Health Warning To Fellow Farangs!

[laislica]

NIACIN

Doctor Mercola's comments:

It is my experience that Niacin is not required for the vast majority of people with high cholesterol levels. The diet I recommend seems to work quite nicely for most nearly all people. For those that don't respond, it would seem that niacin would be a far less expensive and safer alternative to the statin drugs, which have their serious complications.

There are several precautions that one needs to implement though when using niacin. Niacin usually has a flush associated with it that is very similar to the hot flashes women get during menopause. Many long-acting versions have been made available to avoid this side effect. The problem with most timed-release niacin is that they are associated with a high degree of hepatitis.

I used to use large amounts of niacin about 15 years ago for patients before I knew about the diet changes and I saw quite a few people develop hepatitis from the niacin. Proving once again that the diet is far safer than even natural therapies like vitamins.

There is a sustained release version of niacin called inositol hexaniacinate, which does not seem to be associated with the flushing or the hepatitis.

However, concerning the conclusions of this study, I find it a little odd that, despite the fact that fasting glucose levels rose by 8.7 mg/dL in diabetics and 6.3 mg/dL in non-diabetic patients, the authors still claim that large "doses of niacin can be safely used" in diabetics. These results do seem to indicate an adverse effect on glucose tolerance.

Meat is one of the best sources of niacin. Although it is present in some grains, it is often in a bound and unavailable form, such as is the case of corn. Cultures with corn-based diets are well known to be at a much higher risk of a serious form of niacin deficiency known as Pellagra.

As a matter of fact, a previous newsletter article discussed the fact that some scientists now believe that many of the Native-American tribes in what is now Florida, actually died of malnutrition due to their almost exclusively corn-based diets which developed followed the settlement by the Spanish.

Lastly, the human body can manufacture niacin from the essential amino acid tryptophan, so a deficiency of this can also cause a niacin deficiency.

Related Article:

MACULAR EDEMA ASSOCIATED WITH (NIACIN)

[laislica]

Are you NOT interested only in 100% "Scientifically Proved" evidence, but are happy to see some anecdotal evidence as well: read on, otherwise skip this post.

Cholesterol has been unfairly blamed for just about every case of heart disease for the last 20 years, when in reality, you need cholesterol in order to be healthy; your body uses cholesterol for cell membranes, hormones, neurotransmitters and overall nerve function

Your total cholesterol number is not a good indicator of heart disease risk; there are several laboratory values that are better predictors of heart disease and overall health risk

Having an optimal vitamin D level is crucial for good health, and vitamin D synthesis depends on cholesterol

Cholesterol level reflects chronic inflammation in your body; the more inflammation you have, the higher your total cholesterol tends to be-your body makes cholesterol to "patch up damages" from this ongoing inflammation

For the full story follow this link:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/08/10/making-sense-of-your-cholesterol-numbers.aspx

[candypants]

OP, great post.

hard to believe though.

next you will be telling me that the big mac, large fries, coke and corn pie i have for breakfast every morning may not be the best idea.

[wilcopops]

Op get a second opinion outside Thailand.

People frequently overestimate both the effect a single part of their lifestyle can have and its immediacy of impact.

I have no tided that Thai medical industry has a tendency to see everything in terms of a simple diet problem.....in fact a healthy body can cope quite well with the vagaries of a normal diet. I'd suggest you look at an underlying cause for these changes if in fact they are indeed changes at all and haven't been the norm for much longer rt han you thought.