Vitamin B3 – Niacin
B Complex Vitamin

Niacin performs many functions in the body, including helping with proper digestion, producing sex hormones, promoting healthy nerves and skin, metabolizing cholesterol and producing energy.

Nicotinic acid has been shown to significantly lower the risk of heart disease and lower the bad cholesterol and raise the good cholesterol, according to James McKenney, professor in the School of Pharmacy at the Virginia Commonwealth University Medical College of Virginia.  However, some slow-release synthetic niacin has caused liver damage and other severe side effects, so as with all vitamins and minerals, we recommend only whole food based supplements.

Deficiency Symptoms of Niacin

Deficiency of niacin can result in depression, dermatitis and headaches, like with Vitamin B1 and B2 deficiencies.  It can also cause gum disease, high blood pressure, and other negative personality behaviors.  Those with low levels of niacin are more likely to have bronchitis or wheezing with asthma than those with more niacin.

Severe deficiencies can cause pellagra, that causes diarrhea, depression and skin inflammation.  Other symptoms include: mental confusion and weakness, inflamed and swollen tongue, irritability and loss of appetite.  Pellagra can actually end in death.  Very few people now get pellagra because of the fortification of white flour, however, this is once again a synthetic variety of B3 and we recommend that you use whole grains instead to get the real thing!

Food Sources of Vitamin B3

Some good food sources of Niacin include nutritional yeast, brown rice and other whole grains, poultry like chicken and turkey, eggs, milk nuts organ meats, yams and broccoli, legumes and veal.

Supplementation of Vitamin B3

Supplementation can help relieve acne, migraine headaches and gastrointestinal disorders.*  It can also help improve blood sugar regulation for both diabetics and hypoglycemics.*  It also helps reduce triglycerides and cholesterol, and at the same time increasing the "good' HDL cholesterol.*   However, you need to be very careful if you use synthetic varieties of niacin because large doses of niacin in the form of nicotinic acid for example, can produce a drug-like effect on the nervous system, on glucose, and on blood lipids.  Once again, we don't recommend any synthetic vitamins.

* This statement has not been evaluated by the FDA.  This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.