I'm doing Niacin Therapy

[Full Steam]

Don't bother saying every life has value. When you are a burden and a lost cause with no way out and in daily misery, well, "Every Life Has Value" becomes a farcical meme , set in motion by someone who was feeling guilty about their happy life.

That sounds like the depression talking not you.

For myself I can't handle anything unless I manage my depression first. Once I'm depressed the only goal is becoming not depressed, as nothing I decide or believe is likely to be accurate.

Depression is like viewing the world through s**t tinted glasses, and nothing is really the way it seems while wearing them.

 

[OkRad]

That sounds like the depression talking not you.

For myself I can't handle anything unless I manage my depression first. Once I'm depressed the only goal is becoming not depressed, as nothing I decide or believe is likely to be accurate.

Depression is like viewing the world through s**t tinted glasses, and nothing is really the way it seems while wearing them.

I am not slamming what you wrote, so this is not offense to you.......but it boggles my mind that the mental health field reduces a life time of stolen opportunities and misdiagnoses and traumas and violated self perceptions and entire systems by which people live, destroyed and mutilated and say, "That is depression."

It is not depression. It is Life, destroyed. What is the point of laying lifeless on a palette till I finally give up the ghost. Does it matter if i do it myself or let Nature stab me further and further, and writhe around a little longer because "It's just the depression talking."

I would say it is Logic talking. Depression is a rather slender sister to her Logical counterpart.

 

[Full Steam]

I understand.

I've been there (last week) and I might be there tomorrow.

I'm not there now however, so I can see the trough I was in last week as just another down turn.

When I was in it, I could only see a crap world and I could only remember the other down turns I've been in before, but that's a distorted view. It's like looking through broken and smeared sunglasses and trying to deal with and judge the world.

But as the wise man said "This too will end".

 

[Adder1234]

Don't bother saying every life has value. When you are a burden and a lost cause with no way out and in daily misery, well, "Every Life Has Value" becomes a farcical meme , set in motion by someone who was feeling guilty about their happy life.

While I partly agree with what you are saying, I would say that it is more accurate to say that "Every life has potential value." What your life means depends entirely on what you do with it.

 

[Aster]

Well, I've gotten a racing heart beat for the second time on niacin so I'm going to leave it out of my routine I think. I didn't realize that it does come with side effects.

 

[WereBear]

Well, I've gotten a racing heart beat for the second time on niacin so I'm going to leave it out of my routine I think. I didn't realize that it does come with side effects.

As discussed here, it's not for everyone. Good for you about keeping track and figuring it out.

However, it does seem that some kind of vitamin supplementation is helpful for most.

After less than a week, I am feeling calmer and sleeping better. So I will continue, since I'm getting good feedback. It's very important to listen to our body signals.

 

[WereBear]

Found someone online saying a racing heart is the body responding to the powerful detox effect of niacin. I do wake up as 2am with a somewhat pounding heart, but then it goes away and I go back to sleep. And the sleep I get is better. So I will see what happens.

Niacin is considered a master detoxer.

Also, there are plenty of articles saying this will kill me, but they said that about eating Atkins and they were wrong, and they also don't use pure niacin, they use prescription and slow release forms, so I will stay away from that. But these "warnings" all end with "Take statins instead!" Which I will never ever do, that is way too dangerous.

 

[Jerry]

B careful with megadosing vitamins... Let your Dr know. Get lab work to check liver function every now and then. Also, aspirin helps with the flushing . Take care out there!

 

[Full Steam]

. But these "warnings" all end with "Take statins instead!" Which I will never ever do, that is way too dangerous.

That drives me crazy.

If I were cynical I'd think it was because Statins is patented and so worth a billion dollars, whereas Niacin is just a vitamin found in nature.


Regarding Niacin; it's in food as well, and I think we'd die without some at least.

 

[WereBear]

If I were cynical I'd think it was because Statins is patented and so worth a billion dollars, whereas Niacin is just a vitamin found in nature.

Color me very very cynical Because that is indeed what I think!

