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Hi, Found this online and I was wondering if Niacin could help to reverse mild stenosis and help with blood flow.

2) Niacin (nicotinic acid): We recommend 100mg to 3 grams, thirty minutes before meals and at bed hour, and also during the night if awake – whichever dose will produce a strong body flush. Niacin dilates the blood vessels, even those that have been compressed by scar tissue, allowing a greater amount of nutrient material to reach the cell laboratory or factor comprising muscles and nerves. This constant, repeated dilatation of the blood vessels acts in the same manner as the dilating urethral catheter to correct constriction. One is chemical, the other is mechanical. Hot fluids taken at the same time as the niacin will enhance the flush. Pyridoxine has been a suggested stimulant. The lack of constant flushing in Multiple Sclerosis is disappointing but not hopeless. It will require a longer time to achieve results. Many timed patients will flush with intramuscular niacin when they fail to flush by the oral route. An occasional patient will experience thr sensation of a chill following nicotinic acid flush. This is transient and of no consequence. Food, even jelly beans or a glass of milk, will prevent or minimize the experience. Some patients will flush sometimes and not at other times, even during a single day. if no flush develops within 45 minutes, the dose should be repeated. A delayed reaction of several hours can occur, and should this be superimposed upon a previous medication, the result could be severe. Do not scratch when itching from niacin. Just press the area with your fingers, or better still, with a cube of ice. Antihistamines will stop the itching and limit the flush, should this be necessary. Niacin should be given very slowly by the intravenous route in the geriatric patient, with or without cardiac pathology, since it can produce dilatation great enough to effect right-side heart failure. Myasthenia Gravis patients sometimes attain geriatric status. Vasomotor collapse of peripheral vessels, although rare, can occur. Light mg. ecadron given I.M. will reverse this condition.

http://www.tldp.com/issue/11_00/klenner.htm

ah, good old klenner. when i did that protocol (oral, modified somewhat) i did the niacin flushes as described. since the klenner protocol aims at so many different things, i don't know what tipped the balance. i do know that pre-klenner, i had lost a large percentage of the use of my hands. post klenner, i regained pretty much what i have today. i believe the niacin helped, but i do also think in hindsight that the vitamin e involved was significant, relative to restoring my position-sense. i think everything played a part. i think if i hadn't ignored certain things suggested, i might have done even better.

from my understanding, a niacin flush is the expansion of the peripheral arteries, not the deep vascular system.

CureOrBust wrote:from my understanding, a niacin flush is the expansion of the peripheral arteries, not the deep vascular system.

In that sense, I wonder whether it could be a problem in CCSVI, i.e. over-stressing the veins even more? Probably an exaggerated concern.

The general idea behind Niacin flushes seems sensible though.

I have read (sorry, I don't remember where) that the niacin flush dilates the deep vascular system as well.

Niacin has lead me on a path to increase my blood flow.

I have found that when I get a STRONG niacin flush, my walking improves greatly (a night and day difference.)
By a "STRONG niacin flush" I mean one that goes all the way down to my toes. Weaker flushes are of little help.

My vision improves as well - more clarity and much better color saturation.

Too bad the niacin flush only lasts less than half an hour. So I am working on other ways to dilate my blood vessels. Both Magnesium and Vinpocetine are vasodilators and these are proving helpful.

If you think your magnesium level is fine because a doctor gave you a test that came out "normal" check this out:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?ter ... clinicians

Good Luck

THX1138 wrote:Too bad the niacin flush only lasts less than half an hour. So I am working on other ways to dilate my blood vessels. Both Magnesium and Vinpocetine are vasodilators and these are proving very helpful.

There have got to be pharmaceuticals that will improve CCSVI. If it's correct that localized hypertension in the venous sinuses of the brain is too high, then maybe lowering blood pressure globally will help. Dilators make a lot of sense too.

