Transcription
There are selective brain regions which begin to display abnormalities in metabolism. These are what you would refer to as the limbic system and the brain stem.
Now, what do those regions of the brain do? Anyone know? I mean, they they are primarily the the the regions of the brain which are responsible for controlling and coordinating the non-conscious process of of the body, the autonomic nervous system. Okay.
This can be further divided into two subcategories or umbrellas, let's say. We have the sympathetic branch and the parasympathetic branch. Sympathetic being associated with fight or flight response. Parasympathetic being associated with restoration, with digestion, with rest, with repair. Okay. And I think many of the clients that you work with on a daily basis, you are doing something, whether you know it or not, to modulate the autonomic nervous system so that we have a tendency or a greater capacity to enter into the parasympathetic mode.
The parasympathetic nervous system, well, the main tool that it's using is the vagus nerve to communicate its messages from the brain to the rest of the body. You are using the vagus nerve. Many of of you here, I'm sure, are familiar with the extensive research on vagus nerve stimulation. It's frankly, um, it's fascinating what they they are able to achieve using a simple device when it comes to anyone with inflammatory disorders, chronic inflammation, autoimmunity, functional gut disorders. There's lots of stuff that the vagus nerve is capable of achieving. In fact, it's magic, really is magic.
Now, why am I, like I said, um, they they're using it for inflammatory conditions? And part of the the mechanism behind this, which I think some of you are probably familiar with, is this concept of the cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway. This is by by which the vagus nerve is is is communicating messages from the the brain to dampen systemic inflammatory signals. And the main tool that the vagus nerve is using is a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine.
Now, what many of you might not know is that every single step of the function of acetylcholine, um, in the vagus nerve requires thiamine in some way, whether directly or indirectly. Now, this research is not widely known. In fact, a lot of it was published in Russian, which I had to manually translate. Um, but it turns out that they've known it for at least half a decade, uh, half a half a century. Turns out that not only is B1 necessary for the, um, for the raw material which makes this neurotransmitter, it's necessary for its release at the synaptic junction. It's necessary for its action on the next, um, neuron. Okay.
There's an enzyme called acetylcholinesterase. This, if this is left unchecked, then this breaks down acetylcholine fast. Now, if you've got enough B1, then this enzyme is kept in check. If you do not have enough B1, this enzyme is let loose and speeds up.
Let's just have a bit of a recap. A B1 deficiency, I've said that I believe it's a lot more prevalent than we have been led to believe. It's quite difficult to test and it can lead to a wide variety of symptoms which are non-specific. Okay. We know that they've known that since the 1940s. It's needed for the action of the vagus nerve. It's needed for the cholinergic neurotransmission by which the brain is telling or conducting signals to the rest of the body to effectively tell it what to do.
What happens when you lose control of the autonomic nervous system? Is there a word for that? I mean, many of your patients probably have some kind of an autonomic nervous system imbalance, and this is something that you really need to be looking for. If you're not looking for it, you need to be looking for it. Could be called dysautonomia, autonomic nervous system dysfunction, where there is a consistent imbalance between the parasympathetic and the sympathetic nervous system. And it turns out that Dr. Derek Lonsdale, the P, the, uh, the pioneer in thiamine therapy, has written a lot on this topic. In his mind, B1 deficiency is the prototype for functional dysautonomia, and I cannot help but agree with it.
What I've learned over these past five years is that anyone presenting with any kind of autonomic nervous system dysfunction may be a responder to thiamine in the right dose, in the right form. And now, these are the wide kind of this wide umbrella of symptoms which are associated with dysautonomia of various kinds. Now, how many of your clients present with any of these symptoms? I mean, it can be one, it can be two. You might have some that display all of them, although that's unlikely. Well, it turns out that every single one of these symptoms can be a sign of an underlying subclinical deficiency in B1 and may respond to B1 in the right dose, in the right form.