New research found one in four hospitalized patients low on vitamin B1. Drinkers were excluded from the study.
By Rick Pescatore, D.O.
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Board-certified emergency physician
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5 min read
Researchers at a VA hospital enrolled 286 patients and did something nobody had done before. They measured vitamin B1 in people who do not drink.
For a century, medicine has taught that B1 deficiency is an alcoholic's disease. That is who gets tested. Everyone else goes home with a normal workup and no answer.
One in four of those patients was deficient. Nearly every one of them had symptoms. The most common symptom was not confusion, and it was not weakness. It was not being hungry.
More than half of the patients who sat for an interview met criteria for the gut form of the deficiency. Nausea, vomiting, no appetite, constipation.
Two weeks on a cheap B1 tablet, and their cognitive scores and their physical strength measurably improved.
The authors call it the first prevalence study of its kind ever run in a high-income country. The first. In 2026.
That is what should bother you. A disease this cheap to treat went uncounted for eighty years because medicine decided in advance who was allowed to have it.
Mates EA, Kilgore-Gomez A, Phibbs C. Thiamine Deficiency in Hospitalized Veterans Without Alcohol Use Disorder. Diseases 2026;14(8):275. Single-center pilot, average age 70, and the authors flag that some of the improvement after treatment could reflect recovery from the illness that put those patients in the hospital.
If you are acutely ill right now, this page is not your answer. Plain B1 tablets cost a few cents at any pharmacy. A thiamine level is an ordinary blood test. That is the entire treatment for a real deficiency, and it is not something I sell.
I am putting that first because the video that sent you here ended with four words. Ask for a thiamine level. I meant them. These are the five things worth saying in that room.
I will send a printable version of these five questions with the study citation on it, so you can hand it to whoever is in the room.
One email with the PDF. Leave the list in one click any time. There is no product pitch inside it.
Everything above this line is about a hospital diagnosis. Everything below it is about a daily supplement. Those are not the same thing, and I am not going to blur them.
Your gut does not move on its own. Nerves tell it when to. That signal runs on acetylcholine, and acetylcholine runs on B1.
A 2025 review in Frontiers in Nutrition traced the mechanism. When B1 runs short, gastric and intestinal motility fall off, and gut barrier function and pancreatic output go with them. That is why the gut complains first.
Deficiency is the emergency version of that story. Most people reading this are nowhere near it. Average American B1 intake runs about four times the recommended amount.
The signal underneath it is the ordinary part. That is the part I built Clear around.
"Deficiency is the emergency version. The signal it runs on is an everyday thing.Rick Pescatore, D.O.
Eight ingredients. Every dose printed on the label. No blends and no fillers.
Three do the heavy lifting. Five back them up.
A fat-soluble form of vitamin B1, originally isolated from garlic. Plain B1 absorbs less and less efficiently as the dose climbs. This form absorbs far better in head-to-head human studies, and that is the reason it is the B1 in Clear.
Bitter plant compounds that wake up bile flow and get meals moving. It works closest to the bloat: less sitting, less stretching, lighter afternoons.
Your body already makes PEA. It calms overactive nerve signals. More than 600 published studies. Most Americans have never heard of it.
Nerves change slowly. One bottle is a taste. The protocol is the point.
That is why Clear ships as a 90-day protocol, and why the refund window is 12 weeks. They match on purpose: you run the full protocol at zero risk. If it does not shift, you get every dollar back.
Your first box also includes the printed Protocol Cards and the evidence booklet, free.
Emergency physician and meta-researcher. His JAMA Internal Medicine work shapes how doctors evaluate evidence behind supplement claims.
Emergency physician whose 2015 Annals trial changed how doctors treat pain at the bedside.
Army pediatric gastroenterologist. Built the Clinical Action Plans toolkit used across the Department of Defense.
Eight actives. Ninety days. Covered in full by the guarantee.
10OFF takes $10 off your first order at checkout.The 12-week guarantee covers your first order, up to three bottles. If it does not shift, full refund and you keep them. Free shipping. Cancel anytime in two clicks.
If you are treating a diagnosed deficiency, do exactly that. Plain thiamine is cheap and it works. Your doctor should be the one directing it. I said so in the video and I am not walking it back to sell you something.
Clear is a different product for a different job. It is a daily eight-ingredient formula built around gut-brain signaling, using a form of B1 that absorbs better than the plain kind. It is not a treatment for a deficiency and it is not a substitute for getting tested.
No. Clear is a dietary supplement. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, including thiamine deficiency, beriberi, or Wernicke's encephalopathy. If you think you are deficient, that is a conversation with a physician and a blood test, not a supplement purchase.
Then it is free. Email us any time within 12 weeks of delivery and we refund your first order, up to three bottles. Keep them.
Nerve-level change takes weeks, not days. Artichoke and ginger help early. The signal layer builds over two to three months. The protocol matches the biology and the guarantee matches the protocol.
The ingredients are well tolerated. Still, check with your prescriber, especially for blood thinners, lithium, MAO inhibitors, or anything that affects brain chemistry. Clear contains a trace of lithium orotate at mineral-water levels, not a drug dose. If you take prescribed lithium, ask first.
Your bottles, the printed Protocol Cards, and the pocket evidence booklet with the research behind every ingredient. The booklet is built to be handed to your doctor.
If the ordinary version of this pattern is your pattern, run the protocol. If it has not shifted by week 12, it is free.
Not sure Clear is your match? Take the 90-second quiz.
