Improving HDL cholesterol with Niacin

Niacin and HDL cholesterol

Niacin or otherwise known as vitamin B3 is a vital vitamin for the human body, one of the 5vitamins that will create a pandemic deficiency disease if you have a chronic shortage of, the other 4 are vitamin C, Vitamin D, Vitamin A and Thiamin. Niacin has been used to control HDL cholesterol and raise HDL cholesterol for many decades and is up to this point the safest and most effective supplement that is available for the public to improve HDL cholesterol levels.

However to improve your HDL cholesterol you will require a fairly significant amount of Niacin, which would create a few side effects, while normal side effects should not be dangerous, niacin can have a possible interactions when used with other medications. More info on this can be found on this page from the University of Maryland, medical center.

Note that while mainly used for HDL cholesterol, niacin will also improve your LDL cholesterol levels.

A few potential side effects of supplementation :

Flushed Skin

Itching

Rapid heartbeat

Vomiting and nausea

Liver Damage

Note : some of them can be avoided by starting with a low dose and gradually increasing the dose.

However some benefit may be gained from adding food with a high amount of niacin content to your diet, research shows that people with a high niacin intake trough their diet have a few potential benefits such as:

Reduced change at Alzheimer’s disease, supplements where not tested for this but studies indicate that people with high niacin intake may have a lower risk at developing this disease.

Less change at developing cataracts:  one study has shown a reduced change at developing cataracts with high dietary niacin intake.

Niacin is a vitamin that the body uses to effectively use Carbohydrates as energy and will also keep your skin, hair, eyes, nervous system and a few other systems healthy along the way. Used as a treatment for HDL cholesterol and to reduce LDL cholesterol it is a more effective supplement than most medicine with less side effects. This little vitamin can be purchased easily and cheap in most countries around the world as over the counter supplements. However before you take this do consult your doctor first due to the potential side effects of a high dose which is required to improve HDL cholesterol.




 While HDL cholesterol improvement is always a good thing, some of the side effects or effects with other medication may be a issue for you. Despite all this it’s worth noting that it’s a cheaper, more effective supplementation then statin medication and in all regards safer to.

Symptoms of a mild Niacin deficiency are

Reduced tolerance to cold due to a slower metabolism

Fatigue

Vomiting

Depression

Indigestion

Severe deficiency can cause :

High sensitivity to sunlight

Agression

Headache

insomnia

Apathy

Fatigue

Despression
And a ton of others nasty effects

here is a intresting study on the effect of Niacin on HDL cholesterol.

in this study they tested the effect of Niacin on HDL cholesterol levels on cultured human hepatocytes(hepG2). Hepatocytes are a cell in the main tissue of the liver and make up the majority of the livers mass.

The results was that Niacin increased the lipidation of apolipoprotein A-I (the main protein component of HDL cholesterol)by phospholipids and cholesterol.

At the dose of 0.5 and 1.0 mmo/L increased the apoA-I associated 3H-phospholipids by 10% and 46% respectibely and apoA-I associated 3H-cholesterol by 5% and 23% (hdl cholesterol)

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High cholesterol and omega 3

Omega 3

Omega 3 fatty acids are fats often found in fish and plants. Studies show that humanity probably evolved to live with a omega 3-6 ratio of about 1:1 and in the current western diet this can go up to as high as 1:20 with far too much omega 6 for too little omega 3 causing a serious unbalance in our body since the human body cannot create omega 3 from omega 6. 

It comes to no surprise then that getting more omega 3 to try and correct this unbalance can give a wide range of potential health effects. Especially when eating fish or supplementing omega 3 fish oil to get some much needed EPA DHA and not the far less useful kind ALA which mostly comes from plants and nuts such as walnuts shown below or plantbased oils such as flaxseed oil, unless you are a vegetarian it is far better to use fish oil, krill oil, cod liver oil or other kinds of marine based animals oils.

Studies show that it is in the end DHA that matters and to get there ALA has to convert to EPA then to DHA inside the body to do the job, but sadly the body is not able to convert this very well and only a small percentage of the original ALA becomes DHA.

Omega 3 has a wide range of potential health benefits depending on your health and diet but some of these claimed benefits are controversial at best however eating a diet rich in Omega-3 fatty acids does appear to reduce the risk of getting a stroke but it is possible to increase your LDL cholesterol if you get large amounts of omega 3 fatty acids, those LDL cholesterol will become larger, less dangerous in the process.

The consumption of omega 3 fatty acids may have a blood pressure lowering effect on people with high blood pressure but this has only been shown with the supplementation of EPA DHA and not with ALA(so flaxseed  oil is useless for that and fish oil, krill oil, cod liver oil and so on is a better choice if you want that effect).

There is evidence to support that that regular intake of EPA DHA can lower the risk of secondary and primary heart attacks, again this does not work with ALA.

DHA is essential for the gray matter of the brain and normal development of the brains it may then come as no surprise that omega 3 is often used as a alternative way of treating ADHD, fish oil appears to reduce the symptoms in some children and may be a safer alternative then the normal treatment with DCD.

Omega 3 has a very interesting effect on a person his blood cholesterol.

When you look at people with hypertriglyceridemia, translated for a normal person like you or me that means people with high triglycerides often part of High cholesterol. The effect of Omega 3 can be viewed here.

Note:  this study has been done using fish oil not flaxseed oil so high EPA DHA and no ALA.

Reduction of plasma Lipids, lipoproteins and apoproteins by fish oils in patients with hypertriglyceridemia.

20 patients with high cholesterol, 10 of them with type IIB high cholesterol and 10 with type V high cholesterol. They were all put on the same diet, with the main difference between the patients the fatty acids composition and fat content.

The control diet was given a fatty acid mixture of a typical low fat therapeutic diet (ratio 1:4), The fish oil diet contained omega 3 (EPA DHA),The vegetable oil diet was rich in omega 6 fatty acids (LA)

The diet was followed for 4weeks and here are the results between the normal diet, high omega 3 diet and high omega 6 diet.

In the type IIB group the fish oil led to a decrease in both plasma cholesterol by 27% and Tryglicerides (-64%) this was compared to the control group. The VLDL was also reduced. The vegetable oil diet (omega6) had a much smaller effect  compared to the fish oil diet(omega3)

In the type V group the fish oil diet had a even greater effect on plasma cholesterol (-45%) and triglycerides (-79%) and again VLDL was dropped significant to. Where the vegetable oil diet actually increased the triglyceride level by a significant amount.

The conclusion of this study is that fish oil may be very a very beneficial addition for people with a High cholesterol.

Omega 3 fatty acids have been studied for years and they still haven’t figured out if it works or not in some of the claims but it does appear to have a significant effect if you’re a normal person with high cholesterol and could be a very good addition to a low cholesterol diet, despite the fact that fish actually contain some cholesterol themselves.

It should be noted that in most cases omega 3 supplements may be the best way to go because of the pollution most fish contain these days . the wild has toxics that cannot be ignored and the fish the farmed fish is filled with medicine to keep parasites away.

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