A deficiency of B1 can lead to two diseases: beri-beri (kakke) and Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome (Wernicke's encephalopathy). A lack of thiamin causes weight loss, cardiac abnormalities and neuromuscular disorders.
This disease is common in parts of southeast Asia, but not in the US. This is because flour and rice in the US is thiamin-enriched and in Asia the polished rice commonly eaten has little thiamin because the outer layer of the rice is the part that has thiamin. Beri-beri's symptoms are loss of appetite, heart enlargement, muscle weakness, weariness, drooping of foot and wrist, and spontaneous itching and burning sensations.
There are three types of beri-beri dry, wet, and infantile.
| Type | Other Names | Age Group Affected |
Symptoms |
| Dry | neuritic, paraplegic, and pernicious | older adults | atrophy, inflammation of leg nerves, paraplegia |
| Wet | edematous and cardiac | rapid heart beat, edema from feet to heart | |
| Infantile | acute | infants | loss of appetite, trouble keeping milk down |
This disease primarily effects alcoholics in the western hemisphere. This is because alcohol is rich in carbohydrates and thiamin is used to break down the sugars from carbohydrates. Too much alcohol overloads the thiamin in your body. Also alcohol prevents the intestines from retrieving thiamin from your diet. This syndrome might be genetic because it is most common in Europeans and the transketolase of those with the syndrome is much weaker than normal transketolase. Symptoms include confusion, eye paralysis, delusion, brain lesions, rhythmical oscillation of the eyes, psychosis, confabulation (false memories), and impaired memory and cognitive function. Severe cases may result in a coma.
As a side note, too much Thiamine causes hypotension.