Talk to us about those dosages though. At 500 mg of niacin I feel like I'm on fire. At 1,000 mg I feel like I'm going to die but I know that all of the bad microbes inside me will die too because no one can survive this hour-long hot flash. How does anyone survive a therapeutic dose of 3,000 to 18,000 mg of niacin daily???
Everyone is different, so experiment and use whatever you need.
A flush is scary/uncomfortable at first but most grow to enjoy it.
Niacin is water-soluble so try 3 doses of 150 mg if you prefer.
After 4-7 days @ 500mg your flushing should fade and you can increase the dose.
An aspirin will cancel a flush if it is 'too much'. Slow & steady is always best. Maybe try 400 mg for a few days.
Once you get no flush @ 1000 mg then 2000+ isn't much different, although of debatable benefit. When I acquired an Omicron cough from a jabbed acquaintance I took 3 x 3000 mg doses (9000 mg/day) and 2 x 3000 mg (6000 mg/day) the following day to get rid of it, but those levels are getting into emergency treatment territory.
There are no bad microbes inside you. My understanding is you're clearing out a lifetime of accumulated gunk so that your cells work more efficiently/properly. Think de-greasing an old oven or de-carbonising an old engine. The heat is a product of that (bio-thermodynamics, Warburg effect, it's complicated) although there is a histamine response as well.
I first was introduced to niacin when a coworker had taken some and thought she was going to die. After a couple minutes of research I assured her she would live. Keep at it with lower doses until the flushing backs off, then up it in steps. After being on it for awhile I went to my cardiologist and when he saw my blood work he was blown away. He said it's your turn to teach me! I told him about niacin and he poo poohed it and told me to go on statins instead. I quit taking them several years ago - not sure why. After reading this I'm going to order some right now!
I wonder if we can slowly raise our doses. I learned that a niacin flush will stop migraines if I take it in the prodrome phase. (2 mg per lb body weight (ex: 125#, I took 250 mg). When I shared this with my coworkers also suffering migraines, 2-3 mg/lb body weight stopped the migraine progression for them to (my heavier coworkers seemed to need 3 mg/lb).
But as time went on, I needed more niacin to get the flush. I think I was acclimating to it. So maybe we build up?
That feeling goes away if you stick with it, it’s actually quite interesting to witness how and where the body uses the niacin and where you flush over a couple of weeks. It appears in my body that the flush is concentrated where I need it the most. I can now take 1500 and not have an uncomfortable flush.
One survives and thrives by building up gradually. Flushing is at its most extreme the first few times but that lessens within a couple of days. It does great things to the cardio vascular system. And if you take it before bed, sends you off to sleep. If you suffer from anxiety, it calms and relaxes and improves mood. I speak from experience Ive observed among my own family members. It works really well and as the body becomes accustomed to Niacin in larger doses, the intense heat symptoms reduce to a very bearable level. 😊
First of all, you're doing it wrong to take the doses in such large amounts... You want it spread... but let's assume your life and schedules would not allow you to keep your dose of 3,000mg in a pint of OJ in the fridge to sip from during the day... for carpal joint problems...
Then do what Hoffer suggests to avoid that FLUSH, use the other immediate version Inositol-hexanicotinate... which is what we use for treating anxiety or depression in new arrivals in our cat rescuing...taste ain't bad at all... originally a little more expensive but not so much when bought in bulk [we use BulkSupplements.com]
Next, once your body isn't so overly in need of B3, the flush doesn't happen for many people... DrSaul said he kinda liked the flush as confirmation you were getting serious help... not me...
Sometimes, this can be explained by a stronger-than-usual response to Niacin (due, ironically, to shortfalls in Niacin). If this is the case, it goes away by itself after a few days.
However, most often this is because there is excess inflammatory activity (specifically, a specific immune system chemical called Prostaglandin D2, aka PGD2). The options here are:
- consider any inflammatory triggers that may be increasing overall immune activity overall, and thus PGD2
- make use of items that inhibit the formation of prostaglandins (Aspirin, White Willow Bark and Gotu Kola all do this)
- make use of items that specifically inhibit PGD2 (Luteolin does this)
If the dose seems intolerable take a hot shower, not cold. If you give those capillaries a reason to be wide open it will seem normal. After the hot shower be physically active to maintain comfort.
