Niacin: The Real Story

Harold D. Foster, Andrew W. Saul, Abram Hoffer

Description

This book is for people who want to learn more about niacin and its wonderful healing properties.

Sujets

• Santé et bien-être
• Diététique
• diététique
• Nutrition
• Fitness
• Niacin
• Health
• Diet
• Abram Hoffer

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 09 octobre 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781591203308
• Langue: English

Extrait

NIACIN:
The Real Story
Abram Hoffer, M.D., Ph.D. Andrew W. Saul, Ph.D. and Harold D. Foster, Ph.D.
The information contained in this book is based upon the research and personal and professional experiences of the authors. It is not intended as a substitute for consulting with your physician or other healthcare provider. Any attempt to diagnose and treat an illness should be done under the direction of a healthcare professional.
The publisher does not advocate the use of any particular healthcare protocol but believes the information in this book should be available to the public. The publisher and authors are not responsible for any adverse effects or consequences resulting from the use of the suggestions, preparations, or procedures discussed in this book. Should the reader have any questions concerning the appropriateness of any procedures or preparation mentioned, the authors and the publisher strongly suggest consulting a professional healthcare advisor.
Basic Health Publications, Inc. 28812 Top of the World Drive Laguna Beach, CA 92651 949-715-7327 • www.basichealthpub.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress.
 
 
Copyright © 2012 Andrew W. Saul
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written consent of the copyright owner.
Editor: Karen Anspach Interior design and production: Gary A. Rosenberg Cover design: Mike Stromberg
Printed in the United States of America
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Contents
Acknowledgements
Foreword
Preface
Introduction: Why Should You Read This Book?
1. What Is Niacin?
2. How Niacin Therapy Began
3. How Niacin Works, and Why We Need More of It
4. How to Take Niacin
5. Safety of Niacin
6. Pandeficiency Disease
7. Reversing Arthritis with Niacinamide: The Pioneering Work of William Kaufman, M.D., Ph.D.
8. Children’s Learning and Behavioral Disorders
9. Mental Illness
10. Cardiovascular Disease
11. Other Clinical Conditions That Respond to Niacin
Aging
Allergies
Alcoholism and Other Addictions
Alzheimer’s Disease
Anxiety

Cancer
Cataracts
Cholera and Diarrhea
Detoxification
Epidermolysis Bullosa
Fatigue
Hartnup Disease
Huntington’s Disease
Migraine Headache
Multiple Sclerosis
Nephritis
Obesity
Parkinsonism
Pemphigus
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Raynaud’s Disease
Skin Conditions
Trigeminal Neuralgia
Viral Illnesses
Conclusion
Appendix. The Introduction of Niacin as the First Successful Treatment for Cholesterol Control
William B. Parsons, Jr.
References
For Further Reading
About the Authors
To all the physicians who have
demonstrated that niacin cures disease,
with particular honor to
Joseph Goldberger,
William Kaufman,
Rudolph Altschul,
Edmond Boyle,
William B. Parsons,
Humphry Osmond,
and Abram Hoffer.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Steven Carter, Executive Director of the International Schizophrenia Foundation, for kind permission to use material that originally appeared in the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine. I am indebted to the late Mrs. Charlotte Kaufman for gracious encouragement and permission to publish correspondence, private notes, and other writings of her husband, Dr. William Kaufman, thus making his important work widely available to the public. We value the specialized input from Dr. Robert G. Smith, Research Associate Professor in the Department of Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania. Thanks to all the contributors to the Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, some articles of which are incorporated in this book. A special thanks to Dr. W. Todd Penberthy, for reading and making expert suggestions to the text.
Foreword
Niacin raises good cholesterol (HDL) more than any known pharmaceutical, while simultaneously lowering total cholesterol, triglycerides, and the most pathogenic form of cholesterol-associated lipoprotein (VLDL). This wide array of generally clinically desirable chemical adjustments is undeniable based on precise biochemical measures. Niacin (extended release formula, Niaspan) has been shown to reduce disease progression in four other clinical trials as well. 1 Good medical doctors will prescribe niacin for reducing cardiovascular disease risk and provide a description of how to use it. Niacin is frequently the gold standard control used for basic research experiments using animal models of atherosclerosis. In clinical trials, when niacin has been compared to other marketed drugs it has led to most undesirable effects for business, but most therapeutically beneficial effects for the fortunate patients. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) kills more individuals than any other disease. Accordingly, there is tremendous drive in the pharmaceutical industry to make drugs. Merck and Schering Plough convinced doctors to spend 21 billion dollars over seven years selling Zetia (ezetimibe). Ultimately however, clinical trials would thereafter reveal that Zetia actually increases cardiovascular events, making mean arterial walls thicker! 2 Thus, it is no longer a good business idea for the pharmaceutical industry to compare drugs to niacin head to head. Immediate release (IR) niacin works just as well as prescription extended release (ER) niacin, but it costs approximately fifteen dollars a day to obtain 3 grams, while IR niacin costs just fifty cents. ER niacin causes less of a flush response initially, but with regular usage, IR niacin results in little to no flush at all, while all of the benefits are still reaped.

