A lack of vitamin B has been linked to vascular disease in diabetes sufferers, groundbreaking research shows.University of Warwick researchers found found for the first time that diabetics - both type one and two sufferers - have a massive three quarters less thiamine (vitamin B1) in their blood than healthy people.
And in what could be a major finding for treatment of diabetes-related vascular conditions, the experts found the shortage was linked to damage to the kidneys, retina and nerves in the arms and legs - common in diabetics.Boffins said diabetics were getting enough vitamin B1 in their diet, but trials are being carried out to see whether a supplement pill lowers the risk of those conditions - with experts predicting it could lead to as much as a 40 per cent decrease. And the study was the first to ever make the finding, after all previous reports had missed the shortage and assumed normal levels of vitamin B1 in diabetics.
Lead researcher Prof. Paul Thornalley said a vitamin B supplement pill could be taken by all diabetics and would work alongside conventional glucose controls and bring separate benefits.
He said: "This is a particularly important study because thiamine has been found to prevent vascular problems in previous research."
"We found that virtually all of the diabetics with an enzyme showing higher chances of vascular disease had less than normal thiamine levels."The idea - once clinical trials are carried out - would be that this supplement would be immediately available for all diabetics - it would be very easy to make.
"The important thing is also that the benefits work independent of glucose control normally used to reduce risks of vascular disease."Around 40 per cent of diabetics still develop vascular disease despite using glucose control - a thiamine supplement might reduce the number.
"You might expect increased levels of thiamine to reduce the risk of vascular disease in diabetics by 30 or 40 per cent." The study - published in diabetes journal Diabetologia - compared 26 type 1 and 48 type 2 diabetics with 20 healthy patients.It found thiamine concentration in blood plasma was decreased 76 per cent in type 1 sufferers and 75 per cent in type 2 patients.
They then found there was a direct link between low thiamine levels and the presence of a "marker" - a protein already known to point to increased risk of microvascular and macrovascular complications.The presence of the marker is linked to problems in cells that line the body's whole circulatory system and an increased risk of inflammation in the artery walls.
Prof. Thornalley said: "In virtually all the diabetics with this marker we found lowered levels of thiamine."
The boffins said the dearth of vitamin B in diabetes sufferers' blood plasma was not down to them not eating enough foods containing it like.Instead it was caused by an increased rate in removal of thiamine from the blood into urine. Up to 15 times more thiamine is passed in urine by diabetics.
Professor Thornalley said: "People are getting their recommended levels in their diet."This is caused by the fact that in healthy people when the blood passes through the kidneys thiamine has to be reabsorbed back into the blood.
"But diabetics are failing to reabsorb it back into the blood in the kidneys. The rate of excretion of thiamine increased to up to 15 fold in diabetic patients."The recommended diet intake of vitamin B1 is around 1 milligram, but we are talking about a supplement of around 100 mg."While this study focused on the actual thiamine levels in the blood plasma, past research focused on the activity of an enzyme called transketolase in diabetics- leading scientists to wrongly assume thiamine levels were also normal.
In fact the normal enzyme activity was due to increased amounts of two proteins - THTR-1 and RFC-1 - that help move thiamine into red blood cells.The increased levels were actually a direct response to a deficiency of thiamine in the body, the research found.
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