Hi All,
This is my story living with ataxia. I went to doctors and neurologists for over 16 years without a diagnosis in the mean time my ataxia was getting worse. I knew I had to get proactive and solve this problem myself. I finally went to a MD doctor
who specializes in Nutrition. She found my problem on the first visit. She knew what blood test to run. The regular serum blood level test which I had over 16 years never caught my problem. It was thiamine deficiency if you Google thiamine deficiency it is very serious especially to the brain. Thiamine is needed by the brain to break down glucose for energy. With
out thiamine you get inflammation and lesions neuron cell death. I got treated with thiamine IV some 20 month ago this treatment lasted for 1 week this stopped my progression I have no new symptoms and the symptoms I had improved.
The only symptom I have now is gait disorder and balance do to cerebellar atrophy because of prolonged thiamine deficiency I did not find the problem until I was 71. Here is a article by PubMed on thiamine deficiency.