Safety · Supplement
Niacin (B3): side effects, safety & interactions
Nicotinic acid causes prostaglandin-mediated flushing and, at high doses, liver stress and glucose elevation. Do not sel
- Overall grade
- Grade B
- Last revised
- 0
- graded outcomes
- 0
- references listed
Assembled by the app from other entries in this library. It adds no evidence of its own — follow the links to the entries it draws on.
The evidence in words
Safety profile
Nicotinic acid causes prostaglandin-mediated flushing and, at high doses, liver stress and glucose elevation. Do not self-prescribe gram doses.
Interactions to respect
No major interactions are on record for Niacin (B3) at typical doses, but tell your clinician about everything you take.
What Niacin (B3) is
Niacin is the B-vitamin precursor to NAD/NADP, the central redox coenzymes of metabolism. Pharmacologic doses of nicotinic acid were once a mainstay lipid drug; nicotinamide is the non-flushing amide form used for skin and NAD-precursor purposes.
The honest bottom line
You need milligrams to avoid deficiency and get them from food. The high-dose 'raise your HDL' era is over — it improved the panel without improving outcomes. Leave pharmacologic niacin to physicians.
Related reading
Entries that share this one's tags or conditions.
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Sources
This entry lists no references of its own — it is assembled from the entries it links to, whose sources are on their pages.
Last revised . A grade is this entry's reading of the evidence, not medical advice.