Sunday, April 06, 2008
Research
by Gretchen Wieland, Tuesday, November 14, 2006
A dietary supplement could prevent alcoholism in people who have a genetic propensity toward alcohol abuse, according to preliminary findings by a KU researcher.
Ann Manzardo, research assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral science, said research showed a link between a deficiency in thiamine — a B complex vitamin — and alcoholism.
Individuals with white matter damage may have impaired judgment when using alcohol and may be less able to stop themselves from drinking too much. -Ann Manzardo, research assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral science
She is currently testing whether Benfotiamine, a dietary supplement that activates thiamine in the body and dramatically increases levels of the vitamin, could both help alcoholics kick their dependencies and lower the risk that people with thiamine deficiencies will become alcoholics.
“A thiamine deficiency has long been linked to alcoholism,” Manzardo said. “We now believe that the deficiency may be predisposing people to alcoholism instead of being the result of alcoholic behavior.”
Thiamine helps to break down sugars and turn them into energy. The heart and nervous system are especially prone to a deficiency, which occurs when proteins do not “turn on” the thiamine to run throughout the body. Thiamine also keeps nerves functioning normally.
Manzardo’s theory, which appeared in the September issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, suggests that some babies inherit insensitivity to thiamine that inclines them to alcoholism later in life. This adds to proven data that alcoholism is a genetic disease.
Manzardo said that white matter, a fatty substance that protects cells in the nervous system, sometimes does not develop properly in the first few weeks of life when there is a thiamine deficiency.
“Individuals with white matter damage may have impaired judgment when using alcohol and may be less able to stop themselves from drinking too much,” Manzardo said.
Previous studies have found that children of alcoholic parents develop at a slower rate, and their motor skills are especially impaired. White matter damage in the brain that results from a thiamine deficiency is now believed to be the cause of those developmental issues.
Children who have white matter damage to the brain develop more slowly and are much more likely to become alcohol dependent by age 30 than those who develop at a normal rate.
“Sons and daughters of alcoholics are two to four times more likely to become alcoholics themselves,” Manzardo said.
Wally Mechler, a Lawrence counselor licensed to treat alcohol addictions, said that significant medical research had linked alcoholism and genetics.
“Between 60 and 70 percent of my patients actively report that they have at least one parent who is an alcoholic,” Mechler said.
Alcoholism is difficult to study because the gene connected with the disorder has not yet been found and gathering the data from birth to adulthood is an extensive process. However, if Manzardo’s theories prove correct, isolating the gene may become easier.
Manzardo said she would like to interview preteens with an inherited thiamine deficiency before they began drinking and to interview them again 10 years later to find out how many had become alcoholics.
The dietary supplement Manzardo is currently testing may alter how genetic alcoholism is treated.
Benfotiamine was created in the 1960s to help the nervous system process alcohol and to abate the side effects of drinking. It has recently been used to help diabetics, who have blood sugar problems that relate to the thiamine deficiency. A diabetic’s body can break down sugars properly with the aid of Benfotiamine.
Manzardo said the drug activated the body’s thiamine, increased the vitamin’s levels and had been shown to improve brain function in alcoholics.
“We will see if the supplement has an effect on drinking and whether it will help alcoholics recover,” Manzardo said.
The supplement has been successful in Europe at reducing the symptoms of nervous system conditions involved with alcoholism, and no adverse effects have been found after a decade of use. Manzardo said Benfotiamine could eventually be used to help those who had the thiamine deficiency before they abused alcohol.
“Ultimately, it makes sense to give it to pregnant women or babies,” Manzardo said, “especially people who have a high risk for alcoholism.”
However, Manzardo said she would not recommend this without extensive testing that proved there were no negative side effects.
Mechler said that there were many available medications now that helped combat alcohol cravings, but that he saw potential in Benfotiamine. He also said an entire lifestyle change was the key to fighting alcoholism.
“If it was approved by the correct governing agencies, I would advocate anything that is safe to help,” Mechler said. “I promote supplements, and it is also about a holistic lifestyle.”
Kansan correspondent Gretchen Wieland can be contacted at editor@kansan.com. ( Edited by Aly Barland)