VITAMIN LOWERS CHOLESTEROL

September 30, 2005

Fri, 30 Sep 2005 14:50:05 -0500

" Orthomolecular Medicine News Service " <omns

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, September 30, 2005

Niacin (Vitamin B3) Lowers High Cholesterol Safely

OMNS - There is a safe, inexpensive, nonprescription, convenient and

effective way to reduce high cholesterol levels and reduce heart disease

risk: niacin. Niacin is a water-soluble B-complex vitamin, vitamin B-3.

One of niacin's unique properties is its ability to help you naturally

relax and to fall asleep more rapidly at night. It is well established

that niacin helps reduce harmful cholesterol levels in the bloodstream.

Niacin is one of the best substances for elevating high density

lipoprotein cholesterol (the " good cholesterol) and so decreases the

ratio of

the total cholesterol over high density cholesterol.

The finding that niacin lowered cholesterol was soon confirmed by

Parsons, Achor, Berge, McKenzie and Barker (1956) and Parsons (1961,

1961a,

1962) at the Mayo Clinic, which launched niacin on its way as a

hypocholesterolemic substance. Since then it has been found to be a

normalizing agent, meaning it elevates high density lipoprotein

cholesterol,

decreases low density and very low density lipoprotein cholesterol and

lowers triglycerides. Grundy, Mok, Zechs and Berman (1981) found it

lowered

cholesterol by 22 percent and triglycerides by 52 percent and wrote,

" To our knowledge, no other single agent has such potential for lowering

both cholesterol and triglycerides. "

Elevated cholesterol levels are associated with increased risk of

developing coronary disease. In addition to niacin, a typical diet

generally

recommended by orthomolecular physicians will tend to keep cholesterol

levels down in most people. This diet can be described as a high fiber,

sugar-free diet which is rich in complex polysaccharides such as

vegetables and whole grains.

With adequately high doses of niacin, it is possible to lower

cholesterol levels even with no alteration in diet. E. Boyle, then

working with

the National Institutes of Health in Washington, D.C., quickly became

interested in niacin. He began to follow a series of patients using 3

grams (3,000 milligrams) of niacin per day. He reported his conclusions

in a document prepared for physicians involved in Alcoholics Anonymous

by Bill W (1968). In this report, Boyle reported that he had kept 160

coronary patients on niacin for ten years. Only six died, against a

statistical expectation that 62 would have died with conventional

care. He

stated, " From the strictly medical viewpoint I believe all patients

taking niacin would survive longer and enjoy life much more. " His

prediction came true when the National Coronary Drug Study was

evaluated by

Canner recently. But Boyle's data spoke for itself. Continuous use of

niacin will decrease mortality and prolong life.

Niacin Combined With Other Drugs Which Lower Cholesterol

Familial hypercholesterolemia is an inherited disease in which plasma

cholesterol levels are very high. Illingworth, Phillipson, Rapp and

Connor (1981) described a series of 13 patients treated with

Colestipol 10

grams twice daily and later 15 grams twice daily. Their cholesterol

levels ranged from 345 to 524 and triglycerides from 70 to 232. When this

drug plus diet did not decease cholesterol levels below 270 mg/100 mL

they were given niacin, starting with 250 mg three times daily and

increasing it every two to four weeks until a final dose of 3 to 8

grams per

day was reached. To reduce the niacin " flush, " patients took aspirin

(120 to 180 mg) with each dose for four to six weeks. At these dosage

levels of niacin they found no abnormal liver function test results. This

combination of drugs normalized blood cholesterol and lipid levels.

They concluded, " In most patients with heterozygous familial

hypercholesterolemia, combined drug therapy with a bile acid

sequestrant and n!

icotinic

acid (niacin) results in a normal or near normal lipid profile. Long

term use of such a regimen affords the potential for preventing, or even

reversing, the premature development of atherosclerosis that occurs so

frequently in this group of patients. "

Fortunately, niacin does not decrease cholesterol to dangerously low

levels. Cheraskin and Ringsdorf (1982) reviewed some of the evidence

which links very low cholesterol levels to an increased incidence of

cancer

and greater mortality in general.

Niacin usually causes a flush when beginning treatment. The flush can

be uncomfortable, but it is not dangerous. In order to slowly acclimate

the body to niacin and minimize the flush, the following steps can be

taken:

Anyone interested in this approach might go to a discount store and buy

a bottle of 100 mg niacin tablets and a bottle of 1000 mg vitamin C

tablets.

One should expect to begin by taking 1000 mg of vitamin C and 50 mg of

niacin three times a day, preferably after each meal. Niacin tablets

are scored and a 100 mg tablet is easily broken along the score to

produce two 50 mg half-tablets of niacin.

After three or four days, the niacin dosage is increased to 100 mg

three times a day. One might continue increasing the niacin by 50 mg or

100 mg every three or four days until the dosage of 1000 mg of niacin and

1000 mg of vitamin C are taken three times a day.

It normally takes about three months on the higher dosage of niacin and

vitamin C for cholesterol levels to stabilize at lower levels. How much

does taking 3000 mg of niacin and vitamin C cost? These two vitamins

can be purchased for a total cost of about 50 cents a day.

Continuous use of niacin can be expected to reliably decrease mortality

and prolong life.

Remember:

There is not even one death per year from vitamins. Pharmaceutical

drugs, properly prescribed and taken as directed, kill over 100,000

Americans annually. Hospital errors kill still more.

Restoring health must be done nutritionally, not pharmacologically. All

cells in all persons are made exclusively from what we drink and eat.

Not one cell is made out of drugs.

Adding drugs to a sick body to cure it is like adding poison to a

polluted lake to clean it. Killing microorganisms, or masking the

cause of

symptoms is no more than a temporary answer in either case.

Nutrient therapy increases individual resistance to disease; drug

therapy generally lowers resistance to disease.

What is Orthomolecular Medicine?

Linus Pauling defined orthomolecular medicine as " the treatment of

disease by the provision of the optimum molecular environment, especially

the optimum concentrations of substances normally present in the human

body. " Orthomolecular medicine uses safe, effective nutritional therapy

to fight illness. For more information: http://www.orthomolecular.org

Take the Orthomolecular Quiz at

http://www.orthomolecular.org/quiz/index.shtml

The peer-reviewed Orthomolecular Medicine News Service is a non-profit

and non-commercial informational resource.

Editorial Review Board:

Abram Hoffer, M.D., Ph.D.

Harold D. Foster, Ph.D.

Bradford Weeks, M.D.

Carolyn Dean, M.D., N.D.

Erik Paterson, M.D.

Thomas Levy, M.D., J.D.

For complete reference citations, please contact Andrew W. Saul, OMNS

Editor, by email to omns .

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October 1, 2005

8 GRAMS of niacin...yikes!!

50 cents a day??? where does this guy shop?? I want to know!!

califpacific <califpacific wrote: