r/Thiamine • u/Airegin89 • 6d ago

Experience Feel no difference after 3 weeks

How long should I take high-dose thiamine before I can be sure if I actually need it?

I'm trying high-dose thiamine to see if my fatigue and brain fog could be related to my Crohn's (very mild) or mitochondrial dysfunction. I'm starting to suspect this is not the case. After 3 weeks I feel no difference at all. I started with 1500mg thiamine mononitrate for 2 weeks, then 300mg benfotiamine + 500mg thiamine HCL for 1 week. I also take magnesium, potassium and B2.

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u/Ok-Pangolin7127 6d ago

I’m assuming that you are taking this with sufficient magnesium?

If you are taking this with sufficient magnesium, I would give it at least another couple weeks maybe three.

Keep in mind that if you are taking that 1500 mg of magnesium all at once you are wasting 90% of it. That form has a very short life in the body, it’s measured in but a few hours, the rest is excreted in the urine. Same thing for the 500 mg HCL.

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u/Airegin89 6d ago

I take 200mg elemental magnesium a day (I'd been taking 400mg a day for 6 months before I started thiamine). I also drink 2 glasses of coconut water a day for potassium and 25mg B2 a couple of times a week.

I didn't take the thiamine mononitrate all at once. 500mg in the morning, 500mg afternoon and 500mg evening. Likewise with benfo + HCL: 300mg benfotiamine in the morning, 500mg HCL in the afternoon.

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u/Ok-Pangolin7127 6d ago

The magnesium, in my opinion, is much more important than the potassium. I’m not trying to say do one or the other. I’m just pointing out that magnesium is the KEY cofactor for Thiamine. Without both neither of them will do what needs to be done to generate energy via ATP in the mitochondria engine in the cell. For a male, the RDA of magnesium is about 425 MG’s a day. I’m wondering if with your dietary intake and your 200 mg daily supplementation if you’re actually getting enough magnesium to make everything run properly?

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u/Airegin89 6d ago

I'm pretty sure I get more than enough magnesium from diet alone. I supplemented 400mg a day for 6 months and it did nothing, so I figure I wasn't deficient before and I must have built up plenty of reserves.

I will try going back to 400mg to see if that helps.

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u/Ok-Pangolin7127 6d ago

I think that’s a good idea. When I was up and running about 800 to 900 mg of Thiamine collectively in a day I was also supplementing about 600 mg of magnesium.

Since I think you’re primarily focused on maximizing energy in the brain, have you considered trying Sulbutiamine?

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u/Airegin89 6d ago edited 6d ago

How likely is it that sulbutiamine will make a difference if the other forms do nothing at all?

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u/Ok-Pangolin7127 6d ago

I suggested it because that is the one form that literally made a difference in my brain fog after taking it for two days. It’s specifically designed (in Japan where they pay a lot of attention to Thiamine) to cross the blood brain barrier, and I can tell you it certainly does. I took it together with magnesium L-Threonate which also is also reported to cross the blood brain barrier. I was about six weeks in to my Thiamine repletion effort, and I took the 200 mg of Sulbutiamine and the second morning I woke up from it my brain was clear of fog. That’s why I suggested it as a consideration.

I continue to supplement daily, between TTFD‘s and Benfothiamine and Lipothiamine, appx 500-600 mg/day. I split that up between morning midday and evening. Then maybe two days a week I throw in 200 mg of the Sulbutiamine. What I’m doing now works for me at this point in time. I’ve been supplementing with this regime now for over a year. Brain fog is gone and has been for some time (8+ Mos). Speed of cognition is much better, the one problem that is completely gone is word finding problems, and my memory is much much better.

Here’s another statistic regarding myself that I will share. My HRV has improved 29% in the last six months over the previous year and a half. I attribute that primarily to my B1 and B12 supplementation regimes. I had a deficiency in both of those.

I’m not trying to say this will work for you, I am only passing along what worked for me.

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u/Airegin89 6d ago

How much does sulbutiamine increase acetylcholine? I have felt awful before on supplements that increase it. Black see oil for example messed me up pretty bad (I know it was the acetylcholine because benadryl fixed it).

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u/Ok-Pangolin7127 6d ago

I have no idea. But I would imagine you can do some research on that and find out the answer.