Here’s why every Alpha Energy male needs vitamin B1 for high androgens and feeling awesome.
Low vitamin B1 can lead to low energy, low dopamine (low mood), low testosterone and infertility and estrogen dominance.
According to Dr Marrs and Dr Lonsdale, measurable thiamine deficiency has been observed across multiple patient populations with incidence rates ranging from 20% to over 90% depending upon the study (R).
Symptoms of low vitamin B1 include:
- Unrelenting or uncharacteristic fatigue
- Changes in mood with a tendency towards hyper-irritability and mood lability are common
- A sense of mental fuzziness and subtle decrements in memory are often reported
- Loss of appetite
- Sleep disturbances
- Gastrointestinal (GI) discomfort and dysmotility
- Food intolerances and vomiting may develop as the deficiency progresses
I don’t know about you, but I can definitely relate to most of those symptoms as I had most of them a few years ago.
Hans here! I increased my testosterone to 1254ng/dl and have been maintaining high T naturally. I’ve turned myself into an Alpha Energy Male.
An Alpha Energy Male with high energy, fast recovery, high sex drive, and confidence.
This is why I research obsessively, experiment and write, and have been doing so for the past decade.
Hope you enjoy and join me on this journey.
A key benefit of vitamin B1
Vitamin B1 plays an important role in cellular energy production, is neuroprotective and is important for normal neuronal activity.
Vitamin B1 is a cofactor of a very important enzyme called pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH). If PDH activity declines, glucose oxidation suffers and this leads to low dopamine, low ATP, exercise intolerance, elevated inflammation and a host of other issues including cancer.
Vitamin B1 is also not just a cofactor of PDH, but can directly stimulate its action (by inhibiting pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase (and inhibitor enzyme of PDH)) (R).
Vitamin B1 on Testosterone
Low levels of vitamin B1 can lead to low testosterone.
This is due to:
- Reduced ATP production
- Increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and inflammation
- Decreased endogenous antioxidant systems
…all of which are commonly found in chronic degenerative diseases.
At the testicular level, aging is associated with tissue atrophy, decreased steroidogenesis (reduced testosterone production) and spermatogenesis, and sexual behavior disorders (R, R).
Vitamin B1 supplementation in old animals restores energy production (from glucose and fat) and decreases ROS production. This leads to higher testosterone and sexual activity.
Vitamin B1 can help to increase testosterone.
— Hans Amato (@HansAmato) July 9, 2023
Testicular shrinkage, low testosterone and reduced sexual behavior disorders often happen with age.
Vitamin B1 supplementation in old animals can help to prevent this. pic.twitter.com/HUDjcOnl5T
An interesting rat study indicated that a combination of pyruvate (end breakdown product of glucose) and thiamine pyrophosphate (the active form of thiamine) exhibited a strong potentiation of steroidogenesis in intact isolated rat adrenocortical cells in the presence of threshold concentrations of cyclic AMP or other cyclic nucleotides. (R) With enough glucose, vitamin B1 and a cAMP promoter (such as forskolin and caffeine) in the testes can powerfully stimulate steroidogenesis.
Lastly, androstenedione (a weak intermediate steroid hormone) also requires NADPH to be converted to testosterone.
Vitamin B1 on DHT
5-alpha reductase uses NADPH as a cofactor to create DHT.
NADPH is produced in the pentose phosphate pathway (NADPH) which uses vitamin B1 as a cofactor.
3 great ways to boost DHT.
— Hans Amato (@HansAmato) July 8, 2023
– glucose
– vitamin B1
– thyroid
Glucose:
Any sources that are easy to digest and non-gut irritating to you specifically.
B1:
Supplement 500mg in the morning.
Best food thyroid foods:
– carbs
– organ meat
– shellfish
– dairy pic.twitter.com/lzjt68h67H
Vitamin B1 on Dopamine, mood and brain function
Dopamine and noradrenaline
Vitamin B1 has been shown to increase dopamine and noradrenaline levels, which are involved in mood, motivation, drive, movement, learning and memory.
Injecting vitamin B1 into the striatum area of the brain in rats dramatically increases dopamine levels (R). Also, supplementing TTFD (a derivative of thiamine with higher bioavailability and solubility) has been shown to increase dopamine release (R).
This effect is likely by enhancing glucose oxidation and ATP production. ATP itself promotes dopamine and noradrenaline release in the brain (R, R). Thus basically, low ATP leads to low dopamine and poor mood.
Low vitamin B1 has also been shown to enhance dopamine breakdown in parts of the brain responsible for sensory processing and intellectual functions (R).
Lastly, thiamine is neuroprotective to dopaminergic neurons and is very helpful against Parkinson’s disease.
Serotonin
A deficiency in thiamine decreases serotonin uptake (R). Too much serotonin contributes to apathy and anhedonia and complacency, not something that we want.
Also, low B1 increases the expression of the serotonin receptor 5-HT2A (R), which is overexpressed in depression.
Feeling good
Apart from increasing ATP, dopamine and noradrenaline, vitamin B1 can increase endorphin secretion. This promotes relaxation and optimizes sleep quality (R).
50mg of thiamine improves mood, attention and faster decision times (R).
100mg+ of thiamine has a significant effect on memory recall and is very useful when studying or before a test…
600mg/day of B1 in patients with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, led to partial or complete regression of the fatigue and related disorders within a few hours (R). Thiamine also prevents bad symptoms of hypermetabolism, such as the rapid action of the heart, nervousness and digestive disturbances, during thyroid treatment (R).
Vitamin B1 promotes dopamine synthesis and low vitamin B1 promotes serotonin synthesis and inhibits serotonin breakdown.
— Hans Amato (@HansAmato) July 8, 2023
Magnesium boosts ATP production and activates B1.
