Paralysis, dietary thiamine deficiency

In one form of thiamine deficiency, Wernicke s syndrome may be noted. Therein is paralysis, or weakness of the muscles that causes motion of the eyeball. Oosely associated with thiamine deficiency are dietary problems of alcoholism. The psychotic disturbances of alcoholism, including delirium tremens, frequently respond to thiamine and other B complex vitamins. Injections of thiamine often produce dramatic improvements in persons suffering from beriberi. Beriberi sometimes occurs in infants who are breast-fed by mothers who suffer a thiamine deficiency. Beriberi remains of concern in the Orient where polished rice is a dietary staple. 

Microorganisms, fungi and plants synthesize thiamin but animals have to rely on exogenous dietary sources. In the absence of adequate thiamin intake, thiamin deficiency results in specific diseases. The typical thiamin deficiency syndrome in humans is beriberi, characterized by polyneuritis and paralysis of... 

Thiamine (= Vitamin B ) (pyrimidinylmethyl thiazole) dietary deficiency yields beriberi involving oedema, pain, neuritis, paralysis death detected by Christiaan Eijkman as polyneuritis in hens fed polished rice isolated from polishings by Jansen Donath... 

Thiamine was the first of the B vitamins to be identified, so it became known as vitamin B1. The absence of thiamine in the diet causes a disease called beriberi, which damages the heart and impairs nerve reflexes. In extreme cases, it causes paralysis. One major dietary source of vitamin Bj is the hulls of rice kernels (p. 1035). A deficiency is therefore most likely to occur when highly polished rice is a major component of the diet. A deficiency is also seen in alcoholics who are severely malnourished. 

---