Fantastic. Flush niacin (nicotinic acid) has been a game-changer for me. I developed multiple chemical sensitivity via excessive formaldehyde exposures and as a result, I've suffered somewhere on the order of 2,000 migraines, and I have the brain damage that comes with it. I started taking nicotinic acid with melatonin and my migraines are now very few and far between (I've verified that the melatonin more than likely helps due to its strengthening of the blood-brain barrier, the loosening of which is a problem for migraineurs with MCS).
Yet they continue putting formaldehyde in most childhood vaccines. AND polysorbates are also in most of them, which breaches the blood brain barrier and ushers other toxins in with it. 😖
Micro organisms, like plants, use the Shlkimate pathway to produce tryptophan which produces serotonin, melatonin ;and tyrosine; the first directly affects NAD production and all require manganese as cofactors.
Both fluoride in drinking water and PFOAS IN EVERYTHING and glyphosate in foods chelate manganese thus stopping the whole process- that is why glyphosate is a herbicide. So the body has a constant battle to produce Vitamin Bs hence the constant ned for supplements and as the book says to refuse these supplements is medical malpractice, even malfeasance.
I get flushing at 250 mg(3mg/kg) so I restrict myself to OIA- I have no health problems niacin is just one of my supplements)
Were you able to see the brain damage on an MRI or how did you know? I realise that a scan can't see much by way of inflammation but interested to know how you picked it up.
I learned this the best way for me: I took them for covid prophylaxis and found that they were preventing my migraines. A similar thing happened with quercetin and seasonal allergies, and raw milk kefir and lactose intolerance.
Nicotinic acid: 600 mgs 3X/day: morning, noon, and shortly before bed.
Melatonin: 5mgs morning and noon. 20 mgs at bedtime. I've taken considerably more, but this seems to work fine.
I'm not taking the levels that Chris Masterjohn is talking about in this video, but I'm also taking TMG with the niacin for liver support.
"I’m not a doctor but I don’t need to be a medical professional, a scientist, a chemist or Stephen Hawking to have common sense, and neither do you..."
LOL I love this heading already.
Skimmed it, seems interesting, thanks for the share.
Yeah, good solid loyalist blahblah. Far, far more people are dying from big Pharma and big PHS "protocols" than will ever die from using vitamins and supplements.
I hear what you are saying but sometimes these lifestyle changes aren't enough for someone hearing voices or having daily panic attacks. I don't think niacin is the answer. It doesn't address the why. Even someone who has been poisoned has some history of abuse in their life or that of an ancestor. The only thing that can address familial/generational issues/genetics/DNA is good homeopathy, IMO.
You've touched a few points here that I would add some thoughts to.
Mental Health
What's going on in the mind will override biochemistry. They'll tell you mostly about cortisol but there are many more reactions that can be impacted by a belief system. This is why the medical cartel fears the placebo effect, it is a real psychological effect. What I'd like to point out here is that the field of psychology is just as much of a cartel system as medicine, supplements and food. But good people exist, if anyone knows how to find these folks, I'd love to hear it. But becareful of systems that wants to take your money.
Genetics
This one is another big gimmick. It's a talking point by the medical field when they instill fear dynamics into the system. You will now depend on whatever they have to sell.
One way around this is to get your whole genome sequenced and study this for yourself, which is how to use the tools to read the raw data. I did with Nebula Genomics when I was told about the cholesterol nonsense.
The field of genetics is a dishonest one just as much as biology. Once you start to dig into how the associations and risks are calculated for the genes, you'll see this.
Maybe the field of epigenetics can serve some purpose here, as the saying "genes loads the gun but the environment pulls the trigger" seems very applicable when you look at studies and the outliers who survived genetic traits.
Niacin is another way of dealing with health in an allopathic way. It doesn't address the why and will never change someone's inherent energy. I wish you would interview a homeopath like Roger Morrison, MD who can explain methods of practicing homeopathy that have been practiced since the 1990's like that of Rajan Sankaran and Jon Scholten who was a chemist and organized the periodic table into levels and stages of a person's life experience. Homeopathic remedies prescribed in this method correct generational and personal traumas and can promote deep healing.
