Two studies suggest that thiamin (vitamin B-1) may reduce stuttering. One study was of children; the other study investigated adults who stutter.
The Hale Study
A 1951 study 1 investigated thiamin with a unspecified number of children.
Each child received either 30 mg of thiamin (vitamin B-1) or a placebo for one month, and then the opposite for a second month. In four cases in which a child started on thiamin, and then stuttering returned when the child went on the placebo, thiamin was given in a third month, with the results that all four of these children’s speech improved.
The study was double-blind. “In most cases follow-up observations continued beyond the two-month control period.”
Stuttering wasn’t measured. The previous article in the same issue of the journal was about ways to measure stuttering. In other words, in 1951 measuring stuttering was just beginning.
The results of the Hale study were:
- 80% of the two- and three-year olds had “observably improved” speech.
- 50% of the four-year-olds “were definitely improved.”
- Little improvement was seen in the five-year-olds.
- No improvement was seen in the seven- and eight-year-olds.
- As noted above, four children did an ABA design study, with thiamin switching off their stuttering, stuttering returning on the placebo, and then thiamin switching off the stuttering again.
- Except for one child, all of the children who responded to thiamine did so within two weeks.
The first four results are similar to what we now know is the spontaneous recover rate for children, that is, 80% of pre-schoolers recovery from stuttering without therapy, and after a child is about five years old spontaneous recovery becomes unlikely. I.e., the number of children who responded to thiamin was unimpressive.
The interesting results of the Hale study are in the last two: the effects were seen within two weeks of starting thiamine, and in four children thiamin appeared to switch stuttering on and off. Without treatment, most spontaneous recovery occurs 31 to 36 months (two-and-a-half to three years) after onset. The 80% spontaneous recovery rate is over five years. 2 In other words, the Hale study found that thiamin was effective for about the same number of children who would have spontaneously recovered without treatment; but thiamin speeded up recovery time from two-and-a-half to five years to two weeks. It would be interesting to investigate if the children who don’t respond to thiamin are the same children who don’t spontaneously recover from stuttering; perhaps these children have some neurological abnormality, or perhaps they don’t absorb B vitamins well?
The diminishing effect with older children could be because two- and three-year-olds typically weigh about 30 pounds; when seven- and eight-year-olds typically weigh about 60 pounds, so the older children were getting about half the dosage. I.e., the young children received about one milligram of thiamine per pound of body weight, when the older children received half a milligram per pound.
How does this study measure up to modern studies? The biggest problem is the lack of measurement of stuttering, not disclosing the number of subjects, and the lack of statistics. This doesn’t invalidate the study; rather, it limits the results to either dramatic or nothing. In contrast, a modern study of a medication can measure subtle effects.
The article also referred to an unpublished study 3 of 17 adults in which “the greatest speech improvement was observed during the periods of thiamin consumption as compared to those periods during which a placebo was administered.”
The Schwartz Study
In a recent double-blind study 4 of 38 adult male stutterers, half received 300 milligrams of vitamin B-1 (three 100 mg pills, one with each meal, plus a daily B-complex pill). The others received a placebo. Of the 19 men who received the vitamin, stuttering was “largely eliminated” in six of the men. For the other 13 men no effect was seen. The six men were then followed for seven months and “their speech has remained essentially free of stuttering.”
Adult men typically weigh about 190 pounds so these men received more than one milligram per pound of body weight, or a little more than was effective for the young children in the Hale study.
The study was rejected by Nature because it didn’t follow formal procedures for registering human subjects and because a news release with the results had been released. The study wasn’t rejected for scientific reasons. The author hasn’t submitted the study to any other journals because he is continuing the study with the men whose speech wasn’t affected, with a combination of 1000 mg thiamin, B-complex, and magnesium orotate.
Magnesium supplements were added because a study 5 that tested minerals in the blood of 53 stuttering children aged 5-12, and a control group of 22 non-stuttering children aged 6-16. Sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium were tested. The only significant difference was found in magnesium. 47% of the stuttering children were low in magnesium. One of the functions of magnesium is in metabolizing B vitamins.
How Important Is Evidence Quality?
Evidence standards can be lower for treatments that have no side effects, are inexpensive, require no time, etc. If all you have to do is pick up a $5 bottle of vitamins at the drug store, the evidence we have is good enough to recommend trying thiamine.
In contrast, medications with harmful side effects, brain surgery (yes, this has been suggested!), or lengthy, expensive therapy programs should be proven in large, high-quality studies before they are recommended.
The StutterSense Poll
An informal poll on the StutterSense blog found that of 22 stutterers who had tried thiamine, 36% said that it didn’t help, 36% said that it helped somewhat, and 27% said that they experienced a dramatic improvement in their speech.
A Double-Blind Study on Myself
In late 2011 I tried 300 mg thiamine. My speech greatly improved within a few days. Then two months later my speech deteriorated. It wasn’t as bad as before using thiamine, but it wasn’t much better. I was disappointed that the effect had “worn off” over time. Then I remembered that I’d finished the first bottle of sixty tablets and gone to the drugstore to buy a new bottle. I looked and saw that the new bottle was 100 mg tablets. I went back to 300 mg and my fluency immediately returned. I’d done a double-blind study on myself!
In 2013 I increased my dosage to 1200 mg and my speech improved, almost to complete fluency.
I’ve since backed down the dosage to where my speech is pretty good. I can control my speech and speak fluently, or just talk with mild stuttering. I take 300mg of thiamin twice a day (600mg total), plus I take 300mg and 400mg of magnesium daily (700mg total).
