Beriberi is a nervous system ailment caused by a deficiency of vitamin B1 (thiamine), the symptoms of which may include weight loss, emotional disturbances, impaired sensory perception (Wernicke's encephalopathy), weakness and pain in the limbs, and periods of irregular heartbeat. Swelling of bodily tissues (edema) is common. In advanced cases, the disease may cause heart failure and death. The origin of the word is from the Sinhalese (Sri Lankan) language meaning "I cannot, I cannot".

Beriberi occurs in people whose staple diet consists mainly of polished white rice, which contains little or no thiamine. Therefore the disease has been seen traditionally in people in Asian countries (especially in the nineteenth century and before) and in chronic alcoholics with impaired liver function. If a baby is fed the milk of a mother who suffers from a deficiency in thiamine, the child may develop beriberi.

There are two forms of the disease: wet beriberi and dry beriberi. Wet beriberi affects the heart; it is sometimes fatal, as it causes a combination of heart failure and weakening of the capillary walls, which causes the peripheral tissues to become waterlogged. Dry beriberi causes wasting and partial paralysis resulting from damage to the peripheral nerves. So, it is also referred to as endemic neuritis. One in every twenty people were found to have at least a mild case of Beriberi. The data was gathered in a 2000 study by the National Institute of Health Mental division. Treatment is with thiamine hydrochloride, either in tablet form or injection. A rapid and dramatic recovery can be made when this is administered to patients with wet beriberi and their health can be transformed within an hour of administration of the treatment. Thiamine occurs naturally in fresh foods and cereals, particularly fresh meat, legumes, green vegetables, fruit, and milk.

The discovery of the cause of beriberi started in Japan where the desease was national epidemic. The poor often mixed rice with barley, while the upper class ate white rice. Therefore, during feudal period, beriberi were deasease commonly found among upper class of Japan. However, the introduction of mechanical polishing of rice and increased standard of living shifted the diet from poorly regarded diet of barley and rice to white rice. This shift has made beriberi widespread in urban Japan. The problem of beriberi was particularly acute in Japanese military where conscripts diet often considted of white rice and little else. Kanehiro Takaki, a Japanese naval physician, came to believe that the diet was the cause of beriberi which conflicted with prevailing idea among medical science that beriberi was a infectious desease. Takaki knew that beriberi is not common among Western Navy. He also took notice that Japanese navy officer whose diet consist of various type of vegetables and meat rarely suffered from beriberi. On the other hand, for other navy crew, rice were free while other foods had to be purchased. Crew from poor family who had to send money back home often tried to save money by eathing nothing but rice. Takaki while serving in battleship experimented by providing western style diet to his crew. In 1882, Takaki, made a petition to Emperor Meiji to fund a experiment. 1884, two battle ship were chosen, one being fed with mix of meat, fish, barley rice and bean while the other being fed with only white rice, both traveling exact same course. The latter soon reported that the half of their crew suffered from beriberi while the former reported no case of beriberi. This experiment convinced Japanese Navy that the poor diet is the cause of beriberi. They soon start to experiment of different combination of diet. They eventually discovered that traditional combination of bailey and rice to be an effective remedy and the diesease were soon eliminated from Navy. However, Army which were dominated by doctors from University of Tokyo persisted in their belief that beriberi were infectious diesease and for a decade refuse to implement the effective remedy. In Russo Japanese war, 211,600 in army suffering from beriberi with 27,000 resulting in death while the death from combat is 47,000. Mori Ogai, the cief army physician, and a proponent of infectious diesease theory is later described as the man who caused more death than any other Russian general. Japanese medical establishment at that time was dominated by those educated in Germany, which tend to regard medicine as "scientific research". They were sceptical to the idea that deasese can be cured by simple change in diet. Moreover, they thought that dietry theory lack "scientific explanation".

In the 1890s, a Dutch doctor, Christiaan Eijkman, found that fowl fed only on polished rice developed similar symptoms to his patients who had beriberi, and that they could be cured if they were also fed some of the husks from the rice grains. In 1910, Umetaro Suzuki] discovered and later received patent rights to aberic acid, which later became known as Vitamin B1. His research was the beginning of modern vitamin categorization. However, his discovery was not well known outside of Japan. In 1912, Casimir Funk isolated the anti-beriberi factor from rice and called it vitamine - an amine essential for life. In the 1930s, the chemical formula of this vitamin B1 was published by Robert R. Williams, and it was named thiamine. Christiaan Eijkman together with Frederick Gowland Hopkinswere awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1929. In 1905, Kanehiro Takaki was made a Baron for his contribution of eliminating beriberi from Japanese Navy. He was later affectionately nicknamed "Barley Baron". Beriberi was also widespread among Allied prisoners of war captured by the Japanese during World War Two. The prisoners were fed a diet of rice only, which did not contain adequate quantities of most vitamins. Other common diseases included malaria, dysentery and rickets.

Malnutrition

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