The processed food battlefield

31. July 2007 William Davis (4)
If you have any remaining doubts that the processed food industry is a cutthroat, go-for-the-jugular, organized effort to extract every possible penny from your pocket, even at the expense of health, take a gander at a quote from Marion Nestle's wonderful book, Food Politics.

In Nestle's description on how food conglomerate, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), conspired to fix prices on some basic agricultural compounds, she quotes an ADM executive captured on videotape and presented in court:

"We have a saying at this company . . . our competitors are our friends and our customers are our enemies."

In other words, ADM's competitors help establish what prices should be charged for basic foodstuffs, while its customers are the ones to do battle with.

Food is a necessary commodity. You and I only need so much of it. So how does a 40 billion dollar food manufacturer extract greater and greater profits and grow their market? Motivate people to eat more. It's that simple.

Eat less? Are you kidding? Eat spinach, green peppers, beets, and other low-margin products? Get real.

Why not take 8 cents worth of wheat flour, add some sugar, food coloring, and some other enticing flavorings like high fructose corn syrup? Put it all in a cleverly illustrated package, maybe even develop an entire story line about the product, complete with clever slogans and songs and . . . ouila! You now have a food that sells for many, many times its intrinsic value.

How to make the health nuts happy? Easy: Add some fiber. Now it's healthy! And it's now part of a "balanced diet".

What if it's full of corn starch, wheat flour, and sugar of the sort that make HDL cholesterols plummet, fan the flames of small LDL, increase inflammatory measures like C-reactive protein, push people closer and closer to diabetes, and make them fat? Then be sure it's low in saturated fat! It might even qualify as "Heart Healthy" by the American Heart Association!

Processed foods have no role in the Track Your Plaque program. If you want to see your CT heart scan score skyrocket, go to your grocery store and stray into the aisles outside of the produce aisle.

But stick to the produce aisle and watch your wallet grow, your health improve, your appetite shrink, all while food processor profits plummet.
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Comments (4) -

  • JT

    7/31/2007 12:02:00 PM |

    Personally, I'd like for sugar & starch to be burned as fuel for cars!  

    Oh, I remember the ADM investigations.  That was a strange case.  Mark Whitaker I believe was the name of the executive that provided information to the FBI.  What was so odd is that Mark was also in on the bribery and I guess later he committed a fake suicide.  Many called him psychotic and even the FBI kept an arms length from him even though he was their prime informant.  Mark ended up serving time in jail, I believe.      

    Dr. Davis, you have mentioned that you enjoy reading the "inside" scoop on the health business.  At one time Mark was considered the darling of ADM.  I believe he was the youngest executive to ever work at the company.  One of his larger accomplishments at ADM was to start the natural vitamin E/ sterol production plant.  Months leading up to the formal announcement that ADM was entering the natural E market - 2 or 3 nation wide scientific reports came out in the press highlighting how much better natural E was compared to synthetic E.  As I was told, that wasn't a coincidence.

  • Dr. Davis

    7/31/2007 12:55:00 PM |

    Hi, JT--

    Interesting.

    It often seems that the most benign things on the commercial side of health have a dark side.

    I'm currently working on a book that details the dark side of healthcare, though not the food manufacturing industry. No shortage of material here!

  • Stan

    7/31/2007 4:21:00 PM |

    You are right!  But I think, there is a lot more to food marketing disinformation than just fiber, corn and starch.   Just at the time when the American and European food industry learned how to make cheap abundant vegetable oils sometime between the 1930-ties to 60-ties, articles begun appear in the popular press as if by magic, denouncing animal fat and saturated fats as supposedly unhealthy.  Not only that turned out to be a marketing masterstroke getting rid of the main competitors, that is farmer's butter and lard, but it permitted a ban on imported tropical oils as saturated.  

    It's amazing that most people including probably a majority of medical doctors fell for this deception and did not notice that there was and still is absolutely zero scientific evidence behind all that scare!  The media "fact" became the medical "fact".

    Regards,
    Stan (Heretic)

  • JT

    7/31/2007 8:55:00 PM |

    So you just couldn't be satisfied with revolutionizing the cardiac industry?  Now you're after the whole apple cart! : )

    Best of luck with the new book.  Hope you become the Upton Sinclair of the medical care business.  

    as a side note, I hear Hollywood is in the process of making a movie about Mark Whitacre and ADM.  I'm looking forward to seeing it.

