What are the Symptoms of Thiamine Deficiency?

Beri-beri in adults and children is following three main types:

(a) Infantile Beri-beri:

This appears in the very first year of life, specially between the first and fourth month. Vomiting is the early sign of beri-beri. The infant appears to be plump and well nourished. But he is constipated; the heart is enlarged and there is muffled sound. The advance stage of beri-beri causes cardiac failure, twitching, coma and death.

(b) Dry Beri-Beri:

In this kind of Beri-Beri, there is symmetrical tingling, numbness and burning in feet and hands which leads to peripheral neuropathy. The calf muscles become tender, the thighs gets affected. There is a marked wasting of the extremities resulting in foot drop and wrist drop, loss of knee and ankle jerks and complete loss of sensation at periphery.

(c) Wet Beri-Beri:

Oedema and cardiac disfunctioning gets the characteristics of wet Beri-Beri which finally leads to cardiac failure.

A combination of dry and wet Beri-Beri may also occur.

(d) Wernicke’s Encephalopathy:

It is also related to thiamine deficiency. This may develop by overloading with glucose without adequate thiamine intake. This can occur ever even with severe vomiting. People consuming excessive alcohol suffer from weakness of eye movement, difficulty in walking, loss of memory, agitation and confusion.

These problems can be reduced by curtailing or avoiding alcohol. Simultaneously the intake of thiamine be increased with the increasing doses of carbohydrates.

Recommended Allowances

The thiamine requirement of an individual depends on a number of factors among which the composition of diet is important. Since thiamine is required for utilization of carbohydrates, the requirement of thiamine increases with the intake carbohydrates. The requirement of thiamine is also more in case of infants.