Niacin (or nicotinic acid) is another name for vitamin B3, which is 1 of 8 B vitamins needed by the body to break down fats and proteins and to convert carbohydrates into energy. There are two other forms of niacin, nicotinamide (or niacinamide) and inositol hexanicotinate, which serve as sources of vitamin B3. This is why they can be referred to as "niacin." What many people fail to realize, however, is that these forms of niacin do not work in the same way as niacin.
Niacin (or nicotinic acid as it’s referred to in medical circles) was the third B vitamin to be discovered (hence the name B3). It wasn’t until about 1943, though, that a couple of doctors reported that niacin worked wonders in relieving the pain and stiffness associated with arthritis. Unfortunately, their research was never well publicized, since that was around the time that drug companies were promoting their own miracle “cure” for arthritis—cortisone.
Niacin has a unique characteristic. If you haven’t experienced it personally, you’ve probably heard about the “flush” niacin can cause. As little as 50 mg of niacin can cause a flush in some people. While not dangerous, it can be uncomfortable, or even alarming, if you aren’t prepared for it. (Personally, I somewhat enjoy the sensation.)
Niacin causes the blood vessels to dilate or open up near the skin, which results in a hot, tingling sensation accompanied by a red flushing of the skin. Generally, by starting with low amounts of niacin (50 to 100 mg a day) and gradually increasing the dosage, a person can quickly build up a tolerance and avoid the flush. Taking niacin immediately following a meal will also lessen the flushing sensation. (Niacinamide, the alkaline form of niacin, doesn’t cause flushing and it works just as well for most things.)
Since niacin isn’t something that drug companies can patent, it’s of little interest to them. But whatever you do, don’t overlook niacin’s potential just because it’s been around so long, or because it sounds like too simple of a solution.
Keep in mind that all of the B vitamins actually work in conjunction with each other—which means you can expect better results if you take niacin or niacinamide along with a good multivitamin that contains a broad balance of B vitamins.
Several researchers have reported excellent results in arthritic patients using niacinamide. While niacin opens up the blood vessels near the surface and causes a flushing sensation, niacinamide only opens up the deep blood vessels like those surrounding the joints.
In cases of moderate arthritis, outstanding results have been produced by taking 1,000 to 1,500 mg a day. In more severe cases, as much as 3,000 mg to 4,000 mg have been recommended. In all instances, here and in the recommendations listed below, the dosage should be divided into five or six doses spread throughout the day rather than all at once. It should also be taken with the knowledge and supervision of your nutritionally oriented doctor.
CHOLESTEROL & TRIGLYCERIDES
One of the most effective and least expensive ways to lower blood lipids (cholesteroland triglycerides) is to take 1,000 to 3,000 mg of niacin a day.
Patients using 1,000 mg the first day, 2,000 mg the second day, and 3,000 mg each day thereafter have seen as much as a 25 percent reduction in cholesterol levels, and a 50 percent reduction in triglycerides. (Blood lipid reduction is one case where niacinamide is not as effective as niacin.)
REVERSING HEART DISEASE
Heart patients on niacin treatment had less illness and lower death rates after five years when contrasted to those not using niacin. An even more astounding study revealed that niacin treatment actually reversed signs of heart disease in patients who had genetically related cholesterol problems.
Niacin lowers cholesterol and triglycerides. It reduces the blood fats called “very low-density lipoproteins,” which have been linked to heart disease and cancer. It improves the blood sugar problems that can lead to damage to the arterial walls. It dilates blood vessels, which improves the circulation to areas starved of oxygen and nutrients. The list of benefits goes on and on—and if that wasn’t enough, the stuff is dirt cheap.
Finish reading. It gets better. And then buy some Niacin. This may be the best medicine for the price. The cost/benefit ratio is in your favor.
h/t to that internet maven, property rights champion, Robert Wenzel.
