The story

The Physician Who Brought Benfotiamine to American Medicine

Two decades ago, Dr. Richard H. Mann came across a form of vitamin B₁ that almost no one in American medicine was talking about. It was called benfotiamine. In Europe and Asia, it had been used and studied for around sixty years. In the United States, it was nearly invisible.

He has spent the years since trying to change that.

Dr. Richard H. Mann, DPM, DABPS, ret. is a physician, researcher, and the President & CEO of Realm Labs. He is board-certified in foot and ankle surgery (Diplomate, American Board of Podiatric Surgery, retired), a Fellow of the Academy of Ambulatory Foot Surgeons, a Diplomate of the International College of Podiatric Laser Surgery, and a member of the Peripheral Nerve Society. He has lectured on neurological conditions of the feet at medical conferences across the United States and internationally — speaking on peripheral neuropathy, polyneuropathy, thiamine deficiency, and the chemistry behind diabetic complications.

Across 7 peer-reviewed papers published between 2009 and 2026, his research has explored benfotiamine’s role in peripheral neuropathy, diabetic polyneuropathy, Parkinson’s disease, ALS, and Long COVID brain fog — what unites them being a common thread of vitamin B₁ metabolism, energy production, and nerve and brain function.

His mission today is straightforward: to make the science of benfotiamine clear, accessible, and honest — for the people who want to understand it. Not as a salesman. As a researcher and educator who has spent two decades studying a single nutrient and what the literature has to say about it.

This site is where he shares that work — the research, the writing, the questions, and the evidence — for anyone who wants to look at it for themselves.