The breakthrough features of this formulation include: supplies only the best-utilized b vitamin forms. Most b vitamin supplements use cheap forms that are not optimally utilized in the body. This formulation does not compromise-it provides generous amounts of the most active b vitamins. Substitutes naturally fully active folate for synthetic folic acid. Folic acid is an artificial folate that is difficult for the body to assimilate. This formulation instead provides the body's most fully active folate, MTHF (methyl-tetra-hydro-folate). Provides sufficient, fully active vitamin B12. Very few supplements provide sufficient amounts of active vitamin B12. This formulation provides 1000 micrograms of fully active B12 to help ensure excellent oral absorption. Thiamin ("vitamin B1") is fundamental to human metabolism because it is essential for the metabolism of oxygen. The microscopic "power plants" of our cells (mitochondria) require thiamin to generate energy, but elsewhere in the cells it is also required for energy generation. Thiamin is important for metabolizing amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, but is especially important for managing sugar and other carbohydrates, and can be depleted by high-carbohydrate diets. Thiamine even helps support the delicate blood vessels of the retina and other tissues in the presence of high levels of circulating blood sugar. This vitamin is absorbed only as thiamin (not as other thiamin vitamins) in the upper small intestine. Alcohol can impair the proteins that transport thiamin, and high alcohol consumption is linked to thiamine deficiency. The brain and other nervous tissues have especially high thiamin requirements. Other organs with high oxygen requirements, such as the heart, also have high demand for thiamine.