What is the best form of Vitamin B1—regular thiamine, TTFD, or benfotiamine?

Vitamin B1 (thiamine) Pharmacology, Part 3: Solving the Mystery by 1) correlating with other data, and 2) looking at the sponsorship of the researchers

The question we are trying to answer is:

What is the best form of Vitamin B1—regular thiamine, TTFD, or benfotiamine?

To arrive at the most reasonable answer after looking at this data about 5 times (ie short of doing a “Sherlock Holmes-level” forensic investigation, I have reviewed the following articles as discussed in this video review:

1. Marrs C, Lonsdale D. Hiding in Plain Sight: Modern Thiamine Deficiency. Cells. 2021 Sep 29;10(10):2595

2. Park WS, Lee J, Hong T, Park G, Youn S, Seo Y, Lee S, Han S. Comparative Pharmacokinetic Analysis of Thiamine and Its Phosphorylated Metabolites Administered as Multivitamin Preparations. Clin Ther. 2016 Oct;38(10):2277-2285

3. Overton E, Emelyanova A, Bunik VI. Thiamine, gastrointestinal beriberi and acetylcholine signaling. Front Nutr. 2025 Apr 9;12:1541054

4. Talwar D, Davidson H, Cooney J, St JO'Reilly D. Vitamin B(1) status assessed by direct measurement of thiamin pyrophosphate in erythrocytes or whole blood by HPLC: comparison with erythrocyte transketolase activation assay. Clin Chem. 2000 May;46(5):704-10

See TODAY’S VIDEO for discussion and (finally!) CONCLUSIONS; all 4 of the PDF articles reviewed today are provided in their full-text completeness below, at the bottom of this page.

Vitamin B1 (thiamine) Pharmacology, Part 2

1. Thiamine (vB1) Pharmacology, Part2: This section starts 54 minutes into the previous introduction and contextualization which will be posted separately in its entirety soon once I have had time to edit, process, and post it.

2. Reading critically is best done by starting with a conundrum in mind:

   1. what are we trying to accomplish?

3. Levels of Understanding for Clinical Implementation:

   1) pharmacokinetics, especially absorption, then intracellular uptake, then intracellular conversion to active forms

   2) pharmacodynamics, production of biochemical effects,

   3) physiology, changes cellular behavior,

   4) clinical safety, for short-term use

   5) clinical benefit,

   6) therapeutic justification, superiority/inferiority

   7) disease-drug interactions

   8) long-term safety

For additional details and contextualization about the use of Clinical Nutrition and Functional Medicine, see my other lectures especially these:

[TUTORIAL VIDEO] Integrating Functional-Naturopathic Medicine into Medical Practice for Specialty and Primary Care [IM4update]

DrV's Functional Inflammology Protocol (2013) Part 1: Dr Vasquez’s F.I.N.D.S.E.X.® acronym and Foundational Diet and Supplementation VIDEO

1. Functional Medicine Inflammology (NUHS2012 video 1 of 7)

2. Functional Medicine Inflammology (NUHS2012 video 2 of 7)

3. Functional Medicine Inflammology (NUHS2012 video 3 of 7)

4. Functional Medicine Inflammology (NUHS2012 video 4 of 7)

5. Functional Medicine Inflammology (NUHS2012 video 5 of 7)

6. Functional Medicine Inflammology (NUHS2012 video 6 of 7)

7. Functional Medicine Inflammology (NUHS2012 video 7 of 7)

See the previous “Vitamin B1 (thiamine) CLINICAL NUTRITION PHARMACOLOGY” provided below:

CLINICAL NUTRITION PHARMACOLOGY Classes that You Never Received: Introduction to Vitamin B1 by Dr Vasquez

QUESTIONS and DEFINITIONS:

1. Given that a patient has a diagnosis of IBS, then you know that they have SIBO, and therefore you know that they have __________ and/or __________ and you should immediately start treatment with __________ and __________.