You’ll see in the comments that there are different forms of thiamin. Some thiamin is fat-soluble and other thiamin is water soluble; some stutterers say that one works for them but the other doesn’t. I’ve tried both and I don’t notice a difference. I just take thiamin hydrochloride (HCl), the “regular” inexpensive vitamin B-1.
Magnesium also comes in a variety of forms. I’ve tried several and noticed no difference. I found two brands that each mix five forms of magnesium (citrate, taurinate, succinate, etc.). I have no idea whether any of these is better than the others, so I take one of each daily, to cover all bases.
Safety of Thiamine
The Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) of vitamin B-1 is 1.4 mg, i.e., the minimum amount needed for health. The maximum safe dosage is 7000 milligrams per day.
What Thiamine Does in the Brain
Thiamine’s role in the brain is beyond my area of expertise, but I’ll quote Paul Brocklehurst. Dr. Brocklehurst studied medicine for two years but had to drop out due to severe stuttering. Twenty-five years later he returned to university, earned a degree in speech therapy, and then in 2011 earned his Ph.D. with a dissertation on stuttering. He writes:
Of particular interest is the role that thiamine plays in maintaining cerebellar function and structure. Thiamine deficiency contributes to a reduction in the number and size of Purkinje cells in parts of the cerebellar vermis (Philips et al. 1987). Thus, thiamine deficiency can lead to clinical and subclinical manifestations of ataxia (poor spatial and temporal muscle co-ordination). The most common example of this (in adults) is related to excess alcohol consumption (alcohol can lead to thiamine deficiency). Also of interest, is the fact that thiamine plays a role in the production of and enzyme pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH), which is needed for the production of myelin. Imaging studies have shown that some PWS have myelin deficiencies and/or impaired cerebellar function, so both myelin deficiency and cerebellar impairment could play a role in predisposing to stuttering. 6
The following is from a paper about thiamine deficiency in alcoholics:
Thiamine is a helper molecule (i.e., a cofactor) required by three enzymes involved in two pathways of carbohydrate metabolism. Because intermediate products of these pathways are needed for the generation of other essential molecules in the cells (e.g., building blocks of proteins and DNA as well as brain chemicals), a reduction in thiamine can interfere with numerous cellular functions, leading to serious brain disorders. 7
And there’s always Wikipedia:
the nervous system is particularly sensitive to thiamine deficiency, because of its dependence on oxidative metabolism…The brain requires a much greater amount of thiamine than in other cells of the body. Much of ingested thiamine never reaches the brain because of passive diffusion and the blood brain barrier.
Notes:
- Hale, L. (1951). A consideration of thiamin supplement in prevention of stuttering in preschool children. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 16:4; 327-333. ↩
- Yairi, E., & Ambrose, N.G. Early Childhood Stuttering for Clinicians by Clinicians. (2005, ISBN 89079-985-7), page 167. ↩
- Penson, E.M. An exploratory study of the effect of thiamin hydrochloride on adults who stutter. M.A. thesis, Ohio Univ., 1951. ↩
- Schwartz, M. Thiamin and Stuttering; a preliminary study. http://www.stuttering.com/research.html (accessed 2013 April 24) ↩
- Schleier E, Schelhorn P, Groh F. (1991) Biochemical studies in stuttering in children. Otolaryngol Pol. 1991;45(2):141-4. ↩
- Brocklehurst, Paul. 2013. RE:Vitamin B1 and stammering. [ASHA SIG 4]: SIG 04, Fluency and Fluency Disorders Digest for Friday May 10, 2013 ↩
- Peter R. Martin, M.D., Charles K. Singleton, Ph.D., and Susanne Hiller–Sturmhöfel, Ph.D. 2004 The Role of Thiamine Deficiency in Alcoholic Brain Disease. http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh27-2/134-142.htm ↩
This is a subject dear to my heart. About 8 months ago I started taking 100 mg of thiamin mononitrate 3 times a day with 400 mg of magnesium chloride. I guess it reduced my stuttering about 70%. I later added 200 mg of sulbutiamine which is a fat soluble form of thiamine it’s absorbed about 5 times better. This helped reduce my stuttering even more.
I also tried a newer expensive form of magnesium ( magnesium L-Threonate ) i sure don’t know why but it made my stuttering worse when I was taking it.
You will note I take Thiamine Mononitrate. Back in 1972 I read that thiamine often helped reduce stuttering and tried Thiamin HCL only to find that I evidently have an extremely rare reaction to it, it made my stuttering MUCH MUCH worse. It wasn’t till 1979 that I found out even the small amount of Thiamin HCL put in baked goods was causing more than 50% of my stuttering. I also have a weight problem well i would go on a low carb diet which meant no bread therefore no Thiamin HCL and my stuttering got better as I lost weight. Eat a few pieces of bread and then my stuttering got worse. I noticed starting in ~1981 bakers slowley replaced thiamin HCL with thiamin mononitrate. The same thing happened with vitamin pills now almost all of them use thiamin mononitrate, Actually I tried taking 100 mg of thiamin mononitrate back in 1987 but I didn’t know about taking it with magnesium and was also drinking a lot of coffee at the time so back then it was only helping a little bit and only for about an hour so I just stopped it.
Take only a small amount of Magnesium Threonate. Think 50-100mg at most. A pinch, really. It’s stronger and thus you don’t want to overshoot what will have the optimum effect.
I just got vitamin B1 100 mg and I got magnesium 250 mg. Should I take 100 mg 3 times in a day and 2 times in day on 250 mg of magnesium?
Many thanks for this excellent article. This is such important information, I will refer people to this article. This should be widely publicised. All people who stutter should try thiamine with magnesium.
