Which type of Niacin for thrombosis

I’m looking into adding some Niacin to help in dealing with a very small thrombosed vein. I remembered there being a difference between the two types of Niacin supplements: nicotinic acid and nicotinamide. One causes that nasty flushing effect, and the other doesn’t. For a t-vein I’m actually looking for the one that causes the flushing, right? It’s the blood vessel dilation that I’m after, isn’t it?

Thanks.

Regular niacin (nicotinic acid) causes the flush.

I take 2 grams twice per day for hyperlipidemia.

I do not know if it will do anything for your thrombosed vein.

I would start out with 100 mg, and if that doesn’t bother you, go to 250, then 500 and you probably don’t want to go over 1000 without a doctor looking at you.

If you reach a dose that causes severe flushing, stay at that dose for a few days to get used to it. A baby aspirin taken with the niacin lessens the flush.

Niacin does cause dilation of the superficial blood vessels of the head and chest causing redness, itching, and heat. However, I have never noticed that it improves erections or increases blood flow to the penis.

I know from history that my flush point is (or was) around 250 mg. I didn’t care for the flushing effect so I was planning on buying some nicotinamide to avoid it. Then it dawned on me that, unfortunately, it’s the cause of the flushing (histamine production leading to dilation) that I should be looking for, not trying to avoid. Right?

Eroset,

Although both niacin (aka nicotinic acid) and niacinamide (aka nicotinamide) are vitamin B3, they have different effects on the body.

For example: Niacinamide is safer and easy on the liver compared to regular niacin, but niacinamide will not improve circulation.

Niacin is said to help lower choesterol at high doses whereas niacinamide will not. And so on…

So niacinamide has different benefits but I don’t think you’re looking for those to help with your problem…

So you should either take regualr niacin which, apart from giving the annoying flush, can cause liver damage at high doses when taken long term.

Or else you can get some No-flush niacin, aka inositol hexaniacinate (a compound of niacin and inositol. Inositol is another B vitamin). No-flush niacin was specifically developed to offer the same benefits as regular niacin but without the side effects.

So from the 3 forms of vitamin B3, No-flush niacin is the safest and the best alternative to regular niacin.

I use no-flush niacin capsules made by NOW foods. Other brands sell this form of niacin too, and you can find it at several online vitamin stores.

Another thing I wanted to mention: stay away from timed release niacin in case you choose to take the regular form. It has the potential to cause even more liver damage

:thumbs: Well Thank you Joystick! I just always assumed that no-flush niacin was niacinamide. I had never heard of inositol hexaniacinate, will look for that at the drug store today. Thanks again! Does the inositol hexaniacinate still trigger a release of histamines?

In regards to regular Niacin, since I flush at around 250 mg, I’m nowhere near liver damage with that does for a couple of weeks (non-timed release) am I? I thought I remembered liver danger to be around 3g per day, and even having to ramp up the dose a little, I’d be nowhere close to 3g per day. No?

I’m not really sure at what dose you could start causing damage with the regular niacin Eroset. I think there are some studies on Pubmed though, and if you Google it you’ll come up with tons of info too. Good luck :)

Thanks man, I’ll start digging more into that and the no-flush histamine question tonight.

I’ve seen studies where inositol hexaniacinate at 1.5-3g/day for 26 weeks had no ill affects on the liver. It did improve lipid profiles, LDL, HDL, etc.

I really do not think that niacin will help your thrombosed vein but if if it can, and the benefit is from the flush, then I think you should take regular niacin.

I disagree with the contention that regular niacin causes liver damage. In fact, regular niacin is what most lipidemiologists recommend as a first course. The only reason that my lipidemiologist uses anything other than regular niacin is when there is intolerable flushing.

Non flushing options include inositol hexanicotinate, or prescription niaspan, or timed release niacin. The timed release versions, such as Nicobid, caused serious liver problems a couple of decades ago. The metabolism of niacin can go through 2 pathways, and the slow pathway is the liver toxic one. However, there seems to be an intermediate pathway that avoids the liver problems, and the niaspan web site claims that is how they achieve both “no flush” and good liver tolerence.

The bottom line is that regular, fast release nicotinic acid is the cheapest, most proven, and safest way to go.

Personally, the flush is not a problem for me. Sometimes I even look forward to the warmth and tingling for some reason.

Interesting mravg, thanks. I bought two bottles, regular nictonic acid and the no-flush. I’m saving the no flush for maintenance, and using the regular while my t-vein heals. I’m just trying to hit as many sane vasodiolators as possible, and I’m guessing the histamine release is what’s needed. Yeah, it might not help, but I’ll throw as many solutions as I can at a problem and hope one or two of ‘em sticks. Who knows, I just miss my PE routine. :)

First two days I flushed out at 200 mg, by today 200 mg didn’t do it, so I had to jump to 300 mg for the flush. It’s not as bad as I remembered. It certainly can’t compare to the skin-crawl of yohimbe.

What exactly is flush?

Take some niacin and find out. Think of what you look and feel like when you get really nervous or embarrassed. Your face gets all red and blushed. That is what happens on your entire body. I actually itch a little, especially on my scalp.

What’s the verdict? Does niacin help clear and heal thrombosed veins?

I doubt it.

I don’t know if it help with thrombosed veins but I once took 100mg of Niacin and I got a whole body flush which was very frightening, even the palms of my hands flushed.