Table Of ContentNIACIN:
The Real Story
Abram Hoffer, M.D., Ph.D.
Andrew W. Saul, Ph.D.
and Harold D. Foster, Ph.D.
The information contained in this book is based upon the research and personal and professional
experiences of the authors. It is not intended as a substitute for consulting with your physician or other
healthcare provider. Any attempt to diagnose and treat an illness should be done under the direction of a
healthcare professional.
The publisher does not advocate the use of any particular healthcare protocol but believes the information in
this book should be available to the public. The publisher and authors are not responsible for any adverse
effects or consequences resulting from the use of the suggestions, preparations, or procedures discussed in
this book. Should the reader have any questions concerning the appropriateness of any procedures or
preparation mentioned, the authors and the publisher strongly suggest consulting a professional healthcare
advisor.
Basic Health Publications, Inc.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress.
Copyright © 2012 Abram Hoffer, M.D., Ph.D., Harold D. Foster, Ph.D., and Andrew W. Saul, Ph.D.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
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Editor: Karen Anspach
Interior design and production: Gary A. Rosenberg
Cover design: Mike Stromberg
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgements
Foreword
Preface
Introduction: Why Should You Read This Book?
1. What Is Niacin?
2. How Niacin Therapy Began
3. How Niacin Works, and Why We Need More of It
4. How to Take Niacin
5. Safety of Niacin
6. Pandeficiency Disease
7. Reversing Arthritis with Niacinamide: The Pioneering Work of William
Kaufman,
M.D., Ph.D.
8. Children’s Learning and Behavioral Disorders
9. Mental Illness
10. Cardiovascular Disease
11. Other Clinical Conditions That Respond to Niacin
Aging
Allergies
Alcoholism and Other Addictions
Alzheimer’s Disease
Anxiety
Cancer
Cataracts
Cholera and Diarrhea
Detoxification
Epidermolysis Bullosa
Fatigue
Hartnup Disease
Huntington’s Disease
Migraine Headache
Multiple Sclerosis
Nephritis
Obesity
Parkinsonism
Parkinsonism
Pemphigus
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Raynaud’s Disease
Skin Conditions
Trigeminal Neuralgia
Viral Illnesses
Conclusion
Appendix. The Introduction of Niacin as the First Successful Treatment for
Cholesterol Control, William B. Parsons, Jr.
References
For Further Reading
Index
About the Authors
To all the physicians who have demonstrated that niacin cures disease, with
particular honor to Joseph Goldberger,
William Kaufman,
Rudolph Altschul,
Edmond Boyle,
William B. Parsons,
Humphry Osmond, and Abram Hoffer.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Steven Carter, Executive Director of the International
Schizophrenia Foundation, for kind permission to use material that originally
appeared in the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine. I am indebted to the late
Mrs.
Charlotte
Kaufman for gracious
encouragement
and permission to publish
and permission to publish
correspondence, private notes, and other writings of her husband, Dr. William
Kaufman, thus making his important work widely available to the public. We
value
the specialized input from Dr. Robert G. Smith, Research Associate Professor in
the
Department
of
Neuroscience, University of
Pennsylvania. Thanks
to all
the
contributors to the Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, some articles of
which
are incorporated in this book. A special thanks to Dr. W. Todd Penberthy, for
reading and making expert suggestions to the text.
Foreword
Niacin raises good cholesterol (HDL) more than any known pharmaceutical,
while
simultaneously lowering total cholesterol, triglycerides, and the most pathogenic
form of cholesterol-associated lipoprotein (VLDL). This wide array of generally
clinically
desirable
chemical
adjustments
is
undeniable
based
on
precise
biochemical measures. Niacin (extended release formula, Niaspan) has been
shown
to reduce disease progression in four other clinical trials as well.1 Good medical
doctors will prescribe niacin for reducing cardiovascular disease risk and provide
a
description of how to use it. Niacin is frequently the gold standard control used
for
basic research experiments using animal models of atherosclerosis. In clinical
trials,
when niacin has been compared to other marketed drugs it has led to most
undesirable effects for business, but most therapeutically beneficial effects for
the
fortunate patients. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) kills more individuals than any
other disease. Accordingly, there is tremendous drive in the pharmaceutical
industry
to make drugs. Merck and Schering Plough convinced doctors to spend 21
billion
dollars over seven years selling Zetia (ezetimibe). Ultimately however, clinical
trials
trials
would thereafter reveal that Zetia actually increases cardiovascular events,
making
mean arterial walls thicker!2 Thus, it is no longer a good business idea for the
pharmaceutical industry to compare drugs to niacin head to head. Immediate
release
(IR) niacin works just as well as prescription extended release (ER) niacin, but it
costs approximately fifteen dollars a day to obtain 3 grams, while IR niacin costs
just fifty cents. ER niacin causes less of a flush response initially, but with
regular
usage, IR niacin results in little to no flush at all, while all of the benefits are still
reaped.
