Vitamins and minerals play an important role in the maintenance of our body function to keep us healthy. Our diets, if well balanced, can provide all of these vitamins and minerals in quantities adequate enough to prevent any deficiency. But the quality of diet has been decreasing steadily and people have to resort to consuming multivitamins. In this article we are going to talk about vitamin B1, which is also called thiamine. Thiamine benefits include proper metabolism of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins, maintenance of heart health, normal functioning of nervous system and digestive system.
Carbohydrate, Fats, and Protein Metabolism Due to Thiamine
All cells in our body need energy to carry out their biological tasks. Energy required for such functions comes from our food. When we consume our food, it is broken down into simpler units such as simpler carbohydrates, fats and amino acids. Thiamine plays a crucial role in utilizing these units to produce energy. This is especially true for cells in brain, where the energy demand is really high.
Maintenance of Nervous System Health
As we have just discussed, brain has a high demand for continuous energy. Presence of thiamine is essential for the continuous supply of that energy. As long as plenty of energy is supplied to nerve cells, they can carry out their functions efficiently and disorders due to deficiency can be prevented. According to U.S. National Library of Medicine, thiamine helps people with medical conditions such as beriberi and inflammation of the nerves outside the brain (a condition called peripheral neuritis).
Maintenance of Heart Health – Important Thiamine Benefit
Thiamine (Vitamin B1) helps blood formation and maintains heart health. People have found that thiamine helps their heart. But, U.S. National Library of Medicine states that there is not enough evidence to support these claims.
Thiamine also helps maintain digestive system health. It is known to help regulate the production of hydrochloric acid, which is essential for the health of digestive system as it breaks down the food we eat. There are many other advantages of thiamine and I have only listed the major ones here. Thiamine deficiencies can be easily prevented by consuming foods rich in thiamine.
I hope the information presented in this article helps you understand some of the many benefits of thiamine (vitamin B1). You should ALWAYS consult your health practitioner before starting any supplementation, especially if you are taking other medications.
References:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/natural/965.html