Hello… I just want to let everyone know that I’m a stutterer of 35 years and since I started taking thiamine and magnesium my stutter has DRAMATICALLY improved and I’m so amazed…. I take 300 mgs of thiamine 3 times a day and magnesium 500 mgs 2 times daily.. Its b.been one month now and I’m still improving.. There is much less tension on the vocal cords… I think its going to take a long time for my brain to adapt to this new fluency… Some reason when I’m fluent my brain keeps thinking that I’m suppose to stutter… Its weird and a old habit…
Many areas of the brain are involved in stuttering. Thiamin appears to correct one problem, but there are other areas that other therapies correct. This might be a good time for you to look at other treatments, that work on other parts of stuttering.
Hey I am about to start tomorrow I was curious if you think I should take 3 100mg one for each meal or just 300mg all at once I also am going to take 150mg magnesium do I need a b/complex vitamin too?
Start with 100mg thiamin three times a day, and 150mg magnesium twice a day. After a week or two you can just the dosages.
Thank you so much for responding on my previous comment I was curious if I could still drink coffee and if I go out alcohol ?
Avoid coffee and chocolate. I’m not sure about alcohol.
Thanks for that article !
I have a few questions :
You say “I went back to 300 mg and my fluency immediately returned.” So you stopped thimaine before ?
When you take 900mg, do you take it 3 times a day ?
I, unknowingly, went from 300mg per day to 100mg per day and my stuttering became worse. When I discovered this and increased the dosage to 300mg my fluency improved. Now I take about 900 mg per day, four times a day.
Thanks for the reply !
300mg to 100mg, that was what I thought, but I wasn’t sure.
About me, it’s been almost 2 weeks I’m taking 300mg of thiamine with magnesium daily. At day 3 I got a huge decrease in stuttering. But at day 9 it got a bit worse. Still a bit better than before thamine, but not so much.
I couldn’t reply on the other comment i asked you.. I Was wondering if i couldn’t drink coffee because of the caffeine ? so should i stay away from caffeine all together and why does this have an adverse effect on the treatment
Hi Tom,
Can you give us a quick rundown of how you are dividing up this 900 mg daily. Is it 300mg 3x a day or 100mg every hour? And also for the magnesium.
Thank you!
– Mike
I buy 250mg tablets and take three or four spread out over the day. Some days I forget a tablet so I only take three.
Do you take the HCL or the mono nitrate? I got a headache from the HCL I think but don’t know if it was because I didn’t take the Mg with it?
Hi.
Did you receive a response on this? If you missed my response in 2016, the difference with HCL and Mono is that HCL is WATER soluble which means it will exit your body thru your urine. Mono is FAT soluble, which means it is stored in your cells. The latter can cause a build-up in your system, especially if you’re not drinking a lot of water. I’ve been taking the HCL for a couple of years. I take it with magnesium, too.
Note the latest results of my informal poll with 300 mg of thiamine (not a scientific poll at all, but still interesting): Dramatic improvement – 15 votes. Some improvement, but not dramatic – 19 votes. No difference – 9 votes. Stuttering worse – 2 votes. Some of these results are probably due to psychological relapse (negative) and the placebo effect (positive). It would be interesting to see results with dosages of more than 300 mg.
These results are in line with Martin Schwartz’s study, finding that 30% of adult stutterers had dramatic improvements on 300 mg daily.
Are you completely fluent now Casa Futura Technologies? How much time did it take from starting to take 900 mg per day to reach this level of fluency?
For me the effects take a few days after changing dosages. I’ll never be completely fluent because I stuttered extremely severely into my 30s, despite completing seven speech therapy programs. I’ll post a video so you can see how fluent I am.
25 year stutterer here. Are there any risks of over doing it with any of these? I plan on starting the 300mg regiment tomorrow while cutting alcohol and coffee *ugh*. Is this regiment with B1 intended for continuous use through life or until after substantial time has passed without stuttering?
Thanks,
-Andrew
The toxic dose for thiamine is somewhere around 6000 mg. Staying at 10-20% of the maximum should be safe, even if we’e not sure exactly where the safe limit is. I would imagine that if you did speech therapy with thiamine you’d need less and less of the vitamins over time.
My experiences with speech therapy have been absolutely horrible. I haven’t been since I was 16. Time is always an issue as well but it’s about time something is done.
Many of the popular stuttering treatments have been proven to be useless. But other treatments have been proven effective. This is why I wrote the free e-book “What Stuttering Treatments Are Effective?”
Andrew, according to Dr Martin Schwartz, who is the driving force behind the renewed interest in thiamine for stuttering, you will have to take the thiamine for the rest of your life if the thiamine works for you.
Interestingly a young man in France is now on 1000 mg of thiamine together with magnesium, with his doctor’s approval of course, and is experiencing a significant reduction in stuttering, though the effect only lasts a few hours after taking his pill. But as he is taking it three times a day, it really helps him throughout the day.
Woody, I have been informed that thiamine mononitrate is fat soluble, so that it can accumulate in the body in the long term and result in overdosing. That’s why Dr Schwartz recommends thiamine hydrochloride which is water soluble, thereby making it difficult to overdose on it. He definitely does NOT recommend thiamine mononitrate.
I dropped the magnesium supplements for a few months, and only took 60 mg magnesium in a multivitamin. My speech became pretty bad. I then started taking 140 mg magnesium citrate, plus the multi-vitamin, for a total of 200 mg magnesium. My speech improved greatly the next day, and has been good for two weeks now. How much magnesium are you taking?
Buenos días. Qué dosis de vitamina B1 y de magnesio debe recibir un niño de 8 años y 82 libras de peso? Gracias
Probar 50mg thiamine y 50mg magnesium.
