Niacin: Myths and Facts

Inositol hecaniacinate may be "no flush" niacin, but it is NOT "no-side-effect" niacin.

 

I had extreme flushing with a niacin regimen for my cholesterol, so my doctor and I tried this formulation.  It is true that the extreme flushing went away, but in its place, I got extreme itching.  I mean extreme, as in raking my skin so hard it bled.  It was horrible.

 

Now, I don't know that this is a common reaction, but it certainly was mine.

By the way, there is a third formulation of Niacin available, Niacinimide, which is not mentioned in this article (or at least, I didn't notice it if it was).  According to my doctor, niacinimide does not work as a cholesterol lowering agent.  You need nicotinic acid.

 

Liam

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My apologies.  I re-read the article and there was the comment about niacinamide right there at the tail end, I'd just missed it.

 

Liam.

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Dr. Davis, you are correct about Niacin, it really does work.  I was on a starter kit and eventually was taking two 500 mg tablets twice a day.  It dramatically reduced my Trigliceride levels and LDL as well as my overall cholesterol.  But the total was not enough for my doctors so they wanted me to add a low does of Provacal.  I have had problems in the past with statin drugs, but figured if it was low enough I would give it a try.  I don't know if it was the combination of the two or just the Niacin by itself, but I developed extremely dry itchy skin and it started to discolor becoming very dark brown in certain areas under the arms and inner thighs. I stopped taking the Niacin and in a couple fo weeks those symptoms cleared up.  I do not know what to do.  P.S.  The doctor never told me about drinking the extra water to help with the flushes, which I still had on occasion after slowly building up my tollerance.
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Sorry, on my last post it should have read Pravastatin not Pravacal.
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For years, I have been taking the no-flush version of Niacin where I had no side effects, but I also came to realize that this has done nothing for me.  What helped me the most was eating healthier and exercising more and losing some weight.  I found I could not tolerate regular Niacin no matter what else I took before, during, or after taking it.  I ordered and tried the SloNiacin product you mentioned and so far have had no side effects. I started the 250mg for a few months ago and recently switched to the 500mg and only had a short term burning face problem one time during the first few days of switching to the higher mg version. Now, I have no side effects and I plan to take a blood test later this year to see if my HDL (has always been too low, now it is at 32, never higher than 37) is any higher.
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Dr. Davis mentioned that sometimes people think their itchy feet is being caused by niacin.  That intrigues me, since I am a diabetic and sometimes have itchy feet occasionally.  What causes the itchy feet?  Incidentally, I don't take niacin.

 

Also, does Dr. Davis have an opinion regarding CholestOff (by Nature Made) being used as a cholesterol-lowering agent?

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