Posted on 12/10/2008 8:09:07 AM PST by djf
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
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.
For turning you face red?
I use the non-flush version. Has no flush effect at all.
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
...Let’s see, one group is lost in a degenerative fog of mental confusion, and the others have Alzheimer’s disease.
It is often used as a cholesterol lowering therapy.
I should point out that no matter what some people might hear or read about this on the net, Niacin in very large doses can have some not-so-good effects on your liver.
So DYODD, and if you are unsure, talk to your health professional.
I do have a liver function test every year as I continue to take Zetia but the recommended dosage of Niacin does the trick for me.
I doubt I would personally worry unless I got up above the 10 gms/day level or so, but that’s just my opinion.
But more and more these days, vitamins and therapies and new meds are targeting liver function. Like the statins.
So it’s always a good idea to consult your doctor.
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.
Thanks for the ping.
Sirtuin involvement strikes again. It's another link of Alzheimer's with Type II diabetes. That's the complete title at PubMed also.
FReepmail me if you want on or off the diabetes ping list.
Thanks!
An easy dietary source of niacin (every bit helps) is peanut butter.
http://peanut-butter.org/peanut-butter/Health+Benefits+of+Peanut+Butter
Hey!
The New World Order is in charge now!
It’s AGAINST THE LAW to say anything good about peanut butter!Report to the re-education camp by 6 PM tonight!
/sarcasm/
Thanks! PB and jelly still works for me.
;-)
Very likely.
Also while peanut butter was a common food that provided niacin, even in otherwise poor diets, along the way it stopped being just peanuts and was full of transfats (you can buy natural peanut butter again now at regular grocery stores).
So even that worked against that generation.
I was worried about this. Don’t assume Alzheimer’s is simple. It is anything but. B3 might be part of it, but don’t look for a miracle anything. Here is some tantalizing trivia.
Schizophrenics commonly have an overabundance of nitrous oxide gases in their blood. Some is common and natural, but they have a lot. However, Alzheimer patients have almost none. Schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s seem to be mutually exclusive. An individual will either have one or the other, not both.
Schizophrenia also has great exclusivity with paranoia. With the exception of another class of psychiatric illness, the paranoid-schizophrenics. But in most cases, again, individuals are either schizophrenic or they are paranoid.
Alzheimer’s also seems to have a viral component, a genetic component, and an environmental component.
That is, just within the last few days, a correlation has been found between ordinary Herpes Simplex virus, which typically causes cold sores, of about 60% with Alzheimer’s. The virus was found to be creating the damaging plaque common with Alzheimer’s. This suggests it may be a long term reemergence of the disease, as is found with chicken pox, polio, and other viral diseases.
There has even been a suggestion that Alzheimer’s might be a prion disease, like Mad Cow. Prions are defective proteins capable of altering the perfect form of their protein, to make it defective as well. They are very hard to destroy, and are communicable.
Alzheimer’s also has a strong correlation within families, but not always. And several contaminants and pollutants have been found in many Alzheimer’s sufferers, such as some metals, yet they do not seem to cause Alzheimer’s in the lab.
Alzheimer’s is a terribly frustrating disease.
Thanks! I think I’ll go have some right now. Yum. :-)
And I forgot the last D?
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