Vitamin deficiency link to diabetes

People with diabetes suffer from a lack of vitamin B1 which could be linked to a range of complications, new research shows.

Experts found that diabetics had a far lower concentration of the vitamin - called thiamine - in their blood plasma and that patients "cleared" B1 from the body too quickly.

Researchers at Warwick Medical School said they believed the deficiency was linked to a range of vascular complications in diabetics, including damage to the kidney, retina and nerves, and heart disease and stroke.

Cardiovascular disease accounts for around 80% of all diabetic deaths.

Lead researcher, Professor Paul Thornalley, said the problem was not that diabetics were failing to get enough vitamin B1 from their diet.

He said: "There was no indication that there was a deficiency in nutritional input. Nutritional thiamine was of normal levels but there was this deficiency in the blood, which was caused by the kidney washing it out of the body."

Prof Thornalley said thiamine was being cleared from the body of diabetics at 15 times the normal rate.

His team are now investigating whether raising thiamine levels in diabetics would decrease the risk of vascular problems, as he expects.

The study was carried out on 74 diabetic patients and 20 healthy controls through taking blood and urine samples. The study found that thiamine concentration in blood plasma was decreased by 76% in Type 1 diabetic patients and 75% in Type 2 diabetics.

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