Most people get enough niacin, vitamin B-3, in their diets because it occurs naturally in such foods as beef, peanuts and tuna. Some foods, such as dairy products, eggs and poultry, also contain tryptophan, an enzyme that converts to niacin in your system. A doctor may prescribe niacin in large doses to help you improve your cholesterol levels if he believes benefits of taking niacin outweigh the risks. Potential side effects of niacin include skin flushes and liver damage.
Niacin and Cholesterol
If you take niacin to manage your cholesterol, you may take it alone or with another cholesterol-lowering medication such as statins. Statins are among the most commonly-prescribed medications to lower low-density lipoprotein, while niacin is often prescribed to elevate high-density lipoprotein, HDL or "good" cholesterol, according to MayoClinic.com. HDL pulls LDL cholesterol and triglycerides, an artery-clogging fat, from your bloodstream. Both statins and niacin may help lower triglycerides.
Niacin Skin Flushes
Niacin taken in doses of more than 100 mg daily may cause side effects such as skin flushes. A skin flush can make your skin tingle and burn and turn your face and chest red. If you take an aspirin 30 minutes before you take niacin, this might prevent skin flushes. It also helps to gradually increase your dosage. Your diet provides you with about 14 mg to 16 mg of niacin daily. Doctors prescribe niacin in amounts as high as 1,000 mg to 2,000 mg daily --- more than 100 times what your body processes normally from food.
Liver Disease
Your doctor might prescribe a slow-release form of niacin. This might alleviate skin flushes but increases your likelihood of sustaining liver damage. Niacin in small quantities --- the amount you get from your diet --- improves liver function. Niacin taken in large quantities, especially for extended periods, can damage your liver. Slow-release niacin, sometimes called no-flush niacin, proves more likely than regular niacin to cause liver damage. If you take prescription-strength niacin, get your liver checked periodically. High doses of niacin may also cause stomach ulcers.
Government Study
A National Institutes of Health study to test the benefits of combining statins and niacin in battling heart disease ended 18 months early because preliminary results showed the combination therapy produced more harm than good. About half of the study's 3,414 participants took statins and 2,000 mg daily of niacin. The other half took statins and a placebo. The group taking statins and niacin enjoyed greater reductions in its triglycerides and elevations in HDL levels than the subjects taking only statins. However, the statins-niacin group did not suffer fewer heart attacks than persons in the statins-only group. Participants taking niacin suffered more strokes --- 28 compared to 12 --- than the participants taking only statins.
References
- "University of Maryland Medical Center"; Vitamin B3 (Niacin); Steven D. Ehrlich, NMD; June 2009
- "University of Maryland Medical Center"; Drug Treatments: Statins; Alan Greene, M.D.; October 2006
- "CBC News"; Niacin Trial For Heart Disease Stopped Early; May 2011
- National Institutes of Health: NIH Stops Clinical Trial on Combination Cholesterol Treatment
- MayoClinic; High Cholesterol: Niacin to boost your HDL, 'good,' cholesterol
- MayoClinic: High Cholesterol - Treatments and Drugs