2. Orwellian thought-stopping cliche: used when a person is too ignorant and too indoctrinated to engage in legitimate conversation, they simply/reflexively parrot their indoctrination

3. What is the difference between NUTRIENT DEFICIENCY and NUTRIENT DEPENDENCY?

4. What are COFACTORS and what are COENZYMES?

5. What are the 3 types of beriberi?

6. What is the difference between AN ENZYME and A COMPLEX?

7. What are the causes of CONFABULATION?

8. What are the 5 cofactors for PDhC?

9. What is the way to DISINHIBIT the PDhC?

10. WHAT ARE THE APPROPRIATE CLINICAL DOSAGES FOR ADULTS FOR EACH OF THE TREATMENTS described in this video?

    1. ______? dosed at ______? mg per day for adults

    2. ______? dosed at ______? mg per day for adults

    3. ______? dosed at ______? mg per day for adults

    4. ______? dosed at ______? mg per day for adults

    5. ______? dosed at ______? mg per day for adults

    6. ______? dosed at ______? mg per day for adults with the dosage given at morning or night?

Thank you for supporting this archive of information for the cost of a coffee while I am working—about $4.20—for the hours, days, months and years developing this archive which now contains more than 1,000 pages and hundreds of hours of videos on a wide range of topics including Clinical Nutrition (including the Vitamin D series of Videos and Scientific Publications), Antiviral Strategies, Microbiome+Dysbiosis (CME series of >12 videos), Functional Medicine (conference videos) and Pharmacology (of Vitamin B12 and Pediatric Injections,.. Leadership, Critical Analysis of Research and Social Events, architecture, music(Celibidache), philosophy, and a few tutorial videos on fun topics like how to select a good wine/whiskey(and minimize the risks)! HealthyThinking.substack.comincludes a wide range of topics including music, politics, architecture, logic, philosophy, recipes (ie, “everything”) plus “Health Homework” (series)to inform and remind you about important health-promoting actions…whereasInflammationMastery.substack.com attempts to be more/strictly clinical and specific to book updates, clinical research and protocols.

1. Microbiome Dysbiosis (1) Course Overview and Introduction to Major Concepts and Mechanisms

2. Microbiome Dysbiosis (2) Physiologic and Pathologic Mechanisms of Dysbiosis and Subclinical Microbial Colonizations (VIDEO:1hour,15minutes)

3. Microbiome Dysbiosis (3) Prototypes of Dysbiosis-Induced Disease (VIDEO:1hour,42minutes=102minutes)

4. Microbiome Dysbiosis (4) Conceptual Expansion Exploring Clinical Testing, Microbial Relevance and Irrelevance [VIDEO:1hour,18minutes=78minutes]

5. Microbiome Dysbiosis (5) Microbial Consequences in the Mouth, Oral Cavity [VIDEO:1hour,44minutes=104minutes]

6. Microbiome Dysbiosis (6) Microbial Imbalances in the Respiratory Tract and Sinuses [VIDEO:1hour,35minutes=95minutes]

7. Microbiome Dysbiosis (7) Dysbiosis by Location—Genitourinary Tract

8. Microbiome Dysbiosis (8) Dysbiosis by Location—Blood, Tissue, Parenchymal Dysbioses

9. Microbiome Dysbiosis (9) Dysbiosis by Location—Skin and Environmental Dysbiosis

10. MICROBIOME DYSBIOSIS (10) Gut Dysbiosis Prototypes—included above

11. MICROBIOME DYSBIOSIS (11a) GUT-BRAIN AXIS and OPTIMAL DIET, Part 1 of 2 parts covering everything you need to know

12. MICROBIOME DYSBIOSIS (11b) GUT-BRAIN AXIS, Part 2 of 2

See TODAY’S VIDEO for discussion and (finally!) CONCLUSIONS; all 4 of the PDF articles reviewed today are provided in their full-text completeness below, at the bottom of this page.