If you are over 45, high dosage Niacin can increase uric acid levels in the blood which can lead to gout. At first I thought I had an infection and it took like a year to diagnose after 4 occurrences of the outbreak. I was taking 500 MGs daily.
I know first hand of a person who had dangerous muscle damaging side effects from lipitor. His doctor suggested trying niacin. The effects were outstanding. After gaining tolerance to the famous flushing, and staying on dose at 1500mgs, the cholesterol numbers improved dramatically. For years. With no side effects. And then we found out that double blind studies done decades ago showed niacin to be effective for cardiac/cholesterol issues.
That's still going by the belief that high cholesterol is bad, though it's been shown that it's protective. Especially for the brain. Reducing cholesterol doesn't reduce mortality which is the whole point of trying to prevent CHD.
Which means one should now ask why is the cholesterol "high" in the first place.
High here meaning you cannot follow the reference ranges built by people trying to sell you a product to manipulate that value.
However, high can mean that you have values that deviate significantly from the norm, such as the Feldman guy and his rationalization of this through his lipid hypothesis and the triad group (high HDL, LDL and low TG).
Why is low carb, keto, carnivore groups seeing an extremely elevated level? What are they doing to their system to cause this? Many will rationalize this to now say that it is healthy, because the low carb diet has healed them.
It's the same with many other biochemical movements in the body such as uric acid. Why is that elevated? If the body is producing the majority of these molecules, those are the questions to ask, and less about deducing what is good or bad, because that is just as bad as a religious belief system.
A diet can be just as bad as a drug and supplement. It is an imbalance.
I don't mean that taking niacin didn't have a beneficial effect, just that we should be looking at the health of the glycocalyx or mitochondria instead of cholesterol levels. Niacin helps both of these incidentally.
Although I have no health issues (other than 'getting old') Flush Niacin made me feel 20 years younger.
I also witnessed the harassment and suppression of the niacin community over the past 4 years.
Niacin is most famous as a cure for pellagra.
So it's illuminating to read the history of the US epidemic, where a heroic doctor (Joseph Goldberger) battled to show it was caused by poor diet/modern food processing whilst the establishment blamed everything else.
Several commissions, appointed during the first quarter of this century to investigate the cause of pellagra, concluded from their studies that pellagra was an infectious, contagious disease. Harris(1913) was able to inject Berkefeld filtered tissue material from pellagra victims into monkeys to cause a corresponding disease in these animals. He concluded from these experiments that a virus was present in the injected material and that it was the cause of pellagra. If the work of Harris had been followed exclusively, various strains of this "virus" might have been discovered and a vaccine, effective in experimental animals, might have been developed, as in the case of poliomyelitis. Today, as a result of unlimited research, however, we know conclusively that pellagra is not caused by a virus but rather that it is a vitamin deficiency disease. It is obvious that if the investigations of pellagra had been restricted to the virus theory, it would still be a mystery."
IMHO the key factor is that once Nictonic Acid (natural Vitamin B3) deficiency was acknowledged to be the cause, it was renamed to Niacin (1942) so that 'fake Niacins' (Niacinamide, Nicotinamide, sustained-release, proprietary products etc) could be introduced in its place. The original fake vitamin ?
These claimed to be functionally equivalent but no evidence of that exists. On the contrary, numerous studies show Nictonic Acid is beneficial whilst Niacinamide is not.
For every study of "Niacin" it is imperative to establish which form was used. There is a reason it is obscured.
Thus Nictonic Acid (aka Flush Niacin) is demonised because "Niacin causes liver toxicity" whilst fortification programmes, prescriptions and supplements all utilise Niacinamide, because "it's the same thing, but better".
I believe the flush IS the therapy.
Using no-flush niacin is akin to holding a party with alcohol-free beer/wine and expecting it to be fun.
Labelling the flush as an "uncomfortable side-effect" is like saying sweating is just a "uncomfortable side-effect" of a sauna.
Interestingly Kats also claims that plants benefit from supplemental Nictonic Acid, which lends weight to the claim of systematic denudation via food processing, pollution, geoengineering.
Whilst Hoffer was a hero of his time, may I suggest you interview Dr Kats to get a more up-to-date viewpoint ?
