Good old Vitamin B
Many of you may already take niacin, aka vitamin B, (or a B-complex pill). But did you know that it can, if taken at high doses (2,000 mg/day), increase your good cholesterol, HDL ("Among other functions, HDL carries dangerous forms of cholesterol from artery walls to the liver for excretion. … [a process] crucial to preventing clogged arteries." - The New York Times, "An Old Cholesterol Remedy Is New Again")
Experts say, that vitamin B (again in high doses) combined with a statin which lowers LDL (the bad cholesterol) can reduce the risk or a heart attack or stroke by 70%.
This is truly incredible.
This is now being brought out into the spotlight because of Pfizer's announcement last month that they were halting production of their brand name, HDL-increasing drug that was supposed to be their next big hit.
Our question is simple: why was there a need to spend time (years), money (millions), and energy in research (not to mention the people it was tested on) when there was already a proven statin--- plain, old Vitamin B? It was already proven in studies conducted in 1975, that niacin reduced heart attacks and strokes by 26% and 27%, respectively.
As one professor of medicine put it: "Here you have a drug that was about as effective as the early statins, and it just never caught on. It's a mystery to me. But if you're a drug company, I guess you can't make money on a vitamin."
And that is really it, isn't it?
Granted, high doses of Vitamin B, in rare instances, can cause liver damage (which drug doesn't? This is a common side effect in many prescribed drugs – just listen to the warnings in the pharma ads or read the fine print) and can impair the body's use of glucose. "High doses should be taken only under a doctor's supervision" (if you are taking high doses of vitamin B, then you are trying to control your cholesterol. In which case, you SHOULD be under doctor's supervision anyway).
Bottom line, yes, high doses of vitamin B may have unpleasant side effects--- but so does every other drug. We fail to see the reason why time, money, and energy had to be spent, in our view, "recreating the wheel" when vitamin B had already been proven --over 30 years ago-- to be highly effective.
Experts say, that vitamin B (again in high doses) combined with a statin which lowers LDL (the bad cholesterol) can reduce the risk or a heart attack or stroke by 70%.
This is truly incredible.
This is now being brought out into the spotlight because of Pfizer's announcement last month that they were halting production of their brand name, HDL-increasing drug that was supposed to be their next big hit.
Our question is simple: why was there a need to spend time (years), money (millions), and energy in research (not to mention the people it was tested on) when there was already a proven statin--- plain, old Vitamin B? It was already proven in studies conducted in 1975, that niacin reduced heart attacks and strokes by 26% and 27%, respectively.
As one professor of medicine put it: "Here you have a drug that was about as effective as the early statins, and it just never caught on. It's a mystery to me. But if you're a drug company, I guess you can't make money on a vitamin."
And that is really it, isn't it?
Granted, high doses of Vitamin B, in rare instances, can cause liver damage (which drug doesn't? This is a common side effect in many prescribed drugs – just listen to the warnings in the pharma ads or read the fine print) and can impair the body's use of glucose. "High doses should be taken only under a doctor's supervision" (if you are taking high doses of vitamin B, then you are trying to control your cholesterol. In which case, you SHOULD be under doctor's supervision anyway).
Bottom line, yes, high doses of vitamin B may have unpleasant side effects--- but so does every other drug. We fail to see the reason why time, money, and energy had to be spent, in our view, "recreating the wheel" when vitamin B had already been proven --over 30 years ago-- to be highly effective.
posted by CareTALKGals(tm) at 1/24/2007 12:29:00 AM
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