My 16 yr old grandson stutters alot, he is starting your program should he take the same amount as an adult male ? Weight is about 135lb slim. What about enzyme replacment with this protocol.
Start with 300 mg vitamin B-1, and about 150 mg magnesium, and a B-complex. After a few weeks adjust the dosages.
Dr Schwartz advises against B complex.
About me, thiamine was working well with 1000mg per day and magnesium citrate, but after about 40 days it wasn’t working so well. Maybe it will work again soon. I’ll wait and see.
Dr. Schwartz advises against taking too much B-complex. He suggests that B-50 complex is OK but B-100 may be too much. I’ll do both and report back in a month. A side effect of B complex supplements is that choline makes you smell bad.
I’ll try to take some vitamin B6, as some people reported a stutter decrease wirth it.
I’ll stop thiamine for a few weeks and then take it again to see if my fluerncy goes back.
Ok. Im a bit confused now.
Im researching all this to recommend for my daughter.
I thought I read Dr Schwartz recommends Magnesium Orotate but now I see other people suggesting different forms of Magnesium. So is it Magnesium Orotate or a different Magnesium??
And I thought I read Magnesium Orotate 500mg 4x/day?
Can anyone tell me if Im on the right track?
Thanks a bunch!!
Here’s more info about magnesium: http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Magnesium-HealthProfessional/
For men my age the magnesium RDA is 420mg. The article says that magnesium is needed for 300 enzyme systems, including muscle and nerve systems. It says that most Americans consume lower than recommended amounts. It also says that “Too much magnesium from food does not pose a health risk in healthy individuals because the kidneys eliminate excess amounts in the urine.” It associates toxicity with dosages around 5000 mg. The Tolerable Upper Limit (UL) for supplemental magnesium is 350 mg for men. That seems odd that the UL is lower than the RDA.
My experience is that on 50 mg of magnesium I stutter a lot. On 190 mg I stutter much less. On 330 mg my speech is good, with mild stuttering. This is with magnesium citrate. I’ll try 470 mg but I’m skeptical of taking 2000 mg.
The article doesn’t say which form of magnesium is absorbed best.
ps – And can anyone verify if caffeine especially and probably alcohol need to be avoided?
Thanks again.
I haven’t seen any studies of the effects of caffeine or alcohol on stuttering. Anecdotally alcohol may help people to talk more if they have social phobia, but makes them less able to use therapy techniques so they’ll stutter more.
Buenos días, alguien ha experimentado con el omega-3 que proviene de las semillas de lino (flaxseed)?
Yo toco aceite de pesces, 4 grams cada día. Es bueno por mi corazón pero no ayuda mi habla.
Hello! I read some stuff about Vitamine B1 and I’ve found out it can be dangerous taking in high dose. In that study, the participants were men, around 83kg (for 83 kg they were taking 300 mg of V B1 a day). I am a woman, 50 kg..according to my calculations I should be taking 110 mg B1 a day..or should I stick to 300 mg even if I have a different weight?
I also take 200 mg Magnesium a dat, but it is not magnesium oratate? Is the type important, and the dosage?
Thanks a lot!!!!
Can you send my the reference for that study? I’ve read the vitamin B-1 is safe up to about 5,000 mg daily.
Different types of magnesium are absorbed differently. I don’t know which is best.
Even 7000mg seems safe for most people.
As far as it’s not magnesium oxide, it should be good enough.
About me, I’ve added B6 (70mg) and B12 (1000mg) per day with 1000mg thiamine. My fluency is quite better.
How much vitamin C does the Dr Schwartz recommend ? Thanks
When I was younger a took a lot of vitamin C and it didn’t affect my speech.
It seems it works better for some people than other. Peter told me he recommended 500mg twice a day.
Also I have found that baking soda and lime can help because of their alkalizing potential. Decreasing sugar and calcium intake can help too.
Chlorophyll and chlorella help clearing heavy-metals which can worse stuttering.
And I have tried a DAF/FAF application for Ipod. It worls well for reading, but not so much when speaking to people. So it’s not worth it.
I will have my B vitamins checked (B1, B6 and B12). Should I stop taking them a week before the check ?
No, keep taking your vitamins. If the tests show a problem then adjust your dosages.
Finnally, DAF/FAF is quite effective when used with Skype (around 50% less stuttering). It’s juste with others situations, it’s not very practical to use.
Different DAF devices are more or less practical in different situations. The SmallTalk can be used anywhere.
I’m going to buy thiamine and magnesium powder. They are soooo cheap compared to pills form. And more practical. And maybe more efficient.
It is said that PWS will train carryover fluency if they use a DAF or a biofeedback device. Would it be the same for people who stutter less with thiamine ?
Then, have you heard any evidence/anecdote that B6 and B12 could decrease stuttering ?
When I stop taking thiamin my stuttering gets worse. I tried B12 but it didn’t help my speech.
Hola, me gustaría saber que opinas sobre el método utilizado en la república checa para la tartamudez, en el que se utiliza formoterol, que es un medicamento para pacientes asmáticos?
No sé esta medicamento. Parece interesante. Hay investigaciones?
You said you would do a report of B-50 and B100. Have you done it ?
Another question : from your e-book, it seems a few therapies are really effective at reducing stuttering. I wonder, why do you need to take thiamine ? Haven’t you done yourself one of these efficient therapies ?
B-100 didn’t do anything except me smell fishy (it’s the choline in B-complex). As for why I’m using thiamin-magnesium instead of MPI or another therapy, the answer was that I wanted to see if thiamin-magnesium worked. Then I wanted to find the optimum dosage. If I’d done MPI therapy at the same time I wouldn’t know which had worked. But now I’m planning to get back to MPI therapy.
