Sorry, weak joke. I take it to lower cholesterol and for me it seems to help.
Massive doses of niacin are part of scientology’s purification rundown.
It will be interesting to see if there is any statistical difference between old scientologists and old normal people with regards to Alzheimers.
Important information about Niacin.
It is normally sold in two forms, “Niacin” and Nicotinamide (”niacinamide”), that DO NOT have all the same health effects. Both are sold as “Niacin” or “Vitamin B3”.
Niacin is converted to nicotinamide in vivo (in your body). Although the two are identical in their vitamin activity, nicotinamide does not have the same pharmacological effects of niacin, which occur as side-effects of niacin’s conversion to nicotinamide.
Thus nicotinamide does not reduce cholesterol or cause flushing, which while irritating, convey some of the desired health benefits. (Ironically, taking a lot of Niacin can cause flushing so pronounced that a person looks like they have been exposed to “blood agent” gases like cyanide.)
Other important Niacin information is about its deficiency disease, Pellagra, which used to be endemic to the American South, and is found in those whose main staple is corn or polished rice, and whose diets lack protein. (The amino acid Tryptophan, found in milk, can be converted to Niacin, but priority goes to the need for protein, which it will instead be used for in a protein poor diet.)
Thus Pellagra is still endemic to Mexico, Africa, Indonesia and China.
On its own, serious Pellagra can cause aggression and emotional imbalance, mental confusion and dementia. It has been suggested that the stereotype of the “crazy/violent/mean” southerner in the US was in some part due to Niacin deficiency.
And once southern children were regularly provided with brewer’s yeast, rich in B vitamins, as a dietary supplement, starting in about 1938, much of the tragedy of Pellagra disappeared in a generation.
However, this study raises the question of “Could at least some of the Alzheimer’s sufferers seen today be the result of the long term effects of Niacin deficiency in their youth or adulthood?”
This should be easy to determine, as it would involve only three variables. Their lifelong diet of both protein and niacin, and if they are fully able to digest Niacin.
An easy dietary source of niacin (every bit helps) is peanut butter.
http://peanut-butter.org/peanut-butter/Health+Benefits+of+Peanut+Butter