Let me throw in a word of caution to anyone contemplating a niacin flush. The flush they refer to feels like your skin is on fire. First time I tried it my skin turned bright red and felt so hot I had to jump into a cold shower. Scared the hell out of me. It didn't do anything for my MS symptoms either. So if anyone is going to try it I would suggest starting with a very small dose the first time. Increase a little day by day until you get to the full dose. For those folks who are physically unable to make a fast dash to the shower be forewarned, this could be a painful and frightening adventure.

yea I wasn't even aware of the phenom 1st time. it was just a new b-complex, didn't notice or realize the significance of the 'amide' being missing from the niacin ingredient. I had telehealth running down the questionnaire for anaphylaxis with me in a rather intimidating fashion, when I finally noticed the fine print re 'transient flushing'. it's kind of funny how red you go though (if you're expecting it). klenner starts with a 100mg dose at the low end. I've seen it sold in 500mg tablets!! NO THANKS!!

Thanks for adding the heads-up about the niacin flush. The flush experience is unpleasant to some (as described above), while others describe it as even enjoyable.

Personally, I find it primarily (but not totally) enjoyable. My senses are awakened and I feel like I have come back to life and, of course, the hugely increased ability to walk (about 3x the normal speed and a freeing from the stiff binding in the legs and hips makes me more than willing to put up with the discomfort.

Additionally, the drastic positive changes shout out, "Hey, this MS is a vascular issue."

A non-flushing agent for improved cerebral blood flow is vinpocetine. It has been called both "Viagra for the brain" and "the new ginkgo biloba."

I think we all would like to understand the causes of our MS better and the times which I have had a strong niacin flush from standard niacin (ones that went all the way to my toes) have been incredibly informative and liberating.

After the first time I went for a walk during a strong niacin flush (meaning a flush that goes all the way down to my toes), I started searching the net to find out why the flush transformed my walking and I found someone else who described a very similar experience:

At about.com http://ms.about.com/b/2009/12/01/ccsvi- ... erosis.htm I found this:

(11) Hazel Young says:
Twenty-five years ago I was diagnosed with primary progressive MS. A year later I had all invisible signs of multiple sclerosis and I was walking with a cane. It often felt as if I were walking underwater. Going up and down stairs was almost impossible. In desperation, I began taking massive doses of vitamins. One of these was niacin.

Upon taking the niacin I would develop the “niacin flush” which would last for about twenty minutes. As I felt the blood rushing throughout my body, for that glorious twenty minutes, I would feel the MS lifting from my body. I would run up and down stairs, stairs I couldn‘t navigate five minutes before. I would grab my husband’s hand and we would walk around the block (yes, without my cane). We would put on our favourite record and dance like we hadn’t done in more than a year. Then the flush would disappear and the MS would take over my body once again.

No doctor has ever been able to explain why the niacin flush had this effect on me, but I always knew it had something to do with blood flow. As this niacin website states: “Niacin causes the capillaries in your body to get bigger…capillaries are the main way for your body to rid itself of toxins.”
http://www.mens-total-fitness.com/niacin-flush.html

When I watched Dr. Zamboni’s Liberation Treatment on television it finally felt like maybe there was a connection.

THX1138 wrote:A non-flushing agent for improved cerebral blood flow is vinpocetine. It has been called both "Viagra for the brain" and "the new ginkgo biloba."

Do some reading on Picamilon, a BBB crossing Niacin derivative. It is a prescription medication in Russia for what your trying to achieve.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picamilon

I think I have also read somewhere that vinpocetine is specifically negative for MS.

http://www.thisisms.com/forum/chronic-c ... 21232.html

I got some off eBay as a pure powder, and tried it. I can't say I noticed any changes to my MS. In a dose dependent fashion, it elevates my heart rate for a very short time.

Unlike yourself, I do not get immediate improvements during a niacin flush, but also didn't get any marked improvements from CCSVI. ie it may work something for you.

Thanks so much for the info CureOrBust. I will be ordering some picamilon shortly. It sounds like it is potentially effective for what I am trying to do, so I am going to try it!

Dr Swank also concluded, on the basis of five decades of research, that the root cause of MS was vascular in nature. His approach, it would seem, was to lower blood viscosity through the elimination of saturated fats. This also improves circulation, but it is not transitory. He did not state that his diet, which was empirically effective, lowered blood viscosity, but it is reasonable that it would.

Jimmylegs, can you please share any details of the modified Klenner protocol you did a few years ago? (Have you repeated it since then?)