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Slash carbs . . . What happens?

Slash carbs . . . What happens?

26. March 2010 William Davis (20)
Cut the carbohydrates in your diet and what sorts of results can you expect?

Carbohydrate reduction results in:

Reduced small LDL--This effect is profound. Carbohydrates increase small LDL; reduction of carbohydrates reduce small LDL. People are often confused by this because the effect will not be evident in the crude, calculated (Friedewald) LDL that your doctor provides.

Increased HDL--The HDL-increasing effect of carbohydrate reduction may require 1-2 years. In fact, in the first 2 months, HDL will drop, only to be followed by a slow, gradual increase. This is the reason why, in a number of low-carb diet studies, HDL was shown to be reduced.--Had the timeline been longer, HDL would show a significant increase.

Decreased triglycerides--Like reduction of small LDL, the effect is substantial. Triglyceride reductions of several hundred milligrams are not at all uncommon. In people with familial hypertriglyceridemia with triglyceride levels in the thousands of milligrams per deciliter, triglyceride levels will plummet with carbohydrate restriction. (Ironically, conventional treatment for familial hypertriglyceridemia is fat restriction, a practice that can reduce triglycerides modestly in these people, but not anywhere near as effectively as carbohydrate restriction.) Triglyceride reduction is crucial, because triglycerides are required by the process to make small LDL--less triglycerides, less small LDL.

Decreased inflammation--This will be reflected in the crude surface marker, c-reactive protein--Yes, the test that the drug industry has tried to convince you to take statins drugs to reduce. In my view, it is an absurd notion that you need to take a drug like Crestor to reduce risk associated with increased CRP. If you want to reduce CRP to the floor, eliminate wheat and other junk carbohydrates. (You should also add vitamin D, another potent CRP-reducing strategy.)

Reduced blood pressure--Like HDL, blood pressure will respond over an extended period of months to years, not days or weeks. The blood pressure reduction will be proportion to the amount of reduction in your "wheat belly."

Reduced blood sugar--Whether you watch fasting blood sugar, postprandial (after-meal) blood sugars, or HbA1c, you will witness dramatic reductions by eliminating or reducing the foods that generate the high blood sugar responses in the first place. Diabetics, in particular, will see the biggest reductions, despite the fact that the American Diabetes Association persists in advising diabetics to eat all the carbohydrates they want. Reductions in postprandial (after-eating) blood sugars, in particular, will reduce the process of LDL glycation, the modification of LDL particles by glucose that makes them more plaque-causing.


You may notice that the above list corresponds to the list of common plagues targeted by the pharmaceutical industry: blood pressure, diabetes (diabetes being the growth industry of the 21st century), high cholesterol. In other words, high-carbohydrate, low-fat foods from the food industry create the list of problems; the pharmaceutical industry steps in to treat the consequences.

In the Track Your Plaque approach, we focus specifically on elimination of wheat, cornstarch, and sugars, the most offensive among the carbohydrates. The need to avoid other carbohydrates, e.g., barley, oats, quinoa, spelt, etc., depends on individual carbohydrate sensitivty, though I tend to suggest minimal exposure.
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Comments (20) -

  • Emily

    3/26/2010 4:17:02 PM |

    you forgot one more benefit- effortless wieght loss! at least for many of us...

  • Tony

    3/26/2010 4:28:57 PM |

    I've eliminated almost all sugar, and all refined grains, but I still  eat brown rice, oatmeal, and whole spelt bread. On my recent VAP test, my triglycerides were 78, HDL was 63, and my LDL was Pattern A (large, buoyant LDL). Also, my Cardiac C Reactive Protein was .84. I'm concluding that some whole grains are appropriate for me, and I use the blood glucose monitor to monitor postprandial glucose.

    By the way, thank you for all the info.

  • JustJoeP

    3/26/2010 4:47:04 PM |

    Dr. Davis, following your advice as well as several other clarion voices in the nutritional wilderness, over the last 9 months I went from:
    HbA1C 6.6, Fasting glucose 125mg/dl, BP135/85, LDL nearly 200, HDL below 30, body weight 245 (6ft tall, 40 in waist) on a mainly carb diet, to:

    HbA1C 5.5, Fasting glucose 105mg/dl, BP115/70, LDL nearly in 1/2, HDL above 65, body weight 204 (still 6ft tall, but a 33 in waist) on a very low carb diet.

