Vitamin B1

Vitamin B1, also called thiamin or thiamine, is a water-soluble vitamin your body uses to turn carbohydrates into energy. The active form thiamine pyrophosphate sits inside enzymes that drive glucose metabolism in every cell. Nerve tissue and heart muscle depend on this supply most.^[1] Your body cannot store much thiamin. Reserves last two to three weeks without intake.

Forms of vitamin B1

Thiamin is supplemented in several chemical forms. They differ in stability, absorption, how easily they cross into nerve tissue.

Thiamin mononitrate is the standard form used in most multivitamins and food fortification. It is a stable salt of thiamin combined with nitric acid. It is non-hygroscopic so it survives well in tablet matrices. This is the form used in nōuxx Cycle Routine.^[1]

Thiamin hydrochloride is the other common pharmaceutical form. It is highly water-soluble. Bioavailability of mononitrate and hydrochloride is broadly comparable in healthy adults.^[1]

How much you need

The European Food Safety Authority sets the population reference intake at 0.1 mg of thiamin per megajoule of energy intake. For most adult women this works out to about 0.9 mg per day. The US recommended intake for women is 1.1 mg per day.^[1]

Dietary sources include whole grains, legumes, pork, sunflower seeds, fortified breakfast cereals. Refined grains lose most of their thiamin during processing unless fortified. Heavy alcohol use depletes thiamin both by reducing intake and by impairing absorption. Coffee and tea contain compounds that destroy thiamin in the gut at very high intakes.^[1] nōuxx Cycle Routine contributes 2 mg per serving across all three phases.

The science on women's health

Energy metabolism

Thiamin contributes to normal energy-yielding metabolism and normal functioning of the nervous system.^[2]

Direct evidence that extra thiamin improves cognition in healthy women without a deficiency is limited. The 2 mg in nouxx Cycle Routine is a nutritional dose, not a treatment for cognitive symptoms.

Pregnancy and dysmenorrhea

Pregnancy raises thiamin demand. A 2023 review in Frontiers in Nutrition documented increased requirements driven by maternal blood volume expansion and fetal growth. Severe early pregnancy vomiting can deplete reserves fast. Untreated maternal deficiency has been linked to cardiac, neurological, gastrointestinal complications in the infant.^[3] The authors noted that thiamin status is not routinely measured in antenatal care despite the consequences when she runs low.

For period pain, older trials suggested high-dose thiamin (100 mg per day) could reduce pain scores in primary dysmenorrhea, but no high-quality randomised trials have been published in the last decade. The mechanism may relate to improved muscle metabolism in the uterine wall. Until larger modern trials confirm an effect, the evidence remains too thin to draw firm conclusions about thiamin specifically for period pain.

EU authorised health claims

Under EU law, thiamine is officially authorised to carry the following health claims:

• Thiamine contributes to normal energy-yielding metabolism
• Thiamine contributes to normal functioning of the nervous system
• Thiamine contributes to normal psychological function
• Thiamine contributes to normal heart function^[2]

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References

[1] National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements. Thiamin: Fact Sheet for Health Professionals. ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Thiamin-HealthProfessional

[2] Commission Regulation (EU) No 432/2012 establishing a list of permitted health claims made on foods. Official Journal of the European Union, 25 May 2012. eur-lex.europa.eu

[3] Kareem O, Nisar S, Tanvir M, Muzaffer U, Bader GN. Thiamine deficiency in pregnancy and lactation: implications and present perspectives. Frontiers in Nutrition 2023;10:1080611. doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2023.1080611