For vitamin B1 supplenentation, is benfotiamine or thiamine better?

Thiamine, also known as vitamin B1, is an essential nutrient that helps your body convert food into energy. Deficiency in thiamine can lead to fatigue, nerve damage, and serious conditions such as beriberi and Wernicke’s encephalopathy. While thiamine supplementation can correct these problems, its absorption in the gut is limited because it relies on specific transporters that can be saturated at higher doses.

Benfotiamine was developed to overcome this limitation. It is a fat-soluble derivative of thiamine that bypasses those intestinal transporters, leading to much higher levels of thiamine in the blood and tissues. Clinical studies have shown that oral benfotiamine can raise thiamine levels in the body up to 10 times more effectively than thiamine itself (Bozic & Lavrnja, 2023; Xie et al., 2014).

Bioavailability and Tissue Distribution

Benfotiamine is particularly effective in raising thiamine levels in the blood, liver, and peripheral nerves. This explains why it has been studied most in conditions like diabetic neuropathy, where nerve damage is driven by high blood sugar and oxidative stress. Interestingly, while benfotiamine helps in these tissues, it does not significantly increase thiamine levels in the brain (Volvert et al., 2008; Bettendorff, 2023). For central nervous system disorders, such as Wernicke’s encephalopathy or certain neurodegenerative conditions, standard thiamine may still be required.

Mechanisms Beyond Thiamine Replacement

Both thiamine and benfotiamine support the production of ATP, the body’s main energy currency, through their role as cofactors in carbohydrate metabolism. But benfotiamine appears to have additional benefits. Research suggests it reduces advanced glycation end products (AGEs), which are harmful compounds formed when sugar molecules bind to proteins and fats. AGEs contribute to complications of diabetes and aging, including kidney disease, vascular dysfunction, and neuropathy. Benfotiamine also demonstrates antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects that may help protect tissues even beyond its classic role in energy metabolism (Sambon et al., 2021; Bozic & Lavrnja, 2023).

Clinical Applications

The clearest evidence for benfotiamine comes from studies on diabetic complications. In both animal models and human trials, benfotiamine outperforms thiamine in protecting peripheral nerves, improving nerve conduction, and reducing markers of tissue damage (Stracke et al., 2001; Hefnawy et al., 2022). Some studies suggest high doses of thiamine can also help, but benfotiamine is more efficient because of its superior absorption.

For brain-related conditions, the story is different. Since benfotiamine does not consistently reach high concentrations in the central nervous system, thiamine remains the first choice for acute neurological syndromes related to deficiency. That said, early studies suggest that benfotiamine may still offer neuroprotective effects through mechanisms not entirely dependent on brain thiamine levels, which is an area of ongoing research (Bettendorff, 2023).

Takeaway

If your goal is to protect nerves, blood vessels, and organs affected by high blood sugar and oxidative stress, benfotiamine is likely the better option. If you are concerned about brain-related thiamine deficiency, thiamine itself may be more reliable. Both are safe, and in some cases, using them together may make sense.