods because those are also low in vitamin B1.

[00:04:55]Excessive coffees and teas. If you're a heavy coffee, heavy tea drinker, know that there are compounds in both coffee and tea that can inhibit absorption of vitamin B1. There's also a diuretic effect, but that in my opinion is less of the problem. It's more of the uh inhibition of absorption that can occur.

[00:05:14]And when I say excessive, I'm talking, you know, more than two cups a day. If you're the pot a day coffee drinker, if you're if you go to the the the gas station and you get the 72 oz u and call that one cup, that's I'm talking to you, right? So if you're doing that level of coffee consumption, know that you're at much greater risk for vitamin B1 deficiency. Any of you with celiac disease or other inflammatory bowel diseases that can affect your digestion, your absorption, so like chronic and gastritis, celiac, inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn's, ulcerative colitis, you are all at risk for B1 deficiency because of the inflammatory damage to your GI tract. So, by default, you're going to be greater risk for malabsorption. And then we have gastric bypass. Those of you who've had a surgery, a bypass or ruin, um those types of surgeries definitely are linked to vitamin B1 deficiencies. There's numerous studies showing the impact of these surgeries on late stage vitamin B1 uh deficiency development. So, if this fits you, consider getting with your doctor, you know, to get your vitamin B1 levels checked. I know that's kind of an ironic statement because doctors aren't trained in nutrition. So, when I say get with your doctor, what I really mean is get with a doctor who understands nutrition.

[00:06:39]Hopefully, you have one. If you don't, you you could always reach out uh to my office.

[00:06:46]um we we um me and my team u take on uh take on new clientele all the time. So you can reach out there if you'd like to um but but regardless get with a doctor who um who understands nutrition so that you can get measured properly. I mean step one is identify the issue and step two is treat it. Um if you don't ever identify it, you never know to treat it.

[00:07:09]So B1 deficiency very very commonly caused by those things. Now I'm also um I'm also going to comment I think a little bit on one of the other factors that really can drive that very commonly gets ignored uh and that actually has to do with medicine.

[00:07:32]And so there are a number of different types of medicines that uh if you're taking them, you definitely want to um want to have your vitamin B1 levels investigated as a kind of a a contingency plan for um for not developing deficiency. Right? So it doesn't matter how long you've been on them. Of course, the longer you're on them, the more chronic the problem can become. But if you're taking any of these particular medications, you want to make sure you have a conversation with whoever you're prescribing doctor is. Uh, and if they won't measure your B1, get get ask them for a referral to a doctor who will, right? Because as long as they want you to be on these medicines, you're at risk. So, what are they? They're diuretics, hydrochloroioide, fioamide. So if you're taking a water pill or blood pressure medication to lower your water volume, blood volume quantity through diaresis, um you're at tremendous risk for vitamin B1 deficiency. This is actually some hospital studies show that patients in the hospital have been on these drugs for any length of time. It's like 90 plus% of them have vitamin B1 deficiency. So, you really want to make sure you're measuring this one because remember what I said earlier, vitamin B1 deficiency causes congestive heart failure. Many times doctors treat congestive heart failure with the use of diuretics. So, that that's the catch 22 and you need to be aware of it. If you're on proton pump inhibitors, um you know, drugs that prevent your GI tract from actually being able to properly produce acid, this is another driving force behind vitamin B1 deficiency. And that's also true of H2 receptor blockers, also drugs that lower acid production in the stomach. So if you're taking ant acids, if you're taking H2 receptor blockers or proton pump inhibitors, these are these are medicines that uh in my opinion require you to get your vitamin B1 levels monitored. Uh because if you're if you're on them and you develop deficiency, the symptoms uh can be GI tract in nature. So you know what I said earlier, constipation, gastric bloating, intestinal discomfort, even in some cases heartburn are symptoms of vitamin B1 deficiency. And then antibiotics, certain antibiotics can drive down vitamin B1 as well. So if you've gone on, you know, u a lot of people taking chronic antibiotics like patients being treated for Lyme disease and they're on antibiotics for, you know, three plus months, you know, you need to you need to be thinking about getting your levels checked. And then chemotherapy. any of you have gone through, you know, cancer treatment and chemotherapy. This is a big driver of vitamin B1 deficiency.

[00:10:12]What's not on this list that I think should be um mentioned is metformin.

[00:10:17]Metformin can actually reduce the uptake of vitamin B1 into cells and it's one of the most commonly prescribed drugs for diabetes. So if you're on metformin to lower your blood sugar, to control your blood sugar, get your vitamin B1 levels checked. Remember B1 deficiency can cause neuropathy which is also caused by diabetes right diabetic neuropathy vitamin B1 deficiency neuropathy look exactly the same to the doctor right symptomatically they feel the same and so you don't want to be on metformin for five years develop a neuropathy think that it's diabetic neuropathy when in effect it's metformin B1 uh deficiency uh that that's actually driving it. So this becomes very very important. Bottom line, folks, is test test your nutrient levels. My favorite way to do this is through the use of a um let's see here through the use of a test called the INA or intracellular nutrient analysis. Um, that type of test will measure your levels to see whether or not you have deficiency and and also help you to understand whether or not you need to supplement or whether or not supplementation would be a smart next move for you. And if you'd like to get more information, make sure you check out our crash course that we did on Tuesday. And if you want to get those show notes and the slides and the graphics and everything I presented, just comment vitamin B1 below the video.

[00:11:51]and my team will send that to you directly.