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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiamine

Thiamine is essential in forming thiamine pyrophosphate (TPP), a coenzyme used in the “oxidation” of glucose to pyruvate. Pyruvate is then broken down by the Kreb’s cycle or the “oxidative-phosphorylation” pathway if you will by the energy packets called “mitochondria.” The deficiency of thiamine could reflect TPP being broken down driving excess glucose into the oxidative pathway. Otherwise, glucose is just metabolized by simple glycolysis [which is anaerobic] (does not need oxygen) and yields far less energy.

In other words, this could reflect not simply a deficiency of thiamine which is plentiful in the routine diet as documented here, but its depletion as the body “tries” to rid itself of “excess glucose” that would get stored as fat. The authors have no evidence of which is at play here.

I still think the problem is more likely to involve problems with insulin receptors or their modification but I am not a sugar biochemist.

Type I and Type II involve a reduction in insulin to one degree or the other. It's more like a loss of beta cells.

Alternatively, the Type IIs may have a process at work which is designed to rid the body of excess levels of thiamin.

If, for example, the normal diet were reindeer or similar game for a couple of hundred thousand years, with side orders of seal, when available, or salmon in season, and hold the veggies, you could have an adapted population that would be swimming in thiamin.

So, is there some toxic level of thiamin we should know about?

In other words, this could reflect not simply a deficiency of thiamine which is plentiful in the routine diet as documented here, but its depletion as the body “tries” to rid itself of “excess glucose” that would get stored as fat. The authors have no evidence of which is at play here.

You are right, according to another article which seems more detailed than the one posted.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/health/6935482.stm - Diabetes problems 'vitamin link'

A simple vitamin deficiency may be the cause of many of the side effects of diabetes, a study suggests.

Researchers found people with the disease expelled thiamine - vitamin B1 - from their bodies at 15 times the normal rate in a study of 94 people.

The Warwick University team said thiamine helped ward off complications such as heart disease and eye problems, the Diabetologia journal said.

Not a cure, but can be a huge relief and improvement in quality of life.