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Large new clinical study launched to study. . .niacin

Large new clinical study launched to study. . .niacin

5. June 2006 William Davis (3)

Oxford University has issued a press release announcing plans for a new clinical trial to raise HDL cholesterol and reduce heart attack risk. 20,000 participants will be enrolled in this substantial effort. The agent? Niacin.

How is that new? Well, this time niacin comes with a new spin.

Dr. Jane Armitage, formerly with the Heart Protection Study that showed that simvastatin (Zocor) reduced heart attack risk regardless of starting LDL, is lead investigator. She hopes to prove that niacin raises HDL cholesterol and thereby reduces heart attack risk. But, this time, niacin will be combined with an inhibitor of prostaglandins that blocks the notorious "flushing" effect of niacin.

The majority of Track Your Plaque participants hoping to control or reverse coronary plaque take niacin. Recall that niacin (vitamin B3)is an extremely effect agent that raises HDL, dramatically reduces small LDL, shifts HDL particles into the effective large fraction, reduces triglycerides and triglyceride-containing particles like IDL and VLDL. Several studies have shown that niacin dramatically reduces heart attack. The HATS Study showed that niacin combined with Zocor yielded an 85-90% reduction in heart attack risk and achieved regression of coronary plaque in many participants.

In our experience, approximately 1 in 20 people will really struggle using niacin. Flushes for these occasional people will be difficult or even intolerable. Should Dr. Armitage's study demonstrate that this new combination agent does provide advantages in minimizing the hot flush effect, that will be a boon for the occasional Track Your Plaque participant who finds conventional niacin intolerable.

But you already have access to niacin, an agent with an impressive track record even without this new study. And you have a reasonably effective prostaglandin inhibitor, as well: aspirin. Good old aspirin is very useful, particularly in the first few months of your niacin initiation to blunt the flush.

Although this study is likely to further popularize niacin and allow its broader use, it's also a method for the drug companies to profit from an agent they know works but is cheap and available.

You don't have to wait. You already have niacin and aspirin available to you.
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Comments (3) -

  • Dick B

    6/14/2006 7:38:00 PM |

    Niacin flushing can be effectively controlled with milk thistle. This information has been available for a year or so on www.nialor.com. I tried aspirin. It didn't work for me. Nialor is a product that combines 700 mg niacin with 175 mg of milk thistle powder. In my opinion, and this process worked for me, starting niacin should be done with small doses, such as 25mg with a milk thistle tablet once a day, then the combo twice a day, then 50 mg of niacin with a milk thistle tablet, etc., to gradually allow your body to adjust before taking the full Nialor tablet. In about two weeks, you should be able to take a Nialor tablet with 700 mg of niacin with its milk thistle and not flush. I now take three Nialor tablets a day, morning, noon and evening. It has been extremely effective for me. I initally tried niacin with aspirin. The flush was hard to take. Then I tried flush-free niacin. That did not produce a flush, but it was ineffective.

  • Scorpion~

    8/13/2008 2:03:00 PM |

    Interesting ... did they lower their dose? Current informatiion shows only 500 mg crystalized niacin per tablet.

  • buy jeans

    11/3/2010 9:37:42 PM |

    In our experience, approximately 1 in 20 people will really struggle using niacin. Flushes for these occasional people will be difficult or even intolerable. Should Dr. Armitage's study demonstrate that this new combination agent does provide advantages in minimizing the hot flush effect, that will be a boon for the occasional Track Your Plaque participant who finds conventional niacin intolerable.

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