Encontré por internet los artículos:
– Use of formoterol in the treatment of stuttering. A pilot study.
– Preliminary experience with formoterol for the treatment of stuttering.
– A study of the effect of bronchodilatation on speech fluency in stuttering.
Hi ..I am been stammering since childhood and now my son has started to stutter. He is now 4.6 yrs. I want to start giving him Thiamin..can you pls recommend the dosage..Also should these tables be taken life long?? or can be stopped once u see the results.. Thank You.
Hello, my name is Silvana, I have slight stutter, my father and my grandfather are stutterers. I have a 5 year old child who stutters as well. I would like to try with thiamine. Have you tried with thiamine? Thank you! I am from Argentina
I have to agree with the first comment, thiamin mononitrate was effective in reducing my stuttering by 50-60%. However, when I changed to HCL, it was worse….lots of blocks. Had to stop taking it and and switch back to thiamin mononitrate. Leaves me to believe that fat soluble B1 (thiamin mononitrate, ttcp, works way better than water soluble HCL.
Drake, some people seem to be allergic to thiamin HCL and that make their stuttering worse. That doesn’t mean thiamin HCL is ineffective for other people.
I am pleased to see the interest in Thiamin/Magnesium. A single b complex pill each day (label says B50) works well. Also for maximum effect please visit Peter Louw’s link:
http://stuttersense.blogspot.com/2014/08/these-factors-reduce-your-thiamine.html
to see what you should not be taking while you are determining if this combination of supplements works for you.
Also, Magnesium supplements vary in their ability to be absorbed by the body. I prefer Magnesium Orotate because of its relatively high absorbability.
Nish, in reply to your question dated 14 June. If your son is now 4.6 years old, the following could be helpful in order to determine a correct dose of thiamine. Dr Schwartz has said that, for a 5-year-old of average height and weight, 60 mg of thiamine HCL (hydrochloride) per day may be of assistance. If possible, try to administer the thiamine in two doses, for instance 30 mg after breakfast and 30 mg after lunch or dinner. Try this for two weeks. If no change, add magnesium appropriate for age, weight and height, and try both the thiamine and the magnesium for another two weeks. Discontinue both the thiamine and magnesium if no results after the second period of two weeks.
Anecdotally, a parent mentioned that her son aged 3 years 6 months took 50 mg of thiamine HCL per day (in two doses of 25 mg spread over the whole day). There was no effect until she added magnesium (100 mg per day, split in two doses of 50 mg throughout the day).
Is magnesium glycinate a good supplement choice?
There are a lot of forms of magnesium, with various claims about each being more absorbable than the others. I have no idea which form of magnesium is best so I went to Whole Foods and bought two brands. Country Life Magnesium Caps include magnesium oxide, aspartate, taurinate, citrate, and alpha-keroglutarate. Source Naturals Ultra-Mag includes magnesium citrate, taurinate, malate, glycenate, and succinate. I take both and get eight forms of magnesium.
[…] Should Stutterers Take Vitamin B-1? […]
Hi Everyone,
I am 25 yeas old & have the same stuturring problem. Have tried many therapies but not foud significant improvements. Would anyone suggest me what are the pills with dosages details.
I am really confused what to take & what not to. Could anyone brief the detail of pills to be taken.
Thanks,
Dhiraj
Start with 300 mg thiamin and about the same dosage of magnesium.
are there people that have tried both the HCL and the mononitrate? do they work the same for people or are you able to tell a difference?
How do you know if you are allergic to the thiamine hcl? Does anyone on this post take the higher doses of thiamine mononitrate?
Hi,everyone,I am a stutterer from china.Now I am taking thiaminehcl 100mg twice a day.iI feel very relaxed in nervousness conditions in which I could not even say a word out.thanks for the drug.I wish we can conquer stuttering side by side.
Hello,
so i’m 23 years old and i do stammer .. sometimes not that much when i used to visit my speech therapist but then again i stopped going to her, because i don’t think it helped my speech as much as it helped my personalty any who , now my stuttering is getting worse if i want to ask a question in the lecture my heart rate goes extremely fast, and i just can’t speak literally i can’t say it! anyway, What do you recommend me taking! I weight like 99.208
Asap!
Thank you in advance!
My daughter who is almost 10 started stuttering a few years ago. Over the past month her stuttering has become much more severe and she makes movements with her mouth as she has a hard time getting the words out. Her speech therapist gave me your article and suggested putting her on vitamin b. After reading your article and comments I’m seeing a lot about magnesium as well. Do I start with vitamin b and go to magnesium if the b itself does not work. Do I get her levels first. Where do I start?
thank you.
riv
I would start with both thiamin and magnesium. The two nutrients work together so a lower dosage of B-1 should be effective.
Thank you for responding so quickly! I’m trying to go through the article and comments to figure out the dosage for my daughter and am getting confused from all the numbers. What potency or amounts would you suggest I start with?
I don’t know what your daughter weighs. Start small, maybe 50 mg each B-1 and magnesium, then gradually increase it.
Hi! have you tried with your daughter? my son is 6 and his blocks decreased a lot with the magnesium and thiamine. But I’m afraid of giving him this supplements for a long time. I would like to share experiences with another parents. I’m from Argentina. my email is szaraftis@gmail.com
thanks!
I have been taking 100mg of Thiamine HCL BP 3x daily (300mg total) for the past four days and found no difference in my stuttering. I’m a chainsmoker.
I’ll try the other methods such as increasing the Thiamine dosage or increasing the Thiamine dosage and combining it with Magnesium.
