Beriberi (pronounced Barry-barry) is a nervous system ailment caused by thiamine (vitamin B₁) deficiency. Thiamine is involved in the breakdown of energy molecules such as glucose. It is also found on the membranes of neurons. Symptoms of Beriberi include severe lethargy and fatigue, together with complications affecting the cardiovascular, nervous, muscular, and gastrointestinal systems.

Etymology

The origin of the word is from a Sinhalese phrase meaning “I cannot, I cannot”, the word being doubled for emphasis.^[1]

Causes of Beriberi

Beriberi is caused by a lack of thiamine (vitamin B₁). Thiamine occurs naturally in unrefined cereals and fresh foods, particularly whole grain bread, fresh meat, legumes, green vegetables, fruit, and milk. Beriberi is therefore common in people whose diet excludes these particular types of nutrition.

Beriberi may be found in people whose diet consists mainly of polished white rice, which is very low in thiamine because the thiamine-bearing husk has been removed. It can also be seen in chronic alcoholics with an inadequate diet (Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome), as well as being a rare side effect of gastric bypass surgery. If a baby is mainly fed on the milk of a mother who suffers from thiamine deficiency then that child may develop beriberi as well.

The disease was often found in Asian countries (especially in the 19th century and before), due to those countries’ reliance on white rice as a staple food.

Symptoms and effects of Beriberi

Its symptoms include weight loss, emotional disturbances, impaired sensory perception (Wernicke’s encephalopathy), weakness and pain in the limbs, and periods of irregular heart rate. Edema (swelling of bodily tissues) is common. In advanced cases, the disease may cause heart failure and death. It may also increase the amount of lactic acid and pyruvic acid within the blood.

• Wet beriberi affects the heart; it is sometimes fatal, as it causes a combination of heart failure and weakening of the capillary walls, which causes the peripheral tissues to become edematous.

• Dry beriberi causes wasting and partial paralysis resulting from damaged peripheral nerves. It is also referred to as endemic neuritis.

Treatment of Beriberi

Treatment for beriberi is with thiamine hydrochloride, either in tablet form or injection. A rapid and dramatic recovery within hours can be made when this is administered to patients, and their health can be improved within an hour of starting treatment. In emergency situations where concentrated thiamine supplements are unavailable, feeding the patient with a thiamine-rich diet (e.g. whole grain brown bread) will lead to recovery, though at a much slower rate. Additionally, administering glucose will provide the patient with a temporary boost, while their body recovers.

History

In Asia where polished white rice was the common staple food of the middle class, beriberi resulting from lack of vitamin B was endemic. In 1884, Takaki Kanehiro, a British-trained Japanese medical doctor of the Japanese Navy observed that beriberi was endemic among low ranking crew who often ate nothing but rice but not among crews of Western navies and officers who consumed a Western-style diet. Kanehiro initially believed that lack of protein was the chief cause of beriberi. With the support of Japanese navy, he experimented using crews of two battleships, one crew was fed only white rice, while the other was fed a diet of meat, fish, barley, rice, and beans. The group that ate only white rice documented 161 crew with beriberi and 25 deaths, while the latter group had only 14 cases of beriberi and no deaths. This convinced Kanehiro and the Japanese Navy that diet was the cause of beriberi. This was confirmed in 1897, when Christiaan Eijkman discovered that feeding unpolished rice instead of the polished variety to chickens helped to prevent beriberi in the chickens. The following year, Frederick Hopkins postulated that some foods contained “accessory factors”—in addition to proteins, carbohydrates, fats, etcetera—that were necessary for the functions of the human body.^[2]

Christiaan Eijkman, a Dutch physician and pathologist, demonstrated that beriberi is caused by poor diet. His work led to the discovery of vitamins. Together with Sir Frederick Hopkins, he was awarded the 1929 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for the discovery.

Homeopathy Treatment for Beriberi

Keywords: homeopathy, homeopathic, treatment, cure, remedy, remedies, medicine

Homeopathy treats the person as a whole. It means that homeopathic treatment focuses on the patient as a person, as well as his pathological condition. The homeopathic medicines are selected after a full individualizing examination and case-analysis, which includes the medical history of the patient, physical and mental constitution, family history, presenting symptoms, underlying pathology, possible causative factors etc. A miasmatic tendency (predisposition/susceptibility) is also often taken into account for the treatment of chronic conditions. A homeopathy doctor tries to treat more than just the presenting symptoms. The focus is usually on what caused the disease condition? Why ‘this patient’ is sick ‘this way’. The disease diagnosis is important but in homeopathy, the cause of disease is not just probed to the level of bacteria and viruses. Other factors like mental, emotional and physical stress that could predispose a person to illness are also looked for. No a days, even modern medicine also considers a large number of diseases as psychosomatic. The correct homeopathy remedy tries to correct this disease predisposition. The focus is not on curing the disease but to cure the person who is sick, to restore the health. If a disease pathology is not very advanced, homeopathy remedies do give a hope for cure but even in incurable cases, the quality of life can be greatly improved with homeopathic medicines.

The homeopathic remedies (medicines) given below indicate the therapeutic affinity but this is not a complete and definite guide to the homeopathy treatment of this condition. The symptoms listed against each homeopathic remedy may not be directly related to this disease because in homeopathy general symptoms and constitutional indications are also taken into account for selecting a remedy. To study any of the following remedies in more detail, please visit the Materia Medica section at Hpathy.

None of these medicines should be taken without professional advice and guidance.

Homeopathy Remedies for Beriberi :

Ars., elat., lath., rhus-t.

References

Footnotes

General references

• Angstadt JD, Bodziner RA (2005). “Peripheral polyneuropathy from thiamine deficiency following laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass”. Obes Surg 15 (6): 890–2. doi:10.1381/0960892054222759. PMID 15978166.
• Hawk A (2006). “The great disease enemy, Kak’ke (beriberi) and the Imperial Japanese Army“. Mil Med 171 (4): 333–9. PMID 16673750, https://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3912/is_200604/ai_n16350305.
• Diagnosing Beriberi in Emergency Situations, by Prof Mike Golden, Aberdeen University. (n.d.)
• McIntyre N, Stanley NN (1971). “Cardiac beriberi: two modes of presentation“. Br Med J 3 (5774): 567–9. PMID 5571454.

• Mouly S, Khuong MA, Cabie A, Saimot AG, Coulad JP (1996). “Beri-Beri and thiamine deficiency in HIV infection”. AIDS 10 (8): 931–2. PMID 8828758.

• Shivalkar B, Engelmann I, Carp L, De Raedt H, Daelemans R (1998). “Shoshin syndrome: two case reports representing opposite ends of the same disease spectrum”. Acta Cardiol 53 (4): 195–9. PMID 9842404.
• Jeb Sprague and Eunida Alexandra. Haiti: Mysterious Prison Ailment Traced to U.S. Rice – Inter Press Service (IPS). 17 January 2007.

• Weise Prinzo Z, de Benoist B (2002). “Meeting the challenges of micronutrient deficiencies in emergency-affected populations”. Proc Nutr Soc 61 (2): 251–7. doi:10.1079/PNS2002151. PMID 12133207.