I love your articles, thank you. Small comment on this one: no mention of niacin and gout. As one who has suffered from gout attacks, I learned the hard way that Niacin can be a problem notwithstanding all of the other benefits described.
Only flush niacin aka nicotinic acid should be used. Take with food to minimize flushing. Start with a low dose and work up as needed. At higher doses, it should be buffered with sodium bicarbonate 9or other buffers) due to its acidity. There are extensive articles giving guidance on niacin use in Dr. Garrett Smith's Love Your Liver Program.
Niacinamide and extended release or no flush niacin should NOT be used. They are not as effective, and can cause problems.
re Q 26
Lutein and so called vitamin A are absolutely not good for eyes.
re Q 29
Cod Liver Oil and Linseed Oil are toxic and should never be taken by anyone for anything.
I remember grinding carrots for my infant daughter to not have bad eyes like me . Now I know I was giving her a toxic dose of A not even worth calling a vitamin
That was beta carotene though. As far as I understand, it's converted to retinol only if the body needs it. Retinol can be toxic, but is found in animal foods.
Whether she does or doesn't, what does that have to do with anything objective about how to take B3?
I'm not a big fan of any "supplement"; even more so, taking a sup in isolation.
So, I don't really care. I'm not for nor against your question. I'm just wondering why you asked her about MD / PhD? Why not throw in Mensa? I'm obviously missing the gist of your question.
But from my time interacting with folks online and in real life, this may be reason:
Argument from authority.
Questions like this usually comes when a belief system is challenged, paired with the energy requirements to do the cognitive work, it’s more energy efficient to hand off this thinking to an authority figure.
Guys like Stanly Milgram shows how far this can go with his experiments. He has a good book too.
The RDA is a wonderful way to hide a beneficial substance in plain sight. Rinse and repeat for who knows how many other bloody things :(
Thanks for the reminder to do a niacin flush. It's a really bizarre experience, like having a head-to-toe sunburn that's totally disappeared an hour or so later. Very calming!
Please look at ggenereux.blog to understand the science fraud over vitamin A and copper. Please look over @nutridetect on x.com / twitter to learn of Garrett Smith and Kelsey Kenney's excellent work with nicotinic acid to recover from and remove toxins from the liver and the body. Especially vitamin A and copper.
you are trying to convince a phlebotomist of the virtues of phlebotomy. like I said it is a very short term fix and does not much to address the stored vA.
I liked this “It is increasingly clear that we need to fix human health problems using the parts that the human body machine divine instead of the come-and-go, routinely failing xenobiotic molecules that are pushed to clinical trials by the patentable-profit motive”
Talk to us about those dosages though. At 500 mg of niacin I feel like I'm on fire. At 1,000 mg I feel like I'm going to die but I know that all of the bad microbes inside me will die too because no one can survive this hour-long hot flash. How does anyone survive a therapeutic dose of 3,000 to 18,000 mg of niacin daily???
How much salt do you use ?
How hot do you like your sauna ?
Everyone is different, so experiment and use whatever you need.
A flush is scary/uncomfortable at first but most grow to enjoy it.
Niacin is water-soluble so try 3 doses of 150 mg if you prefer.
After 4-7 days @ 500mg your flushing should fade and you can increase the dose.
An aspirin will cancel a flush if it is 'too much'. Slow & steady is always best. Maybe try 400 mg for a few days.
Once you get no flush @ 1000 mg then 2000+ isn't much different, although of debatable benefit. When I acquired an Omicron cough from a jabbed acquaintance I took 3 x 3000 mg doses (9000 mg/day) and 2 x 3000 mg (6000 mg/day) the following day to get rid of it, but those levels are getting into emergency treatment territory.
There are no bad microbes inside you. My understanding is you're clearing out a lifetime of accumulated gunk so that your cells work more efficiently/properly. Think de-greasing an old oven or de-carbonising an old engine. The heat is a product of that (bio-thermodynamics, Warburg effect, it's complicated) although there is a histamine response as well.
I first was introduced to niacin when a coworker had taken some and thought she was going to die. After a couple minutes of research I assured her she would live. Keep at it with lower doses until the flushing backs off, then up it in steps. After being on it for awhile I went to my cardiologist and when he saw my blood work he was blown away. He said it's your turn to teach me! I told him about niacin and he poo poohed it and told me to go on statins instead. I quit taking them several years ago - not sure why. After reading this I'm going to order some right now!
