What is Vitamin B1 (thiamine)?

Vitamin B1 (thiamine) is a naturally occuring chemical that is essential for our metabolism. We can’t make Vitamin B1 inside our bodies, so we must get it as part of our diet. B1 can be found mostly in whole grain cereals (refined cereals often don’t have it), flax and sunflower seeds, asparagus, kale, potatoes, oranges, liver, yeast, beans, nuts, meat and eggs.

It is often used in combination with other B vitamins, and found in many vitamin B complex products and is essential for skin regeneration and boosting collagen production.

What does it do?

Vitamin B1 (thiamine) is a precursor, that is, it’s a natural chemical that acts in the body as a cofactor – a molecule that helps some enzymes (the natural catalysts that make cells work) do their jobs. The jobs B1 does around the body are quite varied, and so a deficiency in the diet can lead to a range of neurological and cardiovascular illnesses.
For skin care, Vitamin B1 performs an important role in the regeneration of collagen, the structural molecule that keeps skin supple and strong.

Is it safe?

Vitamin B1 is totally non-toxic, in that there is no upper limit to the amount we can ingest. Anything our bodies don’t need are easily excreted in our urine. In some very rare cases, people who are hypersensitive to B1 can become slightly drowsy.

Other names it may go by:

Vitamin B1 is also known as Thiamine, and occasionally can be known by its older name, aneurin.