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— Americans consume too much vitamin B3, researchers suggestNiacin metabolism was associated with incident major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) and may be linked to the pathogenesis of heart disease via inflammatory pathways, researchers said. In a metabolomics study of stable cardiovascular patients, two terminal metabolites of niacin -- N1-methyl-2-pyridone-5-carboxamide (2PY) and N1-methyl-4-pyridone-3-carboxamide (4PY) -- were associated with an up to twofold increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) independent of traditional risk factors, reported Stanley Hazen, MD, PhD, of Cleveland Clinic, and colleagues. Moreover, both metabolites have genetic links to vascular inflammation, they noted in Nature Medicineopens in a new tab...

Cancer patients appeared to benefit from natural killer cells obtained from donors in an experimental method of treating cancer that involved an aggressive army endowed with the ability to home in on malignant cells and destroy them. The natural killer cells were pre-treated with nicotinamide, a compound widely known to most people as niacin, or vitamin B3. It's a substance with a special affinity for natural killer cells. The innovative approach boosted the impact of natural killer cells and brought about remissions in patients with otherwise recalcitrant cancers. "We conducted a first-in-human phase 1 clinical trial testing adoptive transfer of...

Dietary niacin intake is associated with migraine among U.S. adults, with an L-shaped curve and an inflection point of about 21.0 mg/day, according to a study. Huanxian Liu, M.D. and colleagues examined the association between dietary niacin and migraine using cross-sectional data from people aged older than 20 years who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 1999 and 2004. Data were included for 10,246 participants, of whom 20.1 percent experienced migraines. The researchers found that the adjusted odds ratio values for dietary niacin intake and migraine were 0.83, 0.74, and 0.72 in quartiles (Q) 2 (12.4...

Elite tennis players have an uncanny ability to clear their heads after making errors. They constantly move on and start fresh for the next point. They can’t afford to dwell on mistakes. Peter Strick is not a professional tennis player. He’s a distinguished professor and chair of the department of neurobiology at the University of Pittsburgh Brain Institute. He’s the sort of person to dwell on mistakes, however small. . . . . . .For a long time, it has been understood that the adrenal glands were turned on and off by a couple discrete pathways coming from the brain....

Indiana University School of Medicine researchers have found that niacin limits Alzheimer's disease progression when used in models in the lab, a discovery that could potentially pave the way toward therapeutic approaches to the disease. The study investigates how niacin modulates microglia response to amyloid plaques in an Alzheimer's disease animal model. Gary Landreth, Ph.D., Martin Professor of Alzheimer's Research, and Miguel Moutinho, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow in Anatomy, Cell Biology and Physiology, led the study. "This study identifies a potential novel therapeutic target for Alzheimer's disease, which can be modulated by FDA-approved drugs," Moutinho said. "The translational potential of this...

Fears are growing over the side effects of cholesterol-lowering pillsScientists have found the heart disease drug badly affects our stem cells, the internal medical system which repairs damage to our bodies and protects us from muscle and joint pain as well as memory loss. Last night experts warned patients to “think very carefully” before taking statins as a preventative medicine. A GP expert in the field said: “They just make many patients feel years older. Side effects mimic the ageing process.” The new research by scientists at Tulane University in New Orleans has reignited the debate about statin side effects which many doctors...

Vitamin D ...the researchers found that adults who took vitamin D supplements daily lived longer than those who didn't. Probiotics ...they're useful in very specific circumstances, but it's not necessary to continually take them on a daily basis. Zinc ...the mineral significantly reduced the duration of the cold, and also made symptoms less severe. Niacin ...Also known as vitamin B3, niacin is talked up as a cure for all sorts of conditions (including high cholesterol, Alzheimer's, diabetes and headaches) but in most of these cases, a prescription-strength dose of niacin has been needed to show a clear result. At over-the-counter...

Revised guidelines for heart health are set to move away from target-based approach. Soon after Joseph Francis learned that his levels of ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol sat at twice the norm, he discovered the short­comings of cholesterol-lowering drugs — and of the clinical advice guiding their use. Francis, the director of clinical analysis and reporting at the Veterans Health Administration (VA) in Washington DC, started taking Lipitor (atorvastatin), a cholesterol-lowering statin and the best-selling drug in pharmaceutical history. His LDL plummeted, but still hovered just above a target mandated by clinical guidelines. Adding other medications had no effect, and upping the...

Nicotinamide, commonly known as vitamin B3, may help the innate immune system kill antibiotic-resistant staph bacteria, the so-called "superbugs". In lab work done with mice and human blood, researchers found high doses of the vitamin increased the ability of immune cells to kill the bacteria by 1,000 times.The discovery opens the door to a new arsenal of tools for dealing with antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections, such as those caused by methicillin-resistant S. aureus or MRSA, that have killed thousands of people around the world. They are increasing in hospitals and nursing homes, and also rising in prisons, among athletes, people in...