Doctors never fail to astound with their inability to open their minds to things they didn't cover in med school
I wonder if we can slowly raise our doses. I learned that a niacin flush will stop migraines if I take it in the prodrome phase. (2 mg per lb body weight (ex: 125#, I took 250 mg). When I shared this with my coworkers also suffering migraines, 2-3 mg/lb body weight stopped the migraine progression for them to (my heavier coworkers seemed to need 3 mg/lb).
But as time went on, I needed more niacin to get the flush. I think I was acclimating to it. So maybe we build up?
Just a thought.
That feeling goes away if you stick with it, it’s actually quite interesting to witness how and where the body uses the niacin and where you flush over a couple of weeks. It appears in my body that the flush is concentrated where I need it the most. I can now take 1500 and not have an uncomfortable flush.
One survives and thrives by building up gradually. Flushing is at its most extreme the first few times but that lessens within a couple of days. It does great things to the cardio vascular system. And if you take it before bed, sends you off to sleep. If you suffer from anxiety, it calms and relaxes and improves mood. I speak from experience Ive observed among my own family members. It works really well and as the body becomes accustomed to Niacin in larger doses, the intense heat symptoms reduce to a very bearable level. 😊
First of all, you're doing it wrong to take the doses in such large amounts... You want it spread... but let's assume your life and schedules would not allow you to keep your dose of 3,000mg in a pint of OJ in the fridge to sip from during the day... for carpal joint problems...
Then do what Hoffer suggests to avoid that FLUSH, use the other immediate version Inositol-hexanicotinate... which is what we use for treating anxiety or depression in new arrivals in our cat rescuing...taste ain't bad at all... originally a little more expensive but not so much when bought in bulk [we use BulkSupplements.com]
Next, once your body isn't so overly in need of B3, the flush doesn't happen for many people... DrSaul said he kinda liked the flush as confirmation you were getting serious help... not me...
TTYL
That's so cool it helps the cats
I think I'll stick with 500 and leave those crazy heights to others :)
Hi Toby, what you are noticing is very common.
Sometimes, this can be explained by a stronger-than-usual response to Niacin (due, ironically, to shortfalls in Niacin). If this is the case, it goes away by itself after a few days.
However, most often this is because there is excess inflammatory activity (specifically, a specific immune system chemical called Prostaglandin D2, aka PGD2). The options here are:
- consider any inflammatory triggers that may be increasing overall immune activity overall, and thus PGD2
- make use of items that inhibit the formation of prostaglandins (Aspirin, White Willow Bark and Gotu Kola all do this)
- make use of items that specifically inhibit PGD2 (Luteolin does this)
If its of interest, I've gone into more depth on these here: https://marekdoyle.substack.com/p/why-am-i-flushing-from-niacin
Are you taking niacin on a full stomach? That will mitigate the flushing.
You can build up your dosage over time.
Alternately, the flushing will dissipate over time with continued use.
If the dose seems intolerable take a hot shower, not cold. If you give those capillaries a reason to be wide open it will seem normal. After the hot shower be physically active to maintain comfort.
I thought the same thing!
Fantastic. Flush niacin (nicotinic acid) has been a game-changer for me. I developed multiple chemical sensitivity via excessive formaldehyde exposures and as a result, I've suffered somewhere on the order of 2,000 migraines, and I have the brain damage that comes with it. I started taking nicotinic acid with melatonin and my migraines are now very few and far between (I've verified that the melatonin more than likely helps due to its strengthening of the blood-brain barrier, the loosening of which is a problem for migraineurs with MCS).
Yet they continue putting formaldehyde in most childhood vaccines. AND polysorbates are also in most of them, which breaches the blood brain barrier and ushers other toxins in with it. 😖
Micro organisms, like plants, use the Shlkimate pathway to produce tryptophan which produces serotonin, melatonin ;and tyrosine; the first directly affects NAD production and all require manganese as cofactors.
Both fluoride in drinking water and PFOAS IN EVERYTHING and glyphosate in foods chelate manganese thus stopping the whole process- that is why glyphosate is a herbicide. So the body has a constant battle to produce Vitamin Bs hence the constant ned for supplements and as the book says to refuse these supplements is medical malpractice, even malfeasance.