As an African-American physician focusing on preventive medicine, Dr. Mills has delved into some of the environmental and societal influences affecting the health of African Americans and other racial/ethnic minorities. Dr. Mills has lectured and given research seminars across the United States and in Mexico and Canada on such topics as the negative impacts of meat and dairy consumption on human health, nutrition and HIV/AIDS, nutrition and cancer, and the dietary needs of various ethnic groups. He answers the question that if we don't get our protein from animal sources, where do we get our protein? And he's right that you get your protein from plants and vegetables. In fact, your body does a better job of distributing plant protein throughout your body than it does with animal protein. And the reason for that is that animal protein is like a blast or overwhelming infusion of protein, whereas with plant protein your body takes and converts what it needs. When we're young we can handle animal protein; hell, we prefer it. We're active, running around, jumping around, playing sports, and so forth, so an immediate repair with a burger or steak or any animal protein is perfect . . . when we're young. I would still advocate for eggs. The terrific fat that you get from eggs is an excellent energy source. The diseases that Dr. Mills mentions--cancer, diabetes, and so forth--are all conditions that people get with age. Those are age-related diseases. So if you've been eating meat most of your life, you may want to consider incorporating blood-letting in your routine or add the iron and heavy mineral chelator, IP6, to your diet. You, in fact, consume that between meals. You will feel better. But moving to fruits and vegetables is a healthier way. Your energy will rise. Your health with improve. Your performance and productivity will find its rhythm again.
I first took baking soda as a muscle relaxant. Yeah. After running about three miles one night, my knees were particularly sore. A few weeks prior to this, a nurse friend of mine told me of the virtues of baking soda as a remedy for arthritis, including pain in the joints. The knee is a joint, so I thought "Ah, what the heck." So I took 1 tablespoon and voila, pain-free, almost immediately. I was shocked. In fact, so much of the pain was gone that I actually felt not just pain-free but I felt pretty good all around. My knees were no longer sore. My calves and thighs were relaxed. I was impressed with the results. The friend told me that you can only tolerate about 1 teaspoon per week. Okay. Didn't understand why the limit, but okay I live with that.
And then a few weeks back, I come across this article by Bill Sardi, titled "The Baking Soda Cure for Almost Everything," April 27, 2018, at Lew Rockwell.com. Well, that's a hell of a title. And knowing how accurate and thorough Sardi tends to be, I knew that I had to read his piece and its linked resources carefully.
He opens with savvy financial recommendation:
The three trillion-dollar income stream produced by the medical industrial complex is about to come demolished by a home remedy–baking soda. Buy stock in Arm & Hammer. (Church & Dwight Co. Ltd.)
I will definitely look into it. But before I go out and buy, let's review the specifics of his recommendations. The focus of the benefits are found on the surface of the spleen.
Now for the details:
Researchers at the Medical College of Georgia have discovered a nerve center in a cell layer in the spleen that controls the immune response and therefore inflammation throughout the body. Given that virtually all chronic age-related disease involves inflammation (called inflammaging), this discovery is of monumental significance and has widespread application for virtually every organ and tissue in the body as the spleen is not only an abdominal organ that is involved in the recycling of old blood cells but is also a key part of the human immune system.
HOW MUCH DO I TAKE? 1/2 TEASPOON PER DAY FOR 2 WEEKS
What is astounding is the amount that one needs to maintain the immune response: 1/2 teaspoon per day for 2 weeks. Do you know what that would cost? The water costs more.
The striking part of this discovery is that autoimmune reactions responsible for chronic inflammation throughout the body were quelled by consumption of two grams (~half a teaspoon) of baking soda in water for two weeks in healthy humans. Researchers say baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) calms the immune response in the spleen and has a system-wide effect.
How, er, why does sodium bicarbonate work?
An over-active immune response defines autoimmune disorders experienced in physically remote parts of the body including the eyes, kidneys, brain, joints, arteries, and lungs as well as in obesity.
As researchers explain, when sodium bicarbonate is consumed it becomes a trigger for the stomach to make more acid to digest the next meal and for the overlooked mesothelial cell lining in the spleen to signal there is no need to mount an overly protective immune response that can alter a delicate balance between M1 and M2 macrophages, white blood cells that target bacteria, viruses, parasites and tumor cells.
Credit: Cumberlands University Biology
It looks like the reason why baking soda works at all is due to the presence of the spleen and its mesothelial cells that line it. Remove the spleen from the body in some kind of operation, and the benefits of baking soda evaporate.