    I've got 4 friends - all males in their 40s - who have also moved their personal numbers in these directions by greatly reducing carbs.  I'm trying to get my severely type II diabetic father to follow the same regimen, but his Medicare provided dietitian is fighting me every step of the way, with a diet based upon bread!  The struggle continues.

    Thank you for being a consistent, well informed, voice of reason.  You've helped more people than you know.  (linked to you here).  Be well.

  • Isaac

    3/26/2010 5:18:11 PM |

    And I'm so unimpressed with the lack of any good hard endpoint data associated with the insulin sensitizers and such.  These dietary options really need to be explored further but, sadly, won't so long as physicians aren't reimbursed for it.

  • Daniel

    3/26/2010 5:45:40 PM |

    I agree regarding fructose.  

    In people with impaired glucose tolerance, slashing starch too may indeed be beneficial.  But is there any evidence that slashing starch benefits people who have a healthy liver and pancreas?  In such people, I suspect slashing starch is just treating numbers and has nothing to do with health.  Otherwise, how do you explain Kitava, Peru, and Asia?

  • jandro

    3/26/2010 8:25:13 PM |

    Sometimes I think that the results given with these studies are mostly due to the reduction of grains (lectins) and refined sugar and not carbohydrates themselves. I want to believe it is as simple as reducing carbohydrates but it doesn't explain how populations like Kuna and Kitava have good health markers even though they eat a high carb diet. Dr. WD, do you have any ideas related to this specific topic?

    ** I am not debating the results of low carb (I personally do paleo), and if your metabolism is already damaged low carb is the only way, but what if it is not? (you were never obese, diabetic, started healthy habits at a young age, etc).

  • Anonymous

    3/26/2010 10:28:29 PM |

    Would these benefits also accrue to someone who does not get postprandial spikes in blood glucose on a low-carb diet - like the regular commentator "DrStrange"?

  • Ned Kock

    3/26/2010 10:57:59 PM |

    Actually, in the study reviewed in the post below, a 2-week replacement of refined carbs and sugars with dietary fat (mostly saturated) and cholesterol, led to a significant increase in HDL (14 percent increase in HDL from baseline for men).

    http://healthcorrelator.blogspot.com/2010/02/want-to-improve-your-cholesterol.html

    That was two weeks only.

    In my own experience, higher consumption of saturated fat and dietary cholesterol has immediate effects on HDL, and those effects are especially strong with elimination of refined carbs and sugars.

  • gindie

    3/26/2010 10:59:00 PM |

    Dr. Davis,

    You mentioned Vitamin D.  I just got tested, level is 14.  However, I get episodes of calcium-based kidney stones (every 3-4 years or so).  How do you treat such patients?

  • Anonymous

    3/27/2010 12:15:47 AM |

    One thing I don't understand is if all these benefits are independent or if they are all linked to glucose level.
    If a particular carbohidrate causes little glucose spike will it still cause the other poblems?
    Or if carbohidrate intake is followed by intense physic actvity which seems to take BG down does it still causes all the other problems?

  • I Pull 400 Watts

    3/27/2010 12:32:49 AM |

    Just letting you know, very nice post!

  • Kim

    3/27/2010 2:53:35 AM |

    I totally agree.  I continued to struggle with my cholesterol the first year or so on a low carb diet.  After 3 years, my HDL has gone from 40 to 87 and my LDL has improved.  My blood pressure also improved over time.  My triglycerides were never high, but are usually in the 35 range now.  It's an awesome thing!

  • Stan (Heretic)

    3/27/2010 3:50:02 AM |

    Welcome to Low Carb Dr. Davis!  From now on, your life will never be the the same

    8-Smile

    In addition to what you have listed, which I can confirm in 100%, more beneficial effects will become apparent, such as:

    - self-healing of teeth with no need for dental intervention, and roughly twice as fast healing of broken bones.

    - healing of common cardiovascular diseases (arteriosclerosis, cardio myopathy and arrhythmia)

    - rapid self-healing of hepatic diseases (i.e post hep-C cirrhosis healed in 6 months),

    - improved kidney disease recovery (I heard of a patient  surviving on Optimal Diet without dialalysis with only 1/3 of 1 kidney left)

    - normalization of one's body weight (obese loose, underweight gain),

    - much stronger immune system (for instance, I never had a flu since yr 2000, before - twice a year)

    - stronger more benign reaction to stress, no more paralyzing panic, no more total body vascular contraction and probably related better resistance to cold temperature.  