I get flushing at 250 mg(3mg/kg) so I restrict myself to OIA- I have no health problems niacin is just one of my supplements)
Were you able to see the brain damage on an MRI or how did you know? I realise that a scan can't see much by way of inflammation but interested to know how you picked it up.
What dosage are you taking please?
Nicotinic acid: 600 mgs 3X/day: morning, noon, and shortly before bed.
Melatonin: 5mgs morning and noon. 20 mgs at bedtime. I've taken considerably more, but this seems to work fine.
I'm not taking the levels that Chris Masterjohn is talking about in this video, but I'm also taking TMG with the niacin for liver support.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iki6VAWjOE4
what dosage works for you and how did you figure this out?
I learned this the best way for me: I took them for covid prophylaxis and found that they were preventing my migraines. A similar thing happened with quercetin and seasonal allergies, and raw milk kefir and lactose intolerance.
Nicotinic acid: 600 mgs 3X/day: morning, noon, and shortly before bed.
Melatonin: 5mgs morning and noon. 20 mgs at bedtime. I've taken considerably more, but this seems to work fine.
I'm not taking the levels that Chris Masterjohn is talking about in this video, but I'm also taking TMG with the niacin for liver support.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iki6VAWjOE4
People are going to read this and supplement themselves on these isolated molecules without any idea what their own levels are.
They’re going to let fools tell them what the reference ranges of these labs should be, with gimmick science.
Maybe like vitamin D and years later they’re pairing it with K2, or telling you oh, it also depletes magnesium so ensure you up your magnesium dosage.
These guys will continue to go around in circles isolating everything out of nature and feeding it back to you in quantities and synthetic makeup.
Eat real local in season foods from your organic farmers/fish market, take swims in clean natural water sources and get your natural sunlight.
For nobody has a clue what they’re talking about.
Wait until they really study the real story of niacin and the vitamin cartels LOL.
Am tending to agree. Synthetic vitamins are a racket. I don't trust anything about them.
This guy has done serious deep dive research into the whole vitamin con: https://chemtrails.substack.com/p/how-vitamins-are-isolated-the-nail
"I’m not a doctor but I don’t need to be a medical professional, a scientist, a chemist or Stephen Hawking to have common sense, and neither do you..."
LOL I love this heading already.
Skimmed it, seems interesting, thanks for the share.
Yeah, good solid loyalist blahblah. Far, far more people are dying from big Pharma and big PHS "protocols" than will ever die from using vitamins and supplements.
I hear what you are saying but sometimes these lifestyle changes aren't enough for someone hearing voices or having daily panic attacks. I don't think niacin is the answer. It doesn't address the why. Even someone who has been poisoned has some history of abuse in their life or that of an ancestor. The only thing that can address familial/generational issues/genetics/DNA is good homeopathy, IMO.
You've touched a few points here that I would add some thoughts to.
Mental Health
What's going on in the mind will override biochemistry. They'll tell you mostly about cortisol but there are many more reactions that can be impacted by a belief system. This is why the medical cartel fears the placebo effect, it is a real psychological effect. What I'd like to point out here is that the field of psychology is just as much of a cartel system as medicine, supplements and food. But good people exist, if anyone knows how to find these folks, I'd love to hear it. But becareful of systems that wants to take your money.
Genetics
This one is another big gimmick. It's a talking point by the medical field when they instill fear dynamics into the system. You will now depend on whatever they have to sell.
One way around this is to get your whole genome sequenced and study this for yourself, which is how to use the tools to read the raw data. I did with Nebula Genomics when I was told about the cholesterol nonsense.
The field of genetics is a dishonest one just as much as biology. Once you start to dig into how the associations and risks are calculated for the genes, you'll see this.
Maybe the field of epigenetics can serve some purpose here, as the saying "genes loads the gun but the environment pulls the trigger" seems very applicable when you look at studies and the outliers who survived genetic traits.
Niacin is another way of dealing with health in an allopathic way. It doesn't address the why and will never change someone's inherent energy. I wish you would interview a homeopath like Roger Morrison, MD who can explain methods of practicing homeopathy that have been practiced since the 1990's like that of Rajan Sankaran and Jon Scholten who was a chemist and organized the periodic table into levels and stages of a person's life experience. Homeopathic remedies prescribed in this method correct generational and personal traumas and can promote deep healing.
