Written by Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS . Study participants with Parkinson’s disease, who had intramuscular injections of thiamine twice per week, experienced a 49% improvement in overall function and a 55.5% decrease in fatigue.

B vitaminsParkinson’s disease is characterized by a breakdown of the area of the brain that produces the nerve chemical dopamine, which helps control movement 1.  This decline in dopamine causes the patient to become unable to consciously control their limb movements, producing tremors and creating an inability to walk smoothly (called “ataxia”) 2. Parkinson’s disease costs our healthcare system $25 billion per year 3.

While a 2008 study 4 suggests that low vitamin D levels contribute to a worsening of Parkinson’s symptoms, a 2015 study 5 suggests that thiamine, also known as vitamin B1, levels may also be a factor. The 2015 study involved 50 subjects aged 58 to 83 with an average Parkinson’s Disease diagnosis of 7.3 years who were assessed using the 6-part Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale 6 and the Fatigue Severity Scale 7. They had 100 milligrams of thiamine injected into their muscles (“parenteral”) twice a week in addition to their current treatment regimen. This occurred for one month, after which the subjects were reassessed using the same two Parkinson’s questionnaires, and then reassessed every 3 months for an average of 9 months of follow-up.

The researchers noted a significant benefit to the subjects with the parenteral thiamine administration. For parts 1 through 4 of the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale, which deal with Parkinson’s symptoms, there was a 49% decrease in symptoms among all the subjects (35.55 to 18.16, p < .001). For part 5 of the rating scale, which assesses the stage of Parkinson’s, a 27.9% improvement was seen among all of the subjects (3.02 to 2.18, p < 0.0001). For part 6 of the rating scale, a measure of overall function, a 25.7% improvement was noted among all of the subjects (p 66.80 to 84, p < 0.0001). Finally, regarding fatigue, the subjects experienced a 55.5% decrease in fatigue (53 to 23.60, p < 0.0001).

When suggesting a mechanism for thiamine’s benefit to Parkinson’s patients, the researchers pointed to research showing decreases of a brain enzyme related to thiamine 8 as well as research showing lower thiamine levels in the spinal fluid of Parkinson’s patients 9. Research in rats showed increased brain levels of dopamine, the nerve chemical that declines as Parkinson’s symptoms worsen, after thiamine administration 10.

For the researchers, “parenteral high-dose thiamine was effective in reversing Parkinson’s disease symptoms”, that “a dysfunction of thiamine-dependent metabolic processes could cause selective neural damage in the centers typically affected by this disease” and that “Thiamine could have both restorative and [nerve-protecting] action in Parkinson’s disease.”

Source: Costantini, Antonio, Maria Immacolata Pala, Enzo Grossi, Stella Mondonico, Luisa Ercoli Cardelli, Carina Jenner, Sabrina Proietti, Marco Colangeli, and Roberto Fancellu. “Long-term treatment with high-dose thiamine in Parkinson disease: an open-label pilot study.” The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 21, no. 12 (2015): 740-747.

© Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.

Posted January 31, 2017.

Greg Arnold is a Chiropractic Physician practicing in Hauppauge, NY.  You can contact Dr. Arnold directly by emailing him at PitchingDoc@msn.com or visiting his web site at www.PitchingDoc.com.

References:

  1. Medicine USNLo. Parkinson’s Disease. 2016; Overview of Parkinson’s Disease. Available at: https://medlineplus.gov/parkinsonsdisease.html. Accessed January 23, 2017, 2017.
  2. Foundation NP. PD 101. 2017; Overview of Parkinson’s Disease. Available at: http://www.parkinson.org/pd-101-library. Accessed January 23, 2017, 2017.
  3. Foundation PsD. Understanding Parkinson’s. 2010; Parkinson’s FAQ’s. Available at. Accessed January 23, 2017, 2017.
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