Guest guest Posted March 20, 2004 Report Share Posted March 20, 2004 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.