Aspirin boosts dopamine production. pic.twitter.com/i9zHsMKPC6
Vitamin B1 on Estrogen
The complete inactivation of estradiol in the liver is dependent on vitamin B1 and B2.
Without adequate amounts of either one of these vitamins, full inactivation cannot occur, and re-administration of vitamin B1 or B2 enables the liver to fully deactivate estradiol (R).
Summary
Not a lot of food is high in vitamin B1 and refined foods such as wheat products and sugar contain no vitamin B1. To make matters worse, these high-glucose foods without vitamin B1 will deplete your current B1 stores.
When you take vitamin B1, take it with food, since protein and folate assist in its absorption. Also, magnesium is an important cofactor in converting thiamine to its active form, thiamine pyrophosphate. Hence, a magnesium deficiency can mimic a thiamine deficiency.
Lastly, manganese has been shown to increase vitamin B1 levels in the body (R). Mussels, maple syrup, pineapples and many grains are rich in manganese.
For most people, regular thiamine HCL should work just fine. If you hardly feel it, then just increase the dose. As mentioned above, 600mg helped against hypothyroid-induced fatigue. Some people need 1-2g daily just to feel normal.
Fat-soluble thiamine supplements, such as Allithiamine, benfotiamine, Sulbutiamine and prosultiamine (found in Energin) are also worth experimenting with to see which one you benefit from the most.
- Thiamine HCL (I usually take 200-300mg first thing in the day with my TestoShake)
- Benfotiamine
- Sulbutiamine
- Allithiamine (start with 100-150mg daily)
>1000ng/dl Testosterone: My Step-by-Step Guide on How I Do It Naturally!
nadph 5ar cofactor, is not thiamine, thats vitamin b3, how could you not correct such a massive blunder, this puts question marks on everything youve said here.
Hey Terra,
“TPP (the active form of B1) participates as a transketolase cofactor in the pentose phosphate pathway, a pathway that replenishes NADPH”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4018973/
I should have said that B1 is required to create NADPH, and that it is not a direct precursor.
Thanks for bringing it up.
Been getting really good results with these Thiamine Pyrophosphate drops, I never noticed much impact from HCL https://www.metabolics.com/vitamin-b1-thiamine-pyrophosphate.html
I then just combine it with some non-fortified nutritional yeast with food to get the other B’s.
Given it’s in the TPP form, does that negate the reliance on magnesium to do the conversion to some extent, Hans? Cheers.
Possible yes, but I’d still add in magnesium as both works synergistically at PDH.
Hi Hans,
I take a B Complex with 40mg Thiamine with no side effects. One day I tried an additional separate 100mg thiamine cap, but a few hours later got a bad headache.Is this normal?
P.S. Love your newsletter.
Dan.
Hi Dan,
Thanks for the positive feedback! Perhaps you had an averse reaction to an exciptient? Did you take enough carbs with it?
Thanks for the reply Hans.
The cap just had thiamine, so no fillers. Maybe not eaten enough carbs, will make sure eat more next time.
Hi Hans, I’ve been experimenting with B1, I was just curious there is a lot of information out there saying you shouldn’t isolate any B vitamin. I’ve been reading from Dr Lonsdale and Dr Berg (he takes nutritional yeast) with his B1. I can’t take nutritional yeast due to celiac cross reactivity, and I don’t really want to take the other synthetic B’s especially B12 and folate. Is it absolutely necessary to take the complex or not? I would prefer to get them from food, but have a feeling I could be thiamine deficient, hence the experimentation. Is there any reliable testing to check if low in the other b’s, my methylation status is ok.
As long as you eat a really nutrient-dense diet, I don’t see an issue with using high doses of B1 alone.
Hey Hans, thanks for the reply. Just another question, I’m experiencing a bit of hypoglycemia, is this usual when first introducting b1? I’m taking benfotiamine and hcl. Or am I not eating enough carbs?
It’s possible carbs are too low yes (perhaps also protein and fat), but it’s common when people use large doses. Perhaps reduce the dose.
I’m trying high dose Thiamin (1500mg/day) to help lower fasting blood glucose of over 300. For diabetics, is it still necessary to take with high carbs? Will the excess sugar in a diabetics blood be enough carbs for the Thiamin to work at lowering blood glucose? Also, how soon (days, weeks,?) can I expect to see lowered BG levels? Thanks for all your great work!
Elevated blood sugar is usually due to high cortisol. I’d use an adaptogenic herb with mulberry leaf extract for blood sugar. Aspirin should also help.
Too much of that article seems relevant to me. Previously & now consistently I have been taking 100mg HCL in the morning, 100 mg Benfo & 50mg TTFD with meals for an improved tolerance to carbs with carnivore as my fall back. I have had hair loss & with B1 urine colour could not be achieved unless I took R5P but intermittent Biotin seems more relevant in ameliorating skin repair with a history of bouts of acute Berri Berri. Magnesium [& Potassium] depletion manifest as cramps with B1 use. My most recent breakthrough has been treating histrionic [diarrhea] Serotonin Syndrome with a NDRI [bupropion]. But acidosis & monitoring urine pH seems less relevant now with a marked improvement in chronic fatigue although I don’t seem to be able to break the 3hr glycogen storage barrier. Peripheral neuropathy, is almost unnoticeable now.
Hey, what are factors that could make someone intolerant to thiamine (hcl)supplementation? Why would it cause digestive upset?
That’s a good question. Sulfur intolerance?
Sulfur intolerance is what I thought before and that may surely be one possible reason. It wouldn’t make sense for me as I can have tons of taurine, eggs and so on. I got better and started tolerating thiamine hcl after a few days. What I’m thinking right now is that the additional gastric acid kills off a small overgrowth and healthy people can tolerate it right away. Or the microbiome shifts in general.