    - no need to drink water frequently (fat metabolism releases water as an end product)

    - never feel hungry again, no need to snack, eating once or twice a day becomes the norm.   For me no breakfast, no supper, only lunch and dinner, typically.  

    - improved ability to hold breath longer when diving, generally we also naturally breath less frequently,

    - different (improved) mood, subtle changes in the way one thinks, solves problems and react to life events, as no doubts, you will find out...  8-Smile

    Regards,
    Stan (Heretic)

  • Lori Miller

    3/27/2010 1:59:21 PM |

    Daniel, I've tested my own blood glucose before and after meals and it's normal. However, I cut way back on all carbs a couple of months ago, and now eat around 47 grams of carbs per day. Results: I find that I don't need Sudafed or acid blockers at all now and I rarely take ibuprofin (an anti-inflammatory). The twinge in my shoulder and knee are gone. I've lost 10 pounds while working out *less.* I seldom get headaches, and when I do, they're mild. I also need a lot less sleep.

    Should anyone care for details, I've chronicled my experience in my blog.

  • Stan (Heretic)

    3/27/2010 3:26:56 PM |

    jandro - it is a very good question.  I wonder too but the studies I am reading (see for example Lancet. 1996 ) seem to indicate that carbohydrate reduction is beneficial in all cases, including healthy rural young populations.  

    I see it now in the same light as for example alcohol consumption: if you are healthy and young, a  harm may be minimal and some wine  (in moderation) may even provide you with some calories and micronutrients (i.e. resveratrol), but why bother consuming all that starchy and sugary plant food that we are not that well adapted for, that is useful only if we have nothing else to eat and that was probably meant for us only as a temporary food to get us over some rough periods of fauna decline.

      Since there is so little modern research done specifically on this subject we are still largely in the domain of hypotheses and theories. However not all that is speculative.  For example existing archaeological research does show us that paleolithic human diet consisted typically over 2/3 of meat!  We are talking about millions of years of human adaptation.

    ---

    Dr. Davis,  I forgot to add to my above list of benefits the following point:

    - reliable improvement (in almost every case) in treating the autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, eczema, psoriasis etc,

    - intestinal disease (Crohns, IBS , very high fat only!).  

    - Multiple sclerosis (not 100% especially if nerve damage is too advanced but improvement in most cases)

    There is a lot of patient cases (hundreds) of the above disease reported by Dr. Jan Kwasniewski, from his medical practice in the 1980-ties, described in his books, especially "Homo Optimus" and "Optimal Nutrition".  

    I think you will find those books extremely interesting, highly recommended.  

    Stan

  • Ellen

    3/27/2010 8:03:15 PM |

    Um Heretic.. I think Dr. Davis has been low carb for quite a while now. No need to welcome him to something he's already quite familiar with Smile

  • jandro

    3/27/2010 10:55:06 PM |

    Stan, thanks for your response:

    I read the abstract of the study you link and don't see how it is related to what I mentioned. It is comparing a vegetarian population with one that eats around a pound of fish a day. Seriously, is there a question there as to which is healthier? I also don't think they are healthier primarily because they consume less carbohydrates, but rather because they consume a pound of fish a day compared to no animal fat/flesh in the other group.

    If you read my original post again you will notice I am not saying a vegetarian diet (in fact, I eat over a pound of meat a day), I am just questioning whether the true problem is carbohydrates or if it is lectins, assuming you have a generous amount of animal fat and protein. I personally eat around 20% carbs, mostly coming from tubers and squashes as I find fruits too sweet (I agree that fructose should be reduced). Generally eat one piece of fruit a day.

    I also don't see any evidence to your claim that humans are not adapted to plant foods. We are omnivores, and that's how we have succeeded. We are adapted to a diet similar to what equatorial hunter gatherers have, since we evolved in a similar environment. People bring many archeological references of sites located outside of Africa not realizing that the environment outside of Africa is nearly as new to us as grains are. Most HGs living in Africa have plant food present on their diet. The information you tell yourself claims 2/3 of our diet was meat, what happened to the other 1/3?

  • Anonymous

    3/29/2010 8:33:04 AM |

    And what if someone goes really lowcarb (mostly meat) and his LDL rises up to 500? No info on the the LDL size. The remaining bloodwork results are  really good. Is this something to be worried about?

