Benfotiamine is a man-made form of thiamin (vitamin B1) that the body converts to thiamin. As a supplement it is mostly used by people with diabetes, and it has been studied in small trials for diabetic nerve damage (neuropathy) and kidney changes.
Also known as: S-benzoylthiamine O-monophosphate, vitamin B1 derivative.
Benfotiamine has no intake value of its own. For thiamin, ODS lists a Recommended Dietary Allowance of 1.2 mg a day for men and 1.1 mg for women (1.4 mg in pregnancy and while breastfeeding), and no upper limit was set. The benfotiamine studies ODS describes used 120 to 900 mg a day; the BENDIP trial used 300 or 600 mg a day for 6 weeks. These are study protocols, not a recommendation.
It is sold in the US as a dietary supplement. Under the 1994 dietary supplement law (DSHEA), FDA does not approve dietary supplements before they are marketed, and the maker, not FDA, is responsible for safety and labeling. There is no FDA-approved benfotiamine drug.
ODS says a few small randomized studies have tested benfotiamine for diabetic neuropathy: three found that 120 to 900 mg a day, with or without other B vitamins, eased neuropathy symptoms and lowered urine albumin (an early marker of diabetic kidney disease) compared with placebo, while another found no effect of 900 mg a day on kidney markers. In the BENDIP trial (Stracke 2008), 133 people with diabetic polyneuropathy took 300 mg, 600 mg or placebo for 6 weeks; the neuropathy symptom score improved more with benfotiamine in the per-protocol analysis but narrowly missed significance in the main analysis, and treatment was well tolerated. The authors said further studies should confirm the results.
For thiamin generally, ODS says no adverse effects have been reported from high intakes, and that the diuretic furosemide is linked to lower thiamin levels. If you have neuropathy, tell your clinician, since nerve symptoms have many causes.
We could not find a single published half-life or time to peak for benfotiamine that applies to a supplement dose, so we do not list one. ODS describes it as a form of thiamin that is not water-soluble and is converted to thiamin in the body.
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