I have a long history of medical cynicism which results in experimenting on myself:

• For thirteen years now, I've been keeping my hypoglycemia, weight, blood pressure, and moods steadied with Atkins/Primal style eating.
• I've been using supplements this whole time too, like chelated magnesium, vitamin C, pregnenolone, progesterone, and adaptive herbs like arctic root and ashwaganda.
• I have adopted the theories of Dr. Jack Kruse with great success; helping my sleep and energy levels; here's a sample (if you dare)REALITY #3: WAKE ME UP WHEN SEPTEMBER 2016 ENDS - Living an Optimized Life
  
• had one try at psychiatric medicine which stopped working 2 weeks after a partial help and then was projected to take 18 months to taper off of-- also repeatedly turned down statins (most dangerous drug out there, you ask me) and Ambien (the one that makes you sleepwalk, have sex with strangers, and eat cigarettes) and the constant pushing of Prozac
• after realizing I'm an Aspie, I had to craft my own treatment regimen, with weighted blanket, Brainwaves app, and now Orthomolecular therapy

So for almost a decade and a half modern medicine has hindered me, and emphatically not helped me, except at the fringes of their own profession.

One week into mega-Niacin: and I have not felt this good in years.

I totally understand and support that others may have mileage which varies. But I would be dead or in an asylum by now if I had not kept pushing to find something that helped.

Is mega-niacin for you, my fellow Aspies? Maybe, maybe not. But I am living proof that when you come to the end of a road, maybe it's time to bushwhack through the wilderness

 

[Aster]

Color me very very cynical Because that is indeed what I think!

I have a long history of medical cynicism which results in experimenting on myself:

• For thirteen years now, I've been keeping my hypoglycemia, weight, blood pressure, and moods steadied with Atkins/Primal style eating.
• I've been using supplements this whole time too, like chelated magnesium, vitamin C, pregnenolone, progesterone, and adaptive herbs like arctic root and ashwaganda.
• I have adopted the theories of Dr. Jack Kruse with great success; helping my sleep and energy levels; here's a sample (if you dare)REALITY #3: WAKE ME UP WHEN SEPTEMBER 2016 ENDS - Living an Optimized Life
  
• had one try at psychiatric medicine which stopped working 2 weeks after a partial help and then was projected to take 18 months to taper off of-- also repeatedly turned down statins (most dangerous drug out there, you ask me) and Ambien (the one that makes you sleepwalk, have sex with strangers, and eat cigarettes) and the constant pushing of Prozac
• after realizing I'm an Aspie, I had to craft my own treatment regimen, with weighted blanket, Brainwaves app, and now Orthomolecular therapy

So for almost a decade and a half modern medicine has hindered me, and emphatically not helped me, except at the fringes of their own profession.

One week into mega-Niacin: and I have not felt this good in years.

I totally understand and support that others may have mileage which varies. But I would be dead or in an asylum by now if I had not kept pushing to find something that helped.

Is mega-niacin for you, my fellow Aspies? Maybe, maybe not. But I am living proof that when you come to the end of a road, maybe it's time to bushwhack through the wilderness

I understand the need to just keep trying things (bushwhacking through the wilderness) after having not responded to meds. I tried most of the SSRIs and SNRIs, benzodiazepines, beta blockers and antipsychotics. I've just gotten some fish oil today which I am onto next. Its tiring, but you just need to keep bushwhacking...

 

[WereBear]

Had a great night's sleep; I don't know if it is the need for a pit stop in the middle of the night (I'm shedding unwanted pounds now that my metabolism is getting support from the niacin) or anxiety about the results of the US elections (which is a constant background fear) or the release of Human Growth Hormone from the niacin (which helps with healing, but can make the heart pound a bit.)

But now when I wake up in the middle of the night, there's a reason, and I can go right back to sleep.

 

[WereBear]

What is highly notable at this point is the serious increase in calm I am experiencing.

I have, as always, some serious stress popping up; but my response is a lot more calm and measured under the influence of niacin.

This confirms that my body seems to need this level of niacin to work at its best.

 

[WereBear]

Update: a month and a week into Niacin Therapy, and it continues to make a world of difference.

