Thiamine and Peripheral Neuropathy?

I have been diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy and my blood work showed that my Thiamine was in the High Range. Is there any connection?

~Joe

Hello --

Thanks you for the question!!

Thiamine is a component of most multivitamin tablets and is also used in hospitals to stabilize neurological function. For example, and patient who comes into an emergency room with seizures will most likely receive a dose of thiamine. It's been known that one of the most common causes of sudden onset of seizures is alcohol-induced (or others) thiamine deficiency.

Because thiamine is a water-soluble vitamin, your body can only utilize a certain amount at any given time. So, overdosing on thiamine is quite difficult to do. The main concept is that you'll pee out anything that your body won't use.

So, if you have a high level of thiamine in your blood at any given time, it could mean that...

1) you just took a dose of thiamine earlier in the day

2) your kidney function is declining and having difficulty excreting thiamine into the urine.

In your case it's important to understand the cause of peripheral neuropathy. For example, Diabetes is notorious for developing BOTH peripheral neuropathy and kidney disease. If the neuropathy is due to something like..spinal cord compression..then it's likely that your kidney is unaffected. These are just examples.

So, I'm saying that we need to understand the reason for your peripheral neuropathy to know the exact reason for the high thiamine level.

Even when we know the reason for the elevated thiamine, it is still probably not directly related to your peripheral neuropathy. In fact, your doctor was probably simply checking for LOW levels of thiamine, which can be a cause of peripheral neuropathy.

Thanks for the question...I hope this helps!

Ryan