Benfotiamine is a man-made form of thiamine or B1. Thiamine is a water-soluble vitamin and therefore not as easily used by the body. Benfotiamine is a fat-soluble composition and is better absorbed and utilized. There have been some recent clinical trials that suggest that benfotiamine may help relieve the severity of diabetic complications such as retinopathy, nephropathy and neuropathy.
Hyperglycemia causes damage in the blood vessels and nerves of the body, which in turn develop into the major complications of diabetes. Excess glucose in the blood is deposited in nerve cells and small blood vessels, causing damage in these areas.
Studies have shown that benfotiamine seems to help prevent diabetic complications by inhibiting the build-up of glucose in the vessels. This means that the occurrence of diabetic complications might be slowed or prevented. A clinical study that appeared in the ADA journal Diabetes in 2003 showed that high-dose thiamine and benfotiamine seemed to prevent microalbuminuria and proteinuria (protein in urine) in diabetic rats. Studies done on people have shown that benfotiamine appears to also relieve neuropathic pain.
There are four separate pathways that occur in the body that can lead to small blood vessel damage due to hyperglycemia in diabetes. Benfotiamine appears to block three of these pathways in clinical studies. An article, which appeared in the journal Nature Medicine in February 2003 showed that benfotiamine did prevent diabetic retinopathy in laboratory animals.
Benfotiamine is still in the clinical trial phase. More intensive trials are needed to determine if benfotiamine works the same way in people with diabetes. Effective dosages have yet to be established, and long term side effects are not known. Although benfotiamine is not officially recommended by American healthcare professionals at this time, it does look like it may be a promising treatment for diabetes complications down the road.
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