Ifd you use only drugs, you won't get well

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Niacin/B-3

 

" For schizophrenics, the natural recovery rate is 50%. With orthomolecular

medicine, the recovery rate is 90%. With drugs, it is 10%. If you use just

drugs, you won't get well. "

(Abram Hoffer, M.D., Ph.D.)

 

SHE SAT IN THE CORNER, silently. The 55-year old woman's face was in

shadow, invariably turned down and towards the wall. And that's where she

stayed,

day after day. She had no appetite, and she never spoke to anyone. Her

family had tried seemingly everything. Yes, she was under the care of a

psychiatrist and yes, she was on medication.

 

" Actually, she's been on a whole lot of different medications, " her daughter

told me. " None of them has helped her, and several made her worse. She tried

to kill herself several times. Now she seldom moves from her corner, and she

never says a word. Is there anything you can do? "

 

At times like this, what you want is a wand to wave. But life so rarely

resembles a Harry Potter story. This was all too real. Maybe the patient was

past caring, but her family sure did. As I talked to one of her sons, the

living room started to fill with relatives. I don't know where they all came

from; the working-class neighborhood city house must have had a really big

kitchen. Presently, all the relatives had created a semi-circle around me

waiting to hear something profound, something encouraging, something good.

That, or perhaps they were merely intending to hinder any quick escapes if I

did not produce.

 

I felt uneasy, and who wouldn't? We all feel a little uncomfortable, don't

we now, when face to face with the entire family in an unresponsive, if not

downright despairing, situation.

 

But I had been called in to offer an opinion, and the time had come. I

suggested the best orthomolecular therapy I knew of: megadose niacin, in

multi-gram doses. Then, I mentally braced myself for their reaction.

 

There was no reaction. Nothing. But they didn't run off, either.

 

So I continued. " Because she is so sick, your mother might need an

exceptionally large amount of some vitamins, especially C and the B-complex.

But her foremost need is for niacin, really large quantities of niacin. "

 

" How large? " asked a male relative on my left. That question you can count

on.

 

" Thousands of milligrams a day, in divided doses, " I answered. " Possibly

even 10,000 milligrams or more, every day. "

 

They all listened. I got the distinct impression that they were weighing the

gravity of what must certainly have felt like a hopeless situation against

what must have sounded like a pretty simplistic solution.

 

But they still did not run off. Some of the family now sat down, on chairs,

the old sofa, and on the well-worn gray carpet. There were not enough

seats for everybody.

 

The inquisition shall now begin in earnest, I thought.

 

Not at all. I was asked a series of intelligent, commonsense questions about

the safety and administration of high doses of niacin. As best I could, I

explained niacin's low toxicity and the need for large and divided doses.

I told them to expect, at least initially, some pretty strong but harmless

" niacin flush " side effects. And, I presented the need to educate their

attending doctors as to what the family was now doing. Finally, I outlined

a

therapeutic trial based on starting with 1,000 mg/day of niacin, and

gradually but steadily increasing the dose by an additional 1,000 mg every

day.

 

" How will we know when to stop increasing the dose? " asked a son-in-law.

 

" When she responds, " answered his wife. " Right? "

 

" Yes, " I said. " The goal is to give enough niacin to see good results. You

all will be the judges of that. "

 

" Will she have to keep on taking the niacin forever? " asked a different

daughter.

 

" Yes, but not necessarily as much as she'll need initially. We first need to

see if she responds at all. But if it works, why stop it? "

 

Everyone nodded. Nobody smiled. Tough crowd.

 

I left with a distinct feeling that I had contributed precious little to

that family's hopes.

 

Man, was I wrong. I got a call about two weeks later from a profoundly

relieved, and positively delighted daughter.

 

" Mom is just fine, " she said happily. " She's sits at the dinner table now.

She talks to us, talks like nothing happened. It's incredible. She's off all

medications. It's the niacin: it made all the difference in the world. "

 

" That is wonderful news, " I said. " How much niacin is your mother taking

now? "

 

" 11,000 to 12,000 milligrams every day. "

 

" Do you happen to remember at what level she experienced a niacin flush? "

I asked.

 

" That's easy to answer, " replied the daughter. " She never flushed at all. "

 

Wow. 11 or 12 grams of niacin a day and no flush. Makes you think, doesn't

it? But results are what matters in any therapeutic trial. A huge amount

of niacin, along with the other B-vitamins and vitamin C, had done the job. A

very big job.

 

" This is great! " said the daughter. " We have our Mom back! "

 

That was a beautiful moment.

 

Sometime later that month, the family took the fully mobile and now

positively talkative mother to see her psychiatrist. She didn't need to

go, but they all wanted the doctor to see the recovery with his own eyes.

 

I was not there, but I heard about it afterwards.

 

" The doctor told all of us that there could be some side effects with that

much niacin, " said the daughter. " Especially changes in liver function.

Also, he said that Mom's skin looked slightly darker to him. The doctor

said she should not take niacin because of it. "

 

" None? At all? " I said.

 

" Right: none. He told her, and all the rest of the family, that she should

be on medication, not on some vitamin. "

 

" It is medication that has the harmful side effects, not the niacin, " I

said. " And here is a quote from the world's expert on niacin megadose

therapy, Dr. Abram Hoffer: 'Niacin is not liver toxic. Niacin therapy

increases liver function tests. But this elevation means that the liver is

active. It does not indicate an underlying liver pathology.' If your doctor

wanted to do monitoring tests, that is one thing. But to take a successful,

already working therapy away from a seriously ill patient is another. "

 

It really mystified me then, and it still does today: just why are so many

physicians prejudiced against vitamin therapy? Decades ago, Frederick

Klenner, M.D., was so frustrated by his colleagues' flat rejection of

megavitamin therapy that he wrote that some doctors would rather see their

patients die than use vitamins.

 

I asked her what the family had decided to do now.

 

" We've already done what the psychiatrist said, and Mom no longer gets

niacin. She is back on drugs, three of them. "

 

The daughter then paused. I knew the worst was yet to come.

 

" And, " said the daughter, with a choke in her voice, " Now my mom is back

in the corner. "

 

Indeed, this was no Harry Potter story. It was, I am sorry to say, much more

like the medical tyranny illustrated in " One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. "

When doctors prefer patients to people, we have a problem.

 

We also have a solution: just say no. Fire your doctor. And take your

vitamins.

 

For more information on niacin therapy for schizophrenia, psychosis, and

related mental illnesses, please look at

 

http://www.doctoryourself.com/hoffer_psychosis.html

http://www.doctoryourself.com/hoffer_niacin.html

http://www.doctoryourself.com/hoffer_anecdote.html

http://www.doctoryourself.com/review_hoffer_B3.html

 

Or, do a search for (Dr. Abram) " Hoffer " from the main page of the

http://www.doctoryourself.com website.