A LITTLE KNOWN OBSCURE FACT, IS THAT BILL W., THE CO-FOUNDER OF ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, PRODUCED AND WROTE THREE PAPERS ABOUT THE BIOCHEMICAL ASPECTS OF ALCOHOLISM. BILL, SUFFERED HORRIBLY FROM DEPRESSION MOST OF HIS LIFE, BOTH BEFORE AND AFTER SOBRIETY. HE FOUND SOME SUBSTANTIAL RELIEF FROM HIS DEPRESSION IN 1960 AFTER MEETING TWO DOCTORS IN NEW YORK; ABRAM HOFFER AND HUMPHREY OSMOND. THESE TWO DOCTORS WERE RESEARCHING ALCOHOLISM AND MENTAL HEALTH DISORDERS IN CANADA. AFTER MEETING HOFFER AND OSMOND BILL BEGAN TAKING VITAMIN B-3 (NIACIN). BILL FOUND SUCH A GREAT RELEASE FROM HIS DEPRESSION, THAT HE SET OUT TO ADVANCE THIS...

The European Union has approved a new chewable form of cholesterol blockbuster Lipitor for children 10 and up with high levels of bad cholesterol and triglycerides, a type of blood fat, Pfizer said Tuesday. The approval includes children whose high blood fats are due to an inherited disease that causes extremely high cholesterol levels, familial hypercholesterolemia. New York-based Pfizer Inc. won U.S. approval for Lipitor use in children 10 to 17 with that condition in 2002. Lipitor is the world's top-selling drug, with 2009 sales of about $13 billion, but its U.S. patent expires at the end of November 2011....

Dietary factors have long been known to play a major role in the development of obesity. The global increasing prevalence of obesity suggests that there should be some common changes in diet worldwide. In fact, a significant, yet, often neglected worldwide change in dietary factors in the past few decades is the food fortification-induced marked increase in the content of niacin. However, the effect of long-term exposure to excess niacin on human health remains to be unclear. A research team from China examined the role of excess nicotinamide in glucose metabolism using co-loading of glucose and nicotinamide test. They proved...

(NaturalNews) The utter worthlessness of Big Pharma's cholesterol drugs was demonstrated recently by a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine which showed that niacin (a low-cost B vitamin) out-performs Merck's drug Zetia for preventing the build-up of arterial plaque, a symptom of cardiovascular disease. As the study reveals, Zetia failed miserably. Patients taking niacin showed a "significant shrinkage" in artery wall thickness, while those on Zetia showed no such improvement. At the same time, the rate of "cardiovascular events" in the niacin group was only one-fifth that in the Zetia group, demonstrating that niacin is far more...

The findings led to an early halt of a small study comparing Niaspan and Zetia, two compounds commonly used along with statins to reduce heart attack risk ORLANDO, Fla. — Adding a pharmaceutical form of the B vitamin niacin — but not the drug ezetimibe — to a cholesterol-lowering statin drug appears to reduce artery plaque buildup in patients with coronary artery disease, according to much-anticipated results announced at a press conference November 15. The results were from a study that was relatively small — only 208 patients — but provided a head-to-head comparison of niacin and ezetimibe, known by...

Talk of the Nation, November 7, 2008 · A new study published in the Journal of Neuroscience shows that mice treated with large doses of vitamin B3 performed better on memory tests. Kim Green, one of the authors of the study, explains whether this discovery could have any application for treating Alzheimer's in humans.

Not-So-Artful Dodgers: Countering drug tests with niacin proves dangerous Nathan Seppa Attempts to hide illicit drug use by taking niacin have landed four people in Philadelphia hospitals over the past 2 years, two with life-threatening reactions to high doses of the nutrient, doctors report. Niacin, also known as vitamin B3, plays roles in digestion, hormone production, skin upkeep, and nervous system maintenance. Because the vitamin promotes fat metabolism, doctors sometimes give niacin in large doses to people with high concentrations of cholesterol and triglycerides. That property has led some people to believe that niacin can also cleanse the body of...

Perhaps you heard it? The wail last month from the labs of heart researchers and the offices of Wall Street analysts? Pfizer Inc., the pharmaceutical giant, halted late-stage trials of a cholesterol drug called torcetrapib after investigators discovered that it increased heart problems — and death rates — in the test population. Torcetrapib wasn’t just another scientific misfire; the drug was to have been a blockbuster heralding the transformation of cardiovascular care. Statin drugs like simvastatin (sold as Zocor) and atorvastatin (Lipitor) lower blood levels of LDL, the so-called bad cholesterol, thereby slowing the buildup of plaque in the arteries....

Niacin expected to grow as heart treatment CLEVELAND, Jan. 23 (UPI) -- A Cleveland doctor says use of niacin as a cholesterol drug is likely to increase following the failure of a drug that was found to increase heart problems. Dr. Steven Nissen, a cardiologist at the famed Cleveland Clinic and president of the American College of Cardiology, said niacin, a B vitamin that raises HDL, commonly known as good cholesterol, is likely to increase in prominence after trials of the Pfizer Inc. cholesterol drug torcetrapib failed, The New York Times reported Tuesday. Raising HDL levels in patients helps to...

An experimental drug can sharply increase levels of H.D.L., the good cholesterol, potentially offering an entirely new way to help prevent heart attacks, researchers have found. In a preliminary study, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Tufts University found that the drug doubled H.D.L., or high density lipoprotein, in people with worrisomely low levels of the cholesterol. The drug, called torcetrapib, also reduced low density lipoprotein, or L.D.L., the bad cholesterol. Until now, doctors have concentrated largely on lowering bad cholesterol by giving patients statin drugs, which are used by millions of Americans and reduce heart attacks by about...