Doctors Best Benfotiamine - Bioavailable Vitamin B1 - 120 x 150mg Vegicaps
from Doctors Best
Benfotiamine is a synthetic derivative of Vitamin B1 - thiamin. This fat-soluble alternative is more bioavailable and physiologically active than thiamin.
A characteristic of Benfotiamine is an open thiazole ring within the chemical structure of these thiamine-related compounds, making them fat (lipid) soluble. In contrast, thiamine, which is water soluble, has a closed thiazole ring. The fat solubility of benfotiamine, conferred by this open ring, increases its bioavailability.
Benfotiamine is readily absorbed at higher doses, in contrast to absorption of water-soluble thiamin salts, which decreases at higher doses, due to saturation of absorption sites in the intestines. Benfotiamine readily passes through intestinal mucosal cells, where it is converted into physiologically active thiamine. Benfotiamine increases blood levels of thiamine pyrophosphate (TPP), the primary thiamin co-enzyme.
What does Thiamin Do?
Vitamin B1 is needed to process carbohydrates, fat, and protein. Every cell of the body requires vitamin B1 to form the fuel the body runs on - adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Nerve cells require vitamin B1 in order to function normally.
Thiamine (vitamin B1) plays an essential part in the metabolism of glucose, through actions of its co-enzyme TPP (thiamine pyrophosphate). TPP also goes by the name "thiamine diphosphate." In a cell, glucose, is metabolised to pyruvic acid, which is converted into acetyl-CoA, otherwise known as "active acetate."
Acetyl CoA enters the mitochondrion, where it serves as the starting substrate in the Kreb’s cycle (citric acid cycle). The Krebs cycle is the primary source of cellular metabolic energy. TPP, along with other co-enzymes, is essential for the removal of CO2 from pyruvic acid, which in turn is a key step in the conversion of pyruvic acid to acetyl CoA.
CO2 removal from pyruvic acid is called "oxidative decarboxylation," and for this reason, TPP was originally referred to as "cocarboxylase." TPP is vital to the cell’s energy supply.
Benfotiamine Helps Maintain Healthy Cells
As long as glucose remains at normal levels, excess glucose metabolites do not accumulate within the cell. The bulk of the cell’s glucose supply is converted to pyruvic acid, which serves as substrate for production of acetyl CoA, the primary fuel for the Krebs cycle.
In the presence of elevated glucose levels, the electron transport chain, the final ATP-generating system in the mitochondrion, produces larger than normal amounts of the oxygen free radical "superoxide." This excess superoxide inhibits glyceraldehyde phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), as key enzyme in the conversion of glucose to pyruvic acid, resulting in an excess of intermediate metabolites known as "triosephosphates."
Increased triosephophate levels trigger several cellular mechanisms that result in potential damage to vascular tissue. Cells particularly vulnerable to this biochemical dysfunction are found in the retina, kidneys and nerves.
Benfotiamine has been shown to block three of these mechanisms: the hexosamine pathway, the diaglycerol-protein kinease C pathway and the formation of Advanced Glycation End-products. Benfotiamine does this by activating transketolase, a key thiamin-dependent enzyme.
Benfotiamine and Protein glycation
Benfotiamine controls formation of Advanced Glycation End-products (AGEs).
AGEs have an affinity for proteins such as collagen, the major structural protein in connective tissue. AGEs are formed through abnormal linkages between proteins and glucose.
At high glucose concentrations, glucose attaches to lysine, forming a Schiff base, which in turn forms "early glycosylation products." Once blood glucose levels return to normal levels, the amount of these early glycosylation products decreases, and they are not particularly harmful to most tissue proteins.
On long-lived proteins such as collagen, however, early glycosylation products are chemically rearranged into the damaging Advanced Glycation End-products.
Benfotiamine prevents AGE formation in endothelial cells cultured in high glucose by decreasing the glucose metabolites that produce AGEs
120 x 150mg Vegicaps
|
One vegicap typically provides |
Content |
Benfotiamine |
150mg |
|
Encapsulated with; modified cellulose, cellulose, silicon dioxide.
Dosage Guide
Adults: Two capsules daily. Can be taken with or without food.
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