While the benefits of niacin for treating CVD are undeniable given the
rigorously
precise biochemical measures, there has been more controversy over the benefits
of
niacin for treating schizophrenia and behavioral disorders. Sixty years ago, Dr.
Abram Hoffer entered this scene at the all-time height of psychiatry
equivocation
when he first proposed with Dr. Humphry Osmond to try much higher doses of
vitamin B for treating what resembled the dementias seen just a decade prior in
3
the
pellagra epidemics of the 1940s. Sigmund Freudian-based psychotherapy was all
the
rage at this time in the early 1950s. “Refrigerator moms” (emotionally
unresponsive
unresponsive
mothers) were given as the causal explanation for schizophrenia. Abram and
Osmond results were stunningly effective in the cure rate for schizophrenia
(even
more so than today’s best medicine used for treating schizophrenia).
Nonetheless,
poorly understood drugs are repeatedly marketed to suffering schizophrenics,
while
an increasing variety of other newly defined mental and behavioral disorders are
defined. This book, Niacin: The Real Story, relates niacin to descriptions of the
three
main psychotic disorders: bipolar disorder (characterized by dramatic mood
swings),
schizophrenias
(characterized by perceptual
hallucinations
and delusions), and
schizoaffective disorders (characterized by periods of both of these).
As illustrated above with the Zetia example, it has gotten so rare that anyone
addresses the most important question anymore: “What works best?” It is such a
simple question. Instead, too much research today proceeds primarily from a
forprofit motive. It is also so rare to have someone who was around to witness
the historical
transformation of
medical
medical
motives
from
a
“health-and-improvement
motive” to a “much-increased-profit motive,” as Abram Hoffer and Harold
Foster
did. The profit machine ultimately consumed the spirit or focus of many a
wellintentioned doctor, but Abram persisted in weathering the storm, risking his
stature among his peers to maintain the premise of his work, always addressing
the
question: “What works best?” With an open mind and an incredible work ethic,
Abram continued following the most recent research right up until the end.
There is so much more to the story of niacin than its success in treating CVD.
Firstly, there
are
other distinct
molecular versions
of
nicotinamide
adenine
dinucleotide (NAD) precursor besides niacin that are also covered in this book
you
hold in your hands. Secondly, there are so many observations that would remain
hold in your hands. Secondly, there are so many observations that would remain
hidden from modern medical education if it were not for the work of the author
of
this book, Dr. Andrew Saul. Abram Hoffer’s experiences treating patients with
high
doses of niacin or niacinamide were almost too numerous to tell.
Even today, niacin, functioning as a precursor to NAD, perennially excites and
simulates modern discovery in molecular biology and pharmacology research.
One
of the most amazing mice used by scientists for twenty-plus years has been the
Slow
Wallerian Degeneration (WldS) mouse.3 Wallerian degeneration is the process of
neuronal degeneration that occurs after physical insult to the neuron via razor
excision or crushing of axons, all in a petri dish. Normal neurons completely
degenerate within twenty-four hours of damage; however, the WldS mouse
resists
degeneration. Amazingly, WldS neurons survive for over two weeks, all without
a
nucleus, while still being able to be excited for at least a week!4 Eventually the
gene was mapped and determined to involve triplication of the NAD-
synthesizing enzyme
encoded by NMNAT1 (Nicotinamide mononucleotide adenylyltransferase 1),
where
NAD itself could in part substitute for the neuroprotective activity conferred by
this
fortunate genetic mutation.5 Further research realized a role for the NAD-
dependent
