Friday April 18, 2014 (foodconsumer.org) -- Taking the dietary supplement called thiamine helps people with type 2 diabetes mellitus, according to a study published most recently in Clin Med Insights Endocrinol Diabetes.

People with diabetes mellitus type 2 are more likely than others to suffer thiamine deficiency and correction of the thiamine deficiency in type 2 diabetics may help prevent cardiometabolic complications.

In the interventional study, thiamine in a dose of 100 mg per day was given to 86 patients with diabetes mellitus type 2 and 26 healthy individuals with age and body mass index matched for a period of six months.

At three months of intervention, total cholesterol was found significantly decreased and high density lipoprotein cholesterol was found reduced at six months of thiamine supplementation.

Thiamine supplementation also significantly improved "the mean serum levels of creatinine, as well as thiamine and its derivatives in both serum and urinary levels across follow-up visits, respectively."

In addition, thiamine supplementation helped people with type 2 diabetes mellitus improve their lipid profile including mean serum LDL and total cholesterol, serum thiamine, TMP, TDP, urinary thiamine and serum creatinine. 

The study concluded "Thiamine supplementation is a promising adjuvant therapy for patients with DMT2 (Diabetes mellitus type 2)". 

Thiamine is also known as vitamin B1.  Thiamine deficiency can lead to a series of health conditions including Alzheimer's disease, beriberi, alcoholic brain disease, and optic neuropathy. (David Liu)