While the benefits of niacin for treating CVD are undeniable given the rigorously precise biochemical measures, there has been more controversy over the benefits of niacin for treating schizophrenia and behavioral disorders. Sixty years ago, Dr. Abram Hoffer entered this scene at the all-time height of psychiatry equivocation when he first proposed with Dr. Humphry Osmond to try much higher doses of vitamin B 3 for treating what resembled the dementias seen just a decade prior in the pellagra epidemics of the 1940s. Sigmund Freudian-based psychotherapy was all the rage at this time in the early 1950s. “Refrigerator moms” (emotionally unresponsive mothers) were given as the causal explanation for schizophrenia. Abram and Osmond results were stunningly effective in the cure rate for schizophrenia (even more so than today’s best medicine used for treating schizophrenia). Nonetheless, poorly understood drugs are repeatedly marketed to suffering schizophrenics, while an increasing variety of other newly defined mental and behavioral disorders are defined. This book, Niacin: The Real Story, relates niacin to descriptions of the three main psychotic disorders: bipolar disorder (characterized by dramatic mood swings), schizophrenias (characterized by perceptual hallucinations and delusions), and schizoaffective disorders (characterized by periods of both of these).
As illustrated above with the Zetia example, it has gotten so rare that anyone addresses the most important question anymore: “What works best?” It is such a simple question. Instead, too much research today proceeds primarily from a for-profit motive. It is also so rare to have someone who was around to witness the historical transformation of medical motives from a “health-and-improvement motive” to a “much-increased-profit motive,” as Abram Hoffer and Harold Foster did. The profit machine ultimately consumed the spirit or focus of many a well-intentioned doctor, but Abram persisted in weathering the storm, risking his stature among his peers to maintain the premise of his work, always addressing the question: “What works best?” With an open mind and an incredible work ethic, Abram continued following the most recent research right up until the end.
There is so much more to the story of niacin than its success in treating CVD. Firstly, there are other distinct molecular versions of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) precursor besides niacin that are also covered in this book you hold in your hands. Secondly, there are so many observations that would remain hidden from modern medical education if it were not for the work of the author of this book, Dr. Andrew Saul. Abram Hoffer’s experiences treating patients with high doses of niacin or niacinamide were almost too numerous to tell.
Even today, niacin, functioning as a precursor to NAD, perennially excites and simulates modern discovery in molecular biology and pharmacology research. One of the most amazing mice used by scientists for twenty-plus years has been the Slow Wallerian Degeneration (Wld S ) mouse. 3 Wallerian degeneration is the process of neuronal degeneration that occurs after physical insult to the neuron via razor excision or crushing of axons, all in a petri dish. Normal neurons completely degenerate within twenty-four hours of damage; however, the Wld S mouse resists degeneration. Amazingly, Wld S neurons survive for over two weeks, all without a nucleus, while still being able to be excited for at least a week! 4 Eventually the gene was mapped and determined to involve triplication of the NAD-synthesizing enzyme encoded by NMNAT1 (Nicotinamide mononucleotide adenylyltransferase 1), where NAD itself could in part substitute for the neuroprotective activity conferred by this fortunate genetic mutation. 5 Further research realized a role for the NAD-dependent pathways frequently involving histone deacetylase enzyme Sirt1 in Wallerian degeneration, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, and others in our best animal models available for studying human disease. 6 , 7 This same Sirt1 enzyme was previously identified as being critical to conferring caloric restriction (CR) dependent increases in lifespan, 8 where CR is the