Niacin lowers the risk of a major coronary event (heart attack, death from heart attack or coronary bypass surgery) by an average of 25% according to a meta-analysis of eleven (11) studies which involved a total of 6545 people.

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Niacin lowers the risk of a stroke by an average of 26% according to a meta-analysis of eleven (11) studies which involved a total of 6545 people.

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Niacin raises HDL cholesterol levels by an average of 20% notes a paper on niacin.

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Niacin lowers LDL cholesterol levels by an average of 16% notes a paper on niacin.

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Niacin lowers triglyceride levels by an average of 20% notes a paper on niacin.

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Extended-release niacin (1500 to 2000 mg per day) lowers levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) by an average of 24% in people starting with higher levels of Lp(a)—starting levels of 92 mg/dL versus 54 mg/dL—according to a study from Russia.

Elevated levels of C-reative protein—above 2 mg/dL—are associated with an increased risk of heart and stroke as noted by the Mayo Clinic.

Note: I prefer immediate-release niacin to extended-release niacin. In the 1980’s there were reports of some liver problems with extended-release niacin, and earlier studies showing benefits of niacin used immediate-release niacin, not extended-release.

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Extended-release niacin (1500 to 2000 mg per day) lowers levels of Lp(a) by an average of 28% in people starting with higher levels of Lp(a)—starting levels of 92 mg/dL versus 54 mg/dL—according to a study from Russia.

Elevated levels of Lp(a) (above 50 mg/dL) are associated with an increased risk of heart attack and stroke according to the Lipoprotein a Foundation.

Note: I prefer immediate-release niacin to extended-release niacin. In the 1980’s there were reports of some liver problems with extended-release niacin, and earlier studies showing benefits of niacin used immediate-release niacin, not extended-release.

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Niacin use was associated with a 25% reduction in nonfatal heart attack or cardiac death according to a review of 11 trials including 9,956 subjects done by researchers at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

“The consensus perspective derived from available clinical data supports that niacin reduces [cardiovascular disease] events,” the paper concluded.

Unfortunately, only one study gave niacin alone. The other 10 of the 11 studies gave niacin plus a statin or other cholesterol-lowering drug.

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Niacin use was associated with a 34% reduction in cardiovascular events which was defined as cardiac death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, hospitalization for acute coronary syndrome, stroke, or revascularization procedure according to a review of 11 trials including 9,956 subjects done by researchers at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

“The consensus perspective derived from available clinical data supports that niacin reduces [cardiovascular disease] events,” the paper concluded.

Unfortunately, only one study gave niacin alone. The other 10 of the 11 studies gave niacin plus a statin or other cholesterol-lowering drug.

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After 6.5 years of follow-up, 3 grams of niacin daily decreased the risk of stroke by 24% according to the Coronary Drug Project which was the first clinical trial investigating niacin which was done in 1975 as noted in an excellent review paper about niacin titled Niacin: another look at an underutilized lipid-lowering medication.

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After 6.5 years of follow-up, 3 grams of niacin daily decreased the risk of heart attack by 26% according to the Coronary Drug Project which was the first clinical trial investigating niacin which was done in 1975 as noted in an excellent review paper about niacin titled Niacin: another look at an underutilized lipid-lowering medication.

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After 6.5 years of follow-up, 3 grams of niacin daily decreased the risk of coronary revascularization by 67% according to the Coronary Drug Project which was the first clinical trial investigating niacin which was done in 1975 as noted in an excellent review paper about niacin titled Niacin: another look at an underutilized lipid-lowering medication.

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Among people who were randomly assigned to receive 3 grams of niacin daily, the risk of total mortality was 11% less at 15 years of follow-up according to the Coronary Drug Project which was the first clinical trial investigating niacin which was done in 1975 as noted in an excellent review paper about niacin titled Niacin: another look at an underutilized lipid-lowering medication.

