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Whos Afraid of a B Vitamin You needn’t Bee? An FAQs on Niacin(amide) and how to take Niacinamide and why you would want too in the first place. The very definition of a Vitamin is a Vital (life giving) nutrient needed in a minimum amount without which we become sick. This is especially so for B Vitamins since the body does not have good way to store more than 3 months’ worth on average. STRESS makes us low! If you had Cancer and someone told you a Vitamin could help would you try to take it? Most people I dare say would – probably readily. While unfortunately this is not the case for Cancer but what if you had Beri Beri, or Anemia or (Pellagra misdiagnosed as Celiac Disease anyone) and the doctor’s didn’t know or recognize it in a clinical setting see and you were told a Vitamin could help you. Would you try a B-Vitamin? All these (Beri Beri, Anemia, Pellagra) are diseases (and others not mentioned here like Scurvy and Rickets etc) are disease’s that a Vitamin could/does help? And possibly Celiac Disease if you are in the majority of those Pellagra Patients who present as Celiac Disease or NCGS presenting as IBS or have Pellagra misdiagnosed. Your disease profile might differentially be called something else. It is a standard practice of medicine called: A Differential Diagnosis. You hear this a lot but don’t think about it probably when someone is giving a horrible diagnosis such as cancer we say “I am going to get a 2nd Opinion” on that right. Well you have asked for “A Differential Diagnosis” of the diagnosis of the disease you have been said to have. Often today Common Vitamin deficiencies are thought to be “cured” in the modern world by enriching our foods presenting/revealing as Celiac Disease and/or GERD/ Heartburn. When stressed you often lack enough of certain B Vitamins to function properly hence disease develops. If a Vitamin could be taken to reverse this disease (STRESS) why wouldn’t you want too or at least try? We don’t think of STRESS in these terms often but High Blood Pressure is often the first sign of a Folic Acid deficiency – the beginning of disease. That really is what UN-controlled stress /inflammation is in the body. It is disease or will become disease if left unchecked. What if there was a Vitamin that helped us regulate STRESS in the body. Well there is! It is called Niacin (Vitamin B-3) regulates our fight or flight responses. All of this requires massive amounts of energy when a shock/trauma affects our system. Our body functions break down. And disease develops’. This is what happens when someone develops GERD/IBS/NCGS/Celiac Disease (Pellagra in disguise I believe – a Niacin deficiency/dependency). The longer or more deficient (lower) you are in this cornerstone nutrient (Vitamin) the more of your body stop functioning. Yet few people are willing to believe (take) a Vitamin that might help their bodies function better? I ask again who’s afraid of a (water soluble) Bee Vitamin that is known to regulate stress in the body? Ok great? A B-Vitamin can help me. How do I take it and how much? Here is where I have been conservation and have recommended (anyone who has read my other posterboy posts) 500mgs of Niacinamide. This is for 2 reasons mainly. 1 The Niacinamide version does not flush the way higher doses of Niacin does. So it is inherently easier form to take without feeling you have “overdosed” (Flushed) on this Vitamin (Which is a misnomer) -- Flushing when understood properly is a healthy response to the Vitamin. Niacin is a natural vasodilator allowing more oxygen into our capillaries indicating a sufficient dose of the vitamin has been achieved to cause capillary relaxation. (This is most pronounced on an empty stomach) But since people mistakenly take this as an adverse reaction and why I emphasize the Niacinamide form it is the Non-Flushing Amide form of Niacin. 2 Since 500mg is the most commonly found size of Niacinamide I recommend(ed) it out of defense mainly. Smaller doses work as well indeed -- As a matter of fact smaller more frequent doses works 40 percent better than larger one time doses. And the reason I am writing this FAQs about Niacin. B-Vitamins by their nature are hard to store by the body so even in larger doses (500mg) as much as half the dose is essentially wasted by the body – excreted through the kidneys’ since the body has no long term way to store excess amounts of B-Vitamins. And why smaller more frequent doses help 2X to 3X times quicker because the Vitamins serum level’s are maintained for longer periods thus enhanced absorption. It is not the size above about 250mgs that is important but the frequency of the Vitamin. If Niacinamide was widely available in smaller doses 100mg I would of have recommended that instead. Niacin is available in100mg doses but can still mildly flush at that dose (especially on an empty stomach without food to compete for absorption) and again why by default I recommend the Niacinamide form. Medical doctor’s know this and use the smaller doses more frequently when treating Pellagra. See this link from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/85/1/218.full See their “subjects” paragraphs on how smaller doses effectively treated the symptoms’ of Pellagra. Quoting “The patients were treated according to the standard local clinical protocol and received a 100-mg nicotinamide supplement and a B complex tablet 3 times daily for 17 d if an adult or a 50-mg nicotinamide supplement and a B complex tablet 3 times daily for 15 d if aged <15 y. In addition, all patients received a weekly food supplement—400 g of a fortified blended food (corn soy blend, oil, and sugar)—for 3 wk. Families of the pellagra patients were also eligible for a food ration from the World Food Programme, which was distributed monthly for 3 months.” **** Note: This is a much shorter time than I often (have) advocate(d) because I want to be absolutely 100 percent sure these symptom’s will never EVER come back (unless you have more STRESS more on that later). But as you can see much lower doses for a much shorter time than 4 to 6 months can works as well. I/posterboy say conservatively 3 months (see the time a rich niacin and protein rich food plan was provided) to avoid remission because that is the time your body can store most B-Vitamins. But the amount is not important it the FREQUENCY that is key! By being conservative (some might say aggressive) with how