Beriberi Results Due to Thiamine Deficiency

Vitamin B1, which is also known as thiamine, is an important vitamin for our body. Specifically, this vitamin is required to maintain a healthy brain. In this other article, we listed some of the disorders that are caused by the deficiency of this vitamin. Beriberi is one of the disorder that results due to vitamin B1 deficiency. In this article, we are going to look at beriberi in a little more detail.

Thiamine is a water-soluble vitamin which is flushed out of our body on regular basis. Our is unable to store this vitamin, therefore it becomes necessary to replenish the supply daily. One good thing about this vitamin is that it is required in large amounts, and we can easily get enough of it from our diet. The problem, however, is for those individuals who abuse alcohol regularly. They are at a huge risk for thiamine deficiency, and are exposed to a number of serious medical disorders of the brain.

Types of Beriberi

Beriberi is a diseases which results when your body does not have enough thiamine. It is characterized by extreme weakness. There are two types of beriberi that you need to be aware of. First one is called wet beriberi and the second one is called dry beriberi. The different between the two types of beriberi is the organs they affect. Wet beriberi affect our cardiovascular system and dry beriberi affects our nervous system.

There is another type of beriberi that we do not often hear about as it is not common. It is called genetic beriberi. Individuals inherit this from their parents, and it is passed down families in this fashion. It is important for individuals to be informed about this condition and look out for symptoms themselves. Beriberi commonly occurs in alcoholic abusers. Self monitoring of symptoms is suggested because doctor may miss the diagnosis if you are not an alcoholic abuser.  

As stated earlier in this article, beriberi is very rare in United States. Our foods are highly enriched in thiamine and deficiencies rarely occur (except alcoholics). So you must be wondering why alcoholics are at greater risk of beriberi? A simple answer to that question is that alcohol impairs your ability to absorb thiamine. You may be consuming plenty of thiamine from your food or supplements, but it is not getting absorbed, then your body can't use thiamine.

Breastfeeding mothers also need to be cautious. If they are thiamine deficient  their infants are also at the risk of beriberi since they get thiamine from their mothers.

Symptoms of Beriberi

So now we know different types of beriberi, let's look at the symptoms of beriberi that we need to watch out for. According to University of Maryland Medical Center, symptoms of beriberi include swelling, tingling, burning sensation in hands and feet, confusion, breathing troubles because of the fluid in lungs, uncontrolled eye movement (which is called nystagmus).

Thiamine deficiencies can be easily treated by consuming foods rich in thiamine. If you are not an alcoholic, then you are not at a huge risk for beriberi. As long as your diet is healthy and nutrient rich, you should be getting adequate amounts of thiamine from your diet to prevent deficiency. Foods these days are further enriched with vitamin B1 to prevent deficiencies.

I hope this article helped you understand somewhat about beriberi and hope that you can use this information to modify your diet if needed. Feel free to share it with others if it helped. Thanks for reading.


Sources:
www.umm.edu/ency/article/000339.htm
www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/vitamin-b1-000333.htm
www.uh.edu/engines/epi567.htm