Fitness

Despite the fact that these abnormalities are numerous and varied, vitamin B1 appears to have only one function. As part of an enzyme, it helps to change glucose into energy or fat. During the breakdown of sugar to produce energy, pyruvic and lactic acids are formed. By the help of enzymes containing vitamin Bi, pyruvic acid is quickly broken down still further into carbon dioxide and water; lactic acid is rebuilt into glycogen. If the vitamin is undersupplied, these changes cannot take place, and the acids remain in the tissues; they accumulate, especially in the brain, nerves, heart, and blood; eventually they are thrown off in the urine. The production of energy from sugar slows down, coming only from half-burned sugar or from fat; the acids irritate the tissues. Since energy cannot be produced efficiently from fat alone, the result is fatigue, lassitude, and a general laziness throughout the body,

When people deficient in vitamin B1 are supplied with it, the relief of fatigue is often dramatic. Frequently they exclaim in amazement, “I can work twice as hard without getting tired!” In an experiment, subjects were given a minimum amount of vitamin Bi daily; then that amount was doubled and tripled, and their work capacity was tested by weight lifting; it was found they could work twice and then three times as long without tiring. The first thing I do when I employ help to work in the garden or house is to feed them B vitamins; they not only work three times as hard for the same amount of money but work three times as cheerfully.

The reason for personality changes and such symptoms as mental depression, confused thinking, and forgetfulness which occur when vitamin B1 is undersupplied is twofold: first, brain cells derive their energy only from sugar, and glucose cannot be converted into energy without this vitamin; second, the! accumulation of pyruvic and lactic acids in the brain cells is somewhat toxic. At a Philadelphia hospital persons who had eaten foods inadequate in the B vitamins were given a battery of psychological tests before dietary improvement, after vitamin Bi was given, and again after all the B vitamins were supplied. When vitamin Bi was injected, clarity and quickness of thinking, ability to remember, foresight and judgment somewhat improved. The improvement was far more marked when all the B vitamins were supplied by natural foods. Unfortunately, intelligence as such remained the same under all three conditions.

A deficiency of vitamin B1 causes digestive disturbances in a number of ways. Energy production is so faulty that muscular contractions of the stomach and intestinal walls slow down; food can no longer be well mixed with digestive juices and enzymes; and the already digested food cannot be brought into frequent contact with the absorbing surface where it can pass into the blood. A partial or complete lack of hydrochloric acid allows several vitamins to be destroyed, proteins to be incompletely digested, and many minerals to stay insoluble. Gas pain and flatulence are inevitable. If the nutrition is not improved, more serious deviations from health can be expected.

Interference with energy production so limits the contractions of the walls of the large intestine that waste material remains in the large bowel longer than it should. The purpose {If the large intestine is to conserve water by absorbing it back into the blood; the longer the wastes remain, therefore, the harder and drier the stools become. This condition is constipation. Poor elimination can be corrected by a diet adequate in the B vitamins. Except in cases of diarrhea or severe psychological disturbances, your elimination is a fair index of your energy production. Whenever energy is not produced as it should be, constipation occurs; when energy is readily produced, elimination is usually normal.

Heart abnormalities are also caused by the body’s inability to burn sugar efficiently without vitamin B1. Since the heart must work from birth until death, it must be continuously supplied with energy. In a mild deficiency a resting pulse may drop to 50 or even 40 beats per minute instead of the normal 72. As the vitamin deficiency becomes progressively more severe, the pulse alternates between slow during relaxation and rapid during exertion. Eventually it remains rapid, sometimes reaching 180 beats per minute or more. Irritation of the heart muscles by the accumulated lactic and pyruvic acids is believed to cause both the rapid beat and the enlarged waterlogged heart. I recall a sixteen-year-old girl, suffering from exophthalmic goiter, whose resting pulse dropped from 180 to 80 beats per minute during the first week after she added yeast to her diet. If adequate B vitamins are not given, the condition can increase in severity; the almost complete lack of vitamin B1 can quickly result in death.

Neuritis frequently develops when vitamin B, is inadequately supplied. Like the brain cells, the nerves are particularly affected by this deficiency because they are exclusive sugar burners. Neuritis, which may take the form of trifacial neuralgia, shingles, sciatica, or lumbago, is characterized by a sliding scale varying from a dull ache to excruciating pain following the nerve channels. Such pain is thought to result first from the accumulation of acids and later from actual damage to the nerve cells. Headaches and nerve irritation which bring about nausea and vomiting may likewise be caused by these acids.

Neither persons nor experimental animals undersupplied with vitamin Br show all the symptoms of the deficiency. Symptoms of any deficiency vary in endless degrees among individuals and even in the same person from day to day. These same symptoms, however, occur again and again in both people and animals.

Any woman who reads about the experiments conducted at the Mayo Foundation must surely come to the conclusion that it is selfish wisdom to see that her family is given daily foods rich in the B vitamins; if she does not, she herself must be too deficient in these vitamins to think clearly.