long I recommend to take it (Niacin(amide)) (and the amount see above about why I recommended this amount in the first place) people are reluctant to take Niacinamide at ALL. And this in turn leads to disbelief that taking a B-Vitamin can help people with GI problems. But we see in this study (above link) by the American Journal of Nutrition that even low doses in divided doses as quickly as (or as little as a month’s time) can dramatically help people with the trifecta of Pellagra symptom’s. Note: Read the whole article for yourself when you get a chance because it explains in detail how to have your doctor check your Niacin levels’ and why this can confirm your diagnosis (but taking the Vitamin can too! As confirmed by clinical remission in less than a month on/of divided 100mgs doses) But instead Pellagra 3 D’s are diagnosed as separate diseases today. See their discussion section (a great read for anyone doing nutritional/medical research) the discussion section is most always the “real story” and not the headlines (title) often. Whatever you are researching beeeeeeee! sure to get all the facts of the story not just the headlines by reading the discussion section. The American Journal of Nutrition (AJN) summarizes Quoting “The lack of knowledge about pellagra was slightly surprising given the endemic nature of the disease. However, it may be that the symptoms of severe niacin deficiency are so diverse that people do not understand them as a single disease and account for them separately using other terminology.” And I believe that is why Pellagra explains most of the symptom’s of a Celiac Disease patient experiences today because of the “Lack of Knowledge” about how Niacin treats digestive problems today! But you won’t know if you are not willing to try it and the reason for the Who’s Afraid of a B-Vitamin post or this FAQ blog post on Niaicin and the best way to take Niacin(amide) I hope this is helpful. By all means please check with your doctor before taking megadoses of any Vitamin even when you think it might help. But what could a relatively low dose of Niacinamide 250mg (if you can find it) or Niacin 100mg with food hurt when it used in much higher doses (500mg day to start titrated up to 3 grams a day in divided doses) to treat Cholesterol already by doctors. See this link by the mayoclinic that discusses dosing recommendations for Niacin(amide) http://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements/niacin--niacinamide/dosing/HRB-20059838 People regularly are prescribe/take Niacin for over a year with no side effect (see Mayo clinic link) and often for twice that time or longer. So I hardly think taking Niacinamide in divided dosages for 1 to 3 months is mega dosing but I understand why people think it is. I am not trying to diagnose of treat your condition(s) I am only trying to share/educate you on what helped me. For to Educate is to truly free! How can you know (learn) these things (about Pellagra) or how/why Celiac Disease could be being diagnosed as Pellagra today if you do not hear! And if it helps (your symptoms’) improve in as little as a month (in divided doses) up to 3 to 4 months (to be conservative) then you had Pellagra Co-Morbid and now at least your Pellagra is in remission and you can concentrate on just getting one disease better. But you say I don’t live in Angola (how does this affect me)???? I am glad you asked! Remember what I said about STRESS https://www.celiac.com/articles/23506/1/Stress-Common-Before-Celiac-Diagnosis/Page1.html Stress makes us low! Think car accident, surgery, pregnancy, divorce, medical emergency etc. and so it goes. Anything traumatic can lower our B-Vitamin levels and cause us STRESS! Some of us which will/do not recover from without eating nutrient rich Niacin foods or supplementing with Niacin(amide) as they did in the Pellagra outbreak discussed. And the doctors have forgotten the old phrase “STRESS KILLS” and surely war kills people but many (most) of those who die don’t die immediately from a gunshot or wound but stress of surviving has harmed them. But we forget before STRESS kills us it maims us first. So too does it (harm/ maim) us first us too the same way! In our doctor’s eyes they see the same thing. It is just stress you will live. But not recognizing this condition soon enough can lead to death in time. See this link that discusses why this is commonly misdiagnosed in most doctors’ office’s today. http://www.medscape.com/medline/abstract/19624986 Quoting from the Dermatology Online Journal "Pellagra is a nutritional disease caused by the deficiency of niacin. It presents with a photodistributed rash, gastrointestinal symptoms, and neuropsychiatric disturbances. In the Western world, this disease is mostly confined to alcoholics or the impoverished. However, this condition must be recognized in other clinical settings because it is easily treated and can be fatal if not identified." And this great summary of Pellagra and the 4 D’s which I think now are the 3 D’s of Celiac Disease. http://blogs.creighton.edu/heaney/2013/11/18/pellagra-and-the-four-ds/ YOU will only know if you are not afraid of a B-Vitamin. You needn’t Bee! And by writing this (if) I put this dosage information all in one post maybe I won’t have to write it again and again in each thread I comment on. I repeat for(e) emphasize. For to Educate is to truly free! How can you know (learn) these things (about Pellagra) or how/why Celiac Disease could be being diagnosed as Pellagra today if you do not hear! Good luck on your continued journey. I could write many more pages on this topic because it has helped me soooooo! much but need to quit so as to not bore you too much and it is getting longer than I planned. (sorry about the formatting every time (I try to import a post it messes up my formatting) and thank you in advance for anyone who reads this. I truly hope it helps you the way it did me! Praise bee to God! 2 Corinthians (KJV) 1:3,4 3) “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; 4) who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble (starfish those still suffering), by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.” **** This is not medical advice and should not be considered such. Results may vary. Always consult your doctor before making any changes to your medical regimen. 2 Timothy 2:7 “Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things” this included. Posterboy by the Grace of God,