I weigh 96kgs, 6ft and 33 years.
I so wish they allowed Pagoclone to remain on the market for people like myself with no hope.
Stuttering has had such an embarrassing and adverse impact on my life, I was ready to overlook any life-threatening side effects of Pagoclone: I’d rather die at the expense of being fluent for a day than to die after stuttering rest of my life.
Please bring back Pagoclone.
Four days is not long enough to form an opinion. The thiamine needs to accumulate in the body, so it takes time to have an effect – IF there is an effect. Give it at least three weeks or even a month; and abide by the pro-thiamine diet as mentioned in Dr Schwartz’s book. No sense in taking the supplements if the thiamine is lost through a thiamine-unfriendly diet. Also take the recommended dosage of magnesium, which helps absorption of the thiamine.
Do you ever get feedback from adults who tried your vitamin regime ?
Note that the thiamin (B1) protocol also involves a pro-thiamin diet. It’s no use taking thiamin pills if you eat or drink food or beverages that work against the thiamin in your body. Caffeine, raw seafood, sugars, sweets and other simple carbohydrates all “eat up” thiamin. Best is to read Dr Schwartz’s free online book The Thiamin Protocol which can be downloaded as a PDF at http://www.stuttering.com
Peter I am guessing that you are from SA; I bought your book in the 80`s. I have been following the thiamine thread here and would like to know where you can get it, I`ve been searching in mainstream pharmacies but only finds b-complex with much lower dosages than is required
Hi Johan, I get thiamine HCL in the 100 mg format from a local pharmacy (Blooms Chemist) here in Cape Town. It’s the A-Lennon brand which is marketed by Aspen Pharmacare for Pharmacare Ltd, Building 12, Healthcare Park, Woodlands Drive, Woodmead 2191. The hotline is 0800 122 912. You should be able to order it if no pharmacy or health shop in your area sells it. Phone that hotline for more info. Best of luck! The thiamine + magnesium seem to help me to some extent, though I still need to use fluency techniques too. The supplements seem to take the edge off stress, or maybe there’s some other effect as mentioned by Dr Schwartz. I hope it helps you.
I am a Chinese patients. Read your article, I want to immediately take vitamin B1, I am 22 years old male, weight 70 kg. How much do I need to take doses of vitamin B1 and magnesium, looking forward to your reply.
Check out Dr Schwartz’s free online book which can be downloaded at http://www.stuttering.com
I have a question for people with a dramatic improvment:Is it dramatic just in low stress situations or in all situations.i have dramatic improvment in my speech with my family(, but when i start talk with strangers i stutter.
For a few, apparently it works well in all situations. For others, there is improvement but not dramatic. For some others, no improvement at all.
Hi guys, about 20 years with stuttering here. This approach seems good enough to try it. My thiamine and magnesium were shipped yesterday to my country and I will start when they arrive. I will go with 100mg*3 thiamine and 500mg Magnesium then I will write about my experiment here. Many thanks for each one who support this issue.
Hi Again,
No difference happened.
J, have you also tried the pro-thiamine diet together with the supplements? I suspect that the diet is just as important as taking the supplements. For instance, I find that chocolate (which eats up thiamine) immediately affects my speech negatively even when taking the pills. Tea and coffee should also be avoided during the test period as the caffeine as well as the tannins eat up thiamine. If you haven’t done so, have a look at the pro-thiamine diet as mentioned in Dr Schwartz’s book.
Hi everyone,
I do not found thiamine (chloride) and magnesium (glycinate ) in Morrocco please where to buy them on line with safety ? Thank you.
Try Amazon, the online seller. They have a good reputation. However you may be required to pay additional customs duty, depending on your country’s customs laws. Best of luck!
I started taking 300mg of thiamine plus 300mg of magnesium daily. I found that my blood pressure increased. When I took myself off the magnesium but stayed with the thiamine, it went back to what it was before. Has anyone else reported this?
Hi this medicine is not available in India. So I did some research and found berin 100 mg which also have thiamine 100 mg. Can I try it. Please suggest asap.
Hi Ameya,
Check these out: http://www.amazon.in/Zenith-Nutrition-Magnesium-Citrate-Capsules/dp/B01M9GCQSQ?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00
http://www.amazon.in/HealthAid-Vitamin-B1-100-Tablets/dp/B001VM35EO?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s01
Hi jigar have you notice any difference after taking these supplements. Please reply here or on my mail
manishkhurana19@gmail.com
I HAVE BEEN TAKING THIAMINE 300 MG SINCE ONE MONTH AND BELIEVE ME I HAVE BEEN AWSOME … PILL IS A MIRACLE… I TAKE ONE PILL A DAY AND NO MAGNESIUM YET I HAVE SEEN RESULTS.. ONLY WHEN I STOP TAKING PILLS MY STUTTER RETURNS AGRESSIVELY BUT AS SOON I GO BACK ON TAKING PILLS I AM EMINEM… ALSO PILL’S AFFECT GOES AWAY WHEN I AM DRINKING COFFEE OR ALCOHOL. SO IM GOING TO GIVE UP ALCOHOL FIRST AND THEN COFFEE SOON.
HOPE BEST FOR EVERYONE. I AM TRYING TO HELP EVERY STUTTER I MEET AND SLOWLY FINISH THIS PROBLEM EVERYWHERE. YOU ALSO DO THE SAME. KILL STUTTER.
Hello abhishek are you taking thiamine HCl or monoxide ?
Please answer. Can I take vitamin and magnesium with Multivitamin kit. Interfere with the body’s absorption of vitamin B this?