If you are over 45, high dosage Niacin can increase uric acid levels in the blood which can lead to gout. At first I thought I had an infection and it took like a year to diagnose after 4 occurrences of the outbreak. I was taking 500 MGs daily.
Another wonderful, interesting article. If you are not a paid subscriber please consider it. We all have our goto places to learn, this is mine.
I know first hand of a person who had dangerous muscle damaging side effects from lipitor. His doctor suggested trying niacin. The effects were outstanding. After gaining tolerance to the famous flushing, and staying on dose at 1500mgs, the cholesterol numbers improved dramatically. For years. With no side effects. And then we found out that double blind studies done decades ago showed niacin to be effective for cardiac/cholesterol issues.
That's still going by the belief that high cholesterol is bad, though it's been shown that it's protective. Especially for the brain. Reducing cholesterol doesn't reduce mortality which is the whole point of trying to prevent CHD.
Which means one should now ask why is the cholesterol "high" in the first place.
High here meaning you cannot follow the reference ranges built by people trying to sell you a product to manipulate that value.
However, high can mean that you have values that deviate significantly from the norm, such as the Feldman guy and his rationalization of this through his lipid hypothesis and the triad group (high HDL, LDL and low TG).
Why is low carb, keto, carnivore groups seeing an extremely elevated level? What are they doing to their system to cause this? Many will rationalize this to now say that it is healthy, because the low carb diet has healed them.
It's the same with many other biochemical movements in the body such as uric acid. Why is that elevated? If the body is producing the majority of these molecules, those are the questions to ask, and less about deducing what is good or bad, because that is just as bad as a religious belief system.
A diet can be just as bad as a drug and supplement. It is an imbalance.
I don't mean that taking niacin didn't have a beneficial effect, just that we should be looking at the health of the glycocalyx or mitochondria instead of cholesterol levels. Niacin helps both of these incidentally.
You make good points. Thank you.
Thank you for covering Niacin.
I stumbled upon it via Dr Dmitry Kats at www.hom3ostasis.com during Covid.
Although I have no health issues (other than 'getting old') Flush Niacin made me feel 20 years younger.
I also witnessed the harassment and suppression of the niacin community over the past 4 years.
Niacin is most famous as a cure for pellagra.
So it's illuminating to read the history of the US epidemic, where a heroic doctor (Joseph Goldberger) battled to show it was caused by poor diet/modern food processing whilst the establishment blamed everything else.
https://archive.org/details/butterflycasteso0000ethe (Strangely unreadable now; try Anna's Archive)
In 1952, Ralph R Scobey commented
"MISTAKES THAT HAVE BEEN MADE IN THE PAST
Several commissions, appointed during the first quarter of this century to investigate the cause of pellagra, concluded from their studies that pellagra was an infectious, contagious disease. Harris(1913) was able to inject Berkefeld filtered tissue material from pellagra victims into monkeys to cause a corresponding disease in these animals. He concluded from these experiments that a virus was present in the injected material and that it was the cause of pellagra. If the work of Harris had been followed exclusively, various strains of this "virus" might have been discovered and a vaccine, effective in experimental animals, might have been developed, as in the case of poliomyelitis. Today, as a result of unlimited research, however, we know conclusively that pellagra is not caused by a virus but rather that it is a vitamin deficiency disease. It is obvious that if the investigations of pellagra had been restricted to the virus theory, it would still be a mystery."
http://www.whale.to/a/scobey2.html
It's common knowledge now that Covid is related to NAD+
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35457123/
IMHO the key factor is that once Nictonic Acid (natural Vitamin B3) deficiency was acknowledged to be the cause, it was renamed to Niacin (1942) so that 'fake Niacins' (Niacinamide, Nicotinamide, sustained-release, proprietary products etc) could be introduced in its place. The original fake vitamin ?
These claimed to be functionally equivalent but no evidence of that exists. On the contrary, numerous studies show Nictonic Acid is beneficial whilst Niacinamide is not.
For every study of "Niacin" it is imperative to establish which form was used. There is a reason it is obscured.
