Discovery of the first vitamin: Generalised muscle weakness

Discovery of the first vitamin: Generalised muscle weakness was the sign that alerted four very observant doctors to an unexplained phenomenon. Their logical thinking and perseverance led to an enormously important discovery.

Hitherto the existence of phytonutrients so important that we cannot live without them; the discovery of the first vitamin was one of the giant strides forwards in health.

Generalised muscle weakness is not uncommon today; we still eat too much white rice, cake flour and refined corn. They are deficient in thiamine.

This is the story of beriberi and vitamin B1; it is the first water-soluble vitamin that was discovered.

This painting by Lorraine Harrison was copied from a bowl in the Museum of Delphi, dated 480 BC.

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Thiamine and muscle weakness

There are some very smart, observant people in the world. Four of them, three Dutch and a Japanese doctor are credited with the discovery of the thiamine, a serious deficiency of which causes generalised muscle weakness and atrophy; and ultimately death in its most severe form.

This is the story of how food processing companies take a very nutritious staple, in this case rice, process it and turn it into crapola. Forgive the vulgarity but I feel strongly on the subject; it has killed millions in the past and affects even more today.

Somebody back in the mists of time discovered that you could polish rice, remove the bran and more particularly the germ; and turn God-given healthy brown rice into white garbage.

That discovery has resulted in the death of millions of people from beriberi, mostly in the Far East initially where rice was and is the staple diet.

But increasingly in the rest of the world, people have also turned to white rice as a common food, oblivious of what beriberi did to the Chinese in Indonesia; today with a more varied diet, it is not an overwhelming deficiency but enough to make folk miserable. They become weak and frail long before their time despite the "enrichment" of our nosh.

And what about the bran and germ extract? Oh, they fed that to the pigs and chickens because it was good for them. Today, those food companies extract the vitamins and oils in the germ and sell them back to you as a supplements at a great profit.

Four VERY observant doctors

The work of four very observant doctors eventually led to the discovery of vitamin B1; also known as thiamine.

Dr Jacob Bonitus

Nearly 400 years ago a Dutch physician, Dr Jacob Bonitus, wrote about a "troublesome affliction" that caused generalised muscle weakness, tremors and spasms in the arms, hands and legs of the local people; and numbness too. He had no idea of the cause of the condition but he described the symptoms of beriberi with remarkable accuracy.

Dr Takai Kanehiro

Our second smart doctor was Dr Takai Kanehiro, a medical doctor in the Japanese navy who observed that nearly a half of the sailors on a long voyage developed these strange symptoms, of whom 25 died of the disease. Their diet was primarily refined white rice.

He then drastically changed the food of the sailors on a similar voyage, and only 14 cases of beriberi were reported with no deaths.

Dr Christiaan Eijkman

Our third observant doctor was another Dutchman; Dr Christiaan Eijkman noted that the chickens belonging to the rich, fed with the scrapings from the table that was predominantly white rice, also developed strange spasms with an odd neck posture in extension, now called episthotonus,but those of the poor who ate unrefined starch were spared of this strange malady.

Eventually the observations of these three and others who followed them, building on their reports, led to the discovery of certain essential substances in food that were other than protein, carbohydrate and fat.

And so it was that the first vitamin was named B1, thiamine, a deficiency of which leads to beriberi; and still causes generalised muscle weakness and numbness in the limbs today.

What is really odd is that people still eat predominantly white rice, sometimes enriched with thiamine. You  would think that we'd learn but no, we would rather enjoy refined grain and become very sick, not knowing that we will die long before our time.

And the fourth was another very observant man.

Dr Gerrit Grijs

Actually it was a colleague of Dr Eijkman, Dr Gerrit Grijs, who eventually put two and three together and came up with five; that the rice germ contains an essential nutrient, over and above the three basic foodstuffs that was being extracted by the polishing of rice.

Dr Eijkman had followed Alice's rabbit down the wrong hole; that the food companies were inadvertently adding some toxin or bacteria to the rice in the polishing process. But no, they were removing this essential nutrient, vital for the production of energy and the passage of impulses along nerves. The deficiency lead unerringly to generalised muscle weakness, especially of the heart.

Eureka, the discovery of vitamins and Dr Eijkman got the Nobel prize for his work into generalised muscle fatigue and the thiamine deficiency disease. It was a team effort really but he got the credit.

Peripheral neuropathy

The nerves to the limbs are totally dependent on thiamine; a deficiency causes wide-spread bilateral weakness, numbness and tenderness, particularly in the lower legs and calf muscles.

Thiamine has a vital function in membranes and interestingly the axons can actually transport the vitamin along the course of the nerve.

Confusion may occur with the various syndromes like Morton's neuroma and carpal tunnel syndrome that also cause tingling in the toes and fingers.

Adenosine Triphosphate

Adenosine Triphosphate, generally known as ATP is one of the major forms of energy in the body but the very complex biochemical pathways are driven by a B1-based enzyme called thiamine pyroPO₄ (TPP).

ATP is utterly dependent on TPP for our cells to produce this energy and conduct nerve impulses both sensory and motor. Otherwise we will have numbness and weakness in the lower legs; and go into heart failure.

All animals are totally dependent on food containing thiamine; the germ of grains like rice and wheat, and yeasts are the most common sources. There is some in the bran too.

Thus it is no surprise that severe muscle fatigue, especially in the eyes, lower legs and numbness is a common feature of a vitamin B1 deficiency.

