Study: High Doses of Vitamin B1 May Reverse ESKD

COVENTRY, United Kingdom—Researchers at the University of Warwick discovered that high doses of vitamin B1 can dramatically decrease the excretion of albumin and reverse early stage kidney disease (ESKD) in type 2 diabetes patients.

In a paper published online in the journal Diabetologia, the research team shows 300mg of thiamine taken orally each day for three months reduced the rate of albumin excretion in type 2 diabetes patients. The albumin excretion rate was decreased by 41 percent from the value at the start of the study. The results also showed 35 percent of patients with microalbuminuria saw a return to normal urinary albumin excretion after being treated with thiamine.

Forty patients with type 2 diabetes between 35 and 65 years old took part in the trial. They were randomly assigned a placebo or 3 x 100mg tablets of thiamine a day for three months.