  • scall0way

    4/21/2010 7:21:12 PM |

    Hmm, well I eliminated wheat and all glutens from my diet in January 2009. I eliminated sugar at the same time. I also eliminated high Omega-6 vegetable oils. I basically eat low carb. I love to use coconut oil. Smile I've lost over 100 pounds.

    But my cholesterol just goes UP and UP! At least total and LDL - HDL remains in the 58-62 range and triglycerides remain in the 60-70 range. But Total cholesterol went from 229 6 months ago to 279 3 months ago, to 280 today, and LDL went from 165 6 months ago, to 190 3 months ago, to 206 today.

    And I can't understand why! Of course my doctor is rabid to put me on stations and crazy with me that I refuse, and looks at me cross-eyed when I request an NMR/VAP test for LDL particle size.

    But it still bothers me that it continues to go up and up and up, as I feel like I'm doing all I can to lower it. I was also diagnosed with Hashimoto's 6 months ago and put on 50 mcg of Levoxyl. Then three months ago it was upped to 75 mcg. Today it was upped to 88 mcg.

    Slashing carbs eliminating the bad stuff sure is not helping my total numbers, which means a huge argument with the doctor every visit, and I hate to argue. :-(

  • julianne

    9/7/2010 1:42:40 AM |

    I'm so glad I found this post!. I've had a group of clients take on paleo eating as a 6 week trial, doing so has naturally decreased their carbs. I had each person do before and after blood tests and I was concerned that 80% had a reduction in HDL. They also had reductions in Triglycerides and LDL and blood pressure and significant weight loss - but couldn't figure this one out. Thanks so much for keeping us informed of what goes on for your clients, so I know what is happening with mine is normal.

    Julianne
    By the way here are some of the results in people's own words
    http://paleozonenutrition.wordpress.com/2010/09/01/6-week-paleo-trial-results/

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Don't overdo the vitamin D

Don't overdo the vitamin D

17. December 2006 William Davis (1)
As time passes and I advise more and more people to supplement vitamin D, I gain increasing respect for this powerful "vitamin". I am convinced that vitamin D replacement is the reason for a recent surge in our success rates in dropping CT heart scan scores. I believe it is also explains the larger drops we've been witnessing lately--20-30%.

But vitamin D can be overdone, too. Too much of a good thing . . .

Despite being labeled a "vitamin", cholecalciferol is actually a hormone. Vitamins are obtained from food and you can thereby develop deficiencies because of poor intake. Deficiency of vitamin C, for instance, arises from a lack of vegetables and fruits.

Vitamin D, on the other hand, is nearly absent from food. The only naturally-occuring source is oily fish like salmon and sardines. Milk usually has a little (100 units per 8 oz) because milk producers have been required by law to put it there to reduce the incidence of childhood rickets.

A woman came to me with a heart scan score of nearly 3800, the highest score I've every seen in a woman. (Record for a male >8,000!) She was taking vitamin D by prescription from her family doctor but at a dose of 150,000 units per week, or approximately 21,000 units per day. This had gone on for about 3-4 years. This may explain her excessive coronary calcium score. Interestingly, she had virtually no lipoprotein abnormalities identified, which by itself is curious, since most people have some degree of abnormality like small LDL. Obviously, I asked her to stop the vitamin D.

Should you be afraid of vitamin D? Of course not. If your neighbor is an alcoholic and has advanced cirrhosis, does that mean you shouldn't have a glass or two of Merlot for health and enjoyment? It's a matter of quantity. Too little vitamin D and you encourage coronary plaque growth. Too much vitamin D and you trigger "pathologic calcification", or the deposition of calcium in inappropriate places and sometimes to extreme degrees, as in this unfortunate woman.

Ideally, you should have your doctor check your 25-OH-vitamin D3 blood levels twice a year in summar and in winter. We aim for a level of 50 ng/ml, the level at which the phenemena of deficiency dissipate.
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Comments (1) -

  • curious

    11/5/2007 9:06:00 PM |

    Don't forget Vitamine K's role! MK4 should be taken along such high D3 doses. Actually, i recomend some anyway.

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"Drug no cure for gluttony"

"Drug no cure for gluttony"

24. May 2007 William Davis (0)
That's the headline I'd like to see associated with rosiglitazone, brand name Avandia.

The recent negative press, whether deserved or not, surrounding the prescription drug rosiglitazone for pre-diabetes and diabetes highlights the fact that drugs never--never--substitute for what we can achieve with lifestyle changes.