As I read on the Internet, some vitamins, such as vitamin C prevents and removes the B vitamins. is it true?
I hope this will help. I stutter as a result of taking a prescribed barbiturate (fiorinal) for 15 yrs for migraines. I started taking 200 mg B1 HCL (water soluble so it exits thru your urine) AND magnesium 400mg. It only helped me a little so I increased the B1. B1 mononitrate is FAT soluble so stays in your cells and can lead to build-up in your body. I am now up to 1000 mg of B1 HCL and still the 400 mg magnesium daily. This works great for me unless (I also take a multivitamin). If eat bad or drink half-caff Starbucks coffee, my stuttering returns. What affects the absorption (my experience) are the FOODS you eat. For instance, you have to cut out the caffeine completely or switch to decaff. You MUST give up chocolate completely. I’ve been munching on mini chocolates the past few days and my stuttering has returned. The only B vitamin that “might” be affected by vitamin C (again my opinion) is B12. Hope this helps.
Oops…type-o…sorry.
I also take a multivitamin with my B1 and magnesium…and I take Juice Plus gummies. I take the B1 in 500 mg capsules twice a day. I take the magnesium once a day at night so it will stay in my system a while longer. Everyone reading this, please check out stuttersense.blogspot.com if you have not done so already. It provides a wealth of information on stuttering and the effects of B1 and magnesium.
I’ve had some success in low stress situations with 900mg of Thiamine HCL per day, accompanied by the recommended daily intake of Magnesium.
I’ll be testing Sulbutiamine as I’ve read it’s a lot more easily absorbed into the bloodstream.
link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulbutiamine
I’m also organising a session of IV therapy (with a Nutritional Specialist) for thiamine, to observe the effects – more of a way to see if thiamine supplementation will truly kill this stutter for me personally. I’ll be reporting back once I’ve done this to let you all know!
If either IV Therapy or Sulbutiamine supplementation is successful I’ll decide what to do then.
I have stuttered for the last 40 years. I just received thiamine hcl and magnesium glycinate. My plan is to do 100mg of thiamine 3x/day and 130mg of Magnsium 3x/day with the thiamine. Plan is to give it 2 weeks to see what happens. I am also watching the food types I eat to create good conditions for the test. Is there anything else anyone can think of that I should be doing?
Just watch your caffeine intake (coffee, sodas, etc). Caffeine works AGAINST thiamine. You’ll also have to cut out ANYTHING chocolate. Keep in mind that over-the-counter and prescription medications can also trigger it. This is a lifetime regimen. If you stop it or eat trigger foods, your stuttering will likely return. Mine does every single time I cheat. I loved chocolate and loved my caffeinated Starbucks, but every time I had either of them, my stuttering returned (I drink decaff now).
Go to the website stuttersense.blogspot.com and read the article dated “Saturday, August 17, 2013 (to verify you’re on the right page, you should see three blue toy building blocks that say F-A-Q). It will give you a better understanding of the affects of B1 and magnesium, and what to avoid. For me, it was a very informative article and was the reason I started my thiamine/magnesium regimen.
Hope this helps.
One more thing…I don’t know if two weeks will be enough time to really notice a difference. Please consider trying it for at least 1-3 months. That way, it can be in your system for a while.
I’m Currently Taking thiamine 100mg capsule, the brand is solgar. I got it from healthy options. Its just my 2nd day, so too early to tell. I am 27 years old and I have been stuttering for 13 years. Mild to moderate. I hope that this would help me. Will post an update soon.
Hi Jopar, have you tried thiamine? did you have results?
Hola, mi nombre es Silvana. Pertenezco a una familia donde mi abuelo tartamudeaba, mi padre , yo en menor medida que ellos y actualmente tengo un hijo de 5 años que tartamudea muchísimo. Lo mío es muy muy leve pero en mi hijo es muy grave..Quisiera intentar darle las vitaminas con el aval del pediatra. En Argentina por lo que ví, no se vende vitamina b1 sola sino asociada a otras vitaminas. La semana próxima viajaré a USA. Me recomendarían dosis y cual puedo comprar para un niño de 5 años de 20 kg de peso? Vi en amazon varias pero no aclara si es monohidrato o hidroclorhidrato… conviene darle con magnesio o el magnesio lo agregaría después? muchas gracias!
saludos desde Argentina
Probar 50mg de thiamin por el niño, y igual de magnesium.
Hey guys
I’m 25 years old.
I used to take 20mg of citalopram and 0,5mg of alprazolam mixed since 2009, and it gaves me moments of good speech, well, it dont reduce the blocks, but I used to felt more confiable to speak, but that pharmacos was destroying my life, it turns me more “Fake” if you know what it mean!
So, now I decided to stop with this drugs, and I started to take Gaba supplements + b12 twice a day (i have been reading that it in some cases it reduces the stutter, cause the neurotransmitter GABA acts as an inhibitor and reduces the effect of the neurotransmitter, dopamine, which has been implicated in stuttering). I take 2x 500mg, one time in the morning with empty stomach and another in the night 45 mina after diner, it realy helps me to sleep, I feel more relaxed, and i mixed with magnesium PA dissolved in water 330g in 1,2 lt os water. I started this treatment 9 days ago, i stopped with alprazolam and citalopram, Im doing exercises all day mixed with a balanced diet (eggs in morning and night, in lunch just meat, rise and beans.) and NO COFFEE (it decrease DOPAMINE). I felt more relaxed, but i still have blocks, im working, sometimes i stuttered worse, but i think gaba can help me. I will gonna try thyomine b1 and magnesium in pill as well, maybe it can helps me more, and i expect dont use more pharmacos.