• Carb sensitivity. In thirteen years of low carbing, I have never experienced such a strong effect: it's like I'm taking a pill called Atkinsivation. I look at things that used to be somewhat tempting, and go naaaaah. There have been a couple of times when I've been very worn out and opt for the easy (my illness meant I couldn't go into ketosis and I have some higher carb things around.) But now, I feel just awful afterwards, and my sleep gets messed up that night. Ketosis and skipping breakfast isn't just easy; I also crave arranging my meals to be as low carb and IF as possible. The positive feedback is incredible: it's like I am tuned into what is actually going on in my body depending on what I eat.
  
• Good sleep. If i am behaving myself (not letting stress build up, not eating too many carbs, sticking to my sleep schedule) I sleep, at last, wonderfully. Even when I am out of town and sleeping in a room I've never been in before. Lots of depth, lots of dreams, waking up tingling all over because I'm so refreshed. The effect on my healing processes is immense. As I've gradually improved my health status, my sleep has gone from 2-4 hours to 8-10 hours a night, but it was still a bit erratic. Now, I can make that happen consistently, every night.
  
• Anxiety. I never realized how much anxiety I had until it went away. I was always a bit of an over-thinker, and being so sick cranked it up to eleven, but now I do mental strategies like I'm not going to worry about that now absolutely successfully. I've never been this chilled out & confident in my entire life.
  
• Resilience. For years now, I've been longing for the ability to stop "draining my reserve tanks" and actually building them up instead. This is the first time since my illness developed that I've been able to feel that this vital shift in energy handling is taking place. Something very healing is going on, with a lot of things. At least, that is the way I feel. I was sick for too long for it to turn around as quickly as I'd like (I'd like NOW please!) but it is, finally, happening at a visible rate.

 

[WereBear]

WOW.

The last two days I have tuned my niacin with food: breakfast is tea and coconut oil, then one meal is average size, and one meal is BIG. And I take my niacin doses three times a day.

And I have reached a new level of energy and calm. I had to attend a conference with lots of people, and then there was a blizzard, and I skipped meals, and it all seemed to take me down.

So I made myself eat healthy stuff, real meals with protein and fat predominating to keep my blood sugar steady. And seem to have found a good combination for me, because today I went grocery shopping and finished a project and made low carb lasagna; and my gosh, it has been years since I was able to have a day with so many tasks in it.

I really think niacin is making a big difference for me.

 

[WereBear]

I have been trying to figure out how differently I feel on niacin, and a good example is a simple task that I haven't been able to do for almost a month: packing up a pair of defective earbuds and sending them back to Amazon. It couldn't be easier: I print the label, pack them up, and leave them for the mailperson. But I just could not initiate the action. It seemed like an overwhelming effort would be needed.

I'm reading a book which describes someone suffering from severe depression, which is also characterized by an inability to initiate actions. This reminded me of symptoms of the people who suffer from Parkinson's Syndrome. They have trouble beginning a motion on their own.

Though in one case, it seems mental, and in the other it is physical, I wonder if they don't have the same root cause somehow. So I went and looked:

Quote:
In a (2013) study, researchers report that people diagnosed with depression were three times more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease (PD) than those without psychiatric illness. However, it remains unclear whether depression is an independent risk factor for Parkinson’s or an early symptom of the disease. The results appear in the October 2 online edition of Neurology.

Study Links Depression to Increased Parkinson’s Risk​

All righty then.

To develop this thought supported by this bit of data, niacin certainly helped my brain problem that was my own, seemingly physical, inability to initiate.

I keep coming to back to niacin's true status as an amino acid. I had long felt that my brain problem was that I was running out of neurotransmitters, and I tried 5HTP, GABA, and the like, but nothing worked.

Until niacin allowed me to close the switch and get an action started.

 

[WereBear]

I wound up going off niacin to see if I was "fixed." Nope, I was not!

So I'm a week into getting back into my full 3g dose, and feel good again. While this doesn't bode well for my survival should the world turn Mad Max on us, it lets me function much better in our modern world

 

[pjcnet]

I have to say I'm initially sceptical, niacin seems to be publicised in various places as a wonder cure for numerous things and it sounds a little too good to be true. I wonder how many people would report a tremendous improvement if they were given a tablet that they were told was absolutely incredible for treating anxiety and depression with no possible side effects if they unknowingly were given a placebo instead? I'm not saying that niacin definitely doesn't help some people and it would definitely be beneficial if there was a vitamin B3 deficiency, but it is also possible that some believe they feel better when the actual supplement isn't truly helping them or doing very little in their case? In fact just believing that you are going to feel better can make a real difference towards truly feeling better.