Typically, rosiglitazone reduces blood sugar a few milligrams, reduces C-reactive protein, and very modestly reduces triglycerides and its associated evil lipoprotein friends. It also causes an average weight gain of 8 lb in the first year of use.

What will weight loss achieve, especially if accomplished through dramatic reduction or elimination of processed carbohydrates and wheat products, along with fish oil supplementation, vitamin D normalization, and exercise? Extraordinary benefits, far superior to what is achievable with this drug. In fact, while rosiglitazone is a Band-Aid for this process, the lifestyle changes can represent a cure in many or most instances.

It should come as no surprise that a drug that does nothing more than increase sensitivity to insulin cannot erase the devastating effects of an unhealthy life. Take rosiglitazone but neglect exercise, don't bother with vitamin D, indulge in pretzels and breakfast cereals, gain more weight . . . It serves the drug company's agenda better than it serves health.
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Blame the niacin

Blame the niacin

31. October 2006 William Davis (7)
Despite the fact that niacin is:

1) A vitamin--vitamin B3

2) One of the oldest cholesterol-reducing agents around with a long-standing track record of effectiveness and safety

3) Available as a prescription drug as well as a variety of "nutritional supplements"

most physicians remains shockingly unaware of its benefits, effects, and side-effects. Most, in fact, are either ignorant or frightened of advising their patients on niacin use. As a result, I commonly have to tell my patients to resume the niacin that their primary care physician has (wrongly) stopped because of itchy feet, grumpiness, groin rash, urinary tract infections, nightmares, diarrhea, hair loss, runny nose, etc. All of these are REAL reasons doctors have advised patients to stop niacin (though none were actually due to niacin).

Is niacin really that troublesome? No, it's not. In fact, if used properly, it's among the most effective and safe tools available for correction of low HDL, small LDL and other triglyceride-containing lipoproteins, lipoprotein(a), and dramatic reduction of heart attack risk. If added to a statin agent, the heart attack risk reduction can approach 90%.

Statins are just too easy for doctors to prescribe. Niacin, on the other hand, requires a good 15-20 minutes to describe how to use it. It could generate an occasional phone call from a patient who struggles with the annoying but largely harmless and temporary "hot-flush" feeling, a lot like a hot blush. Given a choice, most doctors would simply choose not to be bothered. For this reason, I'll commonly see many, many people with uncorrected low HDLs and other patterns.

Have a serious discussion and press for confident answers if you find your doctor reflexively telling you that the wart on your thumb should be blamed on niacin.

Here are the steps we advise that really make taking niacin easy and tolerable:

1) Take with dinner.

2) Take with 2 extra glasses of water. If you experience the hot-flush later on, drink an additional 2 8-12 oz glasses of water i.e., a total of 16-24 oz). Extra hydration is extremely effective for blocking the hot-flush.

3) Take a 325 mg, uncoated aspirin. This is only necessary in the beginning or with any increase in dose, rarely chronically for any length of time.


This is not to say that there aren't occasional people who are truly and genuinely intolerant to niacin. It does happen. But those people are a small minority, less than 5% of people in my experience. Niacin is far more effective and safe than most physicians would have you believe.
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Comments (7) -

  • madcook

    10/31/2006 6:12:00 AM |

    I've taken prescription Niaspan for over an year and a half.  Several times I've had an unintended "untoward" reaction, more than a blush, more than a flush... more like a niacin storm!  Each time I've learned something new, however.  Yes, hydration is very important.  There are certain foods and drugs which apparently dam up the same metabolic pathway as niacin, and can cause a pretty nasty reaction.  Among these, at least for me, are certain long acting antibiotics (Zithromax), spicy chai tea, pepperoni (not supposed to go there anyway!) and very spicy foods, if taken near the time of Niaspan dosing.  I was advised by my Dr. that Benadryl syrup would help to shorten the duration of the "storm".  Mostly it's a case of dietary management and timing of dosage.  The good done by niacin certainly still outweighs the occasional bad side effects!

