Vitamin B3 was originally discovered when researchers were looking for a solution to a disease called pellagra. Pellagra occurs in situations of extreme malnutrition and in areas where the main starch is maize. Vitamin B3 was originally named vitamin PP or “pellagra-preventing factor” but was later renamed niacin.
Vitamin B3 was originally discovered when researchers were looking for a solution to a disease called pellagra. Pellagra occurs in situations of extreme malnutrition and in areas where the main starch is maize. Vitamin B3 was originally named vitamin PP or “pellagra-preventing factor” but was later renamed niacin.
Easily obtained from meat, fish, chicken, dairy products, legumes and vegetables, in fact from anything that contains protein, niacin can also be made in the body as long as there is enough of the essential amino acid tryptophan available from protein in the diet.
But what is vitamin B3 good for? What does it do for us that we can’t do without?
If one looks at pellagra, the deficiency disease associated with niacin, symptoms like diarrhoea, inflamed mouth and tongue, dermatitis and severe hyperpigmentation and thickening of the skin are common. Mental symptoms like dementia, delirium, anxiety, depression, concentration problems and amnesia are all possible.
In terms of our South African context, niacin has long been used to treat high cholesterol and high blood pressure. It changes the proportional spread of fats in the bloodstream, lowering bad cholesterol and allowing good cholesterol to dominate. It also helps to treat hardening of the arteries by thinning and relaxing thick, stiff artery walls.
High blood pressure is a huge problem in people over the age of 40 in this country. Niacin is an effective way to treat this as it allows the peripheral arteries to dilate and so less strain is placed on the heart and blood pressure can decrease. In these ways vitamin B3 is useful to help maintain general cardiovascular health and to promote a better quality and length of life.
The many other benefits of niacin can best be summarised as life improving on almost all levels. Useful in treating migraines, rebalancing the hormones and increasing energy levels, niacin should rather come from protein sources than maize which has an unavailable form and so is not beneficial until treated.
When choosing vitamin B3 supplements, always take niacin rather than any other form of the vitamin, as this has the most dependable effect and has been most thoroughly tested. However, be aware of the temporary side effects: niacin gives one a temporary flush that disappears after about half an hour and will eventually resolve entirely. This can be a little embarrassing, but the benefits by far outweigh the temporary inconvenience.
* Queries to Dr Marianne Baasch (Grahamstown homoeopath) can go to marbaa2404@hotmail.com
