I would just do 100mg a day. And take a few days or week off. Let your body detox. Exercise and juicing and 1 sensible meal at night, fish and rice or chicken wrap using leaf as rap, etc is all you need.
Your cholesterol drop is awesome. I would just do the normal niacin not the time release, heard a lot of bad things about that.
TC=248 to
TC=106
I am also encouraged to see even with time release no liver damage (AST: 10-40 (Told to "worry at 100") )
Thanks for the post. Exercise. Juice. Beets have lots of niacin too.
Get off the NIACIN! Doesn't matter if it SR or IR. But SR is much better. Yes, it does bring down Triglycerides, LDL.
But at the recommended dose of 1000mg at night with an 82mg aspirin you are cutting off your nose despite your face. There are other ways to lower Triglycerides.
I was on 1000mg p/n of Niacin ordered by my Primary Dr. The Niacin was terrible for me. My GI Dr. immediately took me off the Niacin.
Thank you for your posts. The reason why I keep SR Niacin in my regimen (in spite of its potential dangers -- which, I do not believe, when taken at tolerable doses [which might be different for each individual as is the case with statins]), is that it is necessary to keep the liver constantly "engaged" because -- at least according to the theory of why both statin drugs and niacin work -- it is the process of the liver being engaged breaking down the Niacin that leaves it too "busy" to produce the cholesterol.
I am afraid that if I cut SR Niacin entirely, I will lose a good deal of the beneficial effect of having the Niacin "constantly around".
Nonetheless, what good is low cholesterol if you have destroyed your liver in the process (although I don't believe my liver numbers to-date indicate major damage -- just worried about the trend). However, I have now modified my regimen to the following:
250 mg of SR [sustained-release] niacin AND 500 mg of IR Niacin at 8:00 AM;
500 mg of IR niacin at 4:00 PM; and,
250 mg of SR niacin in the evening (11:00 PM)
(So, I have additionally cut my SR Niacin replacing another 250mg in the morning with another 500 mg of IR niacin in the morning instead.) I hope to retest myself in mid-May and will let you know results.
By the way, while your cholesterol numbers are a good step in the right direction, from everything I have researched, you are not down to a level yet where you will prevent your coronary artery situation from deteriorating. From the research, your LDL level should not be higher than 70 (as opposed to 100 that cardiologists now seem to have settled on [after being complacently satisfied with even higher levels for the past two decades]).
Thanks again for your posts.
Mike
I stumbled upon your post via Google. Am I supposed to be a professional? I'm not. Am I allowed to answer?
There are some herbs that may help with fewer side effects (below). Studies are preliminary but are encouraging so far and I have read of no hepotoxicity with these suplements. If you try these, you might want to reduce your niacin even further, maybe even half and please only use the safer IR niacin.
Guggul (This seams to be the best) http://www.all-about-lowering-cholesterol.com/gugulipid-guggul-lipid.html
Pterostilbene ( Blueberry extract) http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/08/040830090215.htm
Green Tea http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071023163949.htm
There are more but haven't had the time to research them all.
Before I started this combination, my lipid profile was as follows:
TC 258
HDL 39
LDL 170
VLDL 49
Triglycerides 243
I'll be having another panel this month but when I donated blood a coulpe of weeks ago, my TC was 192. So, something is happening.
I've also been on a low carb diet and am hoping that my metabolic syndrome is under control. My hypertention has already dropped to 118/76! It used to be in the 140's / 90's.
Craig
Your total cholesterol is dropping so much that it's effecting your HDL.
I would cut all SR niacin and replace it with IR niacin. IR is much easier on the liver. You may want to take a couple of weeks off to let your liver recover and then titrate back up to where you left off at your reduced dosage.
IR niacin is in and out of your system quickly, allowing your liver to recover from dealing with it. The SR hangs around so your liver must deal with it for extended periods of time, not giving it much time to rest.
Obviously, you can already handle the IR so why subject your liver to the SR?
I bought some SR niacin but after doing some research and finding out about its effects on the liver, I wish I'd bought the IR. Instead of letting it go to waste, I crush the tablets up thus effectively turning them into IR niacin.
I actually like the flush! It's reminiscent of eating hot chicken wings or sashimi with tones of wasabi. I find it quite exhilarating. But clearly, I'm in the minority on this one.
Let us know how your numbers turn out on your next test.
Craig
Slight correction to what I posted: The first cut to my regimen occurred AFTER the 10/2006 (and then I was retested in 12/2007). After 12/2007, the second cut mentioned occurred. The way it is ordered in my question, it looks like both cuts happened after 12/2007.