Benfotiamine Prevents Postprandial Symptoms in Diabetes

Benfotiamine prevents the endothelial dysfunction and oxidative stress that follow a meal rich in advanced glycation end (AGE) products in type 2 diabetics. "Benfotiamine was used for decades as a treatment of diabetic neuropathy, without any exact knowledge of the beneficial mechanism," Dr. Alin Stirban from Ruhr-University, Bochum, Germany told Reuters Health. "Our data bring benzoctamine from the relatively restricted field of diabetic neuropathy into the much larger field of vascular function and prove in humans effects previously postulated."

Dr. Stirban and colleagues investigated the effects of a real-life, cooked, AGE-rich meal on endothelial function and oxidative stress with or without benfotiamine pretreatment in 13 adults with type 2 diabetes.

The high-AGE meal significantly impaired endothelium-dependent vasodilatation, the authors report, but this impairment was completely prevented by benfotiamine.

The high-AGE meal, with or without benfotiamine pretreatment, did not affect endothelium-independent vasodilatation, the results indicate.

Benfotiamine pretreatment also prevented the decrease in reactive hyperemia and the increase in circulating markers of endothelial dysfunction, inflammation, and oxidative stress seen after a high-AGE meal, the researchers note. The beneficial effects of benfotiamine treatment were accompanied by lower serum levels of AGEs and dicarbonyls, the report indicates.

"Our study does not completely elucidate the mechanisms through which benfotiamine prevents postprandial vascular dysfunction but raises some hypotheses," the authors conclude. "Further studies are warranted to bring light into these subtle mechanisms."
"We intend to investigate in a placebo-controlled manner medium-term effects of benfotiamine on endothelial function," Dr. Stirban said. "But we will extend our observation also on other cell types of critical importance for people with diabetes, such as adipocytes."

Diabetes Care 2006;29:2064-2071.

================================

Learn about the new Steps-To-Health Program. A program like no other. It will motivate your patients to increasing their physical activity while they are having fun. https://www.steps-to-health.org/

================================

FACT:
Physicians Often Do Not Communicate Important Medication Information: Physicians prescribing new medication often do not communicate to patients important details, such as potential side effects, how long or how often to take the drug or the specific name of the medication.
Read and print the full news article at:
https://www.diabetesincontrol.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4191