Mesothelial cells line the spleen and directly secrete the nerve chemical acetylcholine. When the spleen is removed from lab animals or just slightly disturbed, the mesothelial nervous connection in the spleen with other parts of the body was cut off and the healthy effect produced by baking soda was abolished. Acetylcholine signaling represents the brakes on the human immune response. Acetylcholine signals other organs to under-respond when confronted with pathogenic germs or tumor cells.
What's nice about this is that simply using an oral dosage diluted in water works. You don't need a limousine IV drip of baking soda to realize any of the benefits. How this news can be anything less than fantastic is beyond me.
“This is the first demonstration that orally ingested sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) can promote a powerful anti-inflammatory response in both animals and humans,” say researchers writing in the Journal of Immunology. Baking soda “may provide a cheap, relatively safe, effective and easily accessible and/or noninvasive method to activate anti-inflammatory nerve pathways,” researchers emphasized.
Did you get that? You're looking at a compound that treats inflammatory nerve pain or stress.
Macrophages traverse the entire circulatory system. But macrophages that reside in the digestive tract represent the largest population of macrophages in the human body. This strategic location positions them as a first-line defense against harmful bacteria and other pathogens.
Where do we go from here? Are doctors going to drop their prescription pads and hand out samples of sodium bicarbonate? That’s not likely. Let’s see how modern medicine throws this sure-fire remedy under the rug this time.
Martin Couney shows off one of his rescued babies, Beth Allen. Find that baby, now an adult, pictured below.
When Marion Conlin gave birth to twins earlier than expected in a Brooklyn hospital in May 1920, one of her babies was already dead. Her doctor bluntly told the woman and her husband, Woolsey, “Don’t rush to bury that one, because you will need to bury the other one too ... She’s not going to live the day.”
But Woolsey was not giving up on the other so easily.
The couple had honeymooned the previous year in Atlantic City, and Woolsey recalled a sideshow exhibit featuring prematurely born babies whose lives were saved right there on the Boardwalk. Resting in new machines called incubators, the babies made medical history while serving as a prime attraction for gawking tourists.
Woolsey also remembered hearing that the same doctor had set up a similar exhibit in Coney Island. So while their own doctor tried to convince them that all was lost, Woolsey grabbed his 2-pound daughter, ran from the hospital and hailed a cab, hoping the Coney Island sideshow could save her life.
What little is known about Martin Couney is that he was born in Prussia in 1869 as Michael Cohn and changed his name after immigrating to New York at 18.
He does not appear to have had any medical credentials, and while he often claimed to be a protege of the world-renowned French doctor Pierre-Constant Budin, who popularized incubators in Europe, there is no evidence for this claim.
What is true is that whatever his motive, he spent 40 years as the only medical hope for parents of babies born too early in New York City and beyond. Raffel estimates he saved between 6,500 and 7,000 lives.
Incubators were invented in Europe in the late 19th century, the evolution of innovations from Russia, Germany and France. Couney claimed that in 1896, Budin, an actual pioneer in the field, sent him to display incubators at the Great Industrial Exhibition of Berlin. Rather than stand next to empty machines, Couney, referring to the displays as “child hatchery,” said he realized how much more effective it would be if they housed actual babies being saved for the public to see.
The truth about where Couney first encountered these machines, and his motivation for making them the great cause of his life, is unknown. Raffel believes he did not attend the 1896 exhibition at all, but heard about it, and became associated with the machines soon after.
“The exhibition in Berlin made a big splash,” Raffel says. “It was written up in newspapers all over the place, including the United States, and showmen started becoming interested in it.”
However it began, Couney toured the machines around America and established a show in Coney Island in 1903, one block away from the Luna Park amusement park.
The exhibit ran in that general area for the next 40 years. Visitors were charged a quarter to view the babies, and the money went to their care.
As one might expect, people didn’t know what to make of the exhibit at first.
Beth Allen today. She was one of the babies Martin Couney rescued.
A reporter for the Brooklyn Eagle newspaper, in a story headlined “Strangest Place on Earth for Human Tots to be Fed, Nursed and Cared For,” wrote that the idea of “haranguing the passing throng in an effort to divert its shekels for a spectacle so serious, not to say sacred, strikes one as questionable, almost repellent.” But by the end of the piece, the author’s impression had turned positive, praising the care the children received.