Before I get a negative response to this reply, I will however remain open minded, I suffer from the usual depression and anxiety associated with being an aspie, although I refuse to take antidepressants (I had a really bad time on them in the past and I am generally against them). I have learnt to handle it enough to get by, but of course it's unpleasant. I will therefore try niacin myself and will report back after a while with the results, but unlike many other people who take it I won't be automatically expecting to see any improvement which means that there will be no possible placebo effect, I will however report back honestly and if it does help I will be thanking you. What dose do you think is good to start, I'm a 48 year old male, large build? Would you recommend the following for instance: please click here? They're 100mg tablets and they recommend taking 1 a day, would you suggest this is reasonable?

Important note: There officially can be some side effects of using niacin, they're most likely rare and there's probably more likely possible side effects from taking a simple paracetamol tablet which barely anyone worries about. That said they should still be considered and if in any doubt people should consult a doctor before taking it. For anyone considering taking niacin please click here and read this first.

Update 1: I've bought some Niacin (vitamin B3) and will take one with a meal later, or possibly tomorrow morning, I will report back....

Update 2: I've now taken 3 doses of 100mg a day, so far I can honestly say I've seen absolutely no change in any way what-so-ever and I'm feeling exactly the same anxiety as usual. Perhaps 100mg isn't enough, although this is what the bottle recommends and it is apparently 625 %NRV? I will take this amount for about a week and will then add a full response and conclusion as a new reply to the thread in order to alert anyone who might be interested, or do you expect it to take longer before there's any change?

 

[WereBear]

I wonder how many people would report a tremendous improvement if they were given a tablet that they were told was absolutely incredible for treating anxiety and depression with no possible side effects if they unknowingly were given a placebo instead?

That was basically what happened when people were given SSRIs before the side effects were known (or, more likely, acknowledged.)

To summarize, there is a strong therapeutic response to antidepressant medication. But the response to placebo is almost as strong. This presents a therapeutic dilemma. The drug effect of antidepressants is not clinically significant, but the placebo effect is.
Antidepressants and the Placebo Effect - NCBI - NIH​

 

[WereBear]

However, I do not put niacin in the same category as placebo, because there are discernible, positive, physical effects which last.

This does not happen with SSRIs, which lead to the round-and-round of new types and doses and dealing with side effects. And it is my own theory that, at least for some, SSRIs do work as designed and affect the amount of serotonin available to the brain, which has known effects on mental state. But the brain (and my brain is really good at this; I got 3-4 weeks of anxiety relief before gabapentin stopped working at all) adjusts itself, and the effect, if there is one, goes away.

But SSRIs do not fix the problem. Like most of our expensive pharmaceutical choices, they mask the symptoms.

Suppose someone had scurvy, and we gave them vitamin C, and within days this very sick person got so much better. It would look like a miracle! But we are solving the problem. There's no miracle in that.

Likewise, it is the theory of the many doctors in the book I read, and the conclusions of many of the experimenters whose studies are listed in the book, that brain stress creates a need for more niacin, just as immune stress creates a need for more Vitamin C. Like so many of us here, I was given stress by the demands made on me by a modern, highly conforming, society. This had a natural consequence to my brain and hormone system, and I feel very fortunate I found a natural solution.

In fact, niacin and other amino acids (for that is what B3 is) were poised to be the next "miracle drug," but then a contaminated batch of OTC neurotransmitters created panic, and then psychiatric drugs became the ones to use.

Because Big Pharma makes no money when they give the body what it needs naturally. There's no patent, and no money, in that.

I urge everyone to look into this for themselves. Don't take my word for it, and I'm not in it for the money. But we do live in a time when medical science won't admit that what they offer for many conditions is sadly inadequate or even outright wrong. Which is, after all, the same as it ever was.

But unlike "evil spirits" or leeches, we are living in one of those times in a way that affects us.