[pct-l] bug question

[greg mushial]

> Message: 6
> Date: Thu, 25 Nov 2010 12:51:18 -0700
> From: Kevin Cook <hikelite at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [pct-l] Pct-L Digest, Vol 35, Issue 63
> To: pct-l at backcountry.net
> Message-ID:
> <AANLkTi=UcC1FDod2LqC4e-0a43JkJ1ZtkhZxaq_Z-Z1F at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> Now that you mention this, I do recall hearing this before. I wonder if
> there are any negative side effects to high doses of B1? I don't really 
> like
> Deet, but I'll use it if I have to. If a high dose of B1 will achieve the
> same result, that sure sounds preferable.
>
> Anyone know about 1/Thiamine?
>

Just a quick follow up:
1) in google'ng on this: the views seem bimodal - the universities all say 
there is no demonstrated effect [though I don't find a single reference to 
what B1 levels they were working with]; but the walkers/hikers/backcountry 
types all say they either a) had less bites, or b) if they had the same 
number of bites, they noticed them less.
2) again, the logger told us that B1-HCL has no effect, but to use the 
B1-mononitrate, which we did, ie, know nothing about using the HCL form, or 
at least no personal data
3) we were taking 100mg tabs - I'm trying to scratch the graymatter...  but 
if I remember correctly, both chris and myself started off with 3x each, but 
I found the 200mg/day did the job for me; he stayed on 3x all the way to 
montreal
4) there is a 2-3 day startup time, ie, one has to build up the body 
concentrations before one starts sweating it out - I remember we noticed 
this; actually thought about stopping, but since we had bought a 100 tab 
bottle, decided to stick it out... than magic happened, and taking the B1 
each morning became part of the morning routine
5) in looking at what's available in terms of dose/tab sizes, the 100s are 
the most common, but one can buy 250s and 500s. The fact that people are 
taking such, ***my guess*** is that any od levels must be well above our 200 
and 300mg/day - neither of us noticed anything that caused us to think about 
stopping [in fact the only thing we noticed was a) the mosquitoes nolonger 
were being a problem, and b) we smelled a little funny (other than dirty, 
ie, once a week shower)... as I said - taking our B1 became part of our 
morning getting camp broken, bikes loaded routine
6) on days we were riding (we tended to do 1 zero per week west of montreal; 
I did more afterwards), we were covering approx 100 miles a day and since we 
did things like riding the length of the rockies - Icefields Parkway, 
Jasper->Banff - we did lots of sweating - I don't know how B1 would have 
worked if we were just lazing about (out in the sticks - our zeros were in 
town where there are less mosquitos)...  [one experience I remember well is: 
in western ontario on the TransCan we ran into clouds of mosquitos (maybe 8' 
in diam), and other than having to pick them out of one's teeth, no bites... 
your basic, close one's eyes, duck down as much as one could and ride though 
them dance]

YMMV HYOH
TheDuck