Thus Nictonic Acid (aka Flush Niacin) is demonised because "Niacin causes liver toxicity" whilst fortification programmes, prescriptions and supplements all utilise Niacinamide, because "it's the same thing, but better".
I believe the flush IS the therapy.
Using no-flush niacin is akin to holding a party with alcohol-free beer/wine and expecting it to be fun.
Labelling the flush as an "uncomfortable side-effect" is like saying sweating is just a "uncomfortable side-effect" of a sauna.
Interestingly Kats also claims that plants benefit from supplemental Nictonic Acid, which lends weight to the claim of systematic denudation via food processing, pollution, geoengineering.
Whilst Hoffer was a hero of his time, may I suggest you interview Dr Kats to get a more up-to-date viewpoint ?
What a fantastic article! Thank you for writing it!!!
I love your articles, thank you. Small comment on this one: no mention of niacin and gout. As one who has suffered from gout attacks, I learned the hard way that Niacin can be a problem notwithstanding all of the other benefits described.
Only flush niacin aka nicotinic acid should be used. Take with food to minimize flushing. Start with a low dose and work up as needed. At higher doses, it should be buffered with sodium bicarbonate 9or other buffers) due to its acidity. There are extensive articles giving guidance on niacin use in Dr. Garrett Smith's Love Your Liver Program.
Niacinamide and extended release or no flush niacin should NOT be used. They are not as effective, and can cause problems.
re Q 26
Lutein and so called vitamin A are absolutely not good for eyes.
re Q 29
Cod Liver Oil and Linseed Oil are toxic and should never be taken by anyone for anything.
I remember grinding carrots for my infant daughter to not have bad eyes like me . Now I know I was giving her a toxic dose of A not even worth calling a vitamin
That was beta carotene though. As far as I understand, it's converted to retinol only if the body needs it. Retinol can be toxic, but is found in animal foods.
You have an MD or a PhD?
Whether she does or doesn't, what does that have to do with anything objective about how to take B3?
I'm not a big fan of any "supplement"; even more so, taking a sup in isolation.
So, I don't really care. I'm not for nor against your question. I'm just wondering why you asked her about MD / PhD? Why not throw in Mensa? I'm obviously missing the gist of your question.
I’m also interested in the root of this question.
But from my time interacting with folks online and in real life, this may be reason:
Argument from authority.
Questions like this usually comes when a belief system is challenged, paired with the energy requirements to do the cognitive work, it’s more energy efficient to hand off this thinking to an authority figure.
Guys like Stanly Milgram shows how far this can go with his experiments. He has a good book too.
bingo
Might as well ask your car mechanic for advice re nutrition, as ask your MD - they have the same amount of training in it: zilch!
The RDA is a wonderful way to hide a beneficial substance in plain sight. Rinse and repeat for who knows how many other bloody things :(
Thanks for the reminder to do a niacin flush. It's a really bizarre experience, like having a head-to-toe sunburn that's totally disappeared an hour or so later. Very calming!
I did it once and had that flush . Many years ago . And lived on
Dr. Mercola also had an interesting writeup on niacinamide awhile back.
thank you.
Please look at ggenereux.blog to understand the science fraud over vitamin A and copper. Please look over @nutridetect on x.com / twitter to learn of Garrett Smith and Kelsey Kenney's excellent work with nicotinic acid to recover from and remove toxins from the liver and the body. Especially vitamin A and copper.
You might enjoy this.
https://unbekoming.substack.com/p/vitamin-a-toxicity
Yes. thank you. Filled with awe. Not sure how I did not see this one yet. Excellent.
Donate blood to lower A toxic levels
very short term fix. this does not addressed stored vA.
Donate Rinse repeat
you are trying to convince a phlebotomist of the virtues of phlebotomy. like I said it is a very short term fix and does not much to address the stored vA.
This was an interesting take on A Vit
https://open.substack.com/pub/unbekoming/p/vitamin-a-toxicity?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
I liked this “It is increasingly clear that we need to fix human health problems using the parts that the human body machine divine instead of the come-and-go, routinely failing xenobiotic molecules that are pushed to clinical trials by the patentable-profit motive”
This is a fantastic collection of information. I’m sharing this with friends and my doctor. !