  • Jim

    3/14/2008 4:03:00 PM |

    Another comment about niacin from this long-time niacin user, maybe folks will find it useful...
    Dr. Davis's advice to hydrate heavily to prevent/reduce flushing is, alas, not completely effective. One can easily prove this for oneself. The next time you experience a big flush, consume as much water as you are able, and see if the flush quickly resides..does it?  No. Hydration is certainly great advice, I'm not knocking it, but as a flush reduction strategy, it isn't enough. One commentor here mentioned quercetin.  It seems some recent research on certain flavonoids (quercetin, luteolin) have produced good results,better than aspirin, which was mentioned in this thread.  One needs to experiment and see if supplements such as these do help, taken maybe 30-45 minutes before the niacin dose. I have some other comments on niacin strategies I've hardly seen mentioned anywhere, but I'll wait until (1) I see my posts are approved (I'm new here), and (2) that people are interested. Let's see if there is any feedback. Regards, Jim

  • mill

    6/27/2008 5:43:00 PM |

    I've been taking niacin  2 times daily for 6 months and dropped my cholestral from 240 to 162.  Can I go back to once daily?

  • Anonymous

    12/30/2008 10:15:00 PM |

    I have seen some research papers that report that NIACIN, Nicotinamide and/or SAMe ( maybe also other methyl donors such as TMG ) can cause Parkinson's disease. I wonder if niacin can be converted to Nicotinamide in the body. Please see their abstracts and URLs below. Thank you.



    Niacin Metabolism and Parkinson’s Disease

    Tetsuhito FUKUSHIMA1)
    1) Department of Hygiene & Preventive Medicine, Fukushima Medical University School of Medicine
    Abstract
    Epidemiological surveys suggest an important role for niacin in the causes of Parkinson’s disease, in that niacin deficiency, the nutritional condition that causes pellagra, appears to protect against Parkinson’s disease. Absorbed niacin is used in the synthesis of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) in the body, and in the metabolic process NAD releases nicotinamide by poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation, the activation of which has been reported to mediate 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine-induced Parkinson’s disease. Recently nicotinamide N-methyltransferase (EC2.1.1.1) activity has been discovered in the human brain, and the released nicotinamide may be methylated to 1-methylnicotinamide (MNA), via this enzyme, in the brain. A deficiency in mitochondrial NADH:ubiquinone oxidoreductase (complex I) activity is believed to be a critical factor in the development of Parkinson’s disease. MNA has been found to destroy several subunits of cerebral complex I, leading to the suggestion that MNA is concerned in the pathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease. Based on these findings, it is hypothesized that niacin is a causal substance in the development of Parkinson’s disease through the following processes: NAD produced from niacin releases nicotinamide via poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation, activated by the hydroxyl radical. Released excess nicotinamide is methylated to MNA in the cytoplasm, and superoxides formed by MNA via complex I destroy complex I subunits directly, or indirectly via mitochondrial DNA damage. Hereditary or environmental factors may cause acceleration of this cycle, resulting in neuronal death.

    Key words:
    nicotinamide N-methyltransferase, 1-methylnicotinamide, poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation, mitochondria, complex I

    Pasted from http://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/ehpm/10/1/10_3/_article


    Parkinson's disease: the first common neurological disease due to auto-intoxication?
    A.C. Williams1, L.S. Cartwright2 and D.B. Ramsden2
    From the Divisions of 1Neurosciences and 2Medical Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
     
    Parkinson's disease may be a disease of autointoxication. N-methylated pyridines (e.g. MPP+) are well-established dopaminergic toxins, and the xenobiotic enzyme nicotinamide N-methyltransferase (NNMT) can convert pyridines such as 4-phenylpyridine into MPP+, using S-adenosyl methionine (SAM) as the methyl donor. NNMT has recently been shown to be present in the human brain, a necessity for neurotoxicity, because charged compounds cannot cross the blood-brain barrier. Moreover, it is present in increased concentration in parkinsonian brain. This increase may be part genetic predisposition, and part induction, by excessive exposure to its substrates (particularly nicotinamide) or stress. Elevated enzymic activity would increase MPP+-like compounds such as N-methyl nicotinamide at the same time as decreasing intraneuronal nicotinamide, a neuroprotectant at several levels, creating multiple hits, because Complex 1 would be poisoned and be starved of its major substrate NADH. Developing xenobiotic enzyme inhibitors of NNMT for individuals, or dietary modification for the whole population, could be an important change in thinking on primary and secondary prevention.


    Pasted from http://qjmed.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/98/3/215

    see also
    http://www.springerlink.com/content/d5wurtwylvpcy04q/


    But,on the contrary,the paper below seems to suggest that niacin protects from Parkinson's.

