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Re: mega dose niacin for mental health? lar et al » LOOPS

Posted by Larry Hoover on April 15, 2005, at 17:29:04

In reply to Re: mega dose niacin for mental health? lar et al, posted by LOOPS on April 15, 2005, at 13:15:36

> well yeah, if you can take the mega flushing from it! I got flushes from just 100mg niacin.
>
> I would also like to find out opinions on niacin vs niacinamide. For instance, most people here will say niacinamide is the safest form to take in high doses, where are niacin might damage the liver (or something like that). HOwever I have read in Michael Lesser's book that it is the other way round - niacin is safer in larger doses (than 1.5g/day) - and that niacinamide and other no-flush niacin forms should be kept to a max of 1.5g/day.
>
> What is the consensus on this? Myself I have not been able to try niacin in high-er dosages as it the flush is too uncomfortable. High dose niacinamide just makes me depressed but is good for an emergency anxiety problem.
>
> Loops

Just for the record, to go to those high doses of niacin, you need to use the slow-release form, inositol hexanicotinate.....that's inositol (6 hydroxyl groups) with 6 ester bonds to nicotinic acid (niacin), or Niaspan, a proprietary drug (the XR pill type, with niacin as the extended release agent).

There is a risk of liver damage from any high dose niacin, so it should be done under doctor's supervision, with periodic blood draws for liver enzymes.

The risk goes down from extended-release niacin (Niaspan, a prescription drug), to slow-release niacin (sometimes called no-flush niacin; inositol hexanicotinate), to niacinamide (nearly the same as the slow-release), to plain immediate release niacin.

Hepatotoxicity is associated with high methyl-donor stress, and may arise due to depletion of SAMe. One school of thought holds that equimolar (same number of molecules) betaine should be taken with the niacin, to relieve this methyl-donor stress. That would be 1:1, gram for gram, betaine to nicotinic acid. Betaine is really activating for me, so who knows what high dose niacin with betaine feels like.

I base my UL recommendations for daily niacinamide intake (2.0 grams) on toxicity studies compiled by the National Academies of Science (very conservative people) detailed at:

http://www.nap.edu/openbook/0309065542/html/123.html#pagetop

...and other published sources.

Individual vulnerability to adverse reactions to niacin is quite wide. Some people get increases in liver enzymes at 100 mg/day (those are exceptional cases, but they do appear in the literature). Others take 9 grams/day for extended periods, without any adverse effect.

Have a doctor monitor your status....

Lar

 

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poster:Larry Hoover thread:484674
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