Boosting the nervous system

Heather Little-White • Contributor

If you are suffering from tiredness or feel irritable and have difficulty sleeping, you could be suffering from thiamine deficiency in a condition also known as beriberi. Thiamine is part of the B vitamin complex and is essential for maintaining the brain and nervous system. Without thiamine, or vitamin B¹, the brain and nervous system network is likely to collapse.

How would this collapse manifest itself?

Arms and legs lose coordination

Irritability

Eye muscles freeze

Depression

The mind goes blank and remembering becomes difficulty

Inability to concentrate

Difficulty falling asleep

Amnesia, coma and death couldeventually result from extreme deficiency.

VITAMIN B ENERGISER TIME-SAVER DRINK

¹/²cup sunflower seeds

¹/² cup sesame seeds

¹/² cup almonds or other nut

¹/²cup of oats

1 cup powdered skim milk

1¹/²cups soy milk powder

1 ripe banana

1tsp molasses

¹/⁴tsp ground cinnamon

1cup iced water

Method

Grind the seeds, nuts and oats. Combine remaining ingredients in a blender and process, mixing thoroughly. Refrigerate in glass jars.

Makes 2 cups

Boosting the

nervous

system

Shortness of breath

When you experience shortness of breath which gets progressively worse over 30 hours, you may be suffering from thiamine deficiency. The condition could get so bad that hands, feet, the area around the mouth may turn blue and the heart may race and blood-pressure levels fall to dramatically low levels. The chronic thiamine deficiency condition known as acute pernicious beriberi heart disease is common among drinkers.

Over time, thiamine deficiency causes weakening of the heart muscles and may lead to cardiac failure. Cardiovascular complaints are usually more common among people with low intake of thiamine.

Coffee is considered a thiamine thief and coffee drinkers may experience thiamine deficiency by having several cups of coffee. The first cup usually perks you up, but as you drink more, you feel fatigued. Coffee, coupled with excessive sugar, can deplete the body's stores of thiamine. Decaffeinated coffee can also destroy thiamine in the body.

Sleep disturbances

In neurotic patients, thiamine levels are normally low. Researchers believe that thiamine deficiency results in mental problems by reducing the availability of serotonin, the chemical used by the brain to regulate emotions. Jagged nerves can be soothed by thiamine supplementation.According to a study reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, patients with symptoms such as sleep disturbances, hostility, fevers of unknown origin and lack of appetite showed marked improvement or loss of symptoms completely when thiamine supplementation was given.

Educators

Paediatricians who often see teenagers with cola and junk-food addiction theorise that thiamine is a catalyst in the burning of carbohydrates, so when there is too much carbohydrate from junk foods and so on, and not enough thiamine, the excess unburned carbohydrate tends to overstimulate the brain resulting in beriberi symptoms as a result of the thiamine deficiency.

Educators should take note that much of the personality disruption and apparent mental problems of Jamaica's adolescents could be linked to poor diets and thiamine deficiency.

Thiamine is an essential vitamin of the B complex vitamins which can cure difficult and devastating mental diseases such as schizophrenia.

Mosquito bites

Mosquitoes are quite irritating and it is alleged that an extra dose of thiamine can repel those pesky mosquitoes. Though many scientists dismiss the idea, researchers at Lake Superior State College in Michigan used 60 volunteers and gave one set B¹ supplement and the other set a fake pill.The result was that when the groups went outdoors and logged the bites received, the group which took the B¹ tablet had fewer bug bites, suggesting that the thiamine repelled the mosquitoes.

Junk food and teenagers

Teenagers who consume large amounts of junk foods, especially soft drinks, do not eat breakfast, chowing down on fast foods, eating cake and cookies and washing it down with soda pop are at risk of developing thiamine deficiency. Teenagers may exhibit distinct symptoms such as:

1. Neurosis with symptoms of depression, insomnia, chest pains, recurrent fever and chronic fatigue.

2. Personality changes of the type of 'Dr Jekyll-Mr Hyde', becoming suddenly sensitive to criticism.

3. Aggressiveness and hostility.

Wheatgerm

Vitamin B¹ is most concentrated in the germ of cereals and is easily included in the daily diet by eating unrefined and unprocessed cereal products. Wheatgerm, the richest source of vitamin B¹, contains 13 times the amount of vitamin B¹ found in white flour.

Processing and cooking

White rice and white flour are bleached during processing and this strips away their thiamine-rich content. As a water-soluble vitamin, some thiamine is lost in cooking methods like boiling which removes 25 per cent of thiamine. As such, the water should be reused for sauces and other cooking. Sulphites and ultraviolet light can also cause damage, so foods should be stored in dark areas.

Toxicity

There is no known toxicity in humans from thiamine taken orally. People have taken hundreds of milligrams daily without any harmful effect, although some may become more stimulated than others. Thiamine injections, however, have occasionally been associated with trauma or oedema.

Sugary foods

Foods low in thiamine and likely to increase the body's demand for this vitamin include white rice, sugar and sugar-rich foods such as soft drinks, ice cream, and foods containing bicarbonate of soda, such as biscuits and cakes. These foods are high in carbohydrates, a source of energy that increases the body's requirements for vitamin B¹.

Heather Little-White, PhD, is a nutrition and lifestyle consultant in Kingston. Send comments to saturdaylife@gleanerjm.com.