Nicotiamide - B3 - may help MS...

[bromley]

I e-mailed one of my neuros and asked whethere this story was the usual hype. His response:

Yep! This is when I would prefer to have EAE than MS.

On one level this is amusing, but it also shows that even the experts know that EAE is a piss poor model. But what do they care? They keep getting the grants to mess around with mice. I'm coming to the conclusion that this is a joke disease and the people researching it are a bunch of jokers themselves.

I once had a plan to lock the top 100 MS researchers in a prison and shoot one a month until they come up with an answer. I think we'd see some results then! I'd let my best friend HarryZ carry out the first execution.

I think we should post these stories on a forum titled 'rubbish'. Because you are absolutely right Viper - we see these stories every week (Vit X, Hormone Y, fruit B, Vegetable F etc etc). And they never, ever make it to market.

Ian

[viper498]

Ian,

My sentiments exactly. It is quite discouraging. I've been reading about MS for about one year and already have come to this conclusion myself. When I read an MS related article, I filter them now. As soon as they bring up EAE, I close the link. I say to myself "so much for that...". YOU WON'T FIND THE ANSWER IN MICE! ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS is a must!!! Thats like giving the answer to a math problem with out having the variables, you won't get the right answer unless you are DAMN lucky. GRRRRRR!!! Frustrating!

If I were smart enough I'd start researching this disease/syndrome/curse, myself. Unfortunately I am not. Don't the researchers care? Do they have passion for helping people? Or do they just like going through the mundane, day to day tasks of injecting mice with chemicals, and then analysing the effects? If they really cared, if they were really passionate about figuring out this disease, how could they not come to the conclusion that they must focus on the cause of MS, no matter how hard that may be? Its essential. There are way to many people with different symptoms, and different subsets of the disease they call MS to try to treat all with, lol, interferons, or one of the CRABs. I've all but stopped my Rebif injections. I just don't think its beneficial, and I don't have faith in the data.

Brock

[robbie]

Do you think maybe it’s possible that all the money that everyone raises in their walks and runs just goes to keeping the wheel of this business turning? These researchers are just employees like a mechanic you hire to fix your car the only difference is that your car will be fixed. It is so frustrating to think that we believe that our sickness comes first it does not money, jobs and politics come first. I am going to stick my cane in the sand here and say that there will never be cure for ms or any of the other diseases that add billions to the economy every year. There is a much bigger hand at play here, You think your frustrated now wait until 10 or 20 years from now when all those mice are dead and they have a new batch to try their drugs on, Your god dam right it’s a joke and there’s not a thing we can do about it. The only way to beat this is to never get sick in the first place!

[dignan]

For some reason, Reuters is just picking up the nicotinamide story today, and their article added this interesting little tidbit:


Dr. Abram Hoffer, who was not involved in the research and is in practice in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, has treated over 60 MS patients over the years with large oral doses of vitamin B3 ranging from 3 to 6 grams per day. "In most cases, when the treatment was started early, early results were very good," he said.

<shortened url>

[CureOrBust]

this url has some info regarding interactions with other medications.
http://www.umm.edu/altmed/ConsSupplemen ... cincs.html

Possible Interactions

If you are currently being treated with any of the following medications, you should not use niacin without first talking to your healthcare provider.

Antibiotics, Tetracycline
Niacin should not be taken at the same time as the antibiotic tetracycline because it interferes with the absorption and effectiveness of this medication. Niacin either alone or in combination with other B vitamins should be taken at different times from tetracycline. (All vitamin B complex supplements act in this way and should therefore be taken at different times from tetracycline.)

Aspirin
Taking aspirin before taking niacin may reduce flushing associated with this vitamin. This should only be done under the advice of a healthcare practitioner.

Blood Pressure Medications, Alpha-blockers
When niacin is taken with certain blood pressure medications known as alpha-blockers (such as prazosin, doxazosin, and guanabenz), the likelihood of side effects from these medications is increased.

Cholesterol-lowering Medications
Niacin binds bile-acid sequestrants (cholesterol-lowering medications such as colestipol, colesevelam, and cholestyramine) and may decrease their effectiveness. For this reason, niacin and these medications should be taken at different times of the day.

As described earlier, recent scientific evidence suggests that taking niacin with simvastatin (a drug that belongs to a class of cholesterol-lowering medications known as HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors or statins including atorvastatin and lovastatin as well), appears to slow down the progression of heart disease. However, the combination may also increases the likelihood for serious side effects, such as muscle inflammation or liver damage.

Diabetes Medications
People taking insulin, metformin, glyburide, glipizide, or other medications used to treat high blood sugar levels should monitor their blood sugar levels closely when taking niacin supplements.

Isoniazid (INH)
INH, a medication used to treat tuberculosis, may deplete levels of niacin and cause a deficiency.

Nicotine Patches
The use of nicotine patches with niacin may worsen or increase the risk of flushing reactions associated with this vitamin when used medicinally.

[CureOrBust]

just was checking on the max recomended dosages, and stumbled accross the link between gout and niacin overdose. If you search in google you get lots a hits.

http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/n/niacin_ ... mptoms.htm

[jimmylegs]

about the last post but one, that is screwed up. i have a couple of comments. first, the flushing happens with each dose that's high enough, it's transitory, and i would say is definitely NOT a parallel to things like gout and diabetes!! you certainly wouldn't get those with one dose.

the cholesterol drug interaction comment is incomplete. they should have mentioned that niacin is in fact an alternative to statins used in the treatment of high cholesterol.

niacin and uric acid - here's what webmd had to say about it (didn't bother with google scholar for this one sorry ;) )

"The vitamin niacin, high doses of vitamin C, caffeine, and a substance found in chocolate and tea (theobromine) can cause uric acid levels to be inaccurately high."

"inaccurately" high, that's a bit of a stumper, i suppose you just get a false level if you test while metabolizing niacin? but that's very interesting and lends credence IMHO to the klenner protocol.

so wonderfulworld, maybe your theory is un-banged.