Vitamins/Minerals

Description

• BENALGIS^® contains Benfotiamine, a fat-soluble synthetic S-acyl derivative of thiamine (vitamin B1), which is better absorbed, longer retained and better utilized than conventional vitamin B1. Treatment with benfotiamine has been shown to block three major pathways (the hexosamine pathway, the advanced glycation end product formation pathway and the diacylglycerol-protein kinase pathway) of hyperglycaemic damage, probably by removal of glyceraldehyde 3- phosphate and fructose 6-phosphate through activation of the pentose phosphate enzyme transketolase.
• It may thus help to relieve the severity of diabetic complications such as retinopathy, nephropathy and neuropathy. Benfotiamine is better absorbed than the water-soluble thiamine salts. Maximum plasma levels of thiamine are about 5-fold higher after benfotiamine intake and the bioavailability is about 3.6 times as high as that of thiamine hydrochloride and better than that of other lipophilic thiamine derivatives. The increase in relative bioavailability is most significant in muscle (5-fold greater incorporation) and brain (25-fold increase), but thiamine from benfotiamine is also 10-40% better incorporated in other organs, such as the liver and kidney.

Indications

• BENALGIS^® is indicated for the treatment of thiamine deficiencies due to increased dietary requirements, reduced intakes, reduced absorption or increased excretion. It is also indicated for the treatment of Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, Beriberi, nutritional neuritis, diabetic Retinopathy, Neuropathy, and Nephropathy and Thiamine deficiency related to chronic alcoholism.