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In this audio clip from 2005, Abram Hoffer, MD, PhD says that the standard mantra that psychiatrists tell schizophrenic patients is, "You will never get well. You will never get off medication. And you will never finish high school."
To me, this is exactly what modern medicine does with blood pressure, with cholesterol, with diabetes, and often, with anxiety and depression.
They tell people, "You will have to take these drugs for blood pressure... cholesterol... etc. every day for the rest of your life."
As noted in the 1993 book "Coronary Heart Disease: The Dietary Sense and Nonsense, an evaluation by scientists", doctors become the unwitting salesmen for drug companies.
They assume they have been given the scientific facts, when instead, much of the research is nothing more than propaganda for the drug companies. Read the entire article | Email this article

Doctors are more interested in the method than the results says Abram Hoffer, MD, PhD in this audio from a speech he gave in 2005.
Thus, they ignore nutritional therapies because they don't like the method, but they never consider the results. Read the entire article | Email this article

In this audio clip from 2005, Abram Hoffer, MD, PhD talks about a father, who was a doctor, who cured his 12-year-old son of schizophrenia in 1960 using Dr. Hoffer's nutritional therapy which includes large doses of niacin. Read the entire article | Email this article

In this audio clip from 2005, Abram Hoffer, MD, PhD tells stories of people recovering from schizophrenia with niacin. Read the entire article | Email this article

In this audio clip from 2005, Janet Downing, a mother, tells how she successful treated her 25-year-old son of schizophrenia using Dr. Hoffer's nutritional therapy which includes large doses of niacin.
Although her son had been diagnosed 10 years earlier, the treatment worked from the first dose. Read the entire article | Email this article

In this audio clip from 2005, Abram Hoffer, MD, PhD tells the story of a 56-year-old woman with schizophrenia who was successfully treated with niacin, and her partner was also successful treated even though he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia for a long time.
The drugs the woman had been put on caused her to gain 25 pounds, and made her feel dizzy.
She commented that the treatment, that is, the drugs, were worse than the disease. Read the entire article | Email this article

In this audio clip from 2005, Abram Hoffer, MD, PhD states that with proper nutrition, shelter, respect and nutritional therapy which includes large doses of niacin, 90% of newly diagnosed schizophrenics will recover versus 0% who are given drugs alone.
And yet, modern psychiatry has failed to realize this and continues to believe that schizophrenics will NEVER get better.
This is exactly the same as modern medicine failing to realize that nutritional therapies are effective for blood pressure, for cholesterol, for depression, for anxiety, for sleep problems, and for alcohol and drug addiction.
However, because medical school does not teach doctors about nutritional therapies, and only teaches them to use drugs, they have failed to recognize this. Read the entire article | Email this article

Abram Hoffer, MD, PhD took large doses of niacin for 57 years (1952 - 2009) and lived to be 92-years-old.

Linus Pauling, a Nobel Prize-winning chemist, also took large doses of niacin and lived to be 93-years-old.

In this audio clip, Dr. Hoffer talks about a woman who is 111-years-old who had been taking niacin for 41 years, and who attributes her longevity to niacin. Read the entire article | Email this article

The greater the reduction in LDL cholesterol in statin users who were also given the cholesterol-lowering drug Zetia (ezetimibe), the greater the acceleration of atherosclerosis according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

"We found an unexpected paradoxical relationship of a greater degree of atherosclerosis progression in patients with larger, [ Zetia-induced ] ezetimibe-induced reductions in LDL cholesterol level," the researchers noted.

"The use of [ Zetia ] ezetimibe led to a paradoxical increase in the degree of atherosclerosis in association with greater reduction in LDL cholesterol, an effect we hypothesize may stem from unintended biologic effects of this agent," they concluded.

But that's not all.

Even though LDL levels were lower in the statin plus Zetia (ezetimibe) than the statin plus niacin group, during a 14 month period there were:

• 3 times as many heart attacks in the Zetia (ezetimibe) group (3 vs 1)


• 5 times as many cardiovascular deaths in the Zetia (ezetimibe) group (5 vs 1), and


• 7 times as many total deaths in the Zetia (ezetimibe) group (7 vs 1), and


• more than 3 times as many heart bypasses performed in the Zetia (ezetimibe) group (3 vs 0)

Do not be fooled by some advertisement that says, "This drug lowers 'bad' LDL cholesterol." It is irrelevant! The ONLY thing that matters is if it lowers your TOTAL risk of death.