    Title: Does diet protect against Parkinson's disease? Part 4 – vitamins and minerals
    Author(s): Isabella Brown
    Journal: Nutrition & Food Science
    ISSN: 0034-6659
    Year: 2004 Volume: 34 Issue: 5 Page: 198 - 203
    DOI: 10.1108/00346650410560343
    Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing Limited
    Abstract: This paper is the fourth in a series on Parkinson's disease and diet and investigates the role which antioxidant vitamins A and C, niacin and selenium may have on the incidence of the disease. Oxidative stress is believed to be a key factor in the development of PD and all of these have a role in preventing oxidative stress mediated cell damage. Dietary information was obtained via questionnaires. Vitamin C was found to reduce the risk of PD by 40 per cent in one study, although this was not supported by other studies. Niacin was associated with an at least 70 per cent reduced risk of PD incidence in a number of studies. No evidence was found to support a role for vitamin A or selenium. There is a need for further research to support or disprove the roles of these antioxidant vitamins within the aetiology of PD.
    Keywords: Diet, Diseases, Lifestyles, Vitamins
    Article Type: Research paper
    Article URL: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/00346650410560343

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    Have a serious discussion and press for confident answers if you find your doctor reflexively telling you that the wart on your thumb should be blamed on niacin.

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    The proper diet is essential for diabetic treatment. It helps magically in patients suffering from diabetes. It provides relief from symptoms and various complications in diabetics. Many diabetic patients can control their blood glucose by losing weight and that is possible only be proper diet.

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"It must have been the statin"

"It must have been the statin"

13. December 2006 William Davis (0)
After four years of trying, Randy finally reduced her heart scan score. It not only dropped, it plummeted. After four previous scans that showed 25% or more increases, she'd finally dropped her score 23%. (I Blogged about Randy's case a few weeks ago.)

Randy also works for a cardiologist. When she told him that she had reversed her coronary plaque and reduced her heart scan score by 23%, he said, "It must have been the statin agent."

Randy was indeed on a statin drug at a low dose. But she also had taken great efforts in exercise, food choices, fish oil, and vitamin D. In fact, her score had progressed dramatically while she was taking the drug. Put simply, it was not the statin.

But that is the mindset of the conventionally thinking cardiologist. Stent, bypass, or statin drug--what else is there? Even with crystal clear evidence for coronary plaque regression, they refuse to acknowledge that tools that are not in their everyday consciousness could have achieved so spectacular a result.

Given a choice, 9 out of 10 cardiologists would rather put a stent in and walk away $2000 richer for an hour of work. Don't allow them to have this choice. Take control now.
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Value of a zero heart scan score

Value of a zero heart scan score

27. March 2007 William Davis (1)
Margaret is 73. She's a very good 73. She loves children and works full-time in a daycare. She manages her own household, goes to dinner at least once each week with one or more of her adult children. She is slender and has never been in the hospital--until she developed an abnormal heart rhythm called atrial fibrillation.

Most people who develop atrial fibrillation do so with no immediate identifiable cause. However, Margaret has been a widow since her husband died 15 years ago of a heart attack. She was therefore especially frightened of any heart issues in her own health. Her doctor also raised the question of whether atrial fibrillation might represent the first hint of future heart attack.

So we advised a CT heart scan. Score: zero, or no detectable plaque whatsoever. This put Margaret's risk for heart attack as close to zero as humanly possible. (Nobody is truly at zero risk for heart attack for a number of reasons. One reason is that people do irrational things like take cocaine or amphetamines, or they take too much decongestant medication, all of which can trigger heart attack.)

The heart scan settled it. Margaret has the sort of atrial fibrillation which likely simply develops as a result of "wear and tear" on the heart's electrical impulse conducting system and it has nothing to do with coronary heart disease or heart attack.

As that MasterCard commercial goes: Cost of a heart scan: About $200. Peace of mind: priceless.
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  • Anonymous

    4/19/2009 4:42:00 AM |

    Not entirely true. With all due respect, Dr. Berman, who you have quoted elsewhere in you blog, has stated the following....

      â€œIn symptomatic patients, a calcium score of even zero does not sufficiently rule out the possibility of having an obstructed coronary artery, which was the case here.” Berman suggests that the coronary CTA may become the test of choice in symptomatic patients when the diagnosis is unclear."
    By the way, whatever was the upshot regarding the 'low dose CT angioplasty'? Safe? Revelatory or not?..... Dave in Chicago

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