Couney hired barkers to stand outside the exhibit and attract customers, screaming slogans like, “Don’t forget to see the babies!” In 1922, one of his barkers was a young British actor named Archibald Leach, who later changed his name to Cary Grant.
Couney himself developed into quite the showman, hamming it up for the press and the crowds.
“Every blistering, footsore day, he would station himself at the door to his show — ‘All the world loves a baby! Once seen, never forgotten!’” Raffel writes. “He never got tired of talking to the public, not even the Dummkopfs who deduced he’d made the little critters. (‘Hiya, Doc, where’dja get the eggs?’) Sometimes they wanted to order one fresh for themselves.”
But for all his showbiz, Couney was in the lifesaving business, and he took it seriously. The exhibit was immaculate. When new children arrived, dropped off by panicked parents who knew Couney could help them where hospitals could not, they were immediately bathed, rubbed with alcohol and swaddled tight, then “placed in an incubator kept at 96 or so degrees, depending on the patient. Every two hours, those who could suckle were carried upstairs on a tiny elevator and fed by breast by wet nurses who lived in the building. The rest [were fed by] a funneled spoon.”
A photograph of an incubator at Dr. Martin Couney’s Coney Island incubator sideshow.
Even the nurses — whose genuine medical degrees helped make up for the absence of Couney’s in instances such as signing death certificates — understood that maintaining the show business of it all was key to keeping the operation alive. They would often feed or bathe the babies where people could watch, and one nurse would “flash a diamond ring and slip it over an infant’s wrist, all the way up its skinny arm, to demonstrate scale.”
While Couney couldn’t save every baby, Raffel writes that “most of the patients went home in a couple of months.” It’s unverified since Couney never published anything or left any records of his work, but he claimed an 85 percent survival rate, once saying most deaths occurred within 24 to 48 hours of his receiving a baby.
“If we have a child for seven days in our charge,” he said, “we never lose it.”
Despite Couney’s success, there were numerous ways this type of endeavor could lead to tragedy. When St. Louis planned their 1904 World’s Fair, they decided they wanted an incubator exhibit, but not Couney.
They contracted the lowest bidder, a doctor named Joseph Hardy who “was fully licensed and apparently utterly ignorant of how to care for a preemie.” After the exhibit had been open for a bit, a Humane Society examination found that out of 43 children cared for, 39 had died. Couney published an open letter in the New York Evening Journal calling it “the crime of the decade” and claiming Hardy and his staff “did not know the difference between an incubator and a peanut roaster.” While changes were made, including hiring a new doctor, the exhibit stayed open.
In time, Couney offered genuine evidence of his success. He held reunions, inviting children who been saved in his incubators. In 1909 in Chicago, he even held a “best preemie” competition.
“That Sunday morning, the children were brought in dressed in their finest attire,” Raffel writes. “Ruffles and ribbons, buttons and bows. Martin, fluent in baby talk as any other tongue, was having the time of his life.”
The winner, a 3-year-old named Burton who was judged the “healthiest, handsomest, and best-developed,” was awarded a little red wagon.
Sometimes, his successes came to him. At the 1939 World’s Fair, he was approached by a 19-year-old woman who said she was one of the babies he had saved. Her name was Lucille Conlin. She was Marion and Woolsey Conlin’s surviving daughter. She went on to become a nurse.
Throughout his decades of saving babies, Couney understood there were better options. He tried to sell, or even donate, his incubators to hospitals, but they didn’t want them. He even offered all his incubators to the city of New York in 1940 but was turned down.
Raffel offers several possible reasons for this. The difficulty of operating the machines was one.
“Doctors didn’t have the resources or trained personnel to use [incubators] properly,” she says. “An incubator is a labor-intensive process. You had to have specially trained nurses and a low nurse-to-patient ratio. It was too much work for them.”
Given the popularity of eugenics in the US at the time, there also wasn’t much sympathy for these children.
“You had a raging climate of eugenics which did not directly target preemies, but did directly target children who had severe disabilities,” Raffel says. “It was an environment where we only wanted to produce the fittest babies. That was a very strong cultural undercurrent. People just felt like these children were not worth saving.”
Couney died in 1950 at age 80. That he had closed his exhibit only seven years prior is a testament both to his dedication to helping children, and the failure of the medical establishment to take on the crucial job of saving their lives.