Do not be fooled by whether or not a drug lowers some number on a piece of paper, that is, some marker, such as LDL cholesterol, blood pressure or blood sugar.

The drug companies have convinced doctors and patients alike that if a drug lowers cholesterol... or blood pressure or blood sugar, that is must be good for you.

This is not true!

Studies going back to the early 1970's found that while oral diabetes drugs lower blood sugar, they caused more problems than they solved.

A 2004 study of blood pressure drugs in older women found that while these drugs lowered blood pressure by 10-15 points lower than women taking no blood pressure drugs, women taking the drugs were MORE likely to die of cardiovascular disease in seven out of the eight ( 7 of 8 ) drug groups than the "no drug" group!

Yes, really.

In fact, women who had been given a diuretic plus a calcium channel blocker were 2.4 times MORE likely to die of cardiovascular disease than women taking no blood pressure medicines at all, even though the systolic pressure of the women taking this drug combination was 11 points lower (138 mm Hg in the drug group vs 149 mm Hg in the "no drug" group)!

This is another example showing that the number on a piece of paper is irrelevant!

It does not matter whether or not a drug lowers LDL cholesterol or blood pressure or blood sugar or any other marker.

The only thing that matters is whether or not it lowers your total risk of death.

Please do not fall for this advertising nonsense!

Ignore LDL Cholesterol

Dr. Rodney A. Hayward says we should IGNORE LDL cholesterol ignore

Researchers quoted in the January 17th, 2008 cover story in BusinessWeek titled "Do Cholesterol Drugs Do Any Good", said that they research suggests that we should IGNORE LDL cholesterol altogether.

"[C]urrent evidence supports ignoring LDL cholesterol altogether," University of Michigan's [Dr. Rodney A. Hayward, professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School] was quoted as saying in this BusinessWeek article. Read the entire article | Email this article

There were fewer heart attacks, fewer heart bypasses performed, fewer cardiovascular deaths, and fewer total deaths during a 14 month period in statin users given extended-release niacin compared to those given Zetia (ezetimibe) according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The final dose of extended-release niacin was:

• 2000 mg in 75% of patients


• 1500 mg in 3% of patients


• 1000 mg in 12% of patients


• 500 mg in 10% of patients

In rare cases, niacin can cause liver problems.

This is more common with extended-release niacin than regular niacin.

This is because extended-release niacin (or time-release niacin) is roughly the equivalent of double the dose of regular niacin as noted by Dr. William Parsons in the 1993 book Coronary Heart Disease: The Dietary Sense and Nonsense. An evaluation by scientists. Read the entire article | Email this article

There were 86% fewer total deaths in 14 months in statin users given extended-release niacin compared to those given Zetia (ezetimibe) according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

There was one (1) deaths in the niacin group during the 14 months versus seven (7) deaths in the Zetia (ezetimibe) group.

Two of the deaths in the Zetia (ezetimibe) group, and one (1) death in the niacin group were non-cardiovascular, however, they don't say what they were.

Since statins and other cholesterol-lowering drugs which artificially lower cholesterol have been found to increase the risk of cancer, suicide, accidental death, and congestive heart failure (with statins), these two deaths may or may not be relevant.

Since they did not say what these people died from, it feels to me like they are trying to hide something.

I am trying to find out what these other people died from. Read the entire article | Email this article

There were 67% fewer heart attacks in 14 months in statin users given extended release niacin compared to those given Zetia (ezetimibe) according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

There was one (1) heart attack in the niacin group versus three (3) heart attacks in the Zetia (ezetimibe) group. Read the entire article | Email this article

There were 100% fewer heart attacks in 14 months in statin users given extended release niacin compared to those given Zetia (ezetimibe) according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

There were no heart bypasses (0) performed in the niacin group during the 14 months versus three (3) heart bypasses performed in the Zetia (ezetimibe) group. Read the entire article | Email this article

There were 80% fewer cardiovascular deaths in 14 months in statin users given extended release niacin compared to those given Zetia (ezetimibe) according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

There was one (1) cardiovascular death in the niacin group versus five (5) cardiovascular deaths in the Zetia (ezetimibe) group. Read the entire article | Email this article