There are at least 24 known essential enzyme reactions in the cells of the body that are utterly dependent on adequate levels of thiamine from our food.

The nerves, eyes and the heart are especially vulnerable because this is where these enzymatic processes are occurring at a very high rate.

Mental confusion

These "oxidative" processes where thiamine-dependent enzymes are so vital are also occurring at a very high rate in the brain; a deficiency also causes the mental confusion characteristic of beriberi. Is granny getting Alzheimer's disease or is she simply eating a poor diet low in thiamine?

Moreover some 30 years ago, scientists Matsuda and Cooper established that thiamine was localised within the membranes in synapses in the brains of rats. Production of acetylcholine, one of the main neurotransmitters in the cerebrum, is utterly dependent on the presence of B1; without it you cannot think clearly.

Using electron microscopes, Pawlik etal then could see the nerve degeneration (axons) of rats starved of thiamine; and how the myelin sheath became disrupted. Which interestingly is also what MS causes. Could there be a connection? Multiple Sclerosis often begins in the eyes where ATP is being vigorously synthesised.

• Demyelinating diseases: What is oleic acid?

A thiamine deficiency should be suspected in any person showing signs of senile dementia, particularly as the elderly tend to get into the tea and white-toast mode.

This is a double wammy because white toast contains only 10% of the thiamine of whole wheat; and tea, coffee and alcohol are known inhibitors of absorption of the vitamin in the gut.

Congestive heart failure

The heart too, being just a highly specialised muscle has a very high rate of oxidation, so any B1 deficiency leads to many serious cardiac conditions.

Congestive Heart Failure is all too common in those enjoying only polished white rice and refined flour for their grains.

• Heart attack signs
  

Magnesium, a co-actor with thiamine

Magnesium is vital in the binding of thiamine to the enzymes in the body. Any deficiency of the mineral, particularly if coupled to low B1 levels due to poor diet or alcoholism for example, will also cause heart, brain and nerve conditions.

Magnesium is found in very high amounts in spinach and in fact all dark-green leafy vegetables; in nuts and seeds too.

• Magnesium from spinach
• Magnesium from nuts and seeds
  

Diabetes and rice

Research done at Harvard, reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine, shows that eating white rice regularly increases the risk of type two diabetes mellitus; presumably because of its extremely high glycemic index.

In contrast eating brown rice at least twice a week was shown to reduce the risk of diabetes.

Polished white rice has most of the fibre, vitamins and minerals extracted. This is precisely what caused beriberi in Indonesia and generalised muscle weakness in the eyes, limbs and heart today.

In a stellar new study published in the American Journal Diabetes Care, following a huge number of participants over 21 countries for ten years, researchers found a strong correlation between white rice consumption and type 2 DM^[2].

SPECIFIC MUSCLE WEAKNESS

Whereas generalised weakness speaks of a nutritional deficiency, or perhaps a serious muscle wasting or neurological disease like MS, specific impairment points more to a nerve impingement syndrome; carpal tunnel syndrome causes tingling in the hand and a sciatic paresis in the lower leg, for example.

But even that's not simple. Diabetes can cause specific quadriceps weakness for example; with difficulty standing up from a chair.

However more often than not, specific weakness in association with lower back and leg pain results from nerve impingement; test yourself.

Unless there's a condition called lumbar spinal stenosis, specific muscle weakness in the legs may be confirmed with the use of a simple test you could do at home.

Performance of the test is not difficult but, be warned, the interpretation of the results can be very confusing and remain in the realm of the doctor who is treating you.

This test stretches the sciatic nerve. If it's tethered by a bulging disc in the lower back then it will provoke tightness and often pain in the leg.

The femoral nerve also supplies the leg but testing is more complex and best left to your chiropractor.

In the Blue Zones where longevity is the keyword, they enjoy wholegrain sourdough bread; and sweet potatoes, also a fair source of thiamine, rather than white rice in Okinawa.

The sitting Flip test

Sit on a normal kitchen chair. Straighten first one leg parallel to the ground and then the other. The tightness in the thigh and calf should be the same in both limbs. If that all seems normal then simultaneously flexing your head onto the chest puts extra stretch onto the sciatic nerve.

Vitamin B1: Thiamine

So vitamin B1, the first discovered, known as thiamine is vital for health; even small deficiencies can cause a multitude of serious illnesses. Beriberi and generalised muscle weakness are just two of them. A very common Peripheral Neuropathy in the elderly is another.

It is mostly found in unpolished rice and 100% whole wheat; and yeast.

If you are enjoying mainly refined white rice and cake flour products then you can expect to be at least mildly deficient in vitamin B1; and likely to suffer from tingling and generalised muscle weakness, especially in the legs.

Those enjoying true wholegrains are mostly spared these diseases.

Stuffed vine leaves

A delicious if slightly fiddly recipe, based on the Mediterranean diet is vine leaves parcels stuffed with thiamine-rich brown rice, zucchinis and olive oil.

• Peripheral neuropathy: Stuffed Vine Leaves
  

There are other foods rich in thiamine to be considered.

• Sesame tahini butter
  
• Authentic hummus recipe
  

Discovery of the first vitamin: Generalised muscle weakness.

Discovery of the first vitamin: Generalised muscle weakness. It is also one of the four factors to consider in Frailty Syndrome.

From the journals

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