Obs: im from Brazil/ porto alegre, if you wanna change opinioes and experiecies about it send me an email rodrigo@vicenza.com.br
Do you know about side effects of taking magnesium? and so high dosis of thiamine?
I´m afraid because recommended dosis for a child es 1 mg thiamine per day..and i should be gaving to him 30 times his recommended amount per day of b1…
Has anyone in this blog tried with kids? any good experience to share?
thank you very much from Argentina
I started taking 250mg of thiamine mononitrate and noticed an immediate improvement and a general calming sensation. Is this type of B1 dangerous compared to the HCL version. Someone please advise. I hate to switch after such a positive response.
My son is 6 years old, a very severe stutterer. We started with 50 mg of thiamine in two daily doses and 50 mg of magnesium. There was a slight improvement but no significant changes. Suspending the treatment and the blockages increase a lot. We resumed treatment with 100 mg of thiamine in two daily doses (50 before lunch and 50 before dinner) and 50 mg of magnesium (25mg and 25mg). While the repetitions continue, the blockages decreased a lot. There is a noticeable improvement. Now we are trying to contact in Argentina doctors willing to control my son in his levels of vitamin. As a mother I am afraid to give him such high doses of vitamins but at the same time I notice that he is more leisurely in his speech and can communicate more comfortably. Almost two months of B-1 have passed. The change is not dramatic but it is an important change. He can now say complete sentences without stuttering.
Dear Silvana,
I read your comment, our story is very similar. My son is also 6 years old, and stutterer. We recognized that sometimes better, sometime much worse. no Im thinking about try thiamin, and magnesium. he is 21 kg apx (46 pound) Could you be so kind and share your experience? I don’t find any story about stutterer children, and thiamin…
are you take thiamin monohydrate or hydrochloride?
Thanks in advance
Brigitta form Hungary
Thank God for stumbling across
this web page. I am 67 yrs old and have stuttered since the age of 21 following systemic ingestion of phenol through gargling (and sometimes swallowing)
a mouthwash called TCP – all to treat my tonsi infection. Talk of ignorance and stupidituy!! Anyhow, my stutter became so bad that my personality morphed from extrovert to introvert and morbidly withdrawn. I felt chronic heaviness in the head often throbbing. I would be lucky top put 2 sentences together without a mental block . Then as time wore on, i was prescribed VALIUM for insomnia Happily and accidentally, I noticed some improvement in my speech whereupon I hoty doctor to put .me on 5mg X 2 daily- not for sleep deprivation but as speech therapy of some sort I remained this way for the next 30 yrs during which period I contrived to attenuate my disability to pursue a long teaching career. I was never stammer-free (still isn’t). Then about age 50, I weaned myself off valium a d switched to EXECUTIVE B COMPLEX. If my stutter was on a 1 to 10, 9.5 when I was 21, Valium stabilized it at 6 and I am now at 4.
I am eternally grateful to Casa Futura ITechnologies, Dr Schwartz and numerous contributers who have liberally shared their experiences and advice. I am joining I the Thiamine/Magnesium combo, presto!
What about Subliamine?? I might buy some soon. This form of B1 is said to reach BBB much easier.
I tried that, didn’t notice any difference.
I’m 25 male. I started taking 3X100 mg of Solgar Thiamin HCL per day four months ago. The improvement was noticeably dramatic after two weeks. However, just like the author pointed out, the positive effect started to fade away. So, I added one 500Mg Magnesium oratate to my regiment and it helped a lot. There have been occasions when I could not take Magnesium for a day and I definitely feel a congestion in my diaphragm area which leads to stuttering. I find this treatment to alleviate muscle paralysis or contractions that is involved in stuttering.
I’m excited to try lipid soluble B1 (benfotiamine) because I am an avid coffee drinker. I will keep up 300MG of Thimin HCL though. Also, I’d like to distribute my magnesium intake throughout the day instead of taking one 500mg pill. My speech is fantastic for a couple of hours after I take Mg and B1 but then I will have to refuel or it gets gradually worse.
Hello,
My sister is 44 and has had a stammer since about the age of four. She weighs about 165lbs. I came across this article and have been so encouraged by all these testimonials. I would like to buy these supplements for her to try and see if they make a positive difference for her. Her voice should finally be heard.
So from my understanding, she should take about 50mg of B1, and about 300mg of thiamine as well as magnesium daily? Once a day at this dosage?
Do I need to be on the lookout for a specific type of magnesium or thiamine?
Thank you so much for your help!
Start at 300mg thiamin (vitamin B-1) and 300mg magnesium daily.
Hi, when my son was 5 years old he developed a stutter. He went to speech therapy but his stutter continued to progress over the next year. Sometimes it was mild and other times he had severe blocking. After one particularly bad fluency day, I decided to try the thiamin protocol with the recommended doses for children. Long story short, it worked exactly the way Dr. Schwartz had described in his blog post. After 3 weeks his stutter was gone.
I continued the treatment and eventually tapered off of it after 3 or 4 months. My son is 10 now and speaks fluently. I will say that his rate of speech is a bit slower than his peers and he seems to choose his words more carefully. It’s not a problem at all, since most kids his age a motor-mouths. My son just comes off as being a little more polite/mature.
I am not a big supporter of miracle cures from the internet and it’s possible that my son would’ve recovered on his own. I’ve read that the recovery rate for children who stutter is 90% before age 6. My son was over the age of 6 almost 7 when he recovered. My son was also in speech therapy and maybe that helped too. But it’s is one heck of a coincidence for his stutter to clear up exactly 3 weeks after starting